Chapter 30. Not proofread so please ignore grammar mistakes, I will fix them when I finish.
Jenna rolled onto her stomach and gave me a sour look, her already tanned back glowing brown under the sun, contrasting with the grass. I had no idea why she’d suggested sunbathing, considering that she knew I hated bikinis and she was already tanned, but because I had barely seen her in three weeks, I decided to go along with it.
“So, is she okay?” she tried to clarify. I’d told her all about Ana’s disappearance and how Eli and I were back on track, well, as back on track as we could be. There was still part of me that was hesitant about telling him things that I didn’t want others to know.
“She seems fine. I’ve only seen Eli once since he picked her up and took her home. Spencer said that she was doing okay but he was very vague,” I said, twiddling my thumbs. Jenna rested her chin on her arms and looked at my shirt with her nose turned up.
“As cute as it is that Eli gave you one of his shirts, take it off! You’re meant to be catching some sun,” she exclaimed, gesturing wildly with one hand. I just rolled my eyes, shaking my head.
“No, I just burn, there’s no point.” She let it drop and looked over my head at Carter, who was struggling with a tray of drinks.
Carter nor Jenna had said anything more about the fact that they’d slept together, they weren’t acting any differently, either. I was beginning to wonder if I’d imagined Carter telling me that they’d done the dirty.
“What’s happening?” I asked after they’d spent a few minutes with the small talk. Carter shot me a warning look to which I raised an eyebrow.
“With what?” Jenna enquired, bringing the straw from her lemonade to her lips.
“The fact that the pair of you slept together and nobody is saying anything!” Jenna sighed, pushing the straw away from her mouth.
“We slept together but decided it was a mistake and isn’t to happen again,” she remarked. I glanced sideways at Carter, who seemed pained. “Right, Carter?” Carter jolted at the sound of her voice and nodded.
“Right.” I gave him one final longing look before giving up.
While the two of them talked, I watched Tempest trot around with Eli. He’d been trying to get on her back all afternoon and had spent the majority of that time on the floor, looking up at his rival. All he needed to do was get on and gain her trust, let her know that he wasn’t the one trying to hurt her, only the one trying to help her. Tempest had never really given in easily; she’d even proved volatile with Finn. He was one of the first that she’d put her faith in and when he failed her, that was seemingly it.
Eli caught my eye on his way back up to his feet. He gave me his usual nod with a small raise of the hand before turning back to his horse. I diverted my attention back to my friends, who were looking at me expectantly.
“Sorry, what did you say?” I asked. Carter chuckled, leaning back against the fence post.
“I said,” he started, drawing out the word. “What time is Ally’s wedding tomorrow?”
I chewed the inside of my lip. “Well, the wedding itself is at three and then the reception goes on through dinner and into the night. Why?” Carter gave me a one shouldered shrug, glancing at Jenna.
“Dale gave his plus one to his girlfriend so I can’t go with his ticket and when I asked him to bug Cooper about letting me go, he forgot. He’s not answering his phone, either so I think I’ll end up going anyway and hope that Cooper isn’t too pissed about it.”
Dale, when Cooper lived in the flats in town, was one of his close friends, alongside Josh. I’d never really met him or his girlfriend properly but as cousins, Dale and Carter were closer than most.
“I’m sure he won’t be too fussed, don’t worry about it,” I said, waving my hand dismissively. Carter nodded, brushing some of the grass from his jeans. Jenna sighed into her hands, letting out a deep breath.
“Is Dean going to be there?” she asked. I shook my head.
“He shouldn’t be. Eli’s only going because he’s my plus one, the families don’t know each other.” Jenna nodded along with my words.
“You shouldn’t get any trouble, then,” she assured. I rolled my lower lip into my mouth and sighed.
“He’s been surprisingly nice to me, actually.” I filled them both in on how he helped when Steven had confronted me and how polite he’d been when he showed up at the yard the other day, looking for Eli.
Carter and Jenna had reacted exactly how I’d expected when I sat them down and told them the whole story about Finn. Obviously, they’d been surprised, but they hadn’t called me on it or asked many questions, just told me that if I needed them, they were there. Anything else would’ve been unwelcomed, they know that I didn’t like questions being fired at me all the time but they also knew that things being ignored weren’t the best way to go about them, so in a way, they made the right decision.
“Maybe it just hit home that you weren’t making it up,” Jenna offered, pushing herself up to roll onto her back. She put her sunglasses down over her eyes and looked at me expectantly, waiting for an answer.
“I don’t know. I think it’s going to be pretty bad when I get back to school,” I said. Carter grimaced.
“Might not be. Before, everything was kinda out of the blue, this time, there’s something to back this assault up” he reasoned. I decided against answering and merely shrugged, glancing over at Eli. Unsurprisingly, his back hit the floor, again.
Huffing, my boyfriend got to his feet and sighed, retreating over to our circle.
“That horse is going to be the end of me,” he muttered, dropping onto the floor next to me. He made himself comfortable, winding his arm around my shoulders to pull me against him. Carter watched with one raised brow and Jenna groaned, stretching out.
“You look like you shrunk in the wash,” he added, looking down at me in his shirt and shorts. I smiled, prodding his stomach.
“And you look like crap. I’d give the riding a rest,” I replied. Carter chuckled.
“You two are so romantic,” he drawled. I kicked his shin and rolled my eyes.
“Don’t even get me started on you,” I started and Jenna shot up, holding her hand out to shut me up.
“You can be quiet,” she warned. I laughed, leaning against Eli’s firm, yet slightly sweaty, chest.
