'Why are you doing this, Cat?' I whisper. Dressed in white, her blond hair loose, she looks like something from our mythology book, a nymph, maybe, pursued by aĢ beast. Caitlin sits with her mother in the center pew. On the front wall, gold letters read: MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA WE WHO LABOR HERE SEEK ONLY THE TRUTH. Brown benches, like church pews, face the witness stand. The courtroom smells like old books and sweat. We reach the top, and he shoves me through a green door.

Was it only a month ago? God, how did we get here? My father nudges me onto the escalator, and it bears me up, high above the white-tiled floors and the metal detector, far from the security woman's gaze. 'He is sixteen.' I stare forward, remembering a day on the beach, Caitlin laughing, a white hibiscus in her hair. 'Restraining order, huh?' 'Trouble with his girlfriend.' My father shakes his head. She smiles too, taken in like everyone else by his Armani suit and Greek accent. 'Miss, if you would please be so land to tell me where is this courtroom?' He hands her the notice for my hearing. 'You're always sorry, Nicholas, always forgetting.' Then, he looks at the security woman, and his expression becomes a smile.

'You were supposed to give me those first,' she says. I throw them into her yellow plastic basket and walk through again. 'These what you want?' I dangle my keys an inch from her nose, getting in her face. The metal detector screams when I walk through, and a security woman tries to check my pockets. But then, I've never been in such deep shit before, either. 1 Breathing Underwater Alex Flinn 1 JANUARY 5 JUSTICE BUILDING, MIAMI, FLORIDA I've never been in a courthouse before.

Breathing underwater alex finn