Blue (12 page)

“I know. He was there protecting me through all of this, too.”

“I think he was.”

“Yeah, not exactly that hard to figure out, huh?”

“No.”

“How?”

“Well, you’re alive for one thing.”

“Good point.” They both laughed at the uncomplicated joke that Johnny had just made. He was happy to see her laughing and smiling which he had not seen her do since she was out with him and his friends the night before. He liked to see her smile; he would miss her smile once she left Arizona and headed back to Michigan.

He knew that the next day and a half was going to be the last time that he would probably be the last time that he would see her until the next time she happened to be down in Arizona. He sat next to her bed as she spoke to him and tried to see the good in the fact that he most likely not to see her ever again. He looked back at the many memories that he had made with her from the very few hours he had spent with her. He was seriously going to miss her, but he knew that with her looks, she was bound to find someone else in no time at all. She did not need him, and he knew that.

She knew that she was going to miss him. She also knew that she was probably never going to see him again. She had gone through a hard time down here and Johnny was here for her through the very worst of it. Still, she needed a reason greater than being treated horribly, and he was there for her.

“Why are you scared of telling the police?” Johnny finally asked her after a few minutes of pure silence.

“I told you, if Blue ever found out that I told someone that he had done all of this stuff to me, then he would kill me just for telling you and my roommate. I just hope that by the time that he does find out that I told, he is long gone in a state prison and far away from me.”

“You know that by the time he finds out, he will still be free and will still have people being able to do his bidding. You know this as well as the next guy that heard that threat.”

“Yeah, but not everyone heard the threat. No one but Justin, Blue, and I heard the threat. I was really alone when he was threatening me.”

“I knew that I should have walked you all the way to your cabin.”

“How could you have known about what he was planning on doing?”

“I didn’t, but trusting your gut is usually the thing that you’re supposed to go by. Well, that and listening to God.”

“Yeah, but, Johnny, I really need you to be right here with me on this. I need you here, protecting me.”

“I think that God has that all figured out.”

“That doesn’t mean that I can’t be scared.”

“Keep your head down here on the earth instead of under it in fear; it seems fear is not from God.”

“Well, I’m not exactly in hell. No, that was last night.”

“Maybe not, but Meg, I’m not getting into get into it with you.”

A knock came to the door. There were two police officers standing on the other side of the door. Meganlynn squinted at the mere sight of them; she really did not want to let them in.

“Want me to let them in Meg?” Johnny asked her walking over to the door.

“No.”

Johnny turned the doorknob. “Too bad.” He opened the door and let the two police officers in and her mother in.

“Hello ma’am,” the first police officer said.

“Hello,” Meganlynn answered back in a lowered voice.

“My name is Sergeant Billard,” the first police officer said. He was tall, with dark hair and brown eyes. He was also thin and wore the police uniform very well. “And this,” he said, pointing to the other police officer on his left, “is Sergeant Holgrind. We’re here to take your case.”

“How did you find out that I needed the police?” Meganlynn asked him.

“We received a call about an hour ago.”

“Really?” Meganlynn asked as she looked over to Johnny who just shrugged his shoulders.

“We are here for you to file a police report, ma’am,” the police officer said once again.

“Well, I don’t quite know if I really want to file a police report.”

“Ma’am, it would be a very wise decision. If the same person were to ever do this to someone else ever again, then we have this as evidence against him.”

“He’s not going to do this to anyone else.”

“Why is that?”

“That is because he’s still after me.”

“Then, you really need to tell us everything that had happened.”

“I don’t know, he—he,” She paused. Meganlynn could not help it; she needed to re-think everything that had been made for her. She needed to re-think everything that had been said to her. She needed to think about her life, friends, family, and priorities. She needed to think about all of these things.

“He threatened her,” Johnny finished for her after a few seconds of thinking to herself.

“Johnny,” Meganlynn pleaded with him.

“Meganlynn, whether you’re dead or alive, they were going to find out. They were going to find out if you were dead because I would’ve been the one that called the police in the first place. Even if they hadn’t found out, and you were still alive I would’ve been the one to tell them because I owe it to you!”

“Fine,” Meganlynn answered.

“Ma’am are you going to tell us what happened?” the police officer asked once she and Johnny were done with their little misunderstanding.

“Yes,” she answered.

Meganlynn told them everything. She told them how he had harassed her the previous year, and how he had started back up this year. She told him everything that had been going on between her and Justin. How he had helped Blue keep her there the previous night and how he was there when everything that had happened. How he had tried to beg her to go back with him, and how she refused him.

“Ma’am, this is what really happened?” the police officer asked after she had finished her story.

“Yes,” Meganlynn answered with a weary voice that sounded as though she was going to cry at any point.

“Are you going to file charges against these two men?”

“What would that mean for Blue and Justin?” Johnny asked.

“It means that she can appear in court, and then, the judge or jury can decide if they did it or not.”

“Can I pursue charges with one person, but yet drop the charges on the other person?” Meganlynn asked the police officer after she had finished thinking about if she had really wanted to charge Blue and Justin.

“Sorry, ma’am, but you must charge both of them because they committed the crime together.”

“Okay, then, I don’t want to file charges against them.”

“Meganlynn, you need to have the charges pressed!” Johnny screamed while having a tear of fear come to his eye.

“Honey, you have to,” her mother begged her, stroking her hair.

“Johnny, do you even know how scared I am? Do you even care?” Meganlynn asked him once the tear had finished rolling down his cheek and fell onto her hand.

“Meganlynn, I care more than anything about you, that’s why I’m telling you that you need to press charges.”

“Quit telling me that. I know everything that happened, I know every way that Blue threatened me, and everything that he loved about me. I knew everything that he thought about me, everything.”

