Notoriously Yours part two: Forgive And Forget

Chapter Two - Deluca

Bryce had been telling me about his friend, Deluca. I'm just glad he made a friend. I'm sure it can get lonely being in jail. The only people that still talk to him besides me are Mark and Cassy. His parents have been playing pretend, thinking he's invisible after his arrest. I have talked to them maybe once since all of that drama. They apologized to me for his behavior and that was really it. I'm sure this Deluca guy is great. He said that Deluca would be getting out earlier than expected due to his good behavior.
You know this system is really messed up. They always lock the good people up and choose to let pedophiles run wild. Is our kids not good enough to deserve some sort of justice. Bring back castrating or off with their heads like the old days.
I wonder if Bryce's good behavior will help him score an early release like it did for Deluca. I really hope so.

—1 week later—

Bryce has been very adamant in us meeting Deluca since he had been released a few days ago. He really wants to know if Deluca would be able to be apart of our group so here we are preparing to meet Deluca.
We cook dinner and set the table so he feels comfortable. We wouldn't like for him to walk in and think we don't care for Bryce's friends. Let's see how today goes.
Deluca knocks on the door, he has a really soft knock so I'm assuming that he's shy or nervous about meeting us.
I open the door to welcome him in, he has a really quiet voice. I'm willing to bet that it takes him a while to warm up to a person. He says "I am Deluca... Reese. I'm a friend of Bryce's." He comes in and Mark tells him to make himself comfortable. Cassandra really nosey so she dives into asking him ice breaker questions to get to know him a little better. She says "so, Deluca, mind if we call you Luca or Luke?" He says yes. After a while of questioning him, he says "I'm surprised y'all haven't asked why I was in jail. Usually that's the first thing people wanna know." I'm guessing he's finally warming up to us. Mark says "bro, you're a friend of Bryce's so you're a friend of ours. If you want to go into details about that, that's your choice. We aren't gonna force you to talk about it if you're uncomfortable with it." That's when Luke started feeling really comfortable, he told us all about why he was arrested and how upsetting it was being in there knowing that his kids' mother wouldn't bring his children in to see him. He told us all about how his girlfriend always came in. I ask "so where is your girlfriend? You're our friend, you could've invited her to come." He said "I didn't want to invite her without y'all giving me the okay and since this is our first time talking, I figured I'd leave her out until I know for sure." He seems to be a very thoughtful guy. I think he will fit in with us just fine.
After hours of getting to know Deluca and letting him get to know us, he decided it was time to leave because he's getting tired and he needs to be up early in the morning for a job interview. We say our goodbyes and trade numbers so that he can call us anytime. Our little circle has added a new person. I'm more than glad that Bryce met a good person rather than him becoming friends with a psycho.

Cassandra said "so what do y'all think of Luke?"
Mark says "he's a pretty cool guy. It took a while to get him comfortable with us but that's fine."
I say "he seems to be really thoughtful and respectful. He didn't know if it was okay to bring his girlfriend so he didn't. He could've risked everything and brought her along but he didn't."
They shake their head in agreement. At least we are all on the same page about our thoughts of Luke so it won't be a vote of whether he stays or goes.