They're faint, but they're still there. Just enough to notice.
Tears fill my eyes be a use I honestly wasn't expecting to see scars and I'm shocked he willingly showed me his arm anyways and my mind is raving again because he knew they were there and showed me the tattoo anyways and he probably knew I'd see the scars. It brings to mind the ones I have that are hidden to the entire rest if the world. I secret I alone hold. I notice him looking at me still looking at his arm and my heart breaks. He doesn't look sad for the scars on himself or even for me seeing them.
“ time passes. They heal, but never quite go away” he says still holding his arm out. The worst ones are in the lines of his tattoo and I make more sense if why it's there. He rolls his sleeve down and I look up at him and a single tear rolls from my eye and I swipe it away. I hate crying. I haven't even mentioned mine but he knows. He knows they're there. It's a silent conversation and takes my wrist and looks at it and I just shake my head and slide my sleeve up my elbow. “Sometimes they do go away physically but I still know it's there hiding. The first time. Other ones are never going away. “ I say looking down drawing x’s on my thighs. “Tally marks of secrets and betrayal and pain. “ he nods with hazy eyes and pulls me into another unexpected hug. I clung onto him trying not to cry because no one else knows.
“ I've never told anyone. I just sit and pray by myself for help that never comes” I whisper into the hug.
“Sometimes you need a real person with hands and feet to help and that's okay. Stay strong and stay alive. I know sometimes it feels Luke pain is all you have but it doesn't help. Promise me you will stop and that you'll get help when you need it. “ he says whilst still hugging me. All I can do is nod and once he pulls away again a say that I I promise I will.
That silence settles of awkwardness if we jys had a heart to heart in a parking lot and we both have things to do. He realizes that imhe has to leave be ayse his wife needs him at home. I nod and thank him for everything in tis moment. “ I didn't expect thus but I'm thankful it happened. “ I say and put my hand in u pockets preparing myself to walk away and officially say goodbye when he stops me.
“ I don't normally do this but I feel like I need to.” He says and pulls an old are kept from his pocket and a pen. At first it strikes me as odd to have a pen but then again he probably uses it often enough to sign stuff for fans. He scribbles on the back of the receipt and hands it to me. It's a phone number. “I want you to keep in contact OK? And uh. Please don't share that”
I laugh and say alright. I fold it and stick it In my front pocket and thank him again and we say our goodbyes. I walk back to my car because there's no way I'm going grocery shopping right now. I sit down in the cab of my little truck eutg the windows down and it all feels foreign. Like something life hanging just happened and I'm so glad about it. I pull the reciepr from my pocket and committee the number to memory. I lay my head down on the steering wheel and close my eyes. Just as I start to smile again and nearly laugh I feel a cold piece of metal against the side if my head. I start and jerk my head up to see a dark mask in the fading light of day. There's a sudden spark of light, pain, then darkness.
………………….
It was all over the news. A murder in the winco parking lot on the day he met that girl. It was two days ago and he was wondering why she hadnt contacted him yet. He didn't want to consider that it was her that had been killed because what are the odds?
Tyler told Jenna about the girl once he got home that day because katherine had such a strange impact on him and Jenna was wondering what took so long. Tyler told her about giving her his phone number to keep in contact which she was fine with. Jenna knew he wasn't with bad intentions.
Neither of them wanted to talk about the possibility of Katherine being the one who was shot. There was still the chance that she just lost the paper or was nervous or hadn't had time.
There was a knock at the door.
Tyler jumped up to get it being that not many people came to their house unexpected. Looking through the eyehole he saw two tall men in blue uniforms with a woman in a business type suit. Tyler opened the door concerned and wondering why they were there. “Hi can I help you? “ Tyler said.
The three people gave him a brief run down. There was a girl who had been found dead in a parking lot clutching onto a piece of receipt paper with numbers scribbled on the back of it. The officers systems connected that number to him and wanted to ask some questions about “his relationship to the deceased”.
By this piint Jenna had come around the corner to see a shell shocked tyler, two emotionless officers, and a slightly sympathetic detective and our it together quickly. She raced to his side just in time for him to collapse againstvher and fall into tears. The detective seemed surprised that he was just finding out about the girls death and offered to come back another time. But her words fell on dead ears and Tyler clung tightly to Jenna sobs racking his body. The young girl he barely knew and talked to for a very short time had been killed moments after meeting him and it broke his heart into millions of pieces. He didn't know her but he knew he would grieve her loss for the rest of his life.
