Waiting on Justin

Chapter 11

"Mr. Reyes came to see me at the shop."

"Why?"

"He wanted to know if I took you from the house."

"What? No! We left together, but—we had to."

"I know that and you do. The problem is they've got a school full of people who don't. My dad called and accused me of sleeping with you. He said you're a ward of the state now, and they can press charges against me for it."

"What do you mean? We haven't done anything because you knew that."

"Look, it doesn't matter. They won't bat an eye about charging me; everyone knows we're together."

"Charging you for what? You didn't do anything."

We've talked to Mr. Reyes since, and even he still doesn't believe we never had sex back then. We've agreed to disagree on the subject: we can't make him—or anyone—believe us if they don't want to, and that was his point to Justin that day.

"Haylee," Justin sighed and ran both of his hands through his hair, "Listen to me. They're going to try and charge me with statutory rape."

"They can't!"

"They can. And Mr. Reyes said they will if I keep you from them. Child Protective Services are looking for you. They want you to go with them today. As long as they get you, they won't charge me. You understand?"

"What are they going to do with me?"

"They're going to find you a home."

"A home? I have a home. We have a home."

"It's not a home for a fourteen-year-old girl. It's fine for me, I'm nineteen now and on my own. If you were older they wouldn't care. He says you need to be taken care of."

"I take care of myself. We take care of each other."

"I know that, but they don't care. If you don't turn yourself in, they're going to find me and charge me and arrest me! No more job, Haylee. No more money. No more home. I go to jail and they still take you. Do you know what that does to our future? It ruins it."

"But we haven't had sex! We could have last night, and we didn't. They can't!"

"Haylee," he said, cupping my face in his hands, staring me down, "They can–and they're going to. It's only a matter of time before they find me."

"Mr. Reyes turned you in?"

"No, but he can't risk his job over it, he said he has to tell them where I work tomorrow if you don't turn yourself in."

"But it's not fair, you didn't do anything wrong. You were saving us."

"I moved a fourteen-year-old girl into an apartment. What do you think it looks like to everyone?"

My head swam. This was not at all what I thought would happen. It was supposed to get better away from Clayton's wrath. Losing me scared Justin as much as losing him scared me. He raked his hands through his hair again.

"I can't lose you. You're all I've got. But he's right, I can't take care of you either. You need to be in school, doing Spirit week and worrying about test scores; not paying bills and dodging CPS."

"I'm going to school. I went today; yesterday I had to figure out the buses."

"Haylee you've barely been there since your mom died."

"So? Things are hard right now. I'll go. I won't miss a day. I promise."

"You don't get it. They think you need more help than I can give you right now and they're right. I can't afford to support the two of us. I can't give you the stuff you need. And I definitely can't if they lock me up."