Star Light

Chapter 13

4:00p.m.

I slowly fell asleep as Steven drove without even realizing how tired I was. The ride was smooth so it was easy to fall asleep. I am jousted awake as the car comes to a stop and I pick my head up and look around. We are parked in a café parking lot.

"Where are we?" I ask rubbing my eyes then looking at them, it seems like Brody was sleeping too because he is yawning when I look at him.

"Remember when we were younger?" He asks looking at me and I look at the building.

"Oh ya! This is where we had our first kiss as kids." I say and he smiles then laughs.

"We may have been kids, but I still loved that day." He says then we get out. We sit down in a booth seat in the mostly empty dinner. There is on older man sitting reading the news paper at the counter then a waiter behind he counter.

"I'll be with you in a minute." She says walking into the back.

"Why are we here? I thought you had something to tell me." I say looking back and forth.

"Ya, but we can't have your boyfriend trying to find you. What I have to tell you is going to make you look at him in disgust." He says and I look at him.

"But I don't want to hate him. I want to believe he is getting better because to me he is right now. Whatever you have to tell me is most likely from before he decided to change so that is the..."

"It's from last night." He says and I look down at him as the waiter comes over, filling our water glasses.

"What can I get for you?" She asks.

"Three coffees please." Steven says. When the waitress walks away we talk again, but more quiet.

"What happened last night?" I ask looking at Steven. He is sitting across from me and Brody next to him. He looks up then smiles as the waitress drops our drinks off. "Thank you."

"Just call me if you need me." She says walking away. Steven plays with the rim of the mug and Brody drinks his coffee black. I start to put some creamer in the drink as  the warm liquid soothes my throat.

"Well, last night was he with you?" He asks and I think.

"For part of the night yeah, but then he said he had to go." I say. "I remember him looking at his phone then get really serious."

"Do you know where he went?" Steven asks and I shake my head.

"Was he hanging out with that Whitney bitch with the blond hair?" I ask thinking about her hoe face.

"Are you seriously getting jealous about him?" Brody asks looking at his coffee.

"Why?" I ask and then look back and forth. "Where did he go?"

"Do you know who Andrew Carp is?" He asks and I think for a minute.

"No. Does he go to our school?" I ask and he nods. He takes out his phone then shows me a picture. His hazel eyes are so kind looking, his dimples are showing, brown hair, he's cute. "Who is he?"

"He is in our grade, nice kid, know it all. He never got involved with the wrong crowd he was more for the nice girls and nice guys who need friends." Steven says looking at me.

"What does this matter? Why are you telling me this?" I ask. He scrolls through his phone and shows me another picture but now his face is all swollen, bleeding, and bruised. It looks like he got into a really bad accident. The only way I knew it was him was his hair and the shirt he wore. "Oh my god, what happened?"

"Your boyfriend happened." Brody says looking at me now. He is really aggravated.

"No. He is mean and can do this," I point to my face. "But he would never be able to do something like that."

"Oh really?" Brody asks and takes the phone out of Stevens hand, zooming in on something in the background then shows me. "Look familiar?" In the back is a black truck, the one I saw on my street and my boyfriends car

"So, they were in the same place at the same time..." I say trying to make sense of it.

"Why are you trying to cover for him?" Steven asks and I look down and drink my coffee.

"I'm not. I just don't believe he can do that." I say.

"Maybe not alone but he jumped him, Laura. He wasn't the only one either." Steven says and I look at him. He shows me a picture of a girl who was beaten badly, worse then me. I can't believe I thought he was changing.

"Oh my god. What did they do?" I ask.

"Well, he was walking into the mall with his girlfriend when they walked out. He told police that YOUR boyfriend was drunk and was assaulting her with sexual threats. When he asked them to stop they started to circle them, asking what he was going to do about it. One of his friends started to touch her when she slapped him. Andrew tried to protect his girl but got them both beaten, mostly by yours truly." He says showing a picture of my boyfriend punching her in the face on the ground.

"Who took the pictures?" I ask as he keeps sliding through picture after picture.

"One of your boyfriends friends. If you don't believe us then next time you see him, looking at his knuckles." I look away from the pictures. They get the message and turn his phone off. I look at the coffee, loosing my thirst. I push it away from me and look up at Steven.

"Tomorrow." He nods knowing what I mean. I will fix this tomorrow.