Like a Train Wreck - 13. Chapter 13: Bobble Head

"Are you still tired?" Jaemin asked, sitting on the black leather bean bag chair in the corner of Miracle's room.

Miracle laid in bed, staring up at the ceiling. "I don't know. I feel confused, like life froze and now I don't know what to do with it."

Jaemin grinned. "I think that's called boredom."

"Or running out of script." Miracle's head rolled to the side so that he could look at Jaemin. "I've noticed something."

"What is it?" Jaemin asked, fiddling with Miracle's cell phone.

"That I run on a script or at least I have been for a long while." Miracle pushed himself to sit up. "It's like riding on the waves, one event tossled me to the next and now there's no tossling." Miracle paused. "Except for the party..."

"Tossling?" Jaemin grinned. "Funny word."

"Hey, it made sense." Miracle shook his head. "I like it, tossling."

"Well if you like it..." Jaemin sat back. "I'll jump that bridge with you."

Miracle's eyes widened. "Not the time for such a saying."

Jaemin thought about it for a second. "Oh damn, sorry. Well you know what I meant."

"Yeah." Miracle smiled and then looked at the door when it opened.

Hunter looked inside. "Miracle, the police are here."

"The police?" Miracle looked at Hunter oddly and threw the covers off, sitting up. "What do they want?"

"I guess it's about the rape ... maybe?" Hunter shrugged.

"What? Like the school called or something? Because Mom and Dad promised not to dramatize my life right now. If the school called, isn't that against the rules? I mean it's not like murder, it's my choice to tell them, right?" Miracle looked between Hunter and Jaemin.

"Don't look at me, I break rules so I usually don't bother to study them." Jaemin shrugged.

"Kinda don't know myself..." Hunter shrugged again.

"Ugh! Useless!" Miracle got out of bed and stomped his bare feet across the floor, pushing past Hunter to leave the room, leaving the other two to share an odd glance towards each other at Miracle's dramatic exit.

"What do you want?" Miracle asked as he stepped into the living room, seeing the two investigators.

The two investigators both looked at Miracle as he came out, followed by Hunter but Jaemin decided to remain hidden in the bed room. "We wanted to talk..." The first investigator started to speak.

"Nah, duh." Miracle interrupted. "That sucks, I so thought we were like all going to get giggly and go have an orgy!"

"He's in a bad mood today..." Hunter looked between Miracle and the investigators.

"Well, what with everything that's happened and I'm sure whatever their sources are have told them all about it, bro! Obviously they don't know that I nearly ODed, just got home after a two day suicide watch and need my rest." Miracle looked over at the door when it opened and his parents walked in along with a woman he didn't know, at least not at first glance.

"What is going on?" Craig looked at the investigators.

"That backstabbing bitch broke the confidentiality laws!" Miracle burst out in frustration. "I want to press charges on her!"

"Miracle, she was required to give us that information." Ben, the lead investigator explained.

"Like hell she was required. I don't have to tell anyone about the rape if I don't want to, I don't even have to press charges. That's in my hands and she isn't supposed to tell my secret stuff!" Miracle flailed an arm about, getting all worked up over the matter.

"This is pertaining to the murder and given who the victim was, the time of the event, it makes your event relevent to the case and there for relevent of discussion." Ben said, keeping a calm professional tone.

Miracle felt a tightness in his chest, as if he wanted to blow up at the man, his eyes shifted between everyone. "I have an alibi, so what did I do? Steal my parents credit cards, withdraw a huge sum of money and hire a hit? Or maybe I just wrote a check? Or how about that old saying? I just paid it off with my good looks. Oh no, it's already been proven anyone that wants me can just take me, hasn't it?"

"Look I understand you guys have a job to do but this is a really bad time.." Craig started to speak up only to be interrupted.

"Oh no, they think I did it, Daddy." Miracle stared Ben right in the eyes and walked closer towards him. "You better hurry up and get me the money so I can pay the big bad hit man off or he'll have my head." A grin appeared. "Take that to your DA, see if he or she finds it as ridiculous as I do."

