Kris sat, looking a police officer in the eyes.
“How long has this been going on?”
“It started a week ago today.”
“Has he done anything internal? I mean break bones. Things besides bruises.”
“He broke two ribs, both of my shoulder blades, my tailbone and bruised my spinal cord,” Kris said, then glanced at her lap.
“Do you have proof?”
“Here are the X-rays.” She handed over a large folder containing X-rays. “I have witnesses, also, to prove that he was the one doing this.”
“Anything else? Proof-wise?”
“He left a welt on my neck just last night. I’m sure you can identify his prints from it; it’s pretty clearly marked.” The officer looked up. She lowered her turtleneck to show him the welt marks on her neck from the previous night. She’d approached him, and he tried to strangle her.
“We’ll have our official doctor and detectives check that out when I am done here.” Kris let her collar go. “Has he ever done anything before?”
“He’s slapped me across the face before, but that was a long time ago. I didn’t think anything of it.”
“What are you looking for?”
“A restraining order. Something to keep him away from me.”
“You’ll have to go to court. We’ll be proving everything there.”
“I understand that.”
“I’m afraid that’s all we can do right now. You’ll have to wait until you go to court tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow? Already?”
“Yes, tomorrow. Already. See, Kristina…”
“Kris, please.”
“See, Kris, we’ve known about this for quite some time.” Kris raised an eyebrow. “I’m assuming he’s a friend of yours. Mike Wilder called on Monday. He witnessed something Brian had done to you and immediately called us.”
“Dammit.”
“So we’ve been able to search this case for quite some time. We weren’t able to do anything until you yourself came to us, and we had the date reserved for tomorrow. If you didn’t come by then, then we were pretty much screwed.” The officer took the x-rays and stood. “I’ll take you to the doctor we have here. He’ll look at you and make a diagnosis.”
“Thank you.” Kris stood and followed the officer into a quaint doctor’s office. “He’s in his office right now, I’ll get him for you. In the meantime, change into that gown over there.” He closed the door. Kris made a face and quickly changed. She sat down and waited for the doctor to come in.
“Hello.” She looked over. “I’m Dr. Wright. Nice to meet you, Kris.” He held out his hand. Kristina reached over and shook it. “You’ve got some fresh welts I see.”
“Yeah.”
“How fresh?”
“Last night. I told my boyfriend about saying something, and he tried to kill me.”
“Did you tell this to the officer?”
“Yes.”
“Alright, as long as you told him.” Dr. Wright walked up to her. “Follow my finger, turning your head.” Kris followed his finger around, turning her head. “Reach up here.” He held his pen above her head. She lifted her arms and reached for the pen, which he made sure to hold just out of her reach. As her arms lifted, her shoulders cracked. He made a note of it. “Can you lay face down on the table? I’d like to take a look at your back.” She lied down on the table and let him look over her back. He took a note of everything he saw on the outside, then proceeded to look over her x-rays. “Who’s your doctor?”
“Dr. Corder.”
“Oh, Dr. Corder? We went to school together.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. He’s a good friend of mine.”
“Me too. He fixed me up pretty good.”
“Yeah, he’s exceptional at what he does.” Kris relaxed. Dr. Corder really was a good friend to her; he’d done a lot for her over the past week. “I’ll be done soon; there’s really not much I can check out as far as having you here. I have your x-rays, I really don’t need you.”
“Well, thanks, I feel loved.”
“What do you want to do? Be here or go home?”
“Yeah, I guess I want to get out of here.” Kris sighed. She had Zac waiting for her outside, and she knew she wanted to get out of there.
“Well, I’m done. Let me just see your neck and I’ll let you go.” Kris sat up and put her hair in a ponytail. Dr. Wright looked over her neck. “You definitely looked like someone strangled you.”
“How’s this going to help in my case?”
“What they’ll do is probably put his hands on your neck and see if they fit. And since the case is tomorrow, I don’t have to worry about taking any information from them.” Kris nodded. “Okay, I’m done. Get dressed and go.” He left. She quickly changed back into her clothes and looked for Zac outside.
