It's just a simple line, I can still hear it all the time

 

Keegan felt as if all eyes were on him. Like they could see the real guy that he was.

OK, so he was a loner. And he didn't know why he was there. Couldn't a guy go for a walk wherever he wanted? Even at night?

The interrogation was brutal. It was as if he'd done something wrong instead of saving someone from a burning car.

"Was there anyone else?" The question felt like it was on repeat. It was as if they were trying to break him. But Keegan always came back with a furious NO. He had a bad cough now. He coughed into his forearm. His throat was scratchy, and a continuous nose drip with no relief in sight.

"I don't know anything, I swear." He practically blinked tears, but he faced them. Tired and a little shaky.

Finally, someone brought him a bag of fastfood. That was the place the president only ate when he was traveling, which came to Keegan's mind. Imagining the President might have bought this meal for him, but there was no fish sandwich. He wished there had been a fish sandwich.

Keegan kept wondering if they were going to haul him off to some unknown country. Really, he didn't go out anymore. He hadn't even started back to the University. He'd decided if he was going to continue on in economics, it would be online classes from a University back East. He was staying at his grandmother's house. 

Did they know how hard it was to get Internet out here? Yeah, like that didn't matter. Nothing about him mattered. It was just questions about the girl.

He bit into the burger it was soggy and too sweet for his tastes. He couldn't seem to swallow. So he pushed in a few fries to get the thing down.

"When did you first notice the car being there?"

Keegan blew a breath. He thought they'd been through this. "A couple of times. I didn't really want to approach it. I just didn't know if it was a normal thing or not." Keegan said his grandmother had passed and left him the place.

 Now that he thought about it, it wasn't so great being a loner after all. He'd found he didn't like being alone in the dark in the country. But he'd made sure the locks worked. And he rummaged around the house, making sure it was safe.

"I did a good thing, right?" Keegan looked up at the guy who he knew would never be his friend.

"You did well, kid, it's just we're missing one person."

Keegan pressed his lips tight. He was keeping to his story. Damn straight. He slurped on his Pepsi until it was dry.