This made Ben angry, the way Miracle was teasing him and despite the lack of physical contact, the sexuality through the acted innocence was very obvious, especially when he looked into the teenagers eyes, it was as if there was a fire just begging for more fuel.

"This isn't a good time." Ben turned away from Miracle and handed out a card to Craig. "If there is anything, just call that number." A half way decent smile of showing some kind of pleasure in the visit was made.

"Oh the police man, he's leaving..." Miracle grinned. "We're going to get away with it, hit man!" He stepped back and wrapped an arm around Hunter, pulling his brother close to him.

"Will do." Craig took the card and watched both men walk out, each one looking irritated in their own way, Ben more so than his partner, Charlie. The door was closed behind the investigators and he sighed.

"Well this obviously isn't a very good time for this." The bleach blonde young woman spoke up, her eyes diverted to the floor in an anxious way. "I'll just come back tomorrow, if that is still wanted."

"Erica, you were supposed to stay here, I got the spare room prepared." Martha spoke up, not wanting the girl to have to stay in some hotel.

Erica looked up at Miracle's adoptive Mother, not really knowing what to say at that point but she was really uncomfortable, she knew that much.

"Huh?" Miracle looked up and then over at Erica. "Who is this?" His eyes then squinted at her, noticing that feeling of familiarity. "Wait..." He walked closer to where she was, at the front door.

"I really should just go." Erica looked over at Craig and moved closer to the door, reaching for the door knob until Miracle spoke up.

"I know who you are." Miracle quickly reached up and slapped his palm against the door, eyes slightly widened. "You probably should, they weren't supposed to dramatize my life.." He slowly shook his head. "Now, I don't know what to do with this."

"You remember?" Erica looked at Miracle, somewhat afraid of how this would go.

"I remember a few things." Miracle said and then he looked around. "You will stay here. You at least owe me the time to get my questions answered, when I'm more ready and prepared."

"If that is what you want." Erica looked down, fiddling with the zipper of her black leather purse. "It's why I came here."

"Good." Miracle nodded and then looked at Craig. "You guys should of told me first. It's not your fault the police got on my nerves but I feel like to much has been thrown at me at once." He ran a hand over his head and then walked off, disappearing into the hall.

A knock was heard at the front door. "I got it, Mom!" Sterling called out, never knowing who it was. Usually he never bothered as it never had been anyone for him but as of lately it could be anyone.

"It's me." Melanie said with a grin, an arm out stretched with a hand pressed to the outer door frame, a black dress coat buttoned over a plain white shirt was worn, the V shape of the coat allowing the shirt to be seen and on her lower half was a matching black skirt that form fit to her body, going for the business woman look.

Sterling looked at her, either pissed or annoyed, he wasn't sure which one he felt. Maybe a little bit of both. Yep that was his best guess. "You didn't tell Miracle the truth. He won't take my calls, no one will and they keep his parents from getting the phone and I'm not exactly going to go over there and stir things up."

"I held up my end of the bargain, both you and Miracle have invitations to the party thereby creating an opportunity for you to tell him the truth personally." Melanie then moved around him, inviting herself in.

"Sterling, one thing you have to learn..." She turned around. "When it comes to dealing or rather playing your cards, you don't know how the other person will play theirs. Well this is how I played mine, I didn't cheat a win for you, I merely created an opportunity for you, and how you play your cards with that? Well it's your gamble. It's how the game is played, the risk factor can never be lost."

"Wow, you and Jaemin would be a match made in heaven." Sterling turned around, pushing the door forward until it swung shut with a light thud.

"Are you serious?" Melanie turned half way around, twisting at the waist, head tilted to look at Sterling. "We are so not in the same class." She shook her head. "Your Mom home? We need some privacy."

"Shes in the kitchen, worried to death. Bob isn't answering the phone."

Melanie grinned. "Bob? Who is Bob?"

"Her date."

