Unsound: A Horizons Book (10 page)

“Jeff, seriously! Calm—” I was cut off as Jeff spun to pace back and walked into me, not expecting me to block his path.

“I’m sorry,” he said, wrapping his arms around my waist to keep me from falling backwards,  “What are you? Half ninja?”

“Don’t be sorry for bumping into me. Be sorry for how you’re taking this, Jeff,” I said looking up at him.

“How I’m, how I’m,” Jeff looked down at me, stunned. I tried to stay firm and ignore the warmth of his palms penetrating through the thin material of my blouse. Then I saw as my words hit him fully and he took a few steps back.

“How I’m taking this?” Jeff started, his voice rising again. I rolled my eyes, which fueled his anger, “Michelle has gone behind my back, lied to my face, and
completely
disrespected me and the rules of my school.

“And Deputy Evan has severely crossed a line. He knows the students are off limits. It shouldn’t even be a question that they’re off limits. Michelle has had a difficult past. He’s taking advantage of the situation.”

“Or he loves her,” I said, the rise in my voice matching Jeff’s, “and he cares about her just as much as you do, if in a completely different way.

“Maybe your rules shouldn’t blanket everyone who attends your school and you have to realize that Michelle is seventeen, only three years younger than Evan. She respects you so much; she obviously cares a great deal about this guy to have even gone behind your back to see him, to build a relationship with him. Why don’t you hear her out first?”

Jeff

I stared at Lena. Her chocolate brown eyes bore into mine, challenging me. My pupils dilated. I couldn’t help how attracted I was to this woman.

“Can I take you out sometime?” I heard the words leave my mouth before they processed in my brain. I shut my mouth tight.

It took a moment for the realization to wash over Lena’s features. Quickly replaced by anger.

“Are you serious?” she asked. I felt a flush creep up my neck. I couldn’t believe I misread the signs. 

Were there signs?  Why did I even go there
?

“I’ve never met a bigger hypocrite!” Lena exclaimed. I stared at her, my mouth parting in confusion.

“You have been going off about Michelle for the last twenty minutes—ranting on and on about how inappropriate it is for her to be dating someone that’s associated with the school and her recovery and–” she stopped talking to look at me. I lowered my head as she chastised me, but she was right. She knew it wouldn’t be appropriate to go out with me, for so many reasons.

“You’re my boss! My superior! Is that what you… expect out of me?” Lena clamped her hands over her mouth. She didn’t realize she said that out loud. I was in front of her in an instant cupping her face lightly with my hands. 

“I never want you to think that way. I mean, I am your boss. And I guess you’re right—it’s definitely
slightly
inappropriate, but I don’t expect anything from you. Was just hoping…” I trailed off and dropped my hands, taking a small step back out of her personal space again.

At that Lena smiled and trained her eyes on mine, “Hoping?”

I blushed and shrugged, “Hoping that I wasn’t exaggerating the signs. Hoping there were signs. That I was reading them correctly….”

Lena was nervous and slowly backed towards the door to my office. It was late and she had to go home to process. As she turned her back on me, I dropped my head again. I couldn’t believe I screwed it up.  Maybe if I had just waited a little longer.

With her hand on the doorknob, Lena turned back, “hey,” she said quietly, waiting until I looked up, “I’d love it. You know… if we got together sometime. Maybe next week you can come over? For dinner?”

I stood in stunned silence as Lena walked out of my office, temporarily forgetting about my problem with Michelle.

Julie

We took Michelle to the cabin. Jeff was too angry to speak to her yet.

              She went through bouts of crying so hard, I thought she was going to hyperventilate, followed by long, scary silences where the tears still streamed down her face. I tried to soothe her as much as I could, but it was pointless. There was no consoling her yet. Not until she spoke to Jeff and put all the worst-case scenarios out of her head.

During the loud sobbing, she was streaming stories of Evan having to leave the state and move away due to her age. She rambled about statutory rape and ruining his life and how terrible she was and how it was all her fault.