“Well, everything that he did to you is everything that he needs pressed against him. You need to have every charge pressed on him and Justin that you can possibly get. You need everything that would be evidence that you need in court to put them both away.”

“Still, Johnny! You need to be hearing me! Johnny, please!”

“Meganlynn! You need to get your head out of the clouds! You need to be the normal Meganlynn that I know instead of this girl that has her head in the clouds! Please Meganlynn, press charges against them.”

“No.”

“Well, we’re going to go. It’s our dinner break, and I don’t think that this young lady wants to press charges against them from what she has been saying. Have a good day.” Johnny ran out the door after the two police men as they ran toward their car.

“Excuse me,” he started, getting one of the police officer’s attention, “can I file charges against him?”

“Only if you witnessed it.”

“Oh,” Johnny answered with his face seeming to fall.

“Good day, sir.” Then the other police officer walked away and Johnny went back into the room with Meganlynn.

“Why won’t you press charges?”

“Would you?”

“Yeah, how badly did they threaten you?”

“My life, but that’s not the reason that I won’t press charges.”

“Then what is?” Johnny was now almost yelling at Meganlynn for making her decision of not pressing charges.

“I don’t want Justin to have this on his record.”

“He was there and you still didn’t report it, Meg. He deserves it more than most people do!” He was yelling at her.

“Stop yelling at me. I need to think. Is he actually responsible for this?”

“Well, I didn’t see him running to get help.”

“Yeah, I know that he didn’t. I know that he didn’t run for help. He helped—Blue.” Her face fell. She had known that she was there and so were Blue and Justin. She had not realized that Justin had actually helped Blue in the middle, and he had actually done it.

“Do you want to press charges now?”

“Yeah. Why did he do this to me?”

“I don’t know. Probably because he’s a loser and he knows it.”

“Thank you, Johnny.”

“Yeah, anytime.”

“Uh, I’m so stupid to not press charges against them.”

“Well, there’s still time.”

“I know.”

“Okay, but if you don’t, I’ll come and get you personally.”

“I believe you.”

“Okay.” Her head was now on his chest, and he was holding her close so she would feel protected. The plane ride home was going to be stressful enough for her, but she needed time to recover and time to stay here. She needed not to return to the place that she was at that time in her life. He knew what she needed. The next day was the day that they would have to be free from everything that she had known. He knew exactly where he was going to take her tomorrow.

CHAPTER 8

The final day that had been given to go shopping went great for Meganlynn and the rest of the group. Blue had not bothered her all day long and she was very happy about that, but that was because he could not seem to find her where Johnny had taken her.

Meganlynn stayed with Johnny’s family for the night. She did not want to go back to the cabin where her pillow was all bloody from that night, but she had gone back and packed her things before she had left to go shopping. She had people starring at her and whispering behind her back, but she had expected that since she had been the person to run away from the camp.

Instead of giving everyone the pleasure of her responding to their whispers, she would just ignore them because most of the time they just ignored her anyway. She heard every little thing that they were saying about her as she walked in and back out.

“Look, there’s the girl that ran away,” someone would whisper. They really didn’t care whether or not they were hurting her feelings. And they really didn’t know what had happened that night. Her friends tried to talk to her, but Meganlynn could not take hearing it any longer, and she left.

Johnny took her and her friends to the largest mall that he could find. He had the most fun with all of them because he got to hear stories about Meganlynn from her friends that had been around her for most of her life. She needed, more than anything, to just stay down there and not have to go back to the cabin. She knew that she did not have to go back to the cabin, but she did have to board the plane the very next day.

The day had gone well. It was the best day that Meganlynn had had since she had been down there. She was having a ball, that is, she was until it was time to take her friends back to their camp site. Meganlynn would not go back into the camp, she stayed Johnny’s house now. Everything had happened so fast that she had not had time for fun with her friends. Now, was the day that she had to return to all of it. With a good-bye and a thank you to the family that had been so kind to her, she was off with Johnny to get to the airport to go home. Her parents were going to give her the same speech that Johnny had tried to give her when she was back in the hospital. She was prepared for that, but she was not prepared for what was going to happen when she finally got to the airport.

“Meganlynn.” Johnny started out once they had finally both gotten into the car.

“Yeah?” Meganlynn responded, knowing what he was about to do.

“You know that I won’t be able to fly to Michigan every weekend to see you.”

“I know, but I mean, why are we torturing ourselves like this?”

“Because we may be in love with each other.”

“I’ll make sure that I’m single every time that band camp is down here,” Meganlynn offered. They knew that this long-distance relationship would never work between them.

“Just give me a call before you come down, and I will be single, too,” Johnny’s eyes were still filling with tears.
Did he truly want to have forever an
d always? Yes. Did h
e truly need her lik
e he felt that he ne
eded her? Yes, and h
e knew this was a fa
ct. Were they meant
to be together? Yes.
Did he know how to
tell her? No.

They grabbed her things out of the back of his car and made their way into the airport. Johnny was allowed to walk into check-in with her but anything further than that was off-limits. She knew that the time would come when she would have to go through check-in and have to say good-bye to him. Did she want to? No. She knew all of the things that Johnny knew about the two of them, but just like him, she did not know how to tell him how she truly felt. The check-in went faster than anyone thought, and it was time for Johnny and Meganlynn to say good-bye to one another. Blue was waiting on the other side of the gate for Meganlynn, looking at her as though he wanted her on a platter right in front of her.

Johnny knew that this moment was coming just as much as Meganlynn had known that it was coming. They both knew that it was way too soon for either of them. Once they had come to the check-in, Johnny and Meganlynn then knew that it was time for their good-byes.