“How’d it go?” Zac asked, standing up.
“We have to go to court tomorrow.”
“I leave tomorrow.” She stopped.
“Shit. Oh well, I have to be there. What time does your flight leave?”
“Noon.” She made a face.
“Well, I’ll stop by before we head off to court and say goodbye.” She linked her hand in his. “This is so weird.”
“What is?”
“You and me! Us! It’s just so weird because I never thought it would actually happen.”
“Why?”
“Well, cause I was with Taylor and you were with Misty. Of course Taylor and I had our problems, but you two never fought at all. I expected you to stay together for a really long time, which sucked on my part.”
“Misty had the hots for Taylor anyway.”
“She did?” Kris asked, turning to him. “I had no idea.”
“Well, I could tell. After being with her for so long you tend to learn a thing or two about a person and how the act in certain situations. I knew she wanted us to get together so she could have a chance for Taylor.”
“Wow. I guess I’m just clueless.”
“It wasn’t very obvious, but I knew.”
“Then why’d she stay with you for so long?”
“I don’t know.” Zac shrugged. “I’ve told you a few times, she’s weird.” Kris smiled. “This totally sucks that you’re older than me.”
“Dude, I’m older than Taylor.”
“Which sucks even more.”
“You make more money than me.”
“You don’t even work.”
“But you still make more money than me.” They walked out to the car. Kris got behind the wheel, while Zac sat next to her in shotgun. “Do you think this case will work out? A restraining order is pretty serious, but I don’t know what’s going happen. They don’t last forever.”
“Kris, I know it’ll work out. He’s beating the shit out of you; he’s going to get what he deserves.”
“It’s hard to think that he was once my best friend. I mean I knew him more than I knew anyone else in the world. Ever since I can remember we were best friends. Now he’s a completely different person.”
“Well, it happens Kris. I have wished that people would just stay the same, but it never worked out. People change, and most of the time they don’t even know it. Taylor changed into someone else when he met you.” She turned to him. As much as she just wanted to start the car and get out of that place, she wanted all her attention on this conversation. That’s why she ended up getting tickets, or running off the road when she talked to Zac. Their conversations were so in depth that she couldn’t pay attention to anything else, and she didn’t want to.
“Really?”
“Yeah. He was a typical, stupid, immature guy until he met you. I guess you just had that affect on him. I know you’re one of the most mature people I’ve ever met, especially for the age I met you at. I liked the old Taylor, but now I couldn’t possibly picture us going back to that.”
“Zac, you’re fourteen years old. You’ll be fifteen in two months, but you have to realize that you look and act like someone completely beyond your years. After seeing you again, I could not register in my mind that you’re fourteen. I still can’t. You act so much older than you are. Maybe it’s because you’re around Taylor and Isaac most of your time, and they’re older and they know better and all. Sure we all have our stupid moments, I happen to get them often, but all in all you’re just so old.”
“And it sucks.”
“Yeah. It does.”
“I was being sarcastic.”
“I’m not. I absolutely hate having this conversation right now, but you childhood is gone now. You can’t just sit back and be a kid. I’m sure you lost it a long time ago, sometime around when you guys hit it big. But you have responsibility and ethics far beyond what guys your age tends to be. I know, I went through that year looking at all the guys and laughing at them because they were so completely immature. I lost my childhood way too early. You’re an adult now, and you won’t be technically affiliated with others for three more years.”
“What are you saying?”
“I don’t know. I’m just talking. But I’m eighteen now. I’m a legal adult. I have to do everything myself. A year from I’ll be in college, away from home and living by myself. I’ll be supporting myself. That’s going to suck, royally, cause I don’t have a job right now. Everything’s been given to me on a silver platter.” She sighed. “Did you know I’m supposed to be out of high school now?” she asked. “The cutoff date is October 1st. My birthday is August 25th. I could have been out of high school right now and in college, but I didn’t want that. I started a year late just so I could have that extra year to get ready. Plus I wanted to be the oldest in my class.” She started the car. “I don’t even know why I’m telling you this. This conversation has no point.” She backed out of the parking space and went out onto the street.
