After All(69)

"He's not going anywhere blondie," the fat pap says to me as he fishes his phone out from his pocket and starts to dial. He turns his back to us and talks into it. "Yes, I've just been a victim of assault."

"Oh shit," I swear, giving Emmett another tug. Finally, he yields to me and I pull him over to the street, looking around for the Suburban.

"We can't go," Emmett finally says to me, his voice hoarse. His eyes meet mine and there's so much anger and pain in them that I'm nearly speechless. "He's called the cops. They'll be looking for me."

"They're going to put you in jail," I whisper to him. "You can't go to jail."

He sighs and shakes out his hand with a wince, spreading his reddened fingers. "I'm really sorry," he says. "Really. I didn't mean for this to happen."

"The guy was asking for it, there's no need to apologize." I'm hanging onto him tighter and tighter, afraid to let go.

"I lost my temper. I shouldn't have."

Oh god, how I want to ask him about his mother, ask him if it's true what the man said.

God. Poor, poor Emmett.

But it's not long before the flashing lights appear and a police car arrives on the scene.

One officer talks to the man while the other comes over to us.

"Is it true you assaulted this man?" he asks Emmett, nodding at the guy who is waving his hands wildly, trying to act out the scene.

Emmett opens his mouth to speak but I immediately remember every single TV show I've seen. "He's not saying a word until he speaks to a lawyer." 

The cop rolls his eyes. "All right, all right. Look, between you and me, we have bigger things to attend to tonight than this. But I'm afraid I'm going to have to put you under arrest and take you to the station. If he doesn't press charges, you won't have to stay long."

"You can't arrest him!" I cry out. "He did nothing wrong!"

"Alyssa," Emmett says to me. "It's fine."

"It's not fine!" Where the hell am I going to go? Wait at the hotel to see if he gets bailed out or not? And who is supposed to bail him out? Is it me? Autumn? Will? How does this whole thing work?

"Ma'am, please," the cop says.

"But we're Canadian!" I plead. "You can't do this! We have an amazing Prime Minister!"

The cop doesn't care. "Then maybe your amazing Prime Minister will help bail him out when he's done cuddling panda bears and doing one-armed push-ups or whatever the fuck you crazy people do up there."

And then he's leading Emmett over to the cop car and cuffing him.

Naturally, the crowd around the taco stand has their camera phones aimed at him and the whole event, including the snivelling paparazzi man who is trying to pick up the pieces of his camera, moaning in pain for dramatic effect.

"The Bruiser and The Blondie," some girl says, speaking into her phone, "just got into a whole lot of trouble."





Chapter 14





Emmett





I'd like to say I haven't been in jail before but that would be a lie.

After my mother died, I went to live with my religious aunt in this shitty town of Mission and though she tried to her hardest to keep her tabs on me during high school, after high school it was a different story.

Once, when I was twenty and hanging out with my friend Matt (this was a few months before I landed the role on Degrassi), we were feeling rather rambunctious and doing a few lines of coke. We were bored, as we often were, and hanging out at Matt's parents' place.

Matt's parents were used to me always being there and I think they felt a bit sorry for me because of my mother and my upbringing and my shitty aunt (she was the type of person at church who would watch how much money you were putting in the collection plate and then publicly chastise you if it wasn't enough), so they didn't mind me hanging out and we were pretty much left alone.

There's not much to do in Mission. It's a small town at the end of the road, lots of industry and a very religious slant. While I would work at the local video store and take the train into Vancouver for acting classes and the occasional audition, you had to make your own fun.

So we drank, did some drugs. That kind of thing.

This particular night, we did some lines and then let our boredom got the best of us.

My friend thought it would be hilarious if we went to the local donut shop and harassed the cops.

I know, I know. Made perfect sense at the time.

Then we decided it would be even funnier if we dressed up in his mother's clothes. His sister had some wigs. We melded the two together.

So after we got all dolled up, we went down to Tim Hortons and started hitting on the cops.

We thought it was hilarious.

"Oh, I do declare, officer," I'd say in my best Blanche DuBois.