Lessons || MJ

Lessons || Chapter 15

DARRYL

Everything stopped in this room.

"What? What do you mean someone's looking for you, Leslie?" I stammered in a building panic, but noticed the innocence of her brown eyes.

"My...my ex-boyfriend." Leslie dropped her gaze to the floor. Yvonne and the other roommate held her shoulders in heartache as she fell onto both knees. Greasy smells of the Pizza box wafted my nose, but I didn't care.

"What's going on? I'm still don't understand." I answered weakly.

The other roommate whispered to Leslie again while helping her still pack. Only Yvonne tried to clue me in at this moment. I sat back down on Leslie's bunk. Brightness of the room hardly stopped the darkness under this area. I sulked, confused and disturbed all at once.

"We have so much to tell you." Yvonne turned to face me. My thoughts just raced during this scary moment. I couldn't even respond. This stern but gentle woman continued speaking. Given the apprehension and possibly fear I'd seen in her eyes right now, this would be one long night.

Her hand now rested on my shoulder. "To start, I'm a lawyer. Witness Protection honestly placed Leslie here for safety reasons."

I nodded in silence, but anger still coursed through me. 'But how does the shooting relate to Leslie? Other people are in trouble right now, Yvonne."

"If Calvin shot up the Pizza Parlor, he's close to your university. It's only a matter of time before he finds Leslie if we don't leave right now." Her eyes pierced me with rage.

"Why are you leaving?! If anything, I should go." I stood up, screaming at her now.

"There's no way I'm letting her travel the country alone. And I was around long before you and little friends showed up! Please leave!" We both shot daggers as she glared in my direction. My face had turned completely red.

"Stop fighting and get me out of here!" Leslie shouted out of nowhere. We both stopped bickering immediately now. Even the other roommate popped out her eyes in shock. I looked to over to see Leslie tearing up once more. When I tried to console her, she slapped my hands away again.

"What's going on?" The questioned repeated, but I calmed down my voice. The other roommate finally zipped up Leslie's suitcase. I slowly began to question how she'd explain a departure. Loads of homework and other details never even finished.

He's going to kill me." Leslie sniffled. My heart sank. Once again, my thoughts jumbled and zipped all at once. Yvonne and the other roommate bunched with her for a group embrace. Their heads bowed in certain prayer.

"You can't be serious." I lowered my trembling voice. "Wait. Does this mean you're not coming back here?" My heart prayed that wasn't true. What kind of institution allowed only 3-month safeguarding? I finally understood what she meant by a complicated transfer to this place.

"I tried everything." Yvonne sighed from across the room. "There are so many other cases they deal with and it's a complicated progress anyway. If she doesn't leave, you'll see her in a casket next time. Calvin could very well be on his way here now if the police haven't already caught him."

"Why leave if they police caught him?" I questioned her with a possibility of hope.

"He's close. I'm out of here. I don't care if the police caught him or not!" Leslie slung on her backpack. Yvonne held onto car keys for dear life and my girlfriend hugged the other roommate. There I stood in this junk food dorm suite, frozen.

Leslie stepped into my direction and grabbed my both face with both hands, truly kissing me. Once again, my face turned red from the burning tears in my eyes. When she pulled away to embrace me, I choked up.

"Let me know where you are." I begged.

"I can't." she squeaked, holding my cheek with a trembling hand. "If you tell him anything, it's over. Your family would be crushed." When she stood in the doorway just looking at me with through fogged glasses, my heart sank even deeper than before.

Leslie stood right before the knob at this point. Just as the door began to creak shut, I shouted desperately. "Baby, no!"

__

MAX

Two officers rounded the small dining room table across from me, Ma and Pop. On one of my favorite holidays, I barely dodged bullets while crouching under a narrow sink of all things. I'd stayed under there for at least ten minutes, cowering for the first time in years. My only defense had been unloaded and safely hidden in the glove compartment of my Wrangler. Its deadly ammo rested there, too.

These two cops among others looked out for people with shouting voices in that bathroom tonight. A chubby White man here called out when I'd finally peeked.

"This is the police. I'm Crawford. You can come out now, young man." The cop blinded me with a flashlight while his big gut bent over to address me now.

"No!" I spat, nearly crying like some wimp. "I still heard gunshots! I have a gun of my own. Where's the monster?"

'I know you're scared, but we got him. Two other police handcuffed this devil and ran him down to the precinct for questioning."

The same White and chunky cop slid of a photograph. Ma cringed. Pop just shook his head in disbelief. I remained calm for the sake of everything going on around me. The room became totally quiet other than the noise of pounding in my heart. The cop beside that chucky man scribbled away in his notebook this time.

"What happened before he started shooting Max?" The chunky cop questioned with a fortunately gentle tone. Ma and Pop wouldn't speak at all right now. My words almost shook, but I explained as best I could for the sake of my protection. I'd never felt so scared in my life for once.

Ma held my hand along the way, but my nerves hardly reduced at this moment. Pop removed his glasses and stared down at our tiny wooden table here. The silence came right back to haunt everyone here right now. I finally spoke up before long.

"I stepped out of the stall and he was coming in. We acted friendly in the beginning and he even dapped me up, you know? Anyway, I moved to the sink and washed my hands, but accidently bumped into him when I went to use a paper towel. The gun dropped out of his trench coat and everybody just gasped. I mean everybody. I'm licensed, but I don't carry it around school or anything. He picked up the Glock, raised it to the ceiling above our heads and shot right in the middle. Wall fragments and dust flew everywhere. People scrambled and that's when I ducked under the sink."

Crawford nodded under his cap. The cop near him, a brother, just scribbled in his notebook again. He nodded with sympathy for my mother. She'd already used up the Kleenex box to wipe away reasonable tears. To think, I could've been one of the dead bodies in that bathroom tonight.

I could've been Turk and Fredrick out front in that restaurant.