Waiting outside the lines

Chapter 22

I open my eyes to see Wayne hitting Tom against the car over and over. I get out of the car,"Wayne stop!" But he doesn't listen. He just keeps hitting him against the car and says,"Don't you ever touch her again!" Wayne hits Tom's head against the car and is about to do it again but before he can I grab the back of his shirt and pull him back. Then I throw him on the floor and say,"What is wrong with you?! You can't just come and do that! Get out of here!" Wayne looks at me with surprise. He gets up and says,"Why? So he can try to feel you up again? You would like that, huh? I mean you have been getting a lot of action lately! I mean first Jake, then me, then this creep! God knows who else can be on that list too!" By now he's in my face and my eyes are full of rage. I push him once and say,"You think you know everything huh?" Then I push him again and walk towards him,"You think you know all about Jake and that guy and even you?!" I push him the same way again,"You think this is- this is just some game to see who gets the girl?" I push him one more time and he's up against the tree now. I have my right arm across his chest holding him against the tree. My hand at his left shoulder and my elbow at his right. I'm in his face and look at him full of rage. My voice lowers but my anger doesn't,"Well you know nothing about what's going on. And it's nothing like that. This is serious. This isn't about revenge or-or about police or anything. We got our selves into this and now we have to get out." I let go of him and try to calm down. I turn around and look at Tom's unconscious but still breathing body. "What are you talking about Janet? What did we get ourselves into?" I forgot Wayne doesn't know about the car crash or what I did or why they're looking for him or how I know what he did. I don't look at him and say,"We can't talk about this now. We'll talk later. Just get out of here and I'll figure out how to make this look like an accident."
"What? No I'm not leaving! I haven't even seen you for five minutes and you're telling me to leave? No. We need to talk and I'm not going until we do."
"No. You have to go. They're looking for you and if he wakes up while you're here both of us will get in trouble and we can't clear your name in jail."
"What? Clear my name? But I didn't do anything."
"Never mind. Just please go!"
"I said no!"
I hesitate,"Ugh. Fine. But you can't stay long. Now make yourself useful and get something he could have tripped over."
"Whatever you say boss." He replies sarcastically.
Usually Wayne would say that in a funny way as if he was messing around and I would laugh. Buy Wayne was pissed and so was I so he wasn't messing around.
I ignore his comment and stand over Tom's body trying to think. We have to make this believable.. Maybe.. Maybe I can just sit him up against the car and tell him that... he tripped or something. But Wayne can't be here when he wakes up.
Wayne comes back with a huge stick and says,"Here ya go." then drops it right in front of me. "Never mind. We don't need it." He sighs and picks it up again. "Actually just put it right there." I say pointing next to the car. Wayne follows my order and then walks up to me,"Okay what's the plan?"
"Well your plan is to get out of here before Tom wakes up."
"Oh so the creeps name is Tom! Got it. I'll make sure to remember that."
"Why? So you can go to the police and tell them about him. Ha! You wouldn't be able to say a word before they cuff you." He looks at me like I'm crazy,"I seriously have no idea what you're talking about."
I sigh. I'm trying my hardest to stay calm and not freak out but it's getting a little hard,"Just forget it. We'll talk about it later. Just get out of here."
"No! Why do you keep telling me to leave? I didn't do anything! And I already told you I'm not leaving until we talk!"
"Okay you wanna talk!? Fine! Tell me about your cousin then!" He looks at me confused. "What are you talking about?"
My anger rises. Is he seriously gonna act like he doesn't know what I'm talking about? "Don't play dumb. I know what happened to her!" Wayne still has a confused look on his face,"Wait... My cousin? The one who was practically Jake's girlfriend?"
My turn to be confused,"What?! What are you talking about?!"
"My cousin. I walked into her and Jake... messing around and-"
"Okay did you hit your head while you were beating Tom up or something?! That's disgusting! They were cousins!" I say interrupting.
"Yea I know. That's why Jake told me to keep my mouth shut about it... Wait do you know what happened to her cause-"
"Stop acting stupid! I know what you did!"
"I don't know what you're talking about! I didn't do an-" but the sound of someone moaning in pain stops him. I turn around and realize it's Tom. "Go get out of here!" I whisper to Wayne. But he just stands there. "Go! I said go!" Then he turns and starts running. "Wait. Wait." I say realizing I don't know where I'm going to meet him later but it was too late. He was too far to hear me and Tom was starting to wake up. I look inside the police car and get out an ice pack then walk to Tom, trying to think up a story that is actually believable about all this.
I sit Tom up against the car and put the ice pack on his head. He opens his eyes and sits up a little dazed. "Oh my goodness my head." He says in pain, as he puts his hand on his head. "What happened?" His voice was groggy. "You don't remember?" I ask, kinda hopeful.
"No. Last thing I remember was us talking and then waking up on the ground." He was still rubbing his head and I could see there was a bump forming. "What happened?" He asks again. I try to think. What can I say? "Um well I actually don't know. I parked here and we got out then you said you.. thought you heard something and I turned to where you thought you heard it and next thing I knew you were on the ground. I think you hit your head hard on the side mirror."
"Really what makes you think that?"
"It's kinda messed up." After I say that I get up and put my hand behind my back then silently move the side mirror to make it look like he hit his head on it. I do it in a way that Tom can't see me though. Then I play it off as me just getting up to get something from the car. I go on the other side of the car and go inside. As I look for something I can bring to him I hear him say,"Oh geez you're right. I must have fallen hard." I smile at myself then come out with small towel. "Here use this." I give it to him and he wraps it around the ice pack. He tries to get up but then almost falls. He leans on the side of the car before he does though. "Let's wait here until you feel a little better."