Melanie started to laugh. "Watch out, you might have bobble head as a Step Dad." She walked past the kitchen, seeing Nancy putting dishes in the dish washer and headed for Sterlings room.

"What is this about?" Sterling asked and followed Melanie into his room, closing the door.

"It's about the bottle that Miracle over dosed with." Melanie turned around and sat down on the bed. She then made a face and looked at the bed linens. "This is clean right? You haven't jacked off and sent stuff everywhere and left it to dry?"

Sterling rolled his eyes, seeing that she was here to torture him among other things. "Yes, it's clean." He crossed his arms and leaned against the door. "By the way, you know my fish died? And my aquarium was tainted in nail polish? The bottle was even left. How about that bottle?"

"Does it really matter? Clean your water, buy more." She squinted her eyes at him.

"I got those fish from Florida, the last vacation before my Dad bailed on us." Sterling frowned.

Did it seem to phase Melanie? Not so much given her careless appearance. "Whatever. We need to discuss the bottle Miracle had."

"Yeah that is also coincidentally not in the sink anymore."

"Brian stole it." Melanie said. "And he was the one that had the disk as I told you." She shook her head. "I found the bottle when I found the disk, he hid them in his closet when I was looking for one of his shirts to wear and I stole both of them."

"So what does this mean?"

Melanie sighed. "Brian was scared that he would get in trouble for the rape, especially with Brad being murdered so he stole the disk from Brad's house. I mean when people die, it's only natural to dig through someone's stuff. His parents would be upset but Sarah being the drama queen that she is would have gone ballistic."

"So you're going to turn on him? Why?" Sterling grabbed his computer chair, spun it around and sat in it, closer to the bed.

"Because I don't care about him. Because he's a creep. There are a lot of reasons." She laid her purse to the side

She continued speaking. "My point is that I want to send him to jail for theft of medication and dealing the medication. I can do this easily by making a sticky tag with my name on it from my Dad's pharmacy and slapping it on the bottle."

Melanie leaned closer. "Then? I would plant it in his house. I need a witness, that is where you come in. You're with me when I 'find' the bottle and it's empty and I'll tell the police that he stole my medication. They will either think he stole the drug or used them. It doesn't matter which but it will put him away."

"So you are doing this to punish him because you hate him?" Sterling questioned.

"Well it's punishment for Miracle too." She said.

"How so? It doesn't incriminate him for the rape."

"I'm still putting it together." She paused in a moment of thought. "Okay, then you identify the bottle as the one that was in the sink and ... tell them what happened about the fish, that will tell them that someone had been in your room to steal the bottle back. They will assume it was Brian. Then they will think that he sold Miracle whatever was left."

Sterling immediately looked pissed and stood up, walking away from the bed and then turned towards her. "That's stupid, then he will be charged for buying!"

"Give me a second!" She rubbed the sides of her head with her fingers. "Not if he bought the whole bottle the same night that he attempted suicide. He would be considered mentally unstable, they would let that go. No one knows when Miracle got the bottle except Brian, and who the hell would believe him at that point?"

"I can go into the computer at the pharmacy and put in that I got it filled that same night and look through it and pick an ER doctor. Brian took me to the ER that night, that is what we will say and then after we left, I went into the store to get a soda and that is when he stole the bottle from my purse so I didn't even realize it was gone and when I did, I figured I lost it." Melanie nodded and stood up.

"You better hope this works." Sterling warned her.

"It will." She said and grabbed her purse. "Meet me at Lonnie's Diner in about an hour or so, if I am not there by the time you get there..." She fished through her purse and grabbed two twenties and handed them over. "Treat yourself good, I might be there fashionably late." Melanie smiled and headed out of the room.

Heavy breathes could be heard as motions were made beneath the sheets, One on top of the other in Miracle's bed as the two lovers kissed deeply, passionately making love but in a love that was intense and rough, just the way Miracle found that he was beginning to like it, that was until Erica had opened the door.

