The Presidents Daughter

Where Were You?

Patrick

"Patrick... where on earth have you been" Jonathan asks as he finds me at the bar. I look around for a second before turning back to him.

"I'm at the bar" I smile and he rolls his eyes.

"I see that. But Aaliyah has been looking for you" he tells me and my eyes get big. Totally forgot about that.

"Aaliyah" the girl standing next to me at the bar asks looking a little annoyed.

"Oh don't worry, you'll love her. She's my best friend and she's the most coolest person in the world. Maybe she'll come back to my place and she can have fun with us" I cheer.

"I don't think she will, for so so many reasons. Plus I haven't seen her in about 10 minutes. She said she was going to come look for you but once she saw you with the blonde bimbo over here she probably left" he tells me.

"Hey, are you going to let him talk about me like that" she asks.

"Don't worry Aaliyah" I start.

"Marie" she interrupts.

"Right, sorry, Marie. But he talks shit about everyone. It's one of his many terrible personality traits" I assure her.

"The sad fact that you're still at a bar drinking aside you still need to find your friend. She is the presidents daughter and if something happens to her your ass is grass" Jon tells me.

"You came here with the presidents daughter" Marie gasps and I shush her.

"Shhhh. No one is supposed to know" I whisper.

"Right... well I'm getting another drink. You want one" she asks.

"Yes please" I say.

"Nope. You're cut off. Go find Aaliyah and make sure she is okay. Then we're leaving" he tells me.

"But daaad" I whine.

"Nope. Go get her" he demands

I let out a huff as I turn away from the bar. I go looking for Aaliyah which was hard because everyone kinda looked like her right now. And I missed her, I missed her smile and her perfume and the way she held my arm. I really wanted to see her.

Finally I see her across the way and I smile. I walk over to her ready to embrace her but she looked... sad. She was holding onto her dress and she looked different. Not like I remembered her. She was dark and down and I wasn't sure why.

"Where have you been" I ask.

"No, Patrick. Where have you been" she whispers. I see tears in her eyes and I swear I have never sobered up so quickly in my life.

"What do you mean? I've been here" I say.

"And I needed you with me. But you weren't there, were you? You left me alone in a bar and..." she stops. She looks around before looking back at me.

"And what" I ask.

"Nothing. I'm leaving. Goodbye Patrick" she says.

"Alright, let me go get Jonny and we can go" I say.

"No. I'm leaving by myself" she claims.

"What? Why? What did I do" I question.

She doesn't say anything before she counties to walk the path she was walking before I interrupted her. I get Jonny's attention before pointing to the door and following Aaliyah out. She keeps walking as I call her name but she acts like I'm not even here. She keeps walking before I finally catch up to her. I grab her wrist causing her to turn around quickly.

"DON'T TOUCH ME" she screams and I stop. I get chills down my spine as the tears run down her face. Her bottom lip quivers and I realize that there's more to this than her being upset. Something was wrong, I could feel it.

"Leah, what happened" I ask.

"I needed you Patrick. I needed you so bad and you weren't there. You were lost in the eyes of a girl you just met tonight. The alcohol being more important than our friendship and you being there for me" she accuses.

"I was gone for five minutes" I defend.

"I sat there by myself for twenty minutes before I came looking for you. And then I found you skin to skin with some chick wearing next to nothing laughing at everything you said" she says.

"Why does it matter to you? You're the one who doesn't want to be with me that way" I accuse.

"You're right, it shouldn't matter. But you know as well as I do that it does. You know exactly what I'm talking about" she accuses.

"I do. But I don't see how I'm a bad guy for it" I defend.

"Because instead of finding you like I wanted to I found a man who took advantage of me. I found a man much larger than me who dragged me down a hall and tried to rape me. He took my bra off, he slammed me against the wall, he restrained me to the point that I have bruises and then he grouped me. He ripped my necklace off and scratched up my back. He hurt me bad, he hurt me in ways I don't even understand yet because all I feel is fear right now. And the name I was calling for help was yours Patrick. It wasn't god, it wasn't my dads and it wasn't Jonny's. It was yours. But you were too preoccupied with your little puck bunny to even notice I was gone. You were too drunk to see that my dress is ripped and my bra is gone and that I'm covered in bruises right now.

It's fine you want to mess around with whatever piece of ass that throws herself at you. Have at it. But couldn't you have at least been my friend first? Couldn't you have checked up on me instead of leaving me there by myself for twenty minutes.  Or even looking over your shoulders to see if I'm still there? Aren't I worth at least that" she whispers.

I feel a tear drop to my cheek and I let it stay. I wanted it to burn me and remind me of the biggest mistake I've ever made.

"Aaliyah... I'm so sorry" I say.

"Sorry that it happened or sorry that you can't do anything about it now" she snaps.

"I'm sorry for everything. I should have been there. I should have never left you. I'm so sorry" is all I say.

"Please stop saying that. I know you're sorry. But we both know that feeling sorry doesn't fix anything. Change fixes it and I thought you changed. I guess I was wrong. Maybe people don't really change, they just say they do" she claims.

"Tell me how to fix this and I'll do it. Tell me what he looks like and I'll find him" I insist.

"He knows who I am. If I say something he tells everyone that I was in a bar with you up to no good. I told my dad that I wouldn't put him through any trouble while I'm away" she explains

"But he hurt you" I yell.

"So did you" she yells back. She picks up a broken strap again and I see the bruises on her wrist. I see her hair falling out and the fear in her eyes. Her body was shaking and her face was broken. And I had the worst feeling in the world.

"I'm-" I start.

"Please... don't finish that. I know you're sorry. And you can keep saying that you are but it doesn't change anything" she says.

I see a car pull up and Amanda hops out. She runs over to Aaliyah and wraps her arms around her. And every bone in my body knows that that should have been me. But it wasn't.

"Aaliyah what happened" she asks her.

"I was wrong" Aaliyah replies as she looks at me. I feel another tear drop as she turns around. Amanda helps her to the car and she pulls off.

I stand there and I fall to my knees. I put my face in my hands and let out a few sobs. I feel a pair of hands on my shoulder and I knew it was Jonny. He pulls me into a hug and I just sit there thinking of where I gone wrong.