Chapter 28

"No, dammit!" Kaitlyn was upset. "I'm NOT gonna skip the last few days of school, especially finals week, because of that asshole! And I don't wanna hear anything more about it!" She lowered her voice to almost a whisper when George's cell phone rang, and he answered it as she kept arguing her case with anyone who was there to hear her.

I hadn't been with Kay long enough to see or hear her really get upset at anything, so I didn't really want to push too hard. I knew she wasn't pissed off at me, personally, or at George or Suzy, just at the idea of what they had proposed. Well, Mitch had proposed it, after seeing what had happened to Kay's former roomie, but George had basically agreed with him, and Suzy went along with the two of them. Like I said, Kaitlyn wasn't upset with any of us, just wasn't about to give any of it up for Todd, or anyone else.

George disconnected from whoever he'd been talking to. I assumed it had been Mitch, or someone at the hospital, so I asked him, "Did Donna give a statement yet? And did she say it was Todd?"

Suzy chimed in, "And do we have any idea where that sonofabitch is hiding?"

"No, no, and no," said George. He looked tired. "I wish I could answer yes to all of that, but Donna isn't out of the recovery room yet. They did get the internal bleeding stopped, but she's not doing as well as they'd hoped." He sighed again, "From what they said, it's a wonder she made it to the classroom, then to the parking lot." He shook his head and said, "I just hope Richelle doesn't go off the deep end. I've never seen her so pissed off, and she didn't even know this girl."

Suzy snorted, "Don't have to know her to feel what she went through. But we've talked, and Richelle has told me things that made my hair stand on end. She has her own demons she's been fighting; old memories. Some of them got stirred up here." She looked at me, "Can you hold the fort here for a while? I wanna run up to the hospital and see Richelle, talk to her, maybe talk her down from whatever she thinks she's gonna do about it." She looked at George, "I'll be back in a couple of hours, maybe even bring her back with me. I'll bring Laurel back, at least. Probably a good thing she's there with her. Richelle won't run off half-cocked and leave Laurel by herself."

I nodded, and Kay said, "Bring her back here. You guys can even stay here tonight, if you think that'll help." She looked at me, and I nodded approval, and George did, as well.

Suzy gave Kay a hug and said, "Thanks," and headed out to her car. The tow truck driver had changed the flats on both vehicles without incident. The white car that our driver had spotted had pulled out of the student lot as soon as the service guy showed up. Guy must have figured he'd been made, and didn't want to hang around there any longer.

Richelle had wanted to go over to the hospital to make sure Donna was okay, so she took Kay's car, and Laurel went with her. She told Kay later, "No way I'm letting her go up there by herself. I know, she's a cop, and carries a gun, and all that, but maybe I can still help."

We watched Suzy's car pull out onto the road, then Kay turned to George and asked, "Have you eaten anything today?" He mumbled something about "not hungry", but she wasn't having any of it. "Sit! There's nothing you can do for anyone right now, and you need to eat! I'll fix some soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, and you'll eat them, or else!"

"Better do like she says, George, I'm afraid she's serious!" I looked at Kay, standing there with her hands on her hips, tapping her foot. "Yep," I said, "she's serious."

George nodded and stayed seated at the table, tracing the pattern in the formica top with his finger. After a while he said, "Did I tell you we had a table like this when I was ... yeah, I guess I did." He got that faraway expression in his eyes again, and said, "Dad would have sided with Kay, I think. He woulda said it ain't worth livin' if you have to knuckle under to some asshole and walk around scared all the time." He sighed, and looked at Kaitlyn, "Still, me and my brother were the only kids he had to worry about. Maybe if he'd had a little girl he would have thought different."

He sat quiet like that for a few minutes, until Kay set a bowl of soup in front of him, along with one of her grilled cheese sandwiches, and bent over and hugged him. "I appreciate you worrying about me, George, but your father was right. And for what it's worth, my dad says the same thing, and he's got two of us girls to think about. This little girl will be all right." She looked at me, "Especially now I've got people here to watch my back. Now eat!"

He sighed again, "Yes, Mom," and grinned around a bite of sandwich. "Mmmm, good!"

Kay just swatted him on the shoulder and said, "You can meet Mom and Dad, and ask 'em yourself, if you come to the wedding. You're invited, you know."

She turned and hugged me, and asked if I wanted coffee or anything, and I said, "Coffee, I guess, and just for the record, it isn't just your back I'm watching." Did I mention she's a great kisser? Lucky we were standing behind George, where he couldn't see us!

Laurel's turn:

Richelle had wanted to go with the ambulance, but there was no room, and Mitch wanted her right there with us, so we waited for the service guy to get there, with two of Mitch's guys to check out the cars and bring them home, then we left.

Richelle seemed like she was in another world, like she didn't wanna talk, so nobody bothered her. But then when they brought Kay and Suzy's cars back, she asked if I wanted to go with her to the hospital to check on Donna. Kay said to go ahead and take her car, so we did.

