• My eyes widened as I heard his accusation. I was completely speechless, blacking out from the initial shock. “Well?” the deep voice of the man in front of me echoed through my empty mind. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

    “I was nowhere near the principal’s office when it happened!” I had a scared look on my face. I was scared of what might happen.

    “Well, Mr. Ramirez, the evidence states otherwise. I double-checked the sample taken from the scene and the sample from your student files. The prints match, Michal. I want to believe you. I do. But, doubt is a powerful thing.” He answered back. “Look, Mr. Ramirez. Nobody is accusing you of anything. The police just think you’re a witness. But, if you’re going to act like this, they might think otherwise.”

    I didn’t know what to say then. I sat quietly, looking at the window behind Mr. Flicker. What I saw then was not what really wanted to see at the present situation. But there he was, Gabriel. He was peeping into the screened window, looking around the office of Mr. Flicker. He was even smiling and giving me a thumbs-up. I could see that he was trying to tell me something. But I was unable to hear what he wanted to say. He slowly moved to leave, just in time for Mr. Flicker to turn around. Gabriel was lucky that Mr. Flicker didn’t see him.

    “What are you looking at?” Mr. Flicker asked, as he slowly turned back to me. He probably noticed that I wasn’t paying much attention.

    “It’s nothing, sir. Just nothing.”

    “Well, then. Mr. Ramirez, I know that you did nothing wrong. I trust you. You’re a good kid with a clean slate.” He said, standing up from his chair and moving beside me. “Come back tomorrow with your parents. I need a talk with them.”

    This is just great. Now he wanted to talk to my parents. My parents haven’t been called in for me about anything, except for awards and this and that. “Okay, sir.” I slowly stood up also, moving towards the door as Mr. Flicker stayed close behind.

    As we reached the door he placed his hand over the door knob, reaching his arms past my shoulder, and opened the door. I quickly headed for the hallway, which was empty. I assumed that everyone was already attending class.

    “Listen, boy.” The enormous man behind me said. I turned to see what he had to add to the already overwhelming conversation that just passed. “I do believe that you are innocent. And if you have anything to say, anything at all, you come to me. I hope you know that you can trust me.”

    Mr. Flicker was trying to gain my trust. But, at the moment, I wasn’t really sure of myself. Was he sincere about believing me and wanting to help?

    “Of course, sir.”, I answered back. I just didn’t want to say otherwise in front of the guy.

    “Good.” He slowly closed the door, leaving me alone standing on the hall, or so I thought.

    As I turned around, to expect an empty hallway, who should confront me but Gabriel? Yes, he was there, standing behind me. I still wonder how he didn’t get caught by Mr. Flicker. “Shouldn’t you be in class?” I asked, just wanting him to go away.
    “Don’t give me that damn tone, Mike.” He answered back with a smirk-like tone that no one could like. “I know you need my help with that robbery accusation thing back there.”

    He surprised me. How could he know about all that? He was outside and the windows were closed. He shouldn’t know anything about that. I grabbed him and dragged him to the staircase past the office next to Mr. Flicker’s. Covering his mouth, and letting him confront an angry stare in my eyes, I slammed his back to the wall and asked him “How’d you know about that?”

    He slapped my hand off his mouth. If he wanted to answer, he needed it anyway. “I bugged Mr. F’s office over there.” He raised his thumb pointing it behind him towards Mr. Flicker’s office. “There’s a little microphone under his desk.”

    I was sort of impressed and stranged out of Gabriel’s nasty but cunning idea of bugging an educator’s desk. But, I wasn’t about to admit that. “I’m not even going to ask how or why you did that.”

    “I told you I was going to be with you.” He continued, letting me remember our conversation earlier.

    “Yeah. Like a forest nymph! Do you even know that is?”

    Gabriel waited for a couple of seconds before answering; I guess he was thinking of one of his annoying jokes. “Nnn- no.” he said plainly, which annoyed me. “But I think it was a very clever example of what I just did, isn’t it?”

    I didn’t really understand what he was saying, plus I was pissed. So I let go of him and started to storm up the steps to class. I was still wondering why Gabriel wasn’t in class himself, then again, I was pissed.

    “Hey.” He called. “I can help you, you know.”

    Honestly, I couldn’t see how an a** like Gabriel could help me. I tried to ignore him and his claim to be able to help me. But I was in deep, and I need all the help I could get. I stopped just when there was one more step left to climb to get on the next floor, and I turned around. Started walking down again, and I came at Gabriel’s face. “How can you help me?” I asked, still acting pissed.

    “Well,” he said. His eyes rolled around the place, and his started to rub his fingers. “I can’t really explain it. But –.”

    I didn’t even wait for him to continue speaking. The words “I can’t really explain.” meant that he couldn’t help me. I just shaked my head at disappointment, as I climbed the steps again.

    “If I can prove that I can help.” He continued, raising his voice. I could see that he was persistent and that he really wanted to help. I just can’t see how he could. “Please.” Now, with that last word, he was just being desperate.

    As an answer, I just raised hand at him to tell him just to forget it, still continuing up the stairs. Gabriel was my best friend, but he’s not really one to be trusted on something as important as this. He was annoying and everything, but he’s a good guy. And blowing him of like that, made me feel awful.

    The next day, the day I needed my parents to come, I couldn’t tell them last night. I literally chickened out. I know that Mr. Flicker is going to wonder where I was eventually, but I just couldn’t break it to my parents. I needed to stall, as long as I could.

    “Hey, Mike!” There it was… a very familiar voice. Gabriel. “Hey, Mike!” I turned around to see what he had for me today. And I admit it; it wasn’t what I expected at the moment. He came running at me, sweat on his forehead and a CD on his right hand.

    “What’s that?” I asked, curious of what the contents of the CD might be. Was it something relevant or was it something completely useless and senseless?

    As he finally reached me, he took a few seconds to breath. It was obvious that he was running for quite a while. He grabbed my shoulder with his freehand, and grabbed on to his with both of him. He looked tired. “What’s wrong with you?” I asked, concerned for a friend. He didn’t usually do things like this, putting effort on something, I mean. “What’s that?”

    “This.” He said, still panting. He let go of my shoulder and used his own knees as support, as he bent down a bit. Raising his right hand, he gave the CD emphasis. And I couldn’t do anything but stare at it as he waved it around. “This, my friend, is possible proof of your innocence.”