Dipping Into Together

Ch 11

The next morning when I climbed into Jonah’s car, I instantly knew that something was off. He didn’t say anything, but I immediately noticed a fresh bruise on his arm. I also remained silent, staring out the window. There had been no mention of what happened last night. Even right after it happened, we pretended like it hadn’t happened. I wasn’t sure where we stood now. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to know.

“Jonah?” I finally said. “What happ—”

“Leave it.” He cut me off, his voice cold and distant.

I knew then, as I watched his jaw clench, that the wall that I had knocked down yesterday, was back up. It had taken so long just to get him to tell me one little thing. It was going to take forever for him to open up again. Why had he closed me out? Why didn’t he trust me enough?

A single tear rolled down my cheek as I realized that yesterday meant nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was just a spur-of-the-moment thing and nothing was going to come of it. Did I even want anything to come of it? Oh, I didn’t know.

I did know, however, that Jonah ignoring me hurt. Why couldn’t he just look at me? Just acknowledge my existence?

When we pulled into the school, Jonah didn’t park. He stopped the car in the middle of the parking lot and reached over me, opening the passenger side’s door. I looked from the open to back to him.

“Jonah—?”

“This has to stop,” he said, his voice still hard.

“What does?” I asked, genuinely confused.

“This,” he said, motioning back and forth between me and him. “Us, whatever this is. I’m not going to be driving you to school in the mornings anymore. Stop going out at night and just stay home. I won’t be going out, so don’t even bother. Stop trying to be my friend and stop talking to me. Now get out.”

But I couldn’t. All I could do was sit there, dumbfounded. My eyes filled with tears, which embarrassed me. I could feel my face redden as tears started rolling down my cheeks. “Why are you doing this?” I whispered.

For a second there was a pained expression in his eyes, but it disappeared in a instantly and hardened. “Get out.”

My breath caught in my throat and shakily, I climbed out of the car. He reached across the car and slammed the door shut, screeching out of the parking lot only seconds later.

---

By lunch I was still a mess. Tears blurred my eyes as what he said replayed in my mind. I took a bite of my sandwich, making a weak attempt to actually eat. I had no appetite right now. What had I done? Was I so horrible? I had been in a daze all day, not quite believing that it had actually happened. But it had. As I sat alone on the bench that Jonah and I once shared, I knew that in the future I would probably spend many more lunches in this exact position. Alone.

Suddenly the door opened, and I looked up hopefully. Of course Jonah wouldn’t just leave me like that! He would at least come back and give me an explanation!

But it wasn’t Jonah. It was just some man.

I was about to look away, when I realized that the man was walking towards me. He tilted his head to the side when he stopped in front of me.

“Destiny?” he said.

“Um, hi. How do you know my name?” I asked.

“Oh, silly me, didn’t even introduce myself! That goes to show you what old age will do to you!” he gave a hearty laugh.

I attempted a smile.

He stuck out his hand for me to shake. His grip was firm and his palms were a little sweaty. I started to pull away, but he only gripped my hand harder, not letting me.

“Um,” I said.

“Like I was saying. You might not know me, but you know my nephew,” he said.

Maybe if I was in a better state then I was, something would’ve clicked. Maybe I would’ve had the sense enough to run away right then and never look back. But my brain was foggy and the fact that he wouldn’t let go of my hand was at the front of my mind, so I wasn’t really paying attention to the words that left his mouth.

“I’m Jonah’s uncle,” he said.

But at that moment, something did click. The blood drained out of my face and I went cold. I tensed up immediately and started trying to tug my hand out more forcefully. His hand was practically crushing mine as he gave me another smile.

“Ah, yes,” he said. “So you know me.”

My heart rate increased and I began to panic.

“Let go of me!” I said, trying to scramble away.

He easily gripped my other wrist and forced me to kneel on the ground in front of him. Horrible, scary things whipped through my head as a sense of pure terror took hold of me.

“Now just relax,” he said. “I’m not going to hurt you. I just wanted to have a little chat. A frightened one, you are.” Again, he chuckled. “Now because of your reaction, I come to the conclusion that Jonah’s filled you in about me, yes?”

I stayed frozen.

“Am I correct, Destiny?” he said, his voice turning angry.

I forced myself to nod.

“Alright then,” his grip on my hands tightened painfully. “Well, I wouldn’t want you running and telling anybody, like say, the police, now would I?”

I started shaking.

“Would I?” he said, almost yelling.

I shook my head.

“That’s right. And I imagine you may be worried about Jonah if you’re a good friend, right? Maybe you’re concerned about his safety but don’t know what to do to help?”

Tears slipped out of my eyes.

“Am I right?” Again, he was almost yelling.

I nodded.

“Well I’m here to tell you that there is a way that you can help him. There’s something you can do to assure that I never lay a finger on him again.”

He paused.

“It will be short periods at a time. I’ll take you away for say—thirty minutes—at a time. You can fulfill my needs and all will be well in the world. I won’t touch Jonah.”

I looked up at him incredulously. He wanted me to have sex with him in order to keep Jonah safe? I jerked away from him again. “Get the hell away from me!” I screamed.

“This is Jonah’s safety we’re talking about, little Destiny. It wouldn’t be so bad. I could do horrible things to that boy.”

I started to cry.

“Oh little Destiny, don’t cry. You can make this all okay if you just comply.”

But I couldn’t do that. It was unthinkable. “No,” I spat at him.

“Well then, you’ve made your decision. I warn you, though, if you let any of this slip then…” he cut my throat with an invisible knife.

Releasing me, he gave me another smile and walked away, humming softly.