The sheet slipped off to reveal Miracle's head when he heard the door open, his eyes widened as he had been revealed to be on top of Jaemin. He turned his head to see who had opened the door. "Oh my god! What are you doing?! Man... You ruined it. This was our first time!"

Erica gasped at what she had walked in on, nearly dropping the shoe box that was in her hand. "I...I didn't mean to..."

"Can't you hear out the door?!" Miracle sat up. "You know what, I'm going to ruin your brain for that! Better now that I have a really damn good reason, as if I didn't have one to begin with." He moved off of Jaemin, snatching the sheet with him for cover.

"Hey!" Jaemin yelped out as his covers were taken and then he sat up, grabbing a pillow to hide himself.

"I wasn't paying attention. I'm so sorry." She looked between the two of them, her eyes widened.

"So what? You got ADHD or something? ... Not that I have anything against that, I probably have it." Miracle pulled the sheet around him like a robe before Erica could see anything. "Move!" He said as he shoved past Erica and headed out into the hallway. "Come out everyone! I know you can't sleep or then again maybe you all can because me and Jaemin aren't loud enough!"

"Maybe I should join this drama, no cops." Jaemin sat up and grabbed his boxers.

Erica narrowed her eyes on him. "You're a criminal?"

"Not today." Jaemin cracked a smile at her and started to work on pulling his boxers on while trying not to show himself in the process.

Martha and Craig walked out of their bedroom half asleep along with Hunter who appeared to have just gotten out of the shower and thrown on a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt.

"What's going on?" Hunter asked, deciding to save his parents the need to ask.

"Well good old birth Mommy here decided to ruin my first night with Jaemin because we're apparantly not loud enough." He paused when Jaemin came out. "Jae ... maybe you need to start fucking me harder, I guess I need to be a squeeler around here."

"What is with the hostility, Miracle? We are trying to be here for you! I know the police got on your nerves and that was uncalled for. I know we should have told you about bringing Erica here, I know you are upset about all of these things but I don't understand why you continue to be so hostile." Craig shook his head.

Miracle frowned and looked at Craig, slowly shaking his head with a slightly pained expression. "I don't know." He looked down, almost as if he were going to cry. "I just feel stuck and...powerless."

Jaemin watched Miracle and moved forward to wrap his arms around the boy, pulling him close and he placed kisses along his neck.

"I need to share something with everyone." Miracle leaned into Jaemin. "Just not in the hallway, that's stupid." He said and soon everyone began to head towards the living room.

Once in the living room, Miracle pulled away from Jaemin and walked to the fire place, the sheet still hugged firmly around him as he lowered to sit on the stoop of the fire place and watched his adoptive family take the couch, Erica and Jaemin took two of the sofa chairs available. He looked down and took a deep breath.

"This is something I've never told anyone before. I'm sure it's probably in the records, I don't know if it was released to you." He paused and looked at Martha and Craig. "I hope that it wasn't because this is personal to me and ... well it's for me to tell, not some social worker or some file."

Everyone remained silent out of respect and partly out of anticipation as to what this confession would be.

"Something really bad happened to me when I was young." Miracle continued.

He looked at Erica. "After you gave me up, I lived in an orphanage and they didn't care about the children. They fed us, kept us clean and put us to bed, that was it. Other than that, we were left to fend for ourselves. I still had the picture that you gave me, Erica and I kept it..." He stopped, feeling his eyes well up with water, that familiar pain intensifying within his throat.

"I even filled up a bowl of water and threw salt in it, hoping it would make me feel close to home. I kept it under the bed but then when I turned eight, I was adopted and it was a dream come true. I was so excited and ready to get out." Miracle smiled briefly. "I forgot about the bowl of water and I left it and ... I left the picture."

"Don't be upset about something like that..." Erica started to speak up.

"Let me finish." Miracle said with a shaky voice. "So I left with this man, I was given to him. At first ... things were great. He spoiled me rotten, I thought he was my best friend." A pained expression appeared, just remembering it and now talking about it tore him up inside. "Then he said ... he said..." He shook his head. "I don't remember, it just happened."

