Ditched

"Lauren! What a pleasant surprise. Thanks and how's things?"

"Same old. You know," she said cheerfully.

"Stop by the house one of these days. Debbie and I would love to see you."

He leaned down, looked at Makayla, and said, "And who's the grown up lady in the passenger seat?"

Makayla pulled her earbuds out down long enough to say 'hi' then went back to listening to her music.

"That would be my teenage daughter," Lauren told him as she knew the people in the car behind her were getting frustrated.

"Oh. Lucky you," Ross said as he stood back up. "Please call Debbie, and if you get a chance, stop by sometime. The precinct has changed a lot. I'll give you the guided tour."

"Yeah, sure. I'll do that," Lauren said politely knowing that was the last place she wanted to visit.

She followed the cars ahead of her to the next officer who directed her to pull into a huge grassy area where volunteers were further directing cars to park in specific places. Lauren followed the leader then shut the engine off.

"Okay. Now the fun begins, right?" she said to Makayla who wasn't paying attention.

"Hey? You texting your boyfriend or something?" Lauren said hoping she was only joking.

Makayla finally looked over then said, "I don't have a boyfriend...Mom," before making a show of dropping her phone in her purse from nearly a foot above it.

Lauren paid for both of them at the main gate then went inside, her daughter on her left.

"Oh, look! That's new!" Lauren said immediately pointing to a booth.

"BORE-ring," Makayla replied without even looking at it.

"Wow. Way to give it a chance," her mom said.

They strolled up and down the paved walkway for a few minutes during which time Lauren was looking at every ride and every display while her daughter seemed uninterested in anything. Within just a few minutes after that, Makayla let her mom know she wasn't happy walking around with her.

"Can I go look around?"

"By yourself?" her mom asked.

"Well...yeah. That's kind of the idea. I mean, we came together, didn't we?"

"Oh, nice try," Lauren said. "Because 'arriving together' is what 'doing something together' means, right?"

"Even if I don't want to?" her daughter said snidely.

"Wait. You want to be here. You just don't want to be here with me? Is that what you're telling me?"

"Gee. My mom's a genius," Makayla said just as snidely.

"No, I'm not a genius, but I am smart enough to know not to let my 13-year old daughter walk around with a couple of thousand strangers by herself."

Makayla didn't respond, but Lauren knew she was upset and possibly even angry. She moped along with her mom for another fifteen minutes or so then said she needed to use the restroom.

"You know what? I wouldn't mind that myself," her mom said trying to sound cheerful about something, no matter how trivial it might be.

Makayla let her mom go in first and waited for her to go inside a stall, then opened a door and closed it without going in. As soon as the sound of the door being 'shut' rang out, Makayla quietly walked toward the door just as two women were entering. Their talking gave her cover as she slipped by them then grabbed her phone and called Noah who answered immediately

"I'm free! Where are you?"

"Down by the animals at the far end. I'm standing next to some sheep or goats or whatever these smelly creatures are in one of the pens."

"Cool! I'll be there in a minute or so!"

Makayla had no idea who the two uniformed police officers were she passed as she continued to hurry nor did she care. The last thing she needed was a cop asking her what she was doing. Of course, they had no reason to do that, but her guilty mind couldn't help but think everyone knew she was doing something wrong.

Jake was asking his partner, Justin McIntyre, about playing softball for the department, and paid little attention to the very cute teenage girl who flew right by him even though she gave them both a kind of furtive look.

His partner had been on the force for six months longer than him, and had played softball the previous season for the Enumclaw PD. His partner saw Makayla, and thought she looked vaguely familiar. He didn't know Lauren, but still, he made a mental note of what the girl was wearing as she zipped on by.

They were strolling along at a very leisurely rate knowing they had another six hours left on their shift so there was no need to hurry anywhere. They'd already made an entire lap of the fairgrounds, and would make many more before their tour ended.

Makayla slowed as she got near the animal area. She passed a display with several young calves then saw the goats. She began looking around in earnest as her heart began beating faster in expectation of finally really meeting this cute, older boy. She looked left then right then stopped and looked all around, but didn't see anyone who looked anything like him.

Lauren finished in the restroom and was drying her hands when she assumed Makayla had finished first and was waiting for her outside. She dropped the paper towel in the trash then opened the door and looked around. She looked to her left for as far as she could see then did the same to her right.

