Dismissing Dakota | ✓

»37. PEACH«

"But how did she get your number?"

"Ollie," Dakota replied. "He's with her in San Diego. She asked him if he had my number and he did. I told Heath, too, about this just in case he could get here before I could. He's with Ronnie at the moment and he told me they were still on their way when I pulled up to your place."

That added up to me. Ollie, Beth's brother, was on the Lacrosse team and so was Dakota before I knew him. They were in the same social group of friends until Dakota had a falling out with Maven. After hearing that, I brought out my phone and checked my messages, now realizing that since I had shifted my phone to do not disturb for my mother it had stopped me from receiving calls from her. She had sent me numerous text messages, all sent in caps lock.

Dakota took the risk of losing his life by coming here, confronting Jared head on without any weapons. He came in fearless, he came in for me. That meant a great deal to me, seeing how much I mattered to him in real time. I wasn't sure of it before, having gone through trails of mistrust in our past. The doubt I had reserved for Dakota in my heart became to melt away like ice; overshadowed by the doubt was a new sense of security in him, in us.

Was there even an us? I thought, knowing how often I had pushed against a relationship with him, I wondered if he had hope of us mending what we had before. Did he see no point in us getting back together graduation so close by? I had to ask, but not now. I had more important things to tend to.

"Let me bandage this up," I said, grabbing his hand with the nasty cut. I walked him to the bathroom and did my best to wash it and treat the wound. "The police are on their way. I told them he had knife so hopefully they also bring an ambulance with them so they can look at this."

"I hope so, too." Dakota winced in pain, grimacing even more when I tightly bound a cloth around his cut. "That fucking hurts. Easy, babe."

"Sorry," I whispered, smiling at his words. "What did you do to him? Is he...dead?"

"No, he's not." Dakota shocked me with his next set of words. "Do you want to see him?"

"Sure," I said and followed him to the living room. Seated in a dining chair, Jared was tapped to a chair. I wasn't joking, tapped. "You couldn't have used rope? I can't believe you duck tapped him."

"I couldn't find any. Sorry, it's not like I know the layout of your house." Dakota snickered. "I know if I had a lot of time to find it before he'd wake up."

Jared's head lolled to the side. He was unconscious still, softly breathing from his open mouth. To his side, a wallet was placed where his feet were planted. I kneeled down to the floor, collecting it and examining the content inside.

"Look." I handed Dakota the paper. "It's my address. This isn't his writing, though. I remember it, and it was different than this. Someone else wrote this for him."

"What the..." he squinted, hard. "How the fuck did he get it?"

Ronnie and Heath arrived the same time the police did. They didn't allow them to come inside, asking them to remain on the sidewalk while they did their questioning. I was short with my answers, mostly so I could get back to Dakota. He was outside, having his wound treated. When he was done, they questioned us separately. Jared was ushered out of the house long ago, fighting against the hold of the cops that had him handcuffed and guided to a police van.

"How are you?" Ronnie was the first to come inside after the cops left. Right behind here, Heath rushed inside. They had walked in Dakota and I embracing each other. I let go of him, walking up to my friend. "I got here as soon as Dakota told us about it. Are you ok?"