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“Alright baby, I’ll be sure to call you later… tell Baylee that daddy misses him… okay, I love you too… bye.” I closed my cell phone and shoved it in my pocket. I looked around, seeing that Howie and Kevin were still talking to Johnny and the rest of the team and AJ was nowhere to be found. Right when I was about to make my way over to Kevin and Howie, AJ walked back into the house, quickly making his way over towards me.

“What’s the matter with you?” I asked him, noticing this irritated look on his face.

“Don’t you hate cops?” he asked me instead. I gave him a puzzled look and he continued. “I fucking hate cops…”

“Where is this coming from?”

“I just came to the realization that I fucking hate cops.”

There was something on his mind, you can always tell when something’s on his mind. Any second he will just break and tell me what his problem was, but I didn’t want him doing it there. I know AJ, he doesn’t care if he’s surrounded by cops aiming guns at him, he’ll still state how much he hates them.

I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him away from where everyone was. “Okay, spill.” I simply stated.

“Okay, so I was outside smoking a cigarette because you know how I always have to smoke a cigarette when I’m stressed or nervous right?” did I forget to mention that he tends to ramble when something is on his mind? “So, right when I was going to smoke, I realized that I didn’t have a lighter so I decided to save it for when I found one, but this detective came outta nowhere and offered me a light. He started talking about our ordeal, asking me how could we testify on Nick’s behalf if we don’t even remember what happened that night, and he goes on to talk about how we think it’s the end but it’s only just beginning and all this other shit about filling these fucking empty spaces.” He paused, sighing heavily. “I need another cigarette…”

He started to walk away from me, but I grabbed his arm and pulled him back. “What is your point AJ?”

“Don’t you get the feeling like the cops aren’t helping us at all?” I just stared at him. “I mean, I feel like they aren’t here to help us, that this situation is just some sick form of… entertainment to them or something. They can’t even give us a straight explanation for crying out loud. It’s like everything’s a game to them, and I know deep down inside they don’t care.”

I continued to stare at him, not sure if he was serious or if it’s some minor anxiety attack. “I think you’re just paranoid Jay.”

“I’m serious Brian; I know the difference between paranoia and suspicion.”

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, the cops that you hate agreed to Johnny’s request of exhuming Jeffery’s body.”

“I know that.”

“Well, they don’t get credit for that? Aren’t they helping us in that sense?”

“If they were helping us, then they’d realize that they arrested Nick for the wrong reason. Fuck Brian, Nick’s in prison for the wrong goddamn reason.”

“I know, but sitting here stating how much you hate the people that are helping us right now isn’t going to make the situation any better.”

“Okay Father Brian, are you done?”

“Why?”

“So I can go smoke another cigarette.”

“The last thing we need to deal with is a sick AJ who is diagnosed with lung cancer.”

“The last thing you need to deal with is a erratic AJ who is on the verge of bitching anybody and everybody out.”

“I think I’d rather deal with that.”

“You guys, the body has been exhumed.” Howie informed us. “We gotta go down to the cemetery.”

Both AJ and I turned to look at him, and then glanced at each other. I can’t exactly place my finger on it, but this look crossed AJ’s face, and I knew exactly why. We haven’t been to the cemetery since the incident, not even to visit Aaron’s grave. After all this time running away from the past, AJ had nowhere to go but forward to face it, and in a sense I was right along with him, coming face-to-face with the inner demons we’ve been putting off in battling.