Alive and Kicking // Simple Minds

2 days earlier

Misty drives like a maniac. I knew this. I've been bumming rides off her forever. But when our recon moved into stake outs, her flare for drama hit its max.

"Slow down." My voice is steady, but my nerves are not. "I'm not interested in visiting the emergency room."

"I'm not interested in losing him after waiting this long to catch a glimpse." Misty is doubling down on this new secret agent persona. Once she had the chop sticks and take out in her hands with a google search on illegal performance enhancing drugs pulled up, the girl morphed into her favorite CSI characters and I haven't seen her since.

Almost two weeks of hunting for answers has come to this. Following Reign's oversized SUV in the truck Misty borrowed from her brother in hopes of getting a payoff.

"This is so dumb. Exactly what I told Jeff and my dad to stop trying to do."

"Nope. They were passive about it, sitting back and waiting for Reign to slip up. That was going to take years. We are ultra pro-active. Make things happen, that's my motto. How do you think I found out about Danny's chronic cheating? I could have just left it at sleeping with our neighbor, but I'd had my suspicions before. I cyberstalked him on the deep web and found his secret tinder and bumble. Dude had issues that I never let myself believe. I paid the price. But not you, babe. We're getting your boo out of this poo poo."

I literally facepalm myself. Only Misty. "Ugh."

"No ughing allowed. Get your lenses prepped," she says, pointing to my camera case. "I have a good feeling about today."

"That's what you said yesterday. And the day before that."

Misty shrugs, hands locked on the steering wheel. "Well, I've gotta be right eventually."

***

2 days later

I gather the file folder from the passenger seat and jump out of Misty's car.

"Wait here!" I call back to her as I break out into a full run toward the athletic offices. The sound of my shoes smacking against the asphalt reverberates around me. I'm excited in a strange way, a way I didn't expect after the last time I talked to my dad. But this time I have something with teeth to toss at him.

I rush down the hallway to the main offices. It's a Sunday and Dad shouldn't be here. He should be at home having Sunday dinner with me. I've been avoiding him, so I guess he kept busy at work. Things are about to change.

The second I'm standing at Dad's office desk I slam the file of documents in front of him.

His arms fly up as he rolls his chair away. "What's this?"

"Research. Potential evidence." I lean forward so I can speak quietly. "A plan to keep you and Jeff out of jail."

"I hardly think-"

"Correct. You were hardly thinking. I can't believe you talked Jeff into keeping all of this between you two and then forcing him to do recon."

"That's not what was going on."

"Stop, Dad. Stop trying to talk me into this. It doesn't matter that you had good motives. Your method sucks. Let me put it into terms you'll understand. Your game plan has put you on a losing streak. Stop trying to force a bad play."

Dad drops his head, rubbing his hand down his face and sighing.

"Fine. Show me what you found out."

I nod. Finally, a reasonable male. They're hard to come by lately. I open the folder to the first document I printed out, sources for illegal steroids.

"They are most likely having the stuff smuggled in from Mexico. Whoever Declan gets his supply from is part of a bigger picture."

"I'm already aware of that."

"Fine. Did you know that it's also punishable for up to a year in jail if it's your first drug offence? Five years if it's the first felony drug offence. And double if it's their second."

"Well, yeah. I'm sure the jail time would increase."

"The point is, do you know if this is their first offence? Declan could get locked up for a long time. Reign too if he's part of the sales."

Dad points to the line about a first offence. "And if Jeff gets accused, he could be put away for a year."

"Jeff won't get accused."

"That's wishful thinking, Ali, but you've got to be realistic."

I laugh then lean closer to him again. "Realistic? Oh, and you pulling this cloak and dagger crap with Jeff trapped in the middle is? Dad, you're fooling yourself if you think this is going to end well. It won't. Jeff will pay the price."

"I'm putting myself on the line, too."

"You're coaching career is entering its twilight, dad. Jeff is just getting started. I think the implications are very different. Besides, neither of you have this."

I flip a few pages to the real shocker. The photos I took of Declan and Reign around town. This is why it took me a couple of weeks before I confronted my dad. It's taken that long for me to get these. Misty and I spent a lot of time in her brother's truck with the limo dark window tint following these two around.

Dad takes a closer look, turning to the next one and then the rest in succession.

"Where did you get these?"

"I have my ways."

"Seriously, Ali. Where?"

"I took them. Don't worry about the rest." I point to the photo he's looking at. The one with the money shot. "Here. Isn't this all you needed to know?"

I point to Declan in a glossy 8 by 10, black and white image of him walking out of a run-down house. The door is still open. There's just enough light inside to see Reign on a couch with a needle in his arm. It's grainy from the telephoto zoom at max, but it's clear enough.

"How in the hell did you get this?" my dad bellows. "You've been preaching at me how dangerous this all was. Why would you put yourself in the line of fire?"

"Someone had to get the job done. This waiting around for Reign to say the wrong thing hasn't worked."

"Alison." His tone is a warning.

"Dad." My tone is a threat. "Don't lecture me. Call the cops." I smack the photographic evidence and turn on my heels. I thought long and hard about what I'd say to my dad when I showed him what I found. Now that I've said it, I feel empty.

Because I may have said my peace to him, but I have no idea what to say to Jeff. Or if I even want to.

The ball is in their court for now. I'm not sure I want to play anymore.

I head back to Misty in the car, not nearly as full of energy as I was only minutes ago. I feel defeated. I shouldn't after getting that shot of Declan and Reign in action, after doing something to help. But I do. Misty see's the look on my face as I get in the car.

"It didn't go well?"

"It went fine. He listened. He's making some calls now."

