Ride (h.s)

26

Jane

Tuesday we were back in school and I was patiently waiting for a phone call for a job.

We had to present in class and I was nervous. I sat in my seat a little bit earlier than usual going over my speech, Harry sat beside me doing the same. After a few people walked in, I eventually saw Olivia, but something was off. I decided to wait until after class to talk to her.

My speech went well and luckily the class went by quickly. I packed my stuff while Harry stood to wait for me at the door. "Go ahead, I'm going to talk to Olivia," I told him, he agreed to wait outside. I walked over to her where she was shoving her stuff in her bag looking upset. "Hey."

She looked up and then back down in embarrassment. "Oh hey, Jane." I looked at her and she was all covered up and looked exhausted. "I have to go." She walked past me making me quickly run ahead of her to stop her before she left. I stood in front of the door, luckily everyone had walked out.

"I need to talk to you," I told her sternly.

"About what?" She crossed her arms.

I let out an annoyed sigh. "I think it's really messed up you would ditch me for your boyfriend and you didn't even have the kindness to call me. I waited for you and you didn't call. I was worried." She looked down at her feet and I realized she was crying.

"Well, you don't have to worry about him anymore because we broke up." She tried to get past me but I stopped her. "Jane move-"

"No! What happened? I'm your friend Olivia I care about you so much." She shook her head sitting on one of the chairs covering her face.

After a minute she looked up and said something that made my stomach drop. "H-he hurt me last night." Before I could talk she lifted her shirt and that's when I saw it; Her pale skin was covered in large bruises. "I-I didn't want to have sex with him a-and he got upset and told me to leave. We s-started arguing and he slapped me and beat me up and I couldn't fight him off." I didn't feel sad, I felt anger; a fit of painful anger that was making my skin boil. The type of anger that made you want to throw up.

"That son of a bitch," I said through my teeth. "We're going to the police."

She cried. "He sent me a bunch of messages saying if I went to the police no one would believe me, and he waits at my apartment Jane, I don't know what to do." She sobbed. I went to hug her and she held on to me. "He said he loved me."

"Olivia, we have to go to the police," I told her. "You have the bruises, and the texts, that's enough to write up a report."

"No, he'll get out of it, his family has money, they have lawyers." She shook her head. "He'll get out and he could do something to me or-" she spoke frantically.

"Okay, okay we can go in the morning but we should take photos of the bruises before they disappear okay. We can go in the morning, I'll go with you and we are going to get him arrested." She nodded."I'll go home with you-" she shook her head.

"He has a key to my apartment, what if he shows up." She spoke frantically.

"Okay we'll go and get some clothes and you can stay at my house." I helped her up picking up her backpack. "Come on."

As she walked beside me she limped and held on to me. I didn't notice it when she came in earlier. "He knows where you live Jane, what if he comes there?" Clearly, she was frightened. I tried to think of what to do. I didn't know what he was capable of and I wasn't willing to find out. We walked out into the fresh air and Harry sat on a bench waiting for me. "Don't tell him anything." She begged.