Chapter 50 Dang girl dang

• The coffee machine brewed, dispensing the hot brown liquid into a mug. Leah stood, arms akimbo as she waited to have her beverage served. When the liquid rose to the desired level, she turned off the machine —picking the mug before perching on the stool beside the counter. She spilled in some milk, added a cube of sugar and stirred. Her face bearing a bored expression. She took a sip, then had a bit of her biscuit. The coffee, even with the milk, tasted like death. And the biscuit, it was dry. Like grass. These were the only things her taste buds could interpret: bitter and bland. This morning, she'd ordered pizza. Just to force something palatable down her throat, but guess what, her favourite pepperoni pizza had been unusually stale. Too crusty. Bland without the inviting taste of cheese. And what about the iced tea? Ha! She couldn't tell if what she had taken was iced tea or iced bitters. No, that wasn't an exaggeration. She'd actually tasted bile. The bilious kind of bitter. 
• She, however, had had a rough battle with ulcer—she wouldn't want a repeat of that. Ever. And so, this was her, going in to chew her tasteless biscuit. 
• The news about Pete's death was still a shock. She'd told the officer that they must have been mistaken. There was no way that could be Pete. But now, she had come to terms with that fact, although still shaken. She'd been escorted to the morgue, based on her insistence. This was her friend's dad they were talking about, and because she was the only person in Fridgeton who was close to family to Olivia and Pete, her request had been granted. Although not without the red triangle presented to her. She'd walked down the narrow hallway, the soles of her black converse making a squeal with the tiled floor. An officer had been the one to pull the door open, and as the slabs bearing corpses came to her full view, her resolve began to dissolve. She wasn't sure if she wanted to continue with this quest, but somewhere along the line, she reminded herself that she was training to be an attorney. These things shouldn't rattle her.