Miracle took a deep breath but his nerves were not calming, in fact tear drops were already visible. "At first he didn't hurt me, he just had me get undressed. He wanted me to stay undressed when ever we were home. He would follow me around with a camera, sometimes one that took pictures and sometimes a video camera. He told me to pretend not to see him or notice him and actually ... it was easier to ignore him."

He looked down, not being able to stand the idea of looking anyone in the eyes. "After a while ... things changed and he put the camera on a tripod and we would both be on camera. He started to touch me, very sensual and I remember feeling so nervous but his voice was so comforting and the more I let him do this ... the more he would spoil me and he would do it by levels. The smaller things would get smaller rewards and the bigger things ... well they got bigger rewards, like when he started..."

Miracle looked up at everyone, his gaze shifting from one person to the other, everyone looking concerned or disturbed by this point. "It had to eventually go all the way, didn't it? That's the inevitable and every single time he was finished ... he would tell me that he loved me and this was love and that this was what you do for love, that you do this for the person you love and he would ask me if I loved him and I would tell him that I did and he would ... he would ask me to prove it and by doing that very thing, it was the only way I knew because it was what he taught me. He told me he loved me and that we would be together forever."

His hands moved over his face and he wiped at his eyes, pushing away the tears that stained his flawless skin. "He was never neglectful, I was his life, his world or so he made it seem, he devoted all of his spare time to me, sexually or not. He made me feel like it was a relationship by ... getting me to give him the physical part and in turn he gave me the emotional part and I needed that because the orphanage left me so alone." Miracle started shaking as he began to cry.

He fought through the need to cry. "He was arrested and in my mind he broke the promise of forever and so I went out to find someone who could promise me forever in the only way I knew how, sex. If I gave the physical part, I would get the emotional part but ... it's not true but even if I know it's not true I still feel like I need it to stop the pain."

Erica sat there, stunned. How could she not be? It was all because of her that this had happened to him. It was her selfishness that had caused this. The shoe box that she was holding was sat down on the table beside the chair and she stood up and ran off and down the hall to the guest bed room, Martha taking off after her while Craig and Hunter shared a look towards each other.

And Jaemin? He moved from the chair he was sitting in and kneeled down beside Miracle and took the crying boy into his arms and just held onto him and he could swear that he could feel Miracle's pain in his very being. He loved Miracle, he really did, even if it was part of some delusional obsession, the feelings were there.

Melanie pulled into the parking lot of Lonnie's Diner and into the closest space. The engine was killed as her keys were pulled out. The door was kicked open as she grabbed her purse and stepped out. A grin appeared and she shut the door, using the remote to lock the doors and set the alarm before skipping along to the door where she would open it and go inside. She looked around and then she spotted Sterling and as she moved closer she could see that he had made the best of that fourty dollars she had given him.

"Well, it looks like you are enjoying yourself." She smiled and took a seat at the table, across from him.

"It's food, I'm doing what I'm supposed to with it." Sterling looked up at her.

"Are you ... suggesting something?" She narrowed her eyes at him and grinned. "You should talk to Sarah about doing the dirty with the cucumbers."

Sterling shook his head. "So what are we supposed to be doing?"

"It's simple, you drive one way down the block, I'll come from the other, we'll fake nearly crashing into each other trying to pull into Brian's drive way. That's when we start bitching and making noise, certainly to lure him out." Melanie grabbed Sterlings glass of soda.

"And?" Sterling watched her take his drink.

"You're there because you found out that he had the disk, if he asks who told, say it was Kevin, say he gave up the information so Miracle wouldn't press charges on him. Tell him you want the disk back. Get an argument going, keep him outside. As for me? Well I'll be there for a nice little visit, get fed up with the fight and take a little trip inside. From there? Let the sparks fly and follow my lead."

Sterling watched her sip from his soda. "Sounds ... really simple."

"That's because it is. So are you game?" Melanie sat the glass down.

He shook his head and then got ready to stand up. "Lets go."