Hypnotised by drums (TW fanfic - Book 2/4)

Part Forty-Eight

Max’s POV

“Are you sure you’re going to be ok on your own?” I ask Becky. I know she’s a grown woman and everything, but she hasn’t been here long and I don’t think she likes being left on her own.

“Yes, I’ll be fine. Besides, I won’t be on my own. I’ll have Leo with me” she says. Becky’s agreed to look after Rheanna’s son, whilst we all go to Tom’s trial. None of this really seemed real until now and to be honest, I’m pretty scared. I know deep down that Tom didn’t do it and he would never even think about hurting another human being, but I can’t be sure. People can do weird things when they’re emotionally distressed and Tom was distraught when Maria left. Speaking of which, I wonder whether she’ll be here today. I’m sure Tom will enjoy seeing her, if he’s innocent that is.

“Good” I say with a smile. It’s not long before the door bell rings. I open it to find, Rheanna and Leo standing before me.

“Hey” I say, as I open the door wide, to let the pair in.

“Hi Max. Are you ready to go?” she asks me. Jay is giving both me and Rheanna a lift to the court; I didn’t see the point in taking loads of cars.

“Yeah. Becky’s just through there” I say and Rheanna takes Leo into the living room. She gets him settled, before we both make our way out of the house and towards Jay’s car. He looks even more nervous than me and that’s saying something.

We both get in the car and before we know it we’re pulling up outside the court. The ride was pretty silent and you could cut the tension with a knife, but now it’s even worse.

We all pile out of the car and we make our way over to where Nathan and Maria are waiting. “How are you holding up, Maria?” Rheanna asks her when we arrive.

“Yeah, I’m alright I guess. I’m just scared” she tells us.

“Well surly you know that Tom isn’t capable of killing someone” Nathan says.

“I suppose, but I guess people can do shocking things, can’t they?” she replies, looking down.

“Yeah, but Tom didn’t kill that girl. You can’t give up on him, Maria. He needs you” he tells her.

“I’m not. I’m just trying to prepare myself for what could happen today” she sighs and I can tell she’s starting to feel uncomfortable.

“Yeah and we should all be doing that” I agree.

“Anyway, I think we better start heading in. The trial starts in ten minutes and we don’t want to arrive late” Rheanna tells us after checking her watch. We all nod, before making our way towards the entrance.

The moment we walk through the door, we can all feel the tension. This is the first time I’ve been to a court to watch someone so close to me be judged. Tom is my best friend and I know how much this is going to be hurting him and it’s hurting us too. I don’t want to see my friend having to go through this, but I guess it could be worse. At least the press haven’t got a hold of this yet.

Once we get to the court room, which Tom will be having his trial in; we’re lead around to a separate door. We make our way into the viewing gallery and we all take our seats. I make sure that I am sitting next to Maria because she needs as much support as possible. Her mother and sister were unable to come because it’s a privet trial. Tom must have told his lawyer who he wanted here because he soon got in contact with us all asked us to be here. Also sitting in the gallery, is Tom’s mum and dad. They look distraught as their son is brought through one of the doors and lead towards the front desk in the court room. He’s wearing a suit and tie, which is always amusing, but he looks different. His face is pale and he looks really skinny. I suppose they don’t feed you well in these places though. He sits down at one of the two desks, next to a middle aged man, who is also looking nervous. He sorts though a pile of papers, a as woman, also in a suit, makes her way over to the second desk. She sits down and starts to sort through her own papers. At the back of the court room, are two rows of seats for the witnesses to sit. The court had decided that it was best not to have a jury, because there’s a good chance that at least one of them will recognise Tom and that could cloud their judgment a bit.

After about ten minutes, everyone starts to calm down a bit and the judge finally begins to speak. Once he’s finished introducing the case, he turns to Tom. “How do you plead?” asks the judge.

“Innocent” Tom says, after he stands up and looks directly at the judge. The judge talks for a while longer and then the other two people on the front desks stand up and start to talk.

“Thomas Parker was friends with Jude, they were good friend. Why would he want to murder her?” the man asks, which I assume is Tom’s lawyer, Peter Riffs.

“But they were seen arguing just hours before. Therefore he has a motive” the woman says, who is obviously another lawyer, who is trying to prove Tom guilty.

“But just because they were arguing doesn’t mean he would go as far as to kill her. All friends argue, its part of having a relationship with someone, but not everyone gets killed” Peter explains.

“Wait, don’t we have a witness?” the judge interrupts.

“Yes we do” says the woman lawyer. The judge flicks through a couple of papers before looking up again.

“Can Miss Jones come up to the stand please?” the judge asks. At the back of the court, a young woman stands up and makes her way over to the stand. She looks about twenty and she’s got long blonde hair, which are obviously extensions. I wouldn’t trust her with any of my things, but I suppose the court has to give her a chance, but she does look like the sort of person to mug an old lady in the street. Once she’s at the stand, she looks over at the judge and smiles.

“Can you tell us what you saw on that faithful day, Miss Jones?” the judge asks her. She gives Tom a bitter look before beginning.

AN: Hey guys, I know I haven't done one of these before, but I felt I owed you an explanation for the name change. I realised that if I carried on the way I was going, this fanfiction would be about 100 parts long and I didn't want that. So I've decided to split this one into two. When this one is finished it will then continue into the next one. So the first one, that was called 'Hypnotised by drums' is now called 'We've only just begun' and the one after this will be 'Until forever comes'. Sorry for any confusion.