Two Boys, One Girl, Three Hearts, and One Year

24. Here Comes Trouble

Saturday September 4

Jason's P.O.V.

I hide my head as Roy Richards walks into the cafe.  What the heck is he doing here?  I thought he's suppose to be in jail?!  Maya sure won't like to hear the news I have for her.  My eyes met Trish's and I know we're thinking the same thing, "Let's get out of here before there's trouble." 

I casually get up and Trish follows my example.  We act like we're just going about our days, but we're really trying to not catch Roy's attention.  Roy is on the other side of the room and has now walked up to the counter to order.  Good.  He doesn't know we're here.

We grab our drinks and muffin and our making our way to the door when I feel a hard tug on my shirt.  I turn my head to see who it is while Trish is pulling on my arm trying to get me out of the cafe.  It's Roy.  How did he notice us?

"Where do you think you're going Arnold?" he whispers harshly into my ear. 

I pull free of him and let Trish pull me out of the cafe, but unfortunately Roy follows us.

Trish and me walk for a little while hoping he'll go back to the cafe after a little while.  However, I guess luck wasn't on our side today.

Roy follows us for a few blocks and I don't know what else to do.  Where can we go?  He must really want to fight, but I don't.  That's the last thing I need right now.  Do we keep walking?  Our bikes are about 3 minutes away and we'd have to turn around to get them.

I lean and whisper to Trish, "What should we do?"

"I don't know," she whispers back.

Too bad there isn't a police station nearby.  Wait..  Isn't Roy suppose to be in jail?

"Isn't he suppose to be in jail?"

"I thought so..but obviously he isn't..  Maybe he's free on bail or community service?"  Her eyes widen.  "You don't think he escaped do you?"

"I doubt they'd let him just do community service.  Wouldn't we have heard if he escaped though?  I think bail seems the most likely, but he's a bit too dangerous to release don't you think?"

Trish nods.  It doesn't really matter why he's free it just matter that he is.  I don't want either of us to go home because then he might stalk us, but knowing Roy he probably already knows where I live.

I take Trish's hand, "Come on, let's go somewhere where there are a lot of witnesses.  Just in case."

We almost reach the mall when out of nowhere I get tackled to the ground.  Roy.  Trish screams and tries to push Roy off of me, but it doesn't work too well. 

"Just call 911."  I pull Roy down and we start to wrestle while Trish is fiddling with her phone.  After a few seconds, I finally manage to get Roy off of me and stand up.  Jeesh.  He feels like he's 200 pounds and he's almost 7 ft.

I only manage to stand for a little before he punches me in the chest and all my air is knocked out of me.  Trish tries to intervene again, but I tell her not to get in between us.  It's better if I get hurt than she does.  I'm pretty deserving of it anyway.

I called Dylan too.  Him and Maya are on their way.  Great.  Now everyone is going to get in on this.  I look at her for a second and it turns out to be a huge mistake.  Roy knocks me down again and has me pinned to the ground.  He holds me down for a little and then gets up.  What the heck?

After he gets off me, he grabs Trish.  "Come on girlie let's leave Arnold to think about his decisions."

My body aches, but I push myself up off the ground and I can feel anger pulsing through my veins.  He's really lucky that I'm not who I used to be.  Otherwise, he'd probably be the one on the ground panting or even worse..  No, that's not who I am anymore. 

I struggle to keep my cool, but pull Trish away from him.  "Go away Roy."

He gets all up in my face, "Why don't you Arnold?  Huh?  Come on!  Fight me!  Or are you to chicken?  That's it isn't it?  You don't have the guts anymore cause now your a softy!" he laughs sinisterly. 

Trish is now shaking in fright and standing behind my back.  My anger is starting to peak.  I guess I really have changed.  Well, at least I care about people now. 

I glare at him and he continues to mock and tease me.  My fists clench, but so far I have control.  Well, most of it.  I'm just worried that any second now I'll change back to my old ways.

Trish places her hand on my arm and whispers, "Jason, you've got this.  Don't fight him.  He isn't worth it."

She's right.  So right.

He goes to throw another punch at him, but instead of attacking him, I merely defend myself.  He looks surprised.  He probably thought I'd break easily.  Lucky for me, that's not how it's going.

Suddenly, all three of us hear sirens approaching and I watch Roy as he panics and runs off.  Oh crap.  Maybe he did escape jail? 

Trish doesn't seem to notice that I'm lost in my mind, but wraps her arms around me and pulls me into a hug.  "I know you could do it."

I look down at her and smile.  "Yeah.  Thanks for believing in me."

We stand like that until the police and everyone gets there.  They ask both of us some questions, and we end up finding out that Roy did escape jail.  It hasn't been on the news because he killed on the guards that were on duty, therefore they didn't know right away.  And that's not even the best part.  He let some of his new criminal friends lose too.  As if I don't have enough to think about with my dad.  Now I have to look out for Roy and his crazy friends coming after me.

Dylan and Maya get there a few minutes after everything is explained to Trish and me.  Dylan jogs over to me and pulls me into a hug. 

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." 

We stop hugging and then Maya practically throws herself into my arms.  She catches me off guard, but I still manage to catch her.

"I'm so glad you're ok!"

I just kind of laugh.  "Listen Maya, I have some really bad news for you then.."

She frowns for a minute, but then hugs me tighter.  I take my eyes off her and look at Trish who is standing there awkwardly and then I look at Dylan.  He's ticked.  Why?  I don't know...