Chapter 7: Across the Street

Everyone at the bus stop turned to look at me.

A woman pulled her kid behind her legs.

A man in a Bears jacket already had his phone out, filming.

"I didn't touch her," I said.

"She shoved me off the curb!" Brittany sobbed. "I'm twelve weeks! I'm pregnant!"

She was holding her stomach with both hands.

Her mascara was running in perfect lines.

Her phone lay face up on the sidewalk beside her, still recording.

The grill cook started toward her to help her up.

"Don't touch me!" she shrieked. "Don't let any of them touch me!"

A squad car was idling at the light at the end of the block.

Somebody waved it down.

It pulled over with a short whoop of the siren.

A cop got out, heavy-set and tired-looking, and walked toward us with his hand on his belt.

"What's going on?"

"She assaulted me," Brittany said, pointing. "Holly Ellsworth. She's my boyfriend's ex-wife. She's been harassing us for days."

"Still his wife," Katie said. "For now."

The cop looked at me.

"Ma'am, did you push her?"

"No."

"She's lying," Brittany cried. "Everyone saw it."

The cop looked at the crowd.

Nobody said anything.

Nobody had actually been watching until she screamed.

Then Katie stepped forward.

She was still holding the copper pot in one arm.

She held up her phone in the other hand.

"I was filming the walkout," she said. "For my sister. She said nobody would ever quit on a Monday."

She hit play and turned the screen toward the cop.

He leaned in.

I leaned in too.

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