Free Outlier: One mistake can destroy everything. by Jacob Mesmer

anymore.
     
    Being detective while being married to Sheryl had seemed like the perfect job. Easy. Nice pay. Good benefits. Great place to raise a family. Now he felt lost. Alone. He looked over at Bethany. Was this the kind of girl he had to choose from? He didn’t like that thought. He thought of the girls at college. Under different circumstances, maybe.
     
    He thought about his options. No strings. Maybe practice law? He’d already gotten a head start. School was easy enough. He couldn’t remember any of the classes giving him any headaches. He was usually the top of his class in all of his subjects.
     
    He’d always known he wanted to get into some kind of law enforcement. His mom had been killed by a drunk driver when he was a sophomore. Rich guy with an expensive attorney. Got off with a slap, and Sean didn’t like that. He had chosen to be a cop to stay close to the criminals, but now he wasn’t so sure. He didn’t want to start over again in Houston or San Antonio. No way he’d keep his rank.
     
    How long to get a law degree? Three years? That’d be easy. Maybe do it at night while he worked here. They may even pay for it. Then he’d blow town. Dallas? Another state?
     
    He glanced over at the sleeping body next to him. Nice figure. Great in the sack. Personality and brains were another story.
     
    He let his mind wander.

Chapter Eighteen
     
    Wednesday Morning
     
    Jay pushed his broom lazily across the floor. The kids avoided him like they always do. Nobody spoke to him; nobody noticed him. Just a slowly moving shape down the center of an otherwise crowded hallway. Jay had his earbuds in—something he rarely did. He figured in case Sean came back, he’d see he wasn’t lying about the other day. His plan to get let go was slowly coming together. He wasn’t sure how it would work, but he couldn’t think of any alternative. It had to work. If it didn’t? Well, it had to.
     
    He passed Miss Paimen’s room. Flowers and pictures and stuffed animals had been placed on her desk. The room was vacant. Jay didn’t know how long they were going to keep it that way. Jay stopped and slowly walked inside. The students assumed he was paying his respects, as they all had done over the past few days.
     
    But Jay was thinking of something different, of what had happened Friday night. When he’d gone home, holding her bookmark in his hand, and then fallen asleep on the couch. Although he didn’t remember falling asleep. He usually remembered falling asleep, because it almost always took a long time. But he didn’t even remember thinking he was tired on Friday night. He had started thinking about Miss Paimen and her bookmark, and then he had felt sad.
     
    Or at least, he thought he remembered feeling sad. He was looking at all the pictures on her desk. He started to feel sad again, and started to feel…strange. Like he was there, but he was watching himself. He lost himself. Watching himself looking at the pictures. Staring at her face. Sadness. Regret. The feeling seemed to go on and on. He lost track of time.
     
    “Help! Oh my God, are you OK?” shrieked a girl just outside the classroom. A crowd quickly gathered around another girl who was lying on the floor.
     
    “Give her some room; stand back, STAND BACK!” Mr. Rodriquez shouted, stepping out of his classroom. He leaned down and checked the pulse and breathing of the girl on the ground.
     
    “Somebody call 911!” Several students complied. The ones who weren’t dialing were filming. Soon this would be all over social media. Six minutes later, the paramedics arrived. By then she was awake and groggy.
     
    “Hi there, sweetie; can you tell me your name?” the lead EMT asked. A fortysomething black woman.
     
    “Um…Lucy.”
     
    “OK; great, Lucy. I’m Yvonne. Do you know where you are?” she asked, shining her penlight in both pupils.
     
    “School. What happened?” Lucy asked, surprised at the people standing around