Diving Into The Wreck

Only In Dreams

For a moment, there was silence. Admittedly, it was a lot to take in. Joyce leaned back in her beach chair and stared up at the sun, her face completely unreadable. Then, she turned to me and said, "Blake's the guy with the shutter shades, isn't he?"

"Yeah," I said. "He...he's been following me around too. It's been happening all year. He wants me to join the Love Martyrs again."

"Why didn't you tell me all of this earlier?" Joyce asked.

"I didn't know what you would think of me if I did," I said. "I did a lot of dumb things in high school. I missed so many warning signs. I didn't know what you'd think if you knew that I used to be friends with a guy like Blake."

"Dani, there's no way that you could have known."

"I should have done more to stop Blake."

"It's not too late. We could call the cops now."

"Right now?"

"Yeah, if you wanted to."

"I think I need more time," I said. There was too much going on, with the holidays coming up and second semester classes about to start. I didn't want to make things worse by going after Blake.

"Okay, but you should do it soon," Joyce said. "We need this to stop." I nodded, and Joyce said, "It's getting dark. We should probably head back to Egmont Beach."

The two of us got back into the car, and I drove back to the college. Joyce chatted all through the drive, deliberately avoiding the elephant in the room. I focused on the road, afraid of seeing a red Mazda cruising down Alligator Alley. Thankfully, Blake wasn't there. I don't know what I would have done if I did see him. When we arrived at the college, Joyce kissed me goodbye, and then we went our separate ways.

Winter break was lonelier than usual. The campus was nearly empty, and although I occasionally Skyped Sydney, Joyce, and Aditi, and I sometimes went to the zoo to check on Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, I spent most of break holed up in my dorm room, wondering what to do about Blake. My cell phone was right there, and I could have called the police at any point, but I was terrified. Blake needed to understand what he had done, but at the same time, he and I used to be friends. Did I really want my former best friend to go to jail?

I had to stop thinking of Blake as a friend. He was a stalker, he was a scumbag, and he had assaulted Madeline. Blake and I weren't friends anymore, and we wouldn't be friends again. I had to get over whatever lingering doubts I had about calling the cops on him. If anyone I knew deserved to go to jail, it was him.

Christmas and New Year's came and went, and before long, students started arriving on campus again. It was like Egmont College was coming back to life. Classes started up again, and soon, I was busy reading biology textbooks and writing up entries in my lab notebook. I faithfully attended my professors' office hours, and Joyce and I spent plenty of time studying together. Sometimes, she urged me to call the police on Blake, but she tried not to be too pushy about it. "I don't want to turn into that nagging girlfriend," she said after her fourth or fifth reminder about it.

Maybe it was because I was taking fewer shifts at the zoo, but I didn't see Blake around as much. Once, I caught him spying into the dolphin exhibit, but he left me alone for the most part. Joyce didn't see him as much either. "There's nothing stopping him from doing something though," Joyce said.

On the first Friday after classes started, we got a group together to play Dungeons and Dragons. I got to be the Dungeon Master, and it was the most fun I'd had in weeks. The whole party seemed to have a good time, and I liked acting out all of the NPCs. All of the long hours I had spent in the garage had paid off.