Innocent

Chapter 5

We didn’t say anything to each other at first as we walked down the street together. We looked behind us a few times to make sure Mr Waters wasn’t following us. Every time we heard a car approach from behind us, we would stand still and glance over at the car and praying that it wouldn’t be James’ Dad. So far so good he hasn’t come for us.

“Are you hungry?” James asked me, starting the conservation.

“Yeah, I am. I haven’t eaten anything all day, except for a donut. I locked myself in my room all day. I was so mad at my family for starting the protest. Well, Daniel organised it.”

“Do you want to get some pizza and sit in the park?”

I smiled. “Yeah, I would like that.”

“I like what you have done with your hair by the way. The orange streak in your hair looks kind of cool. I have never seen someone with orange streaks before.”

“I have never either and I thought it would be cool to put them in my hair considering it’s my favourite colour. I have used other colours too. Pink was the last colour I had used.”

Sometimes I don’t know why I even put the colour streaks in my hair. I guess I just wanted to change my looks a bit. I hadn’t paid much attention to myself since what happened to James. I even put on a few pounds because I was depressed, but I managed to snap out of it and not let one stupid thing take over my life.

“Well, the colour looks great on you.”

I smiled at him, thanking him.

We continued to walk in since, trying to think of what else to talk about. To tell you the truth it just felt awkward. I guess that we haven’t been together for so long and now we are back together, I wasn’t even sure what we could talk about. It reminds me of how we used to be when we first started talking to each other.

As we walked, I searched for something to talk about. What do you even say to a friend that you haven’t seen in for so many years? I guess you could talk about a lot of things, but for some reason I couldn’t really think of what to say. All I could really think about is what my family is going to say when they find out that I’m out here wandering the streets with James. Mr Waters was on my mind too. I kept wondering whether or not if he would chase after us in his car, pulling James into the car to take him home. He would most likely pull me into his car too and…

My mind drifted to where we were in James’ room and the things his father said that he would do. I wasn’t sure what I would do if he did it again. And the fact that he will send James back to jail. I don’t know what scared me the most. Being raped again or seeing James get put back into prison for something he has never done, only because his father didn’t want him around and that’s why he did what he did to me.

“You know how your dad said that he did what he did to get rid of you, what does he mean by that?” I asked James.

James was quiet for a second. “He was planning to get rid of me. I came home late a couple of nights before and he didn’t like it that I was hanging out with you all the time. I remember him giving me this evil smile and he promised me that he was going to make sure that we won’t ever see each other again.”

I felt sick in the stomach. “That’s why he raped me? He didn’t want us to see each other and then framed you?”

“Yeah, that’s what happened. And then he kept threatening us if we were to tell the truth.”

Everything played in my head of that horrifying day. “You know how I tried to tell the truth about what happened? Just after the judge sentence you and walked you out, your dad pulled me aside and threatened me for trying to tell the truth. He then laugh at me because no one believed my story.”