Finding Amity

Chapter 41

It took hours for my mind to stop racing just enough for me to fall to sleep, and only minute latter was I rudely awoken. My phone sat beside my head, blaring the default ringtone so loud I couldn't think straight for a moment. I answered the phone, not bothering to check the caller.

"Hello?" I croaked, my voice nasally from the cold building up in my chest.

"Amity. It's me, Dustin." I felt shoulders tense as I was reminded of last night.

"I don't want to talk to you! Especially not-" I pulled my phone away from my ear to check the time, and felt rage burn through my body. "-at 5:30 in the morning on a Saturday!"

"Its important." I begged.

"We're done, Dustin. Over. Through. Finito. Now let me sleep!"

"No, no, Amity, wait!" He called through the phone. "I swear, that's okay. I mean, I'm still upset, but whatever. Thats not what I wanted to talk about."

"Then what?" I asked.

Dustin took a moment, just breathing quietly into the phone. "I just want the chance to explain myself."

He sounded torn. I could hear the desperation in his voice.

"How do I know you're not just going to start screaming at me again?" I questioned.

"I promise I wont." He sighed. "Look, we can meet in 15 minutes at the cafe on campus, the one by the lake. It's public and you know I won't make a scene."

If Dustin cared about anything, it was his reputation. It is one of the many red flags I ignored.

"Fine." I agreed. "But you're buying me a coffee."

After hanging up I quickly grabbed a jumper and some jeans and hurried to the bathroom, waking myself up with the warm water.

As promised, Dustin was sitting at a table just outside the cafe, dressed in a crisp white button up and cargo pants. I used to think his style looked tidy and mature, but now it just seems kind of boring.

I took my seat across from him, taking a sip of the warm coffee he had already ordered and received and awaiting whatever he has to tell me.

"So..." He started, his eyes not meeting mine.

"I think an apology would be a good start." I suggested. He nodded, accepting my hostility.

"I am so, so sorry." He whimpered. "Amity, I swear I never meant to get so mean and aggressive. I'm just-"

"Possessive." I finished for him. "Sexist. Rude."

"No, it's not like that." He promised. "It had nothing to do with you."

"You sure jumped at the chance to take your anger out on me!"

"I know and I cant tell you how terrible I feel about that." He cried. "But it truly had nothing to do with you and had everything to do with him."

"Why do you hate Isaac so much?" How could anyone? He was a little rough around the edges but no one needed to hate him.

Dustin looked down at his own drink, pondering over his next words.

"You know how I told you about my friend, Noelle." He started. I nodded. "Can we go visit her?"

"What?" I shot back. I was extremely confused at the whole proposal. Even if we were still dating I would have thought this moment would come a lot later.

"She is a big part of what I'm trying to explain to you. Just... just trust me."

The hospital was only a short walk from campus. The second I walked in and saw the white linoleum floors and the grey painted walls and smelt the distinct scent of antibacterial cleaner I was transported to the last time I was in a hospital, the day my parents had their car accident. I was sitting in a waiting room chair, very similar to the ones surrounding me now, as Cooper tried and failed to convince me that everything was going to be okay.

I followed Dustin into and elevator and then down a quiet hall. Doors lined either wall but no one seemed to be going in or out. We arrived at the last door on the left. Dustin turned to me, smiled painfully, then twisted the doorknob and pushed through into the room.

"Hey, Noelle." Dustin mumbled as he stepped up to her bed. I watched as Noelle stayed perfectly still, her head laying back against a pillow and a tube ran into her mouth. She didn't move a muscle as Dustin took a seat on the end of her bed. "Its me again."

My legs wobbled as I stepped to an armchair in the corner of the room and took a seat, the unconscious girl before me sending chills down my spine. I stared, almost expecting her to burst to life any second now.

"She's in a coma." He explained, taking her hand in his. "It happened last year, our first year of university."

"I'm sorry." I whispered, afraid of waking her up even though I knew it wasn't possible.

"Google Noelle Day. Everything was reported on a thousand times." His voice wobbled.

I did as he asked, skimming through an article. Basically, she had gotten into a bar using a fake ID, gotten drunk, and slipped and fell, hitting her head. A mix of the intoxication and the head injury, left her in a coma.

"Cooper told me about the fake ID scandal with the school. I had no idea there was..." I stopped myself.

I did not want to say "fatalities". Noelle wasn't just a number, she was a person who Dustin loved.

"I'm so sorry, Dustin." I consoled. "I cant imagine."

Losing someone, I know that feeling all too well. But to have a person, someone who was important to you, here and alive, but in this state. Constantly wondering if they are ever going to wake up. It must be torture.

"I'm sorry..." I started, unsure of how to continue. "But what does this have to do with Isaac?"

"You don't know?" He asked, venom in his voice. "Your boyfriend and your roommate. They never told you about their little scheme? Their business?"

I slowly shook my head, unsure if I was ready to hear the words out of Dustin's mouth.

"Last year, they decided to start making and selling fake IDs. They sold one to everyone in the school, including Noelle." He glanced at Noelle then turned back to me. "She wasn't like them. She wasn't some trailer park trash idiot."

"Hey!" I jumped out of my chair. "Don't talk about Isaac and Pippa like that!"

Anger crossed his face as he continued. "She met Isaac and he led her on and used her and invited her to a bar and never showed up. He broke her heart... and he is the reason she's in a hospital instead of living her life."

I slumped back in the chair, trying to take it all in.

"He wouldn't have known she'd end up in a coma." I tried to reason.

"He left her in a sleazy bar surround by old men. Noelle's lucky falling into a coma is the only thing that happened."

Dustin was right. But I didn't want to believe him. i didn't want to think of Isaac doing that to someone. To a girl he was seeing. I didn't want to think "what if that was me?".

"It was you wasn't it." I realised. "The blackmail. You did that."

Dustin stared into my eyes and nodded.

"Give it back." I demanded.

"Give it back? They don't deserve to have it back. They did this to her!" I shouted.

"Not to them, to me." I growled. "I paid that for them because they couldn't afford it. Give it back and don't ever try to threaten them again. I've got nothing to lose going to the police."

Dustin nodded in understanding, his face still solemn.

"He really just left her there. All alone."

"You've met Isaac." He reasoned. "I don't know what kind of spell he puts girls under, but before he did it to you, you must have seen the way he uses girls."

I did. I saw the way he turned and grabbed a new girl the second he saw me with Cooper, the way he talked to me when we first met. I always saw it, I just ignored.

"I can't... I can't be here anymore." I muttered before walking out of the room.