She still didn't wanna talk much, so I turned on the radio, and saw it was set to satellite. Ran through the presets, and there was Aretha, singin' "Respect". Was before my time, but one of the music electives I had taken a few semesters back, had gotten into Motown, and Gospel/Soul, and Aretha Franklin had caught my attention right off. Got an iPod full of her, Diana Ross, Gladys Knight, and a bunch of others.

Unfortunately, it got Richelle's attention as well, and she stabbed at the radio until she'd turned it off. Startled me at first, then I thought she was being funny, but when I looked closer at her I saw she was definitely not trying to be funny. Had her hands so tight on the wheel it was a wonder they didn't cramp. She was staring straight ahead, and it scared me. I tried to talk with her, but it seemed like she was in another dimension, not aware of anyone, including me, around her. But she threaded through the fairly heavy traffic without missing a beat, and we pulled into the hospital emergency lot without a problem, and pulled into a spot marked "official".

I looked around and saw Mitch's car, and the van we'd left the school in, and turned back to see Richelle with her head resting on her hands, on the steering wheel. "Are you okay, girl? What is it? What can I do?"

She looked at me again, and shook her head, as if clearing it. "Sorry. That song. Can't stand that song. Brings back too much hurt."

I didn't press the matter. If she didn't want to listen to that song, we wouldn't listen to it. It did bother me, though, to see she was hurting, but I didn't say anything. Left the radio off, and sat in silence for a few minutes, and then she said, "Sorry, it comes and goes, and sometimes I just leave it go, other times I have to act it out." She stared straight ahead at the bushes at the edge of the lot for a while, her face expressionless. Then she startled me by slapping her hand on the wheel. "But dammit, I'm still me, and I still have feelings."

Then she turned and looked at me and asked, "You wanna see 'respect'?" She pulled up her polo shirt, and yanked up her bra, revealing her breasts. "That song was playin' when he done this." My eyes must have asked the question, because she shook her head and said, "No, not Todd. There's other assholes that get their rocks off doin' somethin' like this." She shuddered again, "This goes back to when I was nineteen, and got all fluttery over some smooth-talkin' sonofabitch, and he turned out to be way bad news."

I didn't want to look, but something told me it was important. Then I wished I hadn't. The whole thing with Todd and friends came crashing down again, and I started to cry all over again. Her right breast was smooth, and beautiful, except for the awful scar where a nipple ought to be. And there were other scars too. She shrugged into her clothes again, and said, "He had got me drunk, and tied me to the bed while I was passed out. He was stoned as well as half drunk, and he enjoyed himself. Bein' that drunk still wasn't enough to block the pain when he bit me there." She saw the question in my eyes, "No, he didn't actually bite it off, but there was nothing they could do to save it after he was through. Left other scars and marks too, some inside, where nobody can see, but this one hurt the worst." She paused a minute and shook her head again. "Thing is, that song was playin' all through it, and I could hear it plain as day, even over all the screamin' that I could hear in the background. You know, for a while, I kept hearin' it in my mind, like it was on the track that was playin' on the stereo. And I couldn't help thinking they'd messed up that CD somehow. Then I knew it was me I was hearin', not somebody on a stereo." Her face screwed up, then her voice dropped to a whisper, and a tear rolled down her cheek, "And it hurt so bad..."

I reached over and put my hand on hers on the wheel. She flinched a little. After a while she said, "And that's why I get so uptight when I see what happened to you, and now this Donna." She shook herself again, and said, "Sorry to lay all that on you, c'mon, let's go on in and see how your friend is."

Kay's thoughts:

George stayed with us for a little while after Suzy left, and I made him sit down and have some lunch. We talked about lots of things, but mainly about the wedding, and about how he hadn't been to one in several years. "Heard my daughter got married a while back, but I guess they've all disowned me." He got a strange expression on his face, "Maybe I'll come to your wedding after all, if only to refresh my memory. Not sure why you need a bouncer, though," and he smiled wryly.

I hugged him again and said, "No, it shouldn't get rowdy enough to need a bouncer. We just want you to be there as our friend."

He smiled and said, "Miss Kaitlyn, I wouldn't miss it for the world!"

I looked at Rob, and he must have caught something from my expression, because he got a real thoughtful look on his face, and then he made up his mind on what he was thinking. He looked at George and said, "You know, I'm gonna feel outnumbered up there. Kay must have a couple of dozen bridesmaids, (I swatted him for that) and I got nobody yet." He paused for a few seconds, then, "George, would you stand up with me? You know, like moral support. I need a best man, and I'd be honored if you'd stand with me."

You ask me why I love this guy? Well, right there was a real good reason – he cares!

George just sat there staring at the table, running his finger over the pattern again. "I couldn't bust in on your day, kids, wouldn't be right."

Rob waved off that response, and said, "No busting in at all. I'd really like to have you up there with us!"