Concerned but not panicked, she quickly walked around the cinderblock building that served as a restroom then got worried.

She pulled out her phone and hit '1' on her speed dial and waited. When it went to voicemail, Lauren went from concerned to afraid as she started walking in the direction they'd been heading. She had no idea which way her daughter had gone, so she had to pick one, and that's where she went.

Lauren quickened her pace even as she went into 'hyper-scan' mode as she quickly glanced at every face she passed. She saw someone she recognized from school and ran over to her.

"Hi. Listen, have you seen Makayla?" she asked without any pleasantries.

"Makayla?" the girl said with a puzzled look. "No. Why? Is she missing or something?"

Too worried to take the time to explain, Lauren kept walking as she called back, "Thank you!" then continued scanning.

At the goat area, Mikayla jumped when someone said, "Boo!" in her ear behind her.

She turned around and to her great delight, there was Noah.

"Hey! Where were you?" she asked with a big smile.

"I wanted to surprise you," he told her. "You uh, you look really good."

"Thank you!" she said. "You, too!"

"So...what now?" Noah asked.

"Oh, yeah. My mom's probably already looking for me," Makayla said as she looked behind Noah to see if she was coming. She saw the same two police officers she'd passed coming closer but didn't see her mom.

"We should leave and go hang out."

"I...I don't think that's a very good idea," the boy told her.

"Come on! It'll be fun! And I really want to..."

She reached down and took his hand and finished saying, "Hold your hand."

"My brother's car is right outside if you wanna go sit out there and talk," he told her as his willpower disappeared.

Noah was even cuter than she'd remembered and couldn't wait to be alone with him.

"Yeah, sure. That sounds really great!" she told him.

"Cool. Okay, so...come on," Noah told her.

Makayla had never held hands before let alone kissed a boy, but she'd just changed the first thing, and she knew if Noah wanted to do the second one, too, that she'd let him.

Jake's partner got a good look at the girl this time as she quickly walked by him holding hands with someone as he watched the two of them heading toward the exit.

Jake was saying something about a base softball team he played on in California, and his partner soon forgot again about the girl or who she was with.

"So you played third base?" his partner asked.

"Mostly. I played short a few times, but yeah, mostly third. How about you?"

As he started to answer, Jake saw a small boy walk into the goat pen, and he tried not to laugh when the baby goat head butted the boy in the butt and knocked him on his butt. The child's mother was right there, and picked him up and comforted him at the same time she scolded him for leaving her side.

"Life's tough when you're three, right?" Jake said to his partner.

"Yeah, but the good news is you're still too young to be socially embarrassed by a goat kicking your a..."

"Officers!" they both heard a woman call out.

As they turned around, Josh turned and saw a panicked woman.

"Yes ma'am?" he said as Jake turned, too.

"Makayla...my daughter. She was...we were..."

"Whoa! Slow down. What's going on?"

Lauren took a deep breath then said, "I brought my daughter here with me. We arrived around ten, and were walking this way when we stopped to use the restroom. She's been...difficult lately. She just turned thirteen earlier this year. Anyway, when I got out of the restroom she was gone."

"Wait. What is she wearing?" Josh asked.

Lauren told him and before she could finish he said, "Okay. I'm pretty sure I saw her leaving with a boy less than a minute ago, and they..."

"Which way? What boy?" Lauren asked in a scattershot pattern.

He pointed toward the exit sign said, "Come on. Let's go see if we can find them. They can't be very far ahead of us."

"If something happens to her..." Lauren said as they turned toward the exit and fear welled up inside her.

Josh keyed his radio and called to the other police officers working the fair, as well as those working traffic, to be on the lookout for a teenage boy and girl fitting the description he provided.

"She'll be fine," Josh said, trying to assure her as they exited the fair.

Jake knew to let his partner handle this. He didn't know Makayla, either, but he had seen the girl in question and had an idea of what she looked like as they all continued looking after they exited the fairgrounds.

Outside, the parking area was enormous with hundreds of cars parked in dozens of rows.

"How old was this boy, Officer? Old like...sixteen...or old like...twenty-something?" Lauren asked as her blood ran cold.

"I'm not sure. But I doubt he was much more than maybe 14. He looked to be about your daughter's age, but I can't say for sure."

"So could he be old enough to drive or..."

