Touch of Terror

24

"Tony Johnson, please report to the stand," my lawyer said. I grabbed Arizona's hand and tried to look forward. I knew my lawyer wanted me to try to stay as calm as possible. Arizona held my hand in both of her hands, as my lawyer started questioning him. "Do you swear to tell the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you, God?" She asked.

"I swear," he said. I could feel my leg twitching, and I looked up at the judge, and then watched the back of my lawyer's head to make it look like I was paying attention.

"Where were you the night of Halloween?"

"My house," he said.

"Were you dressed up for Halloween?"

"Yes, I was dressed as Harry Potter," he said.

"What were you doing Halloween night?" She asked.

"I was chaperoning my little sister's Halloween party while my parents were out for dinner. I only was chaperoning for about 45 minutes until they got back home," he said.

"And where were you in that 45 minutes?" She asked.

"I was on the dance floor, dancing with them, and choosing music to play," he said. She nodded, bringing out an image.

"Do you recognize this girl?"

"Yeah, that's Grace Robbins, she's my sister's best friend," he said.

"Did you dance with her that night?"

"Well yeah, my sister was dancing with someone else, so I put my hand on her shoulder to get her attention for her to dance with someone," he explained.

"Did you stay on the dance floor the whole night with her?"

"No," he said.

"What else did you do?"

"I went back to my room, I was done partying," he said.

"Why were you done? Did something happen?"

"Objection," his lawyer said.

"Overruled," the judge said.

"Thank you, your honor, now again, did something happen to make you not want to party anymore?" She moved as I looked up there, and he locked eye contact with me.

"Grace went upstairs with me," he said.

"What happened when you went upstairs?"

"We had sex," he said.

"Did she give you consent?" She asked. At this point, he wouldn't stop looking at me in the eye. I knew I could puke, but I was also wanting to know how he would answer. I already felt empty inside this whole time, and I couldn't even imagine how Anna was feeling. Why did I still care about her?

"Yes, she did." He said.

"Tony, these are Grace's blood results from after her hospital visit on November 1st. Do you see what shows in her system?" She asked.

"No," he said.

"Read it out loud," she said.

"Objection," his lawyer said.

"Overruled. Can I have a copy of her blood results?" My lawyer nodded, handing her the copy of documents she had of mine.

"Tony, can you read that out loud?"

"GHB, or club drug," he read. I looked away, I was having a hard time, and looked over at Arizona. She patted my leg, and I looked up at the judge, as I couldn't look up at him.