Chapter 11: Making New Friends

College was a big change from high school, just as I knew it would be. For the first month, it was learning the routine, sizing up the class demands and getting to know some of the instructors and my fellow students. I didn’t have every class with Tory but I got the impression that several of the young ladies had taken him under their wing and that probably provided him with more protection than any guy could ... and that certainly included me.

We’d managed to steer clear of Reggie Marlowe over that period but sooner or later he’d make himself known again. It happened at the end of the week before Thanksgiving when Tory and I were headed to our lockers. His was a few yards from mine and while I was putting some of my books away, I heard a scuffle break in out in Tory’s direction. Sure enough, good old Reggie had appeared on the scene and decided this was a good time to make Tory’s life miserable. I shut my locker and headed down there, knowing this could be a bad move but also knowing I wasn’t going to let Reggie push Tory around.

I was within about ten feet when I saw the most amazing site. A very attractive young woman, no more than five foot two, stepped in between Reggie and Tory, grabbed Reggie by the arm and unceremoniously dumped him on his ass ... hard! I walked up to her and dropped to my knees.

I looked up at her and said, “Marry me. You’re the woman of my dreams.”

She was stunned for a moment until she burst out laughing. I dragged myself up off the floor and turned to Tory. “You okay?”

He nodded, grinning at my silly performance.

I turned to the young lady and bowed. “My name is Joel Timmins and on behalf of my good friend Tory Payne, I’d like to thank you for making my day. Hell ... you made my week,” I laughed.

In the meantime, Reggie Marlowe had recovered from the shock of his landing and was climbing to his feet. He was red-faced with embarrassment while staring daggers at the three of us before he skulked off into the bowels of the college.

“Bye, Reggie,” she said, more than loud enough for him to hear her. He didn’t respond or even acknowledge her.

“Miss ... may I have your name?” I requested with another bow.

“Sharon Weller. And you two are friends?” she wondered, looking at Tory.

“Absolutely ... bonded at the hip ... or as close to that as we can get,” I grinned.

She laughed again. “You are quite the wise guy, huh?”

“Not really but you really did cheer me up with that thing you did to Reggie. What was it?”

“I teach taekwondo. That was a simple move, but looks like it was effective,” she commented, looking down the hall where Reggie had disappeared.

“Tory, I think you should enroll in Ms. Weller’s class,” I suggested. “It might just be something that could be very useful in future. Besides, you’ll get personal instruction from her as well and that would be an added bonus,” I said with a smirk and wiggling my eyebrows.

“You could be right,” Tory nodded. “Is their room in your class, Ma’am?”

“I’m not a Ma’am ... yet,” she smiled. “And yes, there is room in my class. We meet on Wednesday evenings at seven at the Clarksville Community Center. Wear your gym shorts, runners and t-shirt. We’ll take care of the rest.”

“So ... you’re a student here too, Miss Keller?”

“Yes ... I’m a student. I just finished four years in the Army and I’m catching up on my schooling. Back when I was in high school, I couldn’t wait to get out of school, so I joined the Army. The first thing they did was send me to school. I should have known,” she laughed.

Sharon had a nice easy way about her and she was easy to like. I think Tory was smitten but she must have been in her early to mid-twenties and despite her diminutive size, a little too much for him. But a guy can dream, can’t he?

We thanked her for rescuing Tory and she bid us good afternoon.

“Wow, she’s really something,” Tory said.

“She sure is,” I agreed. “I gather you plan to pay close attention to her instructions in class, right?”

“You gather right on,” Tory grinned.

Word of Reggie’s humiliation got around Crook pretty quickly. Sharon became an instant celebrity with a lot of the young ladies who had been hassled by Reggie or any of the other guys who thought it was cool to act like a jerk. I was worried that he might seek revenge but all we could do as a group was to keep our eyes open and have our cell phones handy in case he did try something. Still, we let Marcus Conradi know about the incident. It never hurts to have the staff aware.

It was two weeks later that I noticed Tory hadn’t shown up on the Monday morning for his first class. That was a first. I asked around, but no one had seen him since Friday afternoon. I assumed he might not be feeling well, so didn’t think about it afterwards. That lasted until noon hour when Marcus Conradi and Mr. Pankhurst, the college counselor approached me.

“Joel, I had a call from Mrs. Payne about Tory,” Marcus said solemnly. “It seems he was attacked and beaten very badly over the weekend. He’s in the hospital. He’s got some cracked ribs, a ruptured spleen and a concussion. He hasn’t been able to tell anyone what happened. Do you know anything about it?”

“No, I don’t. He was attacked?” I was shocked. This kind of thing didn’t happen around here. “Can I go see him?” I asked.

“I don’t think he’s able to have visitors. When I talked to his mother, he was unconscious and isolated in Intensive Care.”

“You don’t suppose this could have been Reggie Marlowe, do you?” I wondered.

“Why would you say that?” Pankhurst wondered.

“Marcus ... I mean, Mr. Conradi knows about Reggie giving Tory a hard time. He’s done it twice now. The first time, Mr. Conradi put a stop to it. The second time, Sharon Weller put him on his butt when he tried to manhandle Tory. He’d be my first suspect,” I said.

The two men looked at each other. “I think I’ll contact the sheriff’s office and let them know about our suspicions,” Pankhurst said.

