Trouble Times Two

Chapter Sixteen

Thursday

Jess and I drive to the mall as we go to get some stuff for her room.

She had started to go into more detail about why she had to move.

The reason why she went to military school in the first place is because she was hacking for the Pugnatores. She was erasing everything that databases had on us, or should I say them, now that neither me nor her were part of it.

Back in Remoir, being a town that supported the police was an important part of living there and her parents always took it a little too far.

They didn't care that her best friend in the whole world was a druggie, they knew my childhood was messed up, they didn't care that I was an alcoholic, they attributed the same reason to that as well. They didn't care that I beat up a rapist, they knew their daughters or son could've been his next victim, they even gave me some money for my troubles in that case. I gave the money to Jess.

They did however care that their daughter hacked and erased the very police system that they invested millions into protecting.

They didn't contact her once during school, didn't send her any money, didn't even visit her on visitation days.

I shared everything with her, I was getting sent a butt ton of allowance from Maisie, Carter, Aunt Tara, even Arthur occasionally sent me stuff when he could.

When I got out, I sent her money every week and she held onto it, saved it, savoured it. I convinced Maisie and Carter, Aunt Tara and Uncle Carl to send some as well.

I mean it wasn't hard, they were all willing to help.

They all knew she had made mistakes that she wasn't proud of and that her parents were taking it a little too far.

I remember when Uncle Carl would drive me for visitation days and I would hug her so right and she'd cry, knowing that her family would never see her here.

It's weird, knowing that some parents have their children and don't want to love them because of a mistake. Jess didn't destroy it, she erased it. It was all still there but she never got a chance to explain or recover it for them.

They just shunned her.

Her sisters and brother tried their best to talk to her but they were on a no talk basis. They saved all her stuff though, claiming they'd throw it away but instead stuffed it all in a storage locker which was arriving today in the evening.

We go to target and get some decorations for her room and I get her some LEDs, which I'd install. We get some furniture for the room she's in as well and she promises to pay me back but I wave her off.

"When we're older." It was a little phrase we'd say to each other when the other made a commitment that wasn't necessary to the other. She needed all the money she could right now. She had gone from being the daughter of two multi-millionaires to a girl living pay check to pay check. No matter what she did, it wasn't fair.

They still struggled to this day to recover the information, if they got her in for a day, they'd get that information back.

I told her she should never go back unless they beg.

She agrees.

We go back to my house and we start decorating her room and I set up her LEDs while she decorates around the room and then puts her stuff away.

We talk about little stuff and big stuff as well and when we're done, we lie down on her bed.

"I'll tell you about the ring. Not too much because it'll make me cry but a little bit." She takes a deep breath.

"You don't have to tell me anything if it makes you upset, you know that."

"No, I want to, I need to. I have a boyfriend back in Remoir, we shouldn't be together, his family hates me for what I did and other things that are apart of my identity. I love him and he loves me but there are some things that I can't forgive him for either and vice versa. All I know is that I need to see him. Before I left, he gave me this ring and we cried when I told him I was leaving and we cried when I actually left. I'll miss him so much." She starts crying anyway and I hug her, although affection isn't my strong point, I'd do anything to comfort my best friend, to know that she's okay, to know that I'd try anything to make her feel better.

We go downstairs and make dinner when someone knocks on the door.

The person knocked so it's so anyone in my family.

I check the ring, it's Donovan.

"Go away Shepherd." I say over the ring but I don't think he can really hear me.

I go to the door and open it and he falls in.

I catch him and manage to close the door.

"Shepherd, stand up." I push him around and he manages to snap out of whatever he was in and I walk him over to the table in the kitchen and sit him down.

"He's high as shit." Jess says as she examines
his eyes.

She gets some pepper and passes it to me.

"Shepherd, open your mouth." I open his mouth and put some pepper in and make him chew.

He eventually chews all of it up and when he comes to, he's pissed.

"What the hell is this?" He shouts as he spits it out in the bathroom, I can hear the sink run.

"It's pepper, it'll help get rid of your high. You're not taking a shower here, that's for sure." I say as he gets out.

"I didn't want to go to my house." He states and Jess and I nod.

"It violates your parole." Jess and I say at the same time before laughing. Not at the fact that he's on parole but the fact that we're so in sync.

"Your brother told me, something about you not leaving my best friend alone and something I need to know." Jess gets some more ingredients from the fridge and I sigh.

"Dacre will tell anyone who needs to know. Even my friends don't." Donovan goes really silent.

"That's because you're not actually bad, even I can tell that and I've known you for as long as I've been here." That's a little white lie from Jess but she knows that Donovan is not a bad person, anyone with common sense can tell. "Stay and I'll make you some dinner too."

I keep my distance from Donovan but we all talk and I realise this counts as time spent together, so I write it down in the log, writing a short summary as well.