I didn’t know if my platitudes helped, mainly since I wasn’t sure I believed them myself. The situation looked really bad.

I sat in bed with Michelle until she finally fell asleep.

Jason

When we got back to the school, Anthony said a hasty goodbye to his parents. Considering the weeks of buildup and excitement, it was a shitty way to see them off.

“What’s up, man?” I asked Anthony as I caught up to him. We were almost at the cabin door, when he stopped and turned to look at me. I couldn’t place the look in his eyes, it was distant and cold, which were not traits I would ever use to describe Tony.

“Nothing, bro,” he responded, turning away from me, “just tired. I want to go to sleep.”

That was that. Conversation over. Over the next few days, Anthony’s attitude didn’t change. There was definitely something going on with him but I had no way to get to the bottom of it. When I talked to Jon about it, he thought maybe it had something to do with Marie. We noticed that Tony was giving her attitude too. That was definitely not like him.

Julie

A couple days later, Michelle walked into the cabin, pale, but not crying. I didn’t want to push her, so I stayed silent, reading, until she was ready to talk.

              “He wouldn’t talk to me,” Michelle said quietly as she sat down on my bed.

I looked up from my book, confused.

“He’s so mad, he wouldn’t even see me,” Michelle said.

“Oh,” was all I could manage. I didn’t know what else to say.

Silence from Jeff, Mister-Feelings?
That was new. That was scary. That was unpredictable.

“Lena didn’t say much either. She just said that Jeff needed to cool down. I thought I had given him enough time. I don’t know what to do.”

“Don’t think about the worst case scenarios,” I started. I hated to see her so worked up when she didn’t know the outcome yet, “I know you’re upset, and that’s allowed, but you need to stop creating stories in your head. It’s going to work out, so you need to try to not jump to the worst case scenario. You’re going to make yourself sick doing that.”

Michelle remained silent, but she nodded. At least she was listening to me.

“I have an idea. I know it’s not smart for you to, but I’m going to call Deputy Evan for you,” I said. Michelle’s eyes got big.

“I – I,” she stammered but I held up a hand.

“He’s freaking out too. You have to realize that. He had the last conversation with Jeff, he hasn’t been able to reach out to you, and he’s worried about you just as much as you’re worried about him. I’m going to call him. Just let him know you’re ok, and tell him that you’re worried. I promise, it’s going to be okay. Just give me the number and I’ll go do it now.”

“Ok,” Michelle croaked, her voice thick with emotion.

I ran over to the main lobby and snuck up to the loft. Since Evan had a local number, the calls to him weren’t tracked. That’s how Michelle got away with talking to him for so long. I made sure I was in the clear before I dialed.

Evan picked up on the first ring, “Hello?” he said excitedly. He was smart not to say more in case I was Jeff.

“Hey Evan,” I said quietly.

“Mi-Michelle?” he responded, doubt in his voice.

“No, sorry, it’s Julie.”

“Where’s Michelle? Is she okay?”

“Yeah, sorry. Sorry. I don’t mean to scare you,” I rambled quickly. I was doing a lousy job at this, “I told Michelle I would give you a call. See how you were doing, let you know that she’s okay. I mean… she’s devastated and scared, but she’s okay. How are you holding up?”

Evan chuckled in disbelief on the other side, “God, that girl. She’s checking up on me? I’m the one who got her into this mess. I convinced her to grab food. I ran her smack dab into Jeff and ruined everything, and she’s still checking on me?

“She’s unbelievable,” he finished with a sigh. I could almost hear the wistful smile on his face. He loved Michelle.

“She is, but you didn’t answer. Has Jeff called your boss yet? Is anything bad going to happen?”

“I haven’t heard from the Sheriff yet today. I had off yesterday and I called out of work today and I’ve been hiding out in my apartment going crazy. I want to talk to Jeff.”

“I’m not sure if that’s going to happen any time soon. He literally won’t talk to Michelle at all. None of us have even seen him. He’s holed up in his office,” I responded. I heard Evan sigh loudly.

