He Was Duressed, Your Honor

Chapter 2

Poe smiled at his phone as he finished typing out a poor man's version of the death scene from Romeo and Juliet. 

His mom's birthday was coming up, and he knew she would love more than anything for Memphis to be there. He had spent the past three days calling her nonstop, but like usual, no response. He had gotten a brief "happy birthday" text in March, but he hadn't heard from her since then.

He had gotten in the habit of staying at home during the weekends. He told his parents it was because he couldn't pass up free food as a broke college student, but more than that he just wanted to be around them.

He missed the family dinner's the four of them used to have when he was younger.

He missed bring your kid to work days. He missed cake decorating competitions they used to have in the kitchen, and he missed being close to Jun. 

He never realized how much of a luxury it was to live across the street from your best friend until he lost it. He smiled down at his phone seeing Jun's reply, and closed his eyes.

The next morning he was prepared to see annoyed texts from Jun about him falling asleep so early. What he did not expect was to see three missed calls from Memphis. He shot out of bed and grabbed his phone, calling her back as he threw on the nearest articles of clothing and shoes.

When her voice came on the other end of the phone, it pained him to hear.

"I need you to come by," she shot out as soon as the line connected. "Stop by my apartment in Silverton as soon as you can. Right now, please."

"Okay, hold on why-" Poe started to venture before the line disconnected. 

Memphis voice cracked as she spoke. She sounded exhausted, like she hadn't slept in days, and more than that it sounded like she was in pain to be speaking at all. 

Had he received any other response, Poe would have given her shit for being AWOL for so long, but something worried him about this call. More than any call the two had had before. More than even months with no contact worried him. 

Slipping out of the house quietly as to not wake his parents, Poe pulled out of the driveway and began towards Memphis's house.

He had never been sure why Memphis moved out in the first place. He wouldn't exactly described her life as the pinnacle of financial achievement, and their parents were more than happy to let her live in the basement. But Memphis liked to be independent, even if she couldn't necessarily afford to be.

Her apartment in Silverton could have been blown over by the wind, in all honesty. 

Poe thought there was no way the place could have passed the health inspection code. He would have felt better wearing a hazmat suit into the place. 

He barely had time to knock once on the door before it swung open and a disheveled Memphis stood before him. The two started at one another for a moment before she grabbed his arm and yanked him inside.

"No, no, no, no," she muttered pacing around the room. "Why didn't you get here faster, you live way closer than this."

"I was at mom and dad's," he responded putting his hands up in defeat. "Calm down, it's fine. What's going on?"

"No," she yelled back before calming her tone. "You don't understand you need to leave now, you can't be here when they get here."

Poe was beyond confused, but Memphis ran around her apartment grabbing things off shelves and throwing them into duffel bags. Wads of cash, a key to their parents home, an old yearbook she had from when they had gone to school together.

She shoved the collection of goods into his arms and began to shove him backwards towards the door.

"Go, go, go," she urged, but Poe pulled out of her reach and threw the duffel bag onto her couch. 

"No," he said flatly. "Memphis you go AWOL for months and then this is how I get treated? I know you think you're better than us, but you're wrong. I don't deserve to be treated like this and neither do mom and dad. They want to know you're alive, is that too much to ask?"

He was proud of himself. 

Poe and Jun had rehearsed a very similar speech back and forth to one another for months.

"Alright," Jun would say. "This is what you're going to say when you finally see Memphis again, okay? You're going to let her know this behavior is not okay?"

Poe would always roll his eyes and remind Jun that he is not Memphis's mom and shouldn't give her a lecture. And Jun would always laugh and reassure him that if anyone had a lecture coming to them, it was Memphis. Regardless of who delivered it.

Though, when they would rehearse it, Jun would always pretend to be an apologetic Memphis. They would pretend to sob and apologize for the horrible way they had treated the rest of the family. 

Memphis seemed less inclined towards this behavior.

In fact, she barely seemed to register what Poe had said at all. She nodded her head and mumbled "that's nice" before making a beeline to grab the duffel bag once again. 

"Look at me," she said seriously. "I need you to take this, and I need you to get out of my apartment as soon as possible. It was a mistake for me to call you here so close to when they were coming, but I didn't know what else to do. I thought you'd be here and gone by now so please... leave."

But Poe didn't leave. He stood in silence trying to decipher the emotion on Memphis's face. She looked scared and disheveled. Like she hadn't slept in days. But their was a false confidence building in her expression that Poe would almost mistake for true.

If he hadn't known her as well as he did, he might be convinced that she was calling the shots. That she had a good reason in asking him to leave, but any confidence she might have had drained immediately from her face when a knock on the door sounded behind Poe.

"Memphis," he said, but she stuck her hand up to silence him. 

"Memphis," he whispered, and she grabbed hold of his arm, yanking him backwards and away from the door and starting to shove him towards her bedroom when the knocking sounded again.

Poe dropped the duffel bag just as the front door swung open and two people stepped inside.