Broken Road (20 page)

Jarrod turned the television off and placed his equipment bag on his bed. When his cell phone rang, he checked to see whom it was before answering. Alec. He picked up and said, “What’s up?”

“Not much. What’s going on?”

“I just got back from the field. My arm and shoulder feel pretty good.”

“Glad to hear it,” said Alec as he sat on the front steps of the house watching the cars go by. It was a nice evening, although a bit on the chilly side.

“How are Mom and Dad doing?” Jarrod asked.

“You mean, since last you spoke?”

“Yeah.”

“They’ve had dinner.”

Jarrod chuckled and said, “That’s good. Nice to know they’re eating well.”

“I didn’t exactly say they were eating well,” responded Alec dryly. “I just said they ate. Mom cooked.”

“I see what you mean.”

“Hey, I just wanted to let you know I spoke with Morgan’s mom today. I bumped into her at Walmart.”

“How is she doing? She’s a nice lady.” He did like Mrs. Billings. She was nothing like her daughter. Whenever he went to her house, she’d offer to cook something for him or immediately switched the television channel to ESPN. She was always trying to please him, and he sensed it truly gave her pleasure when he’d accept the offer of a sandwich or simply thank her for letting him watch sports.

“Really nice. But I don’t think she’s doing too well. She looked sad and she’s lost a lot of weight. She looks…kind of old.”

“Why? Is she sick?” Jarrod asked, concerned.

“Probably just sick and tired of having an ass for a daughter.”

“What’s up? Did she say anything? Is Morgan back in Cliffside?” Jarrod desperately hoped Alec’s answer would be in the affirmative.

“No. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know too much. I was able to find out that Morgan left about a month or so ago and has only called her mom once or twice. She said she left to stay with her friend John in Florida, but she doesn’t even know what town she’s in. Morgan won’t even tell her that. Mrs. Billings keeps calling and leaving messages on her cell, but Morgan rarely calls her back unless she needs money. She’s worried sick and—”

“I can’t believe someone could hurt her own mother that way,” interrupted Jarrod. “It makes me sick.”

“I know. I feel bad for her,” Alec said sorrowfully.

“Me too. Y’know, the more and more I think about it, I can’t figure out what the hell I ever saw in Morgan. I mean, how could I not see this side of her?”

“Love is blind.”

“I was never in love with her,” Jarrod said forcefully.

“Lust can be just as blinding.”

“Yeah, maybe. But when you think about it, she isn’t all that hot either. I mean, she’s definitely pretty, but not ‘out of this world’ pretty.”

“You mean like Angel?” Alec asked.

“Yeah,” he responded sadly, “like Angel.”

“Anything going on there?” Alec felt bad for Jarrod. His brother so wanted to find Angel and truly believed it was his destiny to be with her, but he just couldn’t find her, no matter how hard he tried.

“No. I haven’t seen her and no one seems to know her…I don’t know what else to do.” He began to rub his face in aggravation.

“It’s a big campus. Umm, are you rubbing your face?” Alec asked.

“No, I’m not rubbing my face.” He immediately stopped rubbing his face. “You’re right about the campus being big, though. Looking for Angel is like looking for a diamond in a mound of broken glass.”

“Have you gone to the housing office to find out if they can tell you what dorm she’s in?” Alec asked.

“Yeah. It was one of the first things I did. Big mistake.”

“Why, what happened?”

“They started asking me about a thousand questions. I felt as though I was being interrogated by the police. I think they thought I was some maniac stalker or something. I knew I wasn’t going to get any answers, so I just got out of there before they called the UFPD and had my butt hauled into jail or something.” Jarrod gave a slight chuckle at the memory.

“Smart move. Listen, I gotta go. Mom’s yelling at me from inside the house because I need to work on a paper that’s due tomorrow. I’ll talk to you next week, unless something new comes up.”

“Alright. Bye.”