"Over there!" Josh called out as he pointed toward a girl holding hands with a boy.

"That's her! That's Makayla!" Lauren said as she started running.

The boy was opening a car door, and when he did, Makayla turned around, and Lauren knew they were going to kiss.

"Makayla!" she screamed, interrupting the kiss and causing her daughter to bang her head on the edge of the car's roof.

"Is that your mom?" Noah asked even though he knew.

"Oh, my God..." Makayla said as her mom closed in on them. "I am so grounded forever."

Noah was already freaked out, but when he saw the two police officers fast-walking behind the crazy mom, fear caused him to put his hands up as though he was surrendering.

Just then, the other police officer named Ross came running up just as Lauren moved between the boy and her daughter.

Her safety was all that mattered, and knowing she was, she threw her arms around her Makayla who said, "Mom! Stop, you're embarrassing me!"

"Oh, I'm gonna do so much more than embarrass you once I feel safe enough to let go of you."

Lauren pulled back and put her hand on her daughter's shoulders and said, "What were you thinking?"

She let go before Makayla could answer then turned around and looked at Noah and said, "And what were you thinking?"

She stared at him for a moment then asked, almost hissing, "And just how old are you?"

Noah broke eye contact, and as he looked at the ground told her he was 14 and her new neighbor when she put two and two together.

Ross took Makayla aside and asked if she was all right, and the girl said, "If you don't count being humiliated, yes, I'm fine."

"So tell me your name again," Lauren said to the boy who was visibly shaking.

"I...I'm...I'm Noah."

"Uh-huh? And?" Lauren demanded.

"And?" he asked as his legs turned to rubber.

"And...why are you with my daughter? And again...how old are you?"

"He's 14, Mom, and he's really nice," Makayla, who was finally paying attention from a couple of feet away, said in his defense.

"He has a mouth. Let him speak for himself," her mom snapped.

When he quietly mumbled, "Fourteen," again, Lauren raised her voice and told him she couldn't hear him.

"Fourteen. Ma'am," he said much more loudly.

The two officers younger officers were standing there trying not to laugh as the 'mom from hell' tore into him and her daughter.

"She's tough," Jake said very quietly.

"Hell hath no fury, right?" Josh replied as Noah stammered and finally told her his age.

"Well, my daughter is 13, and she doesn't go out with boys who are 14 or any other age! Do you understand me? Or should I have these officers take you home in a squad car and talk to your parents?"

"Please don't do that, ma'am," the boy said with utter deference.

Lauren turned around and said again to Makayla, "What exactly were you thinking? You scared me half to death? Do you know what could happen to you if he'd have..."

"Mom! Nothing happened, okay?" Makayla said as she thought she might die of embarrassment.

Not sure what else to say, Lauren told her daughter, "Let's go, young lady!"

Ross stopped her and asked, "Can we do anything? Is everything okay?"

"Oh, sorry. Yes, everything is..."

She glared at her daughter then said, "Peachy."

He smiled but didn't laugh when said, "Okay. We'll talk to lover boy over here and confirm his story. I'll give you a call if there's anything more to it than that. And just to be sure, do you want us to take him in and call his parents just to teach him a lesson?"

"I'll let you decide that, Ross. If you feel that's necessary, fine. But I think he's probably a decent kid, this stunt not withstanding."

She turned around and told her daughter, as she pointed toward their car, "Let's go, missy! March!"

Makayla made a huffing sound indicating her resentment, and that made Ross laugh. He turned his head so Lauren wouldn't hear, but he just couldn't help it.

As she went to grab her daughter's arm, Ross asked if he could say something to Makayla first.

"Yes. Of course," Lauren told him.

"Look. We've all been done stupid things, too, Makayla. Me, your mom, and even Officers Jake and Josh over there. That doesn't make this any less foolish or dangerous, though," he said gently. "Your mom loves you, and you scared her. Bad. Okay?"

Makayla's attitude softened a little as she said, "Okay."

There was a brief moment of silence before he said, "Oh. Speaking of my two new officers, I forgot to introduce you."

He introduced Josh first then turned toward Jake and said, "And this good-lookin' young man over here is the newest member of the force, Officer Jake Anthony. Jake? This beautiful lady here is Lauren Holly, wife of the late Officer Carl Holly."

Jake knew about her late husband and immediately offered his condolences.