“I just wish I knew what to do. Do I talk to Jeff first or just come clean to Sheriff Frankel? She’s seventeen. I really don’t know what that means for me,” Evan said. He sounded so sad. I think he wanted nothing more than to protect Michelle but he didn’t know how too.

“You know, Evan, is it okay that I call you Evan?”

He chuckled again, “Yes, you can call be Evan when I’m off duty.”

“Well, you’re not that much older. You’re only 20-years-old. Michelle is 17-years-old, legal in a few months. I don’t think you can really get in trouble for this. Plus, Michelle is an orphan, who’s going to press charges? I don’t think that Jeff can,” I commented, not really sure if I was correct.

“I know. I know legally it’s okay, technically. It’s the ethics behind all of this. Considering where Michelle is… and me being in a position of authority. It looks bad. Really bad. I don’t want to ruin her life,” Evan said. I could hear the desperation in his voice.

“You know, you two really are perfect for each other,” I responded, “she feels the exact same way. So if you’re both in agreement, neither of you is going to let the other ruin anyone’s life. This is going to work out.”

This was the first time I actually felt any conviction behind my words. Hearing Evan say that their relationship wasn’t illegal definitely helped. If it were just an ethical issue, Jeff wouldn’t try to press charges. Evan wouldn’t have to leave his post. Nothing would happen to Michelle.

We talked a little more, and I assured Evan that I would cheer Michelle up. I think Evan was considerably cheered by the conversation as well. That’s when I decided that if Jeff didn’t change his mind, we would find a way convince him that this was okay, that this was healthy for Michelle. She deserved that from us, and after speaking with him, Evan did too.

I made it back to Michelle with the good news. Their relationship wasn’t illegal, and Jeff would calm down. Evan was sad and missed her and wished he was here to help her, but otherwise, he was okay. Michelle didn’t show it much, but she was relieved. It helped, though she chose to spend the rest of the day in bed anyway.

JONATHAN

More days had passed since the infamous dinner and Jay and I knew something was definitely up with Tony. He wouldn’t talk to us about it; he went from sulky to downright mean to Marie and the other girls. Jeff still wasn’t around, still angry with Michelle, so we couldn’t ask his opinion on the matter. It was up to us.

Jay popped his head in the cabin, “Jon, let’s go. I just saw him walking into the woods.”

I got up and pulled my sneakers on. I wanted to figure out what was going on with my friend. If Anthony wasn’t going to talk, we were going to stalk him and get to the bottom of it like little bitches. That’s what family did.

When we finally got closer, we saw two large guys standing with Anthony, just beyond the clearing. We walked slowly out towards the trio—not sure what to expect.

“You sent your brother away Tony, this is your fault—you knew he was going to get big time for this,” Thug Number One said.

“And you lost the stash… all of it!” Thug Number Two added.

“What the hell were you thinking? I’m in rehab! They sent me out here so I wouldn’t be involved with you assholes. When Freddy showed me the bag, I flushed it,” Tony yelled back, pacing back and forth. That’s when he saw Jay and me standing there.

“Guys, what the fuck, you followed me?” he yelled at us.

“Who the fuck are they?” Thug One asked, as Thug Two reached to the back of his waistband.

“They’re no one,” Anthony said, “they’re leaving. Just let them leave.”

“Are you fucking crazy? So they go back and rat like you? They’re in this now…” Thug Two said, his hand still behind his back.

“Okay, there was an easy way for this, but now…” Thug One stopped talking and looked past the three of us. I thought I heard something too, or rather someone walking through the trees near us.

“Shut up,” Thug Two ordered us, finally pulling a gun out from behind his back.

That’s when a very pretty blonde girl appeared a few yards off. Julie was half dressed in a sports bra, spandex running tights and sneakers, shaking a cigarette out of a pack as she walked towards the clearing. She had her iPod in and sang to herself as she walked closer.