After they both hung up, Jarrod took a long, hot shower, studied for about an hour and then went to bed exhausted. He was so tired, he even slept through Dave’s thunder-like snoring.

The next morning, as they were getting ready for classes, Dave asked Jarrod if he would like to join him and some friends that evening to hear a new rock band play at the Tenth Inning Pub, which was located not far from their dorm.

“Nah, I don’t think so,” Jarrod responded. He was looking through his closet hoping to find a clean shirt. He hadn’t done laundry in over a week, and a pile of dirty clothes in the corner of the room could easily hide a family of four.

“Why not? C’mon, you’ll have a blast. You need to get out and have some fun. All you ever do is go to classes, play baseball, study, and then go to bed.”

“That’s what I’m here for.” He found a clean shirt, pulled it out to look at it, and placed it back in the closet. His mother must have packed it because he never would have. What was he thinking when he bought that green-striped rugby shirt? If he wore that, he’d seriously be mistaken for that guy on
Blue’s Clues
.

“Yeah, but there’s a lot more to the college experience than just studying and playing ball. Seriously, you’ll have a good time. I guarantee it.”

“Who’s going?” asked Jarrod.

“T.J., Mark, Melissa, Niko, Parker, Paul, and some other people you haven’t met yet.”

“Sounds a bit crowded.” He walked over to the pile of dirty clothes, picked up a T-shirt he had worn a few days ago, gave it a whiff, and seeing that it didn’t smell, put it on. Dave gave him a look of disgust, but Jarrod just shrugged.

Dave fell to his knees, placed his hands together in a placating mode, and said in a beseeching voice, “Pretty please? Oh Jarrod, please say you’ll come out and play with us!”

“Fine, if it’ll shut you up,” Jarrod responded with a laugh.

“Good. Meet us there around eight tonight,” said Dave happily as he stood up. He grabbed his books and headed toward the door, but said before leaving, “It might be a good idea if you do some laundry before meeting us. I’m sure everyone will appreciate it. I know I certainly will.”

Chapter Twenty

T
hat evening Jarrod returned to the dorm after doing his laundry, took a quick shower, shaved, and dressed before heading out to the Tenth Inning Pub. As he walked in the door, he was met by Paul, a friend he had met through Dave. Paul’s hands were occupied with holding drinks, so he casually nodded and smiled at Jarrod and said “Hey! Glad to see you made it, man. Everyone’s sitting over there,” as he gestured toward the center of the room. “Follow me.”

Jarrod acknowledged by nodding and then followed him. The pub was overly crowded, with all the tables and stools at the bar being taken up by college students out to have a good time—most with high hopes of forgetting about failed exams, research papers that were due soon, possible lost scholarships due to poor grades, or as in Jarrod’s case, beautiful, heavenly looking girls that simply could not be found.

A jukebox in the corner of the room blasted Springsteen’s “Glory Days,” which suddenly brought on a slight case of melancholy for Jarrod. The Boss was considered a living icon in New Jersey where he was born and bred, and it would be hard to find a fellow Jersey native that wasn’t truly proud of that fact. When Jarrod finally reached the table where his friends sat, just about everyone at the table began to mockingly cheer and clap. He smiled and sat down next to Dave, who immediately leaned over and put one arm around him and began introducing him to those at the table he had never met.

“And this lovely
señorita
sitting directly across from us is Ileana Mendez…Ileana, this is my roommate, Jarrod.”

Ileana looked at him and recognized him immediately based on her friend’s description. Angel hadn’t exaggerated after all. He was gorgeous and muscular and had these piercingly blue eyes that were absolutely mesmerizing.

“Hi, Jarrod. It’s nice to meet you,” she said as she leaned forward to shake his hand.

Jarrod half stood so she wouldn’t have to lean forward too much and shook her hand.

“Nice to meet you too,” he said as he sat back down.
Pretty girl, but with a slightly annoying tendency to stare
, he thought to himself.

“If you don’t mind me asking, where are you from?” she asked, still gaping at him.