"Yea. But now that I'm up help me inside."
"Ok." As I help him in the car I say,"Oh and don't worry. I won't tell Jeremy or Lenny about this." He laughs a little and says,"Yea thanks." When he's in, I get in on the drivers side. After a while I ask Tom if he's okay to go.
"Yea I'm good. The stop is just a couple minutes away." I nod and start up the car. Then Tom asks,"So why'd you park there if that's not our stop?"
"You said we should look at the nature and stuff. It really is pretty here." Tom nods.
We get to our stop and we both get out. "You sure you're okay?" I ask Tom.
"Yea I'm good."
"Okay let's go then." I say and start walking and Tom follows. We just have to get through some bushes and trees then cross the street (which is empty) and we're at the ice cream place. We go to where the other police car is hidden and I see Lenny in a regular outfit as if he wasn't on duty. "What's with the wardrobe change?" I ask. Lenny looks up a little startled. He must not have heard us come up to the car. "Oh. Hey guys. We were just thinking that while we wait I'm gonna pretend to be a customer and then walk up to you like I know you and we haven't seen each other in a long time and we'll talk until your friend gets here."
I nod,"Smart. But Jeremy can we talk for a second. I have som-"
"No you should go." Jeremy says harshly, interrupting me. Even Lenny and Tom look at him kind of weird. "But it's just-"
"No buts. Just go."
"It's important Jeremy." I say sternly.
"I said no." He doesn't look at me when he talks.
"Okay fine." Then I open the back door and go through a big bag that's on the floor. I find what I'm looking for, Jeremy's wallet, and take money out of it.
"What are you-"
"We need money for the ice cream." I say interrupting Jeremy.
"You don't need that much for ice cream."
"I know." I say then slam the door. I turn to Lenny and say,"You stay here. I'll sit then you can come." He nods and looks at me a little surprised. I walk away and think, I'm pretty surprised too. I mean I seriously didn't think I'd get away with that. Whatever I'll give Jeremy some of it back later. Some.
I order and sit down then Lenny comes in and we do all the fake 'Hey I know you' stuff then sit together. It's silent until Lenny says,"So you guys took a long time."
"We went the long way." He nods,"So.. you guys just talked the whole time?"
"Pretty much." He nods again. Was he worried that Tom told me something?Maybe. He's acting like he knows something though. "Did you guys stop at all."
"For a minute." I don't look at him when I talk. What I've learned is if people keep asking you questions you can give them short answers that don't help them that much. And when you do that they get impatient and cut to the chase.
Lenny sighs,"Forget it I'm just going to ask." (See.)
He continues,"Did Tom... try anything.. with you?"
I look at him,"What do you mean?"
He sighs again,"You know what I mean."
I look down at my ice cream then put the spoon down. I sit up and sigh. I'm about to say yes but before I can Lenny says,"He did, didn't he?"
I look at him confused,"How do you know?"
"Are you serious? Ugh! I'm so sorry."
"How did you know?" I ask again.
"I know cause.. he's done it to other girls and-"
"Wait you know about him and you're not doing anything about it?! How? How can you not say something?"
"Janet stop. I would if I could. I promise I really would. But I can't."
"And why not??"
He sighs,"Look it's a long story. But what did he do?" I look at him upset and say,"Why should I tell you?"
He sighs,"I have a plan and I need to know if he does the exact same thing to every girl."
I sigh,"Fine." Then I tell him everything. From begging to end making sure to leave out he whole Wayne thing. Lenny nods and its silent for a couple minutes. I start to get impatient so I say,"So do you know why Jeremy is so pissed at me?"
"Honestly I have no idea. He didn't say anything to me."
"Okay... So what do you know about Wayne?" Lenny looks at me kind of weird. "Um nothing much. Just the thing about his cousin." I sigh but he goes on,"But it seemed really fishy to me because... You know what happened right?" I nod, feeling a flicker of hope. "Okay well I thought it was crazy because how and why would an eight year old kill his girl cousin?"
"Exactly! I thought I was the only one who thought that it was stupid. Apparently they said that cousin abused him and he wanted revenge but he was eight and she was what?.. 14? 15?"
"14. And yes I heard that but he was young. I don't think he even knew how to do what everyone thinks he did."
I agree with him and think about if I should tell him what Wayne said. He said he walked into Jake and their cousin messing around. Maybe it has to do something with this.
He might not even believe me though. Plus he might ask how I knew that and I'd have to tell him Wayne told me and he'd ask when and it'd just turn into a huge mess.
So instead I ask,"So what do you think about his brother, Jake?"
"Well Jeremy seems to like him and I guess he seems like a nice kid." I roll my eyes when he says that but then he continues,"But there's something about him that... I don't know seems.. fake I guess. Like his whole character is just... an act." My eyes widen and I smile,"Oh my goodness you have no idea how much I want to hug you right now!" Lenny laughs and asks why. I respond,"Cause you are the only person besides me and Wayne who sees through his lies. Everyone else thinks he's perfect and amazing but he's really just.. a word I'd rather not say out loud." Lenny looks at me confused and I ask what's wrong. "Nothing just how do you know for sure know he's a bad person?"
I laugh a little,"I have a lot of proof that he's a bad person. Trust me. Like.." I bight my lip, thinking if I should tell him about Jake or not. He might not believe me though. But who else would I tell? I already went through the list of people I can't tell before. Maybe this is my only chance to tell someone.
My thoughts are interrupted by Lenny's voice,"Hey you know you can trust me, right? I promise." He smile at me and I smile back. I really do feel like I can trust him. And he probably is my last hope on this. I sigh and decide to tell him.