Jenna got to her feet, pushing some grass from her stomach and stretched her arms out. I glanced out of the corner of my eye to see where Eli was looking. Much to my relief, he wasn’t looking at her, like most guys would. Most guys also included Carter, who was unabashedly catching flies by gawping at her.
“Kathryn!” I heard from behind me. Eli twisted and I looked over my shoulder. My mum was standing in the doorway, gesturing for me to come inside. As I got up, I noticed two familiar cars in the small car park outside the field.
“Who’s that?” Carter whispered, nodding subtly towards the tall man strolling towards our doorway.
“Inspector Marks,” I answered, getting up. The other car in the parking area was my dad’s, which was surprising and relieving at the same time. Eli gave my thigh a pat, making me tense for a moment. It wasn’t often that someone touched my leg and it wasn’t something that I was quite used to. After swallowing the pant that was making its way up my throat, I offered him a smile and ran my hand through his soft curls before walking towards the door.
When I got into the kitchen, Mum was sitting on the left hand side of the table, with my dad beside her. Marks was at the head of the table with a cup of coffee and a clipboard.
“Good afternoon,” he greeted when I pulled out a chair. I shot my mum a nervous glance and she nodded back, a smile playing on her lips.
“The court case this time around is probably going to be a bit harder on you, Kathryn,” the inspector started, not beating around the bush. “This case has been brought up twice and your brother’s lawyer is likely to play on that so the questioning is going to be quite a bit different than the first time around.” I listened, trying not to show my anxiety at getting back in there.
Apparently, anything could’ve influenced me finally going to the police and getting the word out. They could play on the fact that I was making it up, or someone had manipulated me into making the situation worse. It could, of course, go the complete opposite way and work in my favour, showing how vicious my brother had been in his threats.
“Because I’m not allowed to be bias in these cases, your therapist is going to do some research and get you a list of questions that are relatively likely to come up during questioning. You’ll need to prepare answers for these and try to prepare yourself for what is going to be said,” he stopped to let me take it in. I nodded, letting him know that I understood.
“Am I going to be accused of lying again?” I asked quietly, feeling my stomach drop with dread. The inspector’s eyes softened and he sighed, leaning back in his chair.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time now and that form of leading questioning is common. Because you’re young, they see you as easy to influence. Questions and accusations make younger people lose their bottle and if they lose their bottle, the lawyers win the case for their client. If you get my gist,” he said, gesturing animatedly with his hands. I sighed, looking up at the ceiling and taking a deep breath.
“Love, you don’t have to go into the court room, you can still take the option of a video statement,” Dad said but I shook my head, dismissing the idea before it even got out.
“I want to go in there and face him. After everything that happened, I can’t let him win,” I whispered the final words, looking at my intertwined hands.
“Kat, look at me,” Finn murmured, tipping my chin with his thumb. I looked up into his violet eyes, his sadness influencing mine. I ran my hand through my hair and attempted to get to my feet, my knee and arm weak from the attack.
“Come here, sweetheart,” he whispered, pulling me up against his chest. I welcomed the support as he helped me limp over to the picnic tables at the back of the park. A tear spilled down my cheek. Finn noticed, reaching up to wipe it away.
“I’m sorry,” I choked out, looking down at my trembling hands and bloody knee. It was my first ever fight, my first big argument that had actually resulted in someone hitting me. Jenna was normally the type that got into fights, not me.
“Don’t you ever apologise,” he said, taking off his shirt to wipe the blood from my knee. “What happened?” he asked, putting pressure on the spot. I winced and opened one eye to look at him. My brother, the one who hurt me when nobody was around, was sitting at my feet; doing everything he could to help me. He certainly was an enigma.
“I was talking to Jacob,” I explained. Finn nodded, knowing the back story. Jacob was a bully and a dick, but he was also the popular girl in our year, Alisha’s boyfriend. She was from the rougher side of the village, much like Jacob, but she had a bigger temper on her. “It was only about homework and she came over, shouting her mouth off,” I continued. Finn looked up, parking himself on the bench next to me.
“And then what happened?” he urged. I blew out through shaky lips.
“I denied everything and got a bit pissed off. She took it to the next level, got in my face. I backed up a bit and she pushed me. I fell over,” I added sheepishly, suddenly embarrassed. At the simple age of thirteen, conflict and confrontation was something that I tended to avoid where possible. Jacob had been the same up until a few years after where he changed and got into all the wrong pastimes. Most of them included Alisha herself.
“Did you say anything back after she pushed you?” Finn asked, examining my wrist. I shook my head and he sighed, pulling me in for a hug. I could hear his rapid heartbeat against my ear, his warm chest radiating against my cheek. He was an envelope, an embrace, but he was also dangerous. That was something I forgot whenever he was nice to me. Every nerve in my body would hope that it was his turning point, the time where he noticed that we could be close and friends without everything that he did.
“No.”
“You should’ve,” he said, pulling away to look at me. His dark hair shone in the light, matching his light tan. Although he was a footballer, he had what Mum had always described as a rugby player’s nose. One that was pushed back, looked as though it had been broken a couple times.
“I can’t, it would’ve only made it worse.” Finn shook his head, prodding the clover on my chest. He grabbed his own chain, the one that I got him the year after he got me the clover. It had taken me ages to save up for but the look on his face when he’d opened the box had made it worth it in the end.
“Don’t let that silly little bitch walk all over you, sweetheart, she’s not worth it,” he said, tugging his bloody shirt back on with a grunt. I sighed, not answering him.
“Ignore her; if that’s all you want to do. But don’t ever, ever let her win, don’t let her think that she’s broken you.”