What Do I Deserve?

19

Chris POV

The words stun me into moving out of her way.

Ophelia's boyfriend is a cop.

Ophelia's abusive boyfriend is a cop.

Ophelia's abusive boyfriend is probably a dirty cop.

Her earlier words make much more sense now. "His word means a lot more than mine around here."

"You've got to go down to the station and fill out a restraining order," I tell her as she walks past me, pushing open the door that leads out to the parking lot.

"Did you not hear me?" she snaps, spinning around to face me again. "I can't go to the police. Damon is the police, Chris."

"There's got to be someone there that'll believe you over him. Go to the next town over and file. Tell your parents-"

"No!" she panics, screaming the word. "They don't know. Millie doesn't either. No one knows anything, Chris. And if you hadn't shown up last night you wouldn't know either and I wouldn't be having to stress over all of this."

"Stress over it?" I repeat, following her to her car. "Stress over it? Do you even hear yourself? The people closest to you don't have a clue that you're being beaten by your boyfriend and it's stressing you out? You should be trying to get out of this mess, Ophelia, not continuing to figure out how to hide it from those who love you!"

She's snatching her car door open, but she's not fast enough to get in giving me time to get close enough to shove it closed. Her chin drops to her chest and her shoulders begin to heave once more.

  "You don't get it!" she screams at me. If anyone happened to be walking by at this moment they'd think I was assaulting her, maybe in the middle of a lover's quarrel.

  If they only knew.

Flashback

  "I'm gonna be an uncle."

  Those were not exactly the words I expected to hear when I open my parent's front door. "What?" I ask, stunned. Most of the time when I open the door to join him for a date I get a 'hey,' and sometimes I just get pulled out the door and immediately kissed. 

  Today is neither of those things but his grin is infectious.

  "Carly. She and Ryan are pregnant."

  "That's incredible! Congratulations!"

 He sweeps me out of the doorway, an arm around my body pulling me into him. His joy is infectious as he begins moving me across the porch, dancing without a single note playing.  "Why do I feel like you might be more excited than the soon to be parents?" I laugh, grinning at him.

  He thinks for a moment, looking off to the corner of the porch. "That is quite possible," he admits. "I mean, they've only been married like six months and now they're going to be parents."

  "You gonna be the fun uncle or the bad cop uncle?"

  "I'm gonna spoil the kid rotten.  Teach 'em all the ways to drive their mom absolutely crazy."

  He pauses his steps, eyes closing when a look of pain passes across his face. "What's wrong?" I ask.

  "I'm not going to be here for it," he sighs.  "I finally told my parents. I'm going to California after graduation."

  All the air falls from my lungs.  I know that it was something he'd mentioned just before finals a couple of weeks ago, but at that point it was still just a dream.  In a few days time he's committed to making such a huge step for his future.