Twilight Java

Chapter 9

I'm pretty sure Veronica was so shocked that she just remained silent about the whole stunt Ellis and I pulled. It was evident she didn't know what was going on and why some guy she didn't even know had me over his shoulder.

Speaking of the stunt, even though I was terrified for all of our safeties, it felt oddly... Thrilling. Ellis and I sort of became like partners in crime. It felt like we were kids who did little missions around the neighborhood, except this was real life, and all of us could've been in real danger. Especially Veronica.

Actually, that was a really stupid thing to do. Dumb and impulsive and reckless but it just felt like the right thing to do at the moment. I was usually very thoughtful about things, always thinking through every situation but something about listening to the intensity in that guy's voice towards Veronica just turned off all of my thought processing. My body solely wanted to act.

I thanked Ellis for driving us back to our dorm, and Veronica led me into our room. It was a lie that I didn't have my dorm room key, but I just didn't say anything at that time. It wouldn't have been right. We both sat on the floor in front of our beds, just sort of sitting across from each other in silence. Not awkward or forced or even comfortable silence, but the kind that just felt right to not say anything.

Although, I did feel the need to speak up.

"I'm sorry," I blurted out.

She rose her head up. "For what?"

"For invading your conversation. I know you said you wanted to talk but I just had this urge to... Do something."

"No I'm-," She slowly began, taking a pause. "I'm glad you did that. I didn't want to be there," I smiled softly at her, but didn't say anything. "But that was the random guy who did everything, not you."

My heart rate picked up at the mention of his sudden plan. "I heard things getting intense and I tried coming up with an excuse to get you out of there. He said he had a plan so I just went with it."

She breathed out a laugh, but her eyes were still sad. And tired. Her smile soon vanished. "How much did you hear?"

I twirled the hem of my loose shirt in my finger, trying to distract myself. "Just a little bit before we... Intervened."

"Oh."

We stayed quiet again after that. She took a deep breath with a distant look in her eyes. She didn't seem sad about what happened or angry at me, just sort of tired.

"I don't expect you to tell me anything," I began. "Cuz obviously we haven't known each other for very long so I don't expect you to trust me, but I want you to know that if you need to talk I'll be here. There isn't really a way for me to prove it, but I'm always here to talk to," I said, meaning every word. With a small smile, I got up, swiftly changed into my pajamas, and laid down in bed. I wasn't trying to sleep, I just wanted to lay down.

"We used to date," Veronica began, cutting through the silence of the room. "I'm sure that was obvious. He was uh... Rough. With me. You know how they tell you that if a boy is mean to you, it means he likes you? Yeah, you'd think that mentality goes away by the time you actually start dating. Guess not. Or with me at least. By some awful coincidence, he ended up in the nearby state school and hangs with a lot of people from here. I don't know if it was because of me that he came here, but that's a scary thought. Wow, my violent ex-boyfriend following me all the way to Massachusetts so he can remind me that he still owns me. Or wait, that's called dating to him. My bad."

Her voice was calm the whole time. Just sort of rambling in a monotonous voice, like it meant nothing to her. I rolled over on the bed to face her still sitting on the floor. I didn't say anything. It was best to just let her speak.