I licked my lips, nervously fingering my ringlets and staring at the wall in front of me.
"Why don't you take a seat?" the same girl who had asked for my name suggested. I took a deep breath and took the only empty chair.
"Is he okay?" she asked, looking over at Jake. I just nodded. "I'm Jessica," she said, extending her hand to me.
"Ryanne," I said again.
"This is Hailey, Amy, Veronica, Gabriella, and Tiffany." She pointed to each individual girl. I nodded, memorizing each person's name.
"You, uh, brought your boyfriend?" I wanted to knock my head against the table. Thankfully, a waitress came over.
"A young man offered to buy you all drinks," she said, pointing to Jake. I rolled my eyes, knowing what he was doing. The boy was the king of peace offerings.
"What can I get you all?" We each ordered and then the woman walked away. She walked up to Jake and started an easy dialogue that was probably meant to sound flirtatious.
"Where are you from?" the one named Hailey said. We all talked about that for a brief second before the waitress arrived with our drinks. I looked over to find Jake staring at me.
Thank you, I mouthed to him. He tipped his soda towards me in response, a gentle smile on his lips.
"So you brought your boyfriend?" I felt bad that I had brought him, but my fears overrode my caring about others. And I felt super selfish for it.
I nodded to respond to her question. "He, uh, he's been through a lot with me. And I feel safer with him around." All of them looked at me like I was stupid. I suppose it was to be expected. Like I had told Jake, most of them didn't have someone like Jake.
"I don't know what you guys are thinking, but Jake won't hurt you."
They just nodded at me, put it didn't seem like they believed me. I wanted to add that he'd bought the drinks as a gesture towards them. We sat there in silence, awkward teenagers that had so much in common and didn't know how to connect about it. I looked down at the foam of my macchiato and tried really hard to think of something to say.
"So he came down here to, uh support you?" Amy asked then. I sighed, not wanting to remember the day.
"Jake, um," I paused and looked over at Jake. He smiled at me again, soft and sure. "Jake was there the day that, uh." The five girls around me nodded, allowing me to not finish my sentence. "He's the reason that things didn't get any farther than they did." Jessica looked down at her lap and I instantly felt bad. But no one said anything and I didn't get any looks from the others. "So this is kind of closure for both of us, you know?"
"Is that why you're here?" Tiffany asked. "Closure?" she seemed shy, quiet, and afraid.
"I, um, yes and no," I admitted. "Part of me wants to face him one more time, to let him know that he didn't win. The other part of me wants to make sure that he, uh, doesn't - that he can't do this to anyone else."
Jessica nodded along with me. And I think that I saw Veronica do the same thing. But the rest of the girls just looked floored. I wasn't sure what I had said wrong, but I instantly felt bad for it.
"I'm sorry; I didn't want to offend anyone. I just -"
"No, don't be," Gabriella said, resting her hand over me. "Don't be sorry. I'm here because my parents wanted me to come and do this and I didn't want to disappoint them. They don't know everything that happened. And I don't want to tell them, you know." I nodded. "I don't want them to worry about me. I keep telling myself that I can do this, but I wasn't sure. Not until you said what you did. I hadn't thought of it that way. Being here, not allowing him to win, protecting other girls; you're right, that's what we need to do."
I smiled at her timidly, glad that she agreed, glad that I had helped someone in the smallest way. I noticed Jake pay the waitress with a credit card, pointing back over to us.
"If you don't mind me asking, why is he pointing at us?" Veronica asked.
"I would guess that he's trying to get us more coffee or cake or whatever we'd like. He's a little overprotective," I said. "But after everything that happened with Murphy, I don't mind it." His name slipped from my mouth. I watched all of the girls flinch. "I'm sorry; I tend to talk and not to think."
The bell jingled on the door. Jake jumped to his feet, coming to stand within a few feet of us. Amy and Hailey scurried away from him while I sought protection behind him. A woman walked in, a man who I assumed to be her husband right behind her.
"That's my mother," Veronica said. "And her husband. I should get going." Jake stepped away from the table, any threat that he could've perceived gone, but he lingered close to my side.
"Ronny," the woman said politely. "It's nice to meet you all girls. I'm Heather, this is Jackson."
Everyone except for Veronica looked a little paralyzed.
"Ryanne," I said, extending my hand. Both clasped it. Jake wrapped his arm around my waist, probably smelling my fear. The man in front of me looked too similar to Murphy for my liking.
"Jacob," he said, reaching out to shake hands. Both parents stared at him.
"Hailey," she said as she stood. Jake and I seemed to break the tension. All of the sudden, another set of parents appeared to collect Tiffany. We, as the victims, grabbed our phones and exchanged numbers.
"We parents should get together," Amy's mother said. I nodded to her, discovering that of everyone, I was the one who was the least shy of the group. And it dawned on me that I was probably the one who got away the easiest. I was probably the one who got saved the earliest.
"I know that my father would like that," I said. The other girls nodded. The mothers of some of the others agreed.
"What about your mother, dear?"
"She's not here." Jake gripped my hand in his and stroked his thumb over the back of my hand. "But my father is a police chief in Forks. He will definitely want to talk to everyone." I noticed that all the parents were trying to pretend like this was some social gathering instead of a court hearing for their daughters' attacker. The various parents were collecting their girls and bidding us goodbye, asking the others to pass on the request to our parents. And then there was me and Jessica. Jake moved his way back to the bar that he'd been sitting out.
"You can stay," Jessica said quietly. "She said you were a little overprotective. And you haven't tried anything yet." Jake thanked her and sat on chair beside me, his hand resting against my thigh, drawing circles on my jeans.
"It's strange, isn't it?"
"What is?"
"Watching everyone pretend that they're okay; it's a coping mechanism. The parents try to make everything out to be this normal thing. You're the first one of the girls to actually realize what this was," she said.
"What do you mean?"
"Like Gabriella said, she was only here for her parents. Amy is here to prove to her little sister that you do what is right no matter how uncomfortable you feel. Veronica is here because he took her security; she's homeschooled now. Hailey doesn't know why she's here. She just feels like it's the right thing to do. And it is. But you and I, we're here so that this monster doesn't have the chance to hurt someone else. And I admire you for your realism."
"You're braver than I am," I told her. "I'm sorry that no one was there to stop him," I said quietly.
"You weren't the one who did this," she replied. "And I have a chance to show him exactly what you were saying. I have a chance to show him that he didn't break me and that he didn't win. Because, right here, right now, I'm healing. This is the first time that I have sat with a boy at the table since it happened almost two years ago. I'm getting better."
"Who are you here with?"
"My sister; my mom died a few years back." I just nodded. "It's just the two of us now." She didn't say anything to me, but I saw fear flash in her eyes. I looked over at Jake, who nodded a little.
"Jessica, I'm sure that you're afraid. And I don't want you to think that I'm being forward or anything. But you're not alone in this and you don't have to be worried about Murphy. Jake won't let him get to any of us."
"Promise," Jake's deep voice rang through the little restaurant. Jessica nodded and smiled at the both of us.
"Thank you," she whispered. I noticed a quiet little girl walk in, looking only a few years older than me and Jake. "That's my sister. I should get going. It was nice to meet you Ryanne. And thank you, Jake."
When she was out the door, I rested my head against Jake's shoulder and intertwined our fingers.
"Thank you, Jake. I love you." He chuckled and kissed my hair.
"I love you too."