“New Jersey,” he responded uneasily. He wished she would stop looking at him so intently; it made him feel incredibly self-conscious. As she ogled his nose, Jarrod automatically rubbed it with his hand and began to wonder if he should have taken the time to trim his nose hairs after his shower. She moved on to his mouth, and he found himself closing his lips and passing his tongue over his teeth in fear there may have been remnants of the salad he had had with dinner earlier.

Ileana could not stop staring at him. It had to be him. It was too much of a coincidence. But she had to be absolutely sure, so she asked, “What town? I know someone from New Jersey.”

Blink lady. Just blink once
, he found himself silently wishing. “I’m from a small town called Cliffside Park. You’ve probably never even heard of it.”

“I’ve heard of Cliffside. The girl I know is from that town.” Barely pausing and with complete assuredness, she added, “She’s a total bitch-ass and her name is Morgan.”

Jarrod looked at her in shock. It couldn’t be the same Morgan. Or could it? Same town, same name. It must be the same bitch-ass. It had to be her. Jarrod shook his head in disbelief.

Ileana finally blinked, her gaze losing some of its intensity.

“I have the misfortune of knowing her because she just happens to be my best friend’s
cousin
.” She placed an emphasis on the word
cousin
to see what sort of reaction he would give. She wasn’t disappointed.

Becoming increasingly hopeful and optimistic that he may have finally found a way to contact the woman who had been haunting his thoughts and dreams for what seemed like forever, he straightened up and nervously asked, “May I ask what your best friend’s name is?”

“Angel,” she said.

He smiled widely, exposing beautiful, straight, glistening white teeth and then said, “Would you like to know my new best friend’s name?”

“Sure,” she said, returning his smile.

“Ileana.”

She motioned for him to take the empty seat next to her. He did as she requested and then she began by saying, “I know all about you. Angel told me about how the two of you met.”

“Do you have any idea why she never returned any of my calls? I know Morgan made her promise not to, but I just want to know if that’s the only reason. Maybe I just imagined her being interested and in reality she’s not.”

“I do know,” she said sorrowfully, yet at the same time apprehensively. She always felt Angel did not handle the situation correctly by not taking his calls, or not returning the numerous messages he left, but even worse, for changing her phone number to avoid his calls completely. That was just rude and so unlike Angel. But on the other hand, if what Morgan had said was true, then she shouldn’t feel sorry for him. It would serve him right for using Angel that way.

“Can you tell me?” he asked.

“Not really. I would be betraying her confidence if I were to do that.”

“Oh,” he said, disappointed. “I can understand that, but I’m just confused. I mean, I felt like there was some sort of an intense connection between the two of us, and I was so sure she felt it too. I called her a few times, but she never returned any of the calls. Then she had her number changed, so I got the picture that she wasn’t interested. It’s just so damn confusing.”

“Not everything is as it seems.”

“Well, that clears things up for me,” he said half jokingly.

With a slight grin and minor hesitation in her response, she said, “I just don’t know why, but for some reason, I have a good feeling about you. It’s strange, but even before meeting you tonight, I just sensed maybe you weren’t the villain in this situation.”

“How can I be the villain? I never even got the chance to do anything—bad or good.”

“Morgan certainly did.”

Leaning slightly forward, he looked directly into her soulful brown eyes where he thought he saw a glimmer of empathy. “Please…I need you to explain. I need to know the truth behind all of this.”

She was torn. If she betrayed Angel by telling him what Morgan had said and it turned out to be true, Angel would look and feel like a fool. How could she place her best friend in that situation? But if it was all a lie, then maybe, just maybe, she would be doing Angel a tremendous favor. She stared at Jarrod for a long moment and then closed her eyes as she took a deep, resigning breath. When she opened them again, she saw he was staring tentatively at her as if all his hopes lay within her merciful power. Then he softly uttered one simple, yet effectually convincing word. He said, “Please.”