“Is he going be okay?” I asked.

“His mother said he’s expected to recover, but it will take a while,” Pankhurst answered. “I don’t expect him back here for at least a couple of weeks, and likely longer.”

“Oh, Man, that sucks. It’s a good thing he’s super smart. He’ll probably be able to catch up,” I suggested. “I better let Sharon know. She’ll be really upset.”

“Is that Sharon Weller, the same young lady who was in the Army?” Pankhurst asked.

“Yes. She’s also a taekwondo instructor and Tory was in her class. Looks like it didn’t do him much good this time.”

“Well, it didn’t happen on college property, so there isn’t much we can do about it,” Pankhurst mused. “We’ll have to leave it in the hands of the sheriff’s department. If you hear anything, let us know, Joel. We’ll make sure it gets passed along.”

I nodded. “Thanks. Maybe somebody knows something.”

It was three days later when Sharon let me know that Tory was awake and was allow limited visitors.

“Have you talked to him?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No, it’s only immediate family allowed right now. Maybe tomorrow we can get in. I’ll check with the front desk tomorrow morning to see if we’re allowed.”

“I want to go with you if we can get to see him,” I said.

“Yeah ... I figured. I’ll make sure to tell you what I hear from the desk nurse.”

“Thanks, Sharon. I’ll keep my fingers crossed he’s going to be okay.”

“He probably will be, Joel. I’ve seen a lot worse in Afghanistan and the guys come through okay. He’s young and strong and healthy. He’ll be okay sooner or later.”

I thought about what she said about Tory being strong. It wasn’t his stature she was referring to, that’s for sure. As I’d gotten to know the young guy, I was impressed with how confident he was. My exposure to him was in class, and he was one smart kid. No wonder he was a couple of grades ahead of his age. I was really glad that Sharon had taken a liking to him too. That would be good for his ego. It’s not like she towered over him. They were about the same height but Sharon was well built in every respect. Not the prettiest girl in the college, but nice, sexy and confident.

It wasn’t until Saturday, almost a week after Tory had been admitted, that we were allowed to visit him. I met Sharon in the entrance lobby and we took the elevator to the third floor. Sharon had already talked to Mrs. Payne, and she was really pleased that we wanted to visit him. As it happened, she was in Tory’s room when we arrived.

“Oh, thank you so much for coming,” she said, hugging Sharon and me. “He’s doing a lot better, as you’ll discover. I’ll wait out in the hall. We can talk after your visit.”

I approached his bed with Sharon and was shocked at the appearance of my friend. One side of his face was purple with bruising, and both his eyes had been blackened. I tried not to show my shock but I don’t think I succeeded.

“Hey, Tory, how you doing?” I asked, knowing just how dumb that question was.

“I’m okay, as long as I don’t breathe,” he croaked, trying to smile.

“I’ve really got my work cut out for me if I’m going to get you ready to ward off another attack,” Sharon grinned.

“Hard to defend yourself when they hit you from behind,” he said.

“They? There was more than one?” I asked, surprised.

“Yeah ... two. Reggie and some other guy I didn’t really get a good look at. I was too busy trying to keep from getting killed.”

“You going to be here for a while?” Sharon wondered.

“Yeah ... at least another week. Then, I’ll be home for a while before I can get back to school. It sucks just lying here.”

“So ... it was Reggie who did this to you?” I confirmed.

“Yeah. I told the sheriff’s guy who it was. I haven’t heard what they’re going to do about it though. I think my mom is driving them crazy down there trying to find out if he’s been arrested.”

“Good for her,” Sharon nodded.

“Do you know why he attacked you?” I wondered.

“Nope. Just came up behind me and clouted me in the back of the head. Knocked me dizzy and on the ground. Then the beating started.”

“I don’t get it. Why? What did you ever do to him?” I asked aloud.

“No idea,” Tory said, groaning as he tried to lift his shoulder. Sharon stepped up and helped him get more comfortable.

“Well, he won’t get away with it, that’s certain,” Sharon said.

“I’m not so sure,” Tory added. “There were no witnesses. It’ll be his word against mine.”

“Yeah, well Sharon and I can testify that Reggie has already caused you problems. Even Mr. Conradi can testify that he had to intervene once. That should help,” I said with some confidence.

“I hope so. I sure don’t want to go through this again. I hurt all over my body.”

Yeah, I can see you took a hell of a beating. I’m just glad you’ll recover from it at some point. If there’s anything Sharon and I can do to help, just name it. We’ll try and figure something out about your class work too,” I promised.

“Thanks Joel, and you too, Sharon. I’m getting a bit sleepy, so maybe I’ll rest now, he said,” his eyes slowly closing.

“We’ll be back, Tory. See you then,” Sharon said as we prepared to leave.

Mrs. Payne was sitting in a chair just down the hallway a few yards and we stopped to talk to her.

“Is the sheriff taking this seriously?” I asked her.

“He says he is. However, without witnesses he’s only got Tory’s word for who did it to him.”

“Joel and I talked about that, Mrs. Payne. We’re both witnesses that Reggie has scuffled with Tory before at school. And Mr. Conradi of the staff was also there to break up a hassle that Reggie was doing on Tory. We should be able to convince him to testify as well.”