Waiting outside the lines

Chapter 23

"Okay.." I sigh again, really nervous. I mean what if he doesn't believe me and tells Jeremy or Tom. Or what if I tell him wrong and he thinks I'm crazy. Maybe I shouldn't tell him. I mean if I tell him and he doesn't believe me he'll tell other people and no one will believe me. I start playing with my hands, nervously and start breathing a little hard. "You're afraid I won't believe you, huh?" Lenny says. I look at him confused,"How did you-?"
"I have three daughters, Janet. I've learned a few things."
"Wait... Three daughters... Are they 6, 11, and 16?"
"Yes.. How did you know that?" I laugh in a not happy way.
"What?" He asks me. I bight the side of my mouth trying to keep from freaking out,"Does Tom have kids?"
"Why?"
"Does he?"
"Um yes a boy."
"Wow.. What an idiot... Wife?"
"Divorced."
I look at him confused,"Then why does he still have the wedding ring?"
Now Tom looks at me confused,"He doesn't have the ring.. Wait are you talking about the one in the car?"
"Yea he said it was his.. If its not his then who's is it?"
Lenny sighs,"That's Jeremy's."
"But why wasn't it in his car?"
"Well.. you probably know what happened with his wife.. he usually keeps it in his car but.. he told me you had asked about her before when you guys were talking and.. he said he was feeling really sad and it was getting in the way of him working so he wanted me to hold onto it for him for a while."
"Oh." I say hanging my head, feeling horrible that I made Jeremy feel bad. "Maybe that's why he was acting all mad at me before."
"That could be it.."
"Ok so Tom has been lying to me this whole time then?" I say trying to change the subject.
Lenny sighs,"Yup that's Tom for ya. I don't even know how he became a cop. With the way he is I mean." It's silent until Lenny says,"Wait what else did he lie about besides the ring?"
I look at him like he's crazy,"About him having three daughters! We were just talking about this! Geez if you forget stuff that easy then I wonder how YOU became a cop." He looks at me surprised and says,"Well you weren't really being specific."
"I told you he said that when I told you what happened on the car ride." 'What is wrong with this guy.' I think.
He has a thinking face and says,"Oh yea he does that to make girls think he's trustworthy."
"Yea I noticed." I say kinda harsh. Lenny looks at me kinda weird and I sigh then say,"Sorry I'm just annoyed." Then I realize,"Wait I don't really know what happened to Jeremy's wife. I just found out today." Lenny looks around as if thinking whether or not he should tell me. Then he looks down and realizes he's done with his ice cream so he gets up and goes to throw it away. He takes his time, probably trying to stall so he can think about telling me or not. Finally he comes back and says,"Okay.. So you know about Jeremy and your uncle right?" I nod. I don't specifically know what he's talking about but if I say I do maybe I can find something out. If he asks later why I nodded if I didn't know what he was talking about I'll just say I thought he meant about them knowing each other.
"Okay well.. the same people that went after your uncle went after Jeremy too and..."
"Wait. Went after?" I ask interrupting him. Right after I say it I know I shouldn't have. He thinks I know something. I should have just acted like I knew what he was talking about. He looks at me with wide eyes,"Oh my gosh you don't know. Why did you tell me you know??"
"I thought you were talking about how they knew.." I randomly look out the window like I did earlier (which I really gotta stop doing) and see Jake walking towards the hidden police car. Which I've noticed is now covered by that car cover.
I get really tense and my hands start shaking. I turn away from the window, so Jake can't see us, and tell Lenny to do the same but I don't tell him why. He asks why but still does it. I look out the window again and see he's not there. I take a deep breath and sit up right. Lenny sits up too and asks what that was about. I ignore him and start speaking really fast,"Okay. I have to tell you something and I'm gonna have to tell you quick. Before he comes in."
"What? Tell me what? Before who comes in?"
"Okay so yesterday morning.." I go on telling him about how I talked to Jake and he took me to school and he kissed me and all that stuff. Then I tell him about how I saw him after school and punched him. "And then later.." I go on telling him about what happened in the mountains to me running to the house because of my brother. "Then while I was cleaning up Wayne was at my door and was all bruised and bloody.." I go on telling him about Wayne's injuries and what Wayne told me happened and I get to my brother hearing someone at the door when I see Jake walking towards the front door of the place. I start freaking out a little and Lenny notices. He puts his hand on my arm and says its okay. I nod and go on still talking really fast telling him about what he did up until me going back and finding he was gone (not being able to tell him about the little 'note' Jake left me) when I see Jake opening the door to the place. I speak a little lower and say,"I'm not done. Please don't let him take you or me away like he did when I was gonna tell Jeremy. Act like I didn't say anything. Just please get rid of him so I can finish." The tone in my voice was a little too desperate, at least in my opinion, but apparently not for Lenny because he looks at me with sympathy and nods. I sit up straight as Jake walks up to our table.
"Hello again Janet! I had a feeling you'd be here." He says with one of those fake nice smiles that makes everyone think he's the nicest guy you've ever met. I look at my hands, unable to look at him and say,"Cool." What's wrong with me? I was taught to be able to face the ones who've hurt me. Not hide my face from them. Why am I like this now? I mean I've faced my enemies before without a problem. Why can't I now?