"Then why that face? The one that says you lost your favorite teddy bear." Misty mimics my face with an added pout.

"I don't look that bad." I point to her exaggerated impression. "You're a living cartoon character."

"True. But I'm a good reflection of your mood. Start talking."

"Now that I did something to help, I feel helpless again. It wasn't until I yelled at Dad and Jeff in that hotel room that I started to feel like myself, finally. I wasn't wallowing in mopey sadness. I was taking a stand, taking back my power."

"And you kicked booty at it," Misty says with a wink and a smirk.

"But now what? I'm back to my side of the fence with a broken heart and a strained relationship with my dad."

"No, sweetie. Now the healing can begin."

I mock barf. "What in the Hallmark Card are you talking about?"

Misty shakes her head, giving me a sympathetic frown. "You are such a cynic and your boyfriend wasn't even cheating." She reaches across the car, putting her hand on my shoulder. "Now all of you can move forward. That's what I mean. You aren't stuck in that spiral of questioning why Jeff pushed you away. And you've done something to get him out of this mess."

"Fine. You win. Now drive away, bitch. We can't just sit here or I'll start crying."

"You got it. But dial down on the b-words. I'm in recovery, 'member?"

"Recovery my butt. You're one giant walking testament to true cuss words."

Before Misty can make her snarky retort, which I'm positive was about to happen, my phone rings. Checking my caller ID I see that it's my dad.

"Well that didn't take long." I mutter before answering. "Hey. Did you call the cops already?"

"Not yet."

"DAD!" That was the whole point!

"I talked to Jeff. Do him a favor and unblock him. He's got something to tell you."

"How does he know I blocked him?"

"Really? Tell me you didn't."

I sigh. "Fine. I did. But I'm not ready to give him that kind of access, yet."

"Trust me. You'll want to hear what he has to say."

I'm not sure I should trust him after all of this. But for some reason—probably the fact that I know he was trying to help in his own messy way—I do.

"Okay. I'll unblock him. But I'm not calling him. If he wants to talk to me, he's got to call."

"Oh, he will. He's not a bad guy, Ali."

This coming from the man who literally scared every guy away since I was 14.

"I never thought he was."

I hang up and open my contacts, scrolling to Jeff's and hesitating for a second over the unblock button. As much as I want to talk to him again, I'm scared. He hurt me with his silence. The lack of communication hit me harder than anything else.

Because if he had just told me what was going on, I would have supported him. I would have done whatever needed doing to help him out of it. But he never gave me the chance.

And now I'm not so sure I'm ready to give one to him.

Not that I have time to decide because only seconds after unblocking him, Jeff's name pops up on my notification screen. He's already calling.

"That was fast," Misty says.

"Tell me about it."

"Answer him."

"Not sure I'm ready."

The phone goes silent. Maybe he'll just leave me a voice mail and call it a day. As I'm hoping he does just that, the phone starts ringing again.

"Hoo boy, put that guy out of his misery or I'll do it for you."

"Thanks for the support, Misty."

"You're the one who said I was a nosy gossip."

I shake my head. "No. I said you were gossiping about Jeff's friend Micah and that girl Charlie when we drove back from the cabin." I answer, remembering that conversation. I still wonder what was going on between those two who obviously had the hots for each other. "You were the one who said you didn't gossip. And since when is answering a phone call gossip?"

The phone goes silent again.

"Well, now its not. But I was referring to the fact that I'm sitting right next to you and will hear your side of the conversation. I'll be drawing my own conclusions about the content unless you fill me in. I'll have knowledge I shouldn't have. But don't worry. Like I said, I don't gossip. You two talking is a fact. The details about the convo is the gossip. And it's safe with me."

"I think that made me dizzy," I say as the phone rings for a third time. I answer it just so I don't have to sit through that diatribe again.

"Hello?"

"Thank god."

"This isn't Jeff." I check the caller ID and sure enough, it says Jeff.

"No, this is his sister, Kyra."

"Oh. Hi. Nice to meet you?" For some reason I pose it as a question. Then ask a real one. "Where's Jeff?"

"Um...jail."

"What?"

"Yeah. Any chance you could go down there with that photo you took?"

I look over at Misty. I can tell by the crazed look in her eyes she heard everything Kyra said. "Yeah. We'll be there as soon as we can."

"Good."

"Is this what Jeff was going to tell me?"

"Oh, I don't think so. This just happened. I don't know what he wanted to call you about. I'm just sitting here stuffing my face with Oreo's and watching Thor."

"My kind of girl!" Misty shouts.

"Sisterhood." Kyra says.

"Ugh. I'll talk to you later I guess."

"Sure thing."

With that, we hang up and head to jail. Never would I have guessed that I'd be headed to lock up because of this guy. Although we did meet at a music festival filled with murderous clowns. Incarceration had to be on the agenda at some point.

Welp, this one took a turn I was not expecting. But that should have been expected because its how i write! Misty is the force behind the recon, let me tell you. That girl is unstoppable. And that last bit with Jeff in jail...it came out of nowhere, not in the plan, and I'm not sure how it will play out next. Haha but that's why i LOVE writing!

What would you say if you were meeting your boyfriend's family for the first time...in jail? But in this case I think it might be perfect. No promises, though, because although that might be what I plan to write it might NOT be what actually gets written. Just saying.

Alison is still alive and kicking, and Jeff's butt is on the line (for a swift kick, or loss of rights and freedom is anyone's guess.)

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

Thank you so much for your patience as I was catching up on this! The wrapping up of the school year is always a bit wacky but hopefully next week is less crazy. No promises though(as my son would say)