"Thank you," Lauren said almost perfunctorily.

"And you know her daughter Makayla now, too."

"Hi, Makayla, and the sergeant here is right. I've made my share of mistakes, that's for sure. The most important thing is learning from them and never making the same mistake again, okay?"

The teenager's attitude disappeared completely as the chastised girl quietly said, "Okay."

"I'm sure you're anxious to leave," Jake told her mom. "I wasn't trying to keep you."

"No, it's okay," Lauren said. "I didn't mean to be short with you. That was very rude. Your condolences are very much appreciated."

"No, considering the circumstances, it was very understandable," Jake said with a smile.

"I really do need to run, though," Lauren told them all with a weak smile of her own as she looked over at her daughter.

"We're just glad everyone's okay," Jake said.

When her mom told her again, "Young lady? You're coming with me."

Makayla made everyone laugh, her mother included, when she said, "Can't I choose police custody instead?"

"Keep that sense of humor, Makayla. You're gonna need it," Ross told her.

"Good advice," Lauren said. "Because once I finish with her, a sense of humor is all she'll have left."

Lauren looked at her daughter, held out her hand, then said, "And we can start by you handing me your phone."

Makayla knew she'd lost the battle and maybe the war. Without a she handed the phone to her mom.

"The first thing I'm doing is blocking your number, Noah," she said as she turned to look at him.

His head was down, and he quietly said, "I'm really sorry, ma'am."

"We've got it from here, Lauren," Ross told her so she could avoid speaking to the other teenager again.

"Thanks, Ross. And it was really good to see you, and thank you for being here."

He nodded as Lauren looked at Josh and Jake and said, "You, too. You guys don't realize how important you are to us until we need you. I'm just thankful you were here and that you saw my daughter."

"Yeah. Gee, thanks," Makayla quipped.

Both of the younger cops laughed again as Ross said, "I'm gonna go talk to Romeo over here."

"Speaking of talking, I apologize for not being able to," Lauren told both Josh and Jake, "but it was very nice meeting you both."

"Yes, ma'am. You, too," they said.

As upset as she was, she found herself trying no to stare at the very attractive, very young police officer named Jake with the thick, black hair and the amazing smile.

Lauren excused herself and as they walked away, Jake heard Makayla say, "The guy with the black hair is like so hot!"

He laughed when her mom said, "Makayla Anne Holley! That is the last thing I want to hear out of you!"

She turned around as they walked away and said, "My apologies. As I said, my daughter's 13, so..."

Jake waved and called out, "No problem!"

Ross took down some notes after talking to Noah who swore he'd never even talk to Makayla again if the officer would promise not to tell his dad. Ross tried not to laugh as he let the boy know he saw no reason to do so.

"Just don't ever give me cause to have to call him, okay?"

"Yes, sir," the boy said nervously before changing his answer. "I mean...no, sir. I won't, sir."

"How'd it go?" Jake asked as Ross walked back over.

"I think he 'gets it'," the veteran officer said.

"Oh. The mom—Laura, right?" Jake began.

"No. Lauren. With an 'n'.

"Right. Yeah, sorry. Lauren looked like she was loaded for bear."

Ross chuckled and said, "She went from scared shitless to scaring the shit out of that boy."

Jake laughed, too, then said, "I know you probably don't want to talk about it, but how exactly did her husband die? I know it was a vehicle accident, but I don't know anything else about it."

Ross gave him and Josh the 'down and dirty' then talked about how hard it had been on Lauren.

"And Makayla was such a daddy's girl, you know? I mean she lived for her old man, and he was always talking about his little girl. I have no idea if her recent behavior is connected in any way to his loss, but I know her old man would have put a boot up that boy's ass then set his daughter straight."

"Being a teenager can be tough," Jake offered.

"Don't remind me. My daughter just turned ten, and I'm in no hurry to find out."

Jake laughed again then said, "I'm not in any hurry to settle down, but I tell you what. I'd love to have a family someday."

"Yeah, it's pretty great, rookie," Ross told him. "It can be a real challenge, but all in all, I wouldn't trade it for anything."

"Just between you and me, Lauren is a very attractive woman who seems too young to have a daughter that old."

"You're tellin' me," Ross replied. "Every guy at the precinct who knew her said the same thing, and believe or not, she looks even better now three years later. So you're preaching to the choir here, my friend."