There's kind of an awkward silence so Lenny stands up and says,"So you must be Jake." And shakes his hand. "Yup that's me." He says with that stupid smile again, returning the hand shake. Lenny nods and continues,"I've heard quite a bit about you." He says it kind of harshly and I glare at him to stop. Jake's behind me though so he doesn't see me do it. "Oh really?" Jake asks and I see him glance at me out of the corner of my eye. "Yea. Jeremy has talked about you quite a bit." He says trying to fix it but I have a feeling Jake already suspects something. "Oh well that's really flattering." He says with the same smile. (Which is getting really old!)
Then I realize something. Lenny just gave out who he really is. A cop. He's supposed to be so called "undercover" but he practically just told Jake that he's a cop. I thought he said he didn't trust him? What is going on with him?
"So um you should.. sit down." Lenny says sitting down and motioning for Jake to sit next to him. He agrees but sits down next to me instead. I scoot over as far as I can and when I know Jake isn't looking at me I glare at Lenny. "So what are you guys doing here? I mean you were here this morning, Janet. Do you really like this ice cream that much?" He says nudging me jokingly. "Yea ice cream's amazing." I say flatly, not looking at him. Jake laughs as if that was actually funny and goes on,"But seriously why are you guys here?"
"Like you said. The ice cream." I say.
He laughs again,"No. Really."
"We're waiting for your brother to come by so we can arrest him." Lenny says nonchalantly. I look at him with wide eyes. Why would he tell him that? First he tells he's a cop now this??
Jake nods,"That makes sense. I mean the arresting my brother part. But why are you guys here? Last time I saw him he was in the wood part of the area." When he says that I see him looking at me out of the corner of my eye.
"Well that's weird cause he told me he was gonna meet me here." I respond, finally looking at him. I see his evil smile and piercing eyes. I try to return the piercing eyes by glaring at him but then end up looking away. I can't stand looking into that jerks eyes. It's silent until I hear Jake say,"So should we tell her?" I look at him expecting him to be on his phone talking to someone else but he's not. He's talking to Lenny. "What are you-"
"Yea I think now's a good time." Lenny says interrupting me. He then looks at me with a smirk. A rush of fear runs through me and I sit up. Jake scoots over close to me so I'm up against the wall and his leg is against mine. I clench my teeth when I see Jake laugh,"Oh are you uncomfortable? Just wait until we tell you." I look at him confused then I look at Lenny who still has a smirk on his face. "Would you like to do the honors or me?" Lenny asks.
"Um.. We can split it. You go first." I feel myself about to panic but then hold my breath to clam myself down. It works but I don't know how long it's going to last. "So.." Lenny begins,"This whole time I've had a wire on me to record what both of us are saying and you'd think it'd be connected to the police car right? Well you're wrong. THEY gave me a small tape recorder to turn on when your friend came." He then laughs and says,"Stupid cops. Well anyway the wire is actually connected to this guys car," he says pointing at Jake,"And we had this all planned out. I'd lie to you to make you trust me the when you told me about what he did then he would come and we'd tell you our real plan. So yea our plan is going pretty well so far, huh? Except that you wouldn't tell me fast enough. You kept asking all these questions so we had to speed it up a little by having Jake come earlier. I mean you just kept talking and talking it just got so annoying! But anyway that's it." He then looks at Jake and says,"Oh I'm sorry I forgot you were supposed to tell part of it."
"It's fine. I think you explained it well." I start breathing a little hard but try not to make it noticeable. "So.. if you've been lying to me this whole time.. Tom really does have three daughters and you are divorced and have a kid."
"Now look who's catching on! Yes I am divorced. Lady wasn't strong enough to take the beatings. Good thing they believed the whole 'camping accident' bs. " Lenny says and then they both start cracking up. I look at them in disgust. How can people be so cruel? He then continues,"And I do have a boy who's planning on following in his daddies footsteps." he says it with such an evil glare it almost gives me chills.
"A kid following in a dirty cops footsteps. Yea cause the world needs more of those." I say with anger. Jake laughs,"You're lucky you're a charming little brat or else-" I stop him afraid of what the ending of that sentence would be and ask,"And the ring?"
"That actually was Tom's." Lenny says ignoring the fact that I just interrupted who seems to be his best friend/partner in crime. But Jake doesn't ignore it and glares at me. But I ignore him and say,"Then what about-"
"The one I'm wearing?" Lenny interrupts me,"Well the part I said earlier about Jeremy being sad was true so I just "borrowed" it for a while. Ya know to go with the whole lie."
"Well then what about Tom?"
"Oh you don't have to worry about him." I sigh. I was taught to never trust anyone, to expect the unexpected, and to never get cornered. Ever! Even if I'm with friends and we're just hanging out, I always get the outside seat. Just in case. I mean people can turn on you in a second. This would be one of those times.
It's silent until I finally build up the nerve to ask,"So what are you gonna do now?" Lenny and Jake look at each other with evil smirks on their faces as I fearfully wait for their answer.