“Kris…”
“You know what happens when you talk to me while I’m driving.”
“I just want to ask you a question.”
“Oh, okay. That’s acceptable.”
“Where are you going to college? Have you decided yet?”
“Stanford.”
“Where’d you pull that one from?”
“I got accepted already. I’m going to Stanford.”
“Why?”
“Can’t explain. Driving.”
“I hate you.”
“I love you too, Zac, don’t worry.” They drove the rest of the ride in silence. They always did; it was pretty much an unwritten rule. Conversations stayed when the car was parked and turned off, otherwise they’d probably end up dead.
Kris pulled up to the hotel. She parked and shut off the engine. “I don’t know why I’m going to Stanford. It’s a good place to go and all, and it’s away from Chicago. I’ve been here my entire life; it’s about time I leave. Anyway, I got accepted. It’s somewhere to go.”
“Do you have any idea what you want to do?” She shook her head.
“No clue.”
“That’s not good.”
“Everything I’ve ever wanted to do had to do with dance. Then my knee fucked up and that idea was shot to hell. I haven’t thought of anything. I’ve taken Psychology, and that’s fun. Anatomy was cool, but I can’t be a doctor or anything. I don’t have the stomach for it. Maybe after a year and some serious thinking, I’ll get there.”
“College isn’t for everyone you know, if you don’t like it, you can always get out of it.”
“I know it’s not for everyone, but it’s something I know I need to do. I do not have the best education I can get. I am not challenged at all. I need to be challenged, so I’m going to college to look for that.” She looked over at him. “Do you think I’ll make it?”
“Definitely.” She smiled.
“I’ll be by tomorrow, okay? I want to see you before you leave. I have to be in court at ten, so I’ll be here around eight, okay? Will you be up?”
“I’ll try…eight is kinda early.”
“Eight is not early, stupid. Four is early, eight is normal. Anyway, you can sleep on the plane.” He gave her a look. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” He kissed her, then got out of the car. “Bye.”
“Bye.” She watched him go in, then started the car and left.
“Brian Edward Hoffman, you are not to come within five hundred feet of Kristina Maria Carter, under any circumstances. If you violate this restraint, you will be imprisoned. Do you understand?”
“Yes sir,” Brian said, his hands slightly shaking.
“You’re lucky. You could have gotten jail time for what you did to her. She didn’t press those charges, though. If I hear anything, anything at all—any complaint from her, or any witness of you with her, you will be in jail. No questions asked, you’re gone.”
“Yes sir.”
“Court adjourned, case closed.” Judge John Anthony Saltzgaver stood and walked out of the court room. Kris let out a breath and looked at her lawyer.
“Thanks, Garrison.”
“I didn’t do anything, you did it all.” She quickly hugged him, then immediately stood up and brushed herself off. She walked out of the courtroom with him, and met Cynthia and Mr. Siracusa.
“Thank you very much, Mr. Sanborn,” Cynthia said. “You’ve done us a great favor and helping her out.”
“Well, it’s the best I can do for you,” he said. “And stop calling me Mr. Sanborn, I feel old. You’re my boss, I should be calling you Ms. Carter.”
“Mrs. Siracusa soon,” Cynthia said. Kris’s mouth dropped.
“When were you planning on telling me?” she yelled. She grabbed her mother’s hand and looked at her engagement ring. “That means you’re going to be my step-dad.” She looked at Mr. Siracusa. “That’s weird. Does that mean I get to call you David?”
“As long as we’re not in class.” She wrinkled her nose.
“Fine…” Kris smiled. “I guess I’ll have to deal with it.”
“You gonna be alright? I can take you home,” Cynthia. “David will take you car back to the house.”
“Mom, do you remember what happens when we get into a car together? I don’t want to get into a fight with you, okay?” Cynthia gave her a troubled look. “I’ll be fine, Mom. It’s all over now.”
“I just wish you would have said something earlier.”
“I’m sorry.” She walked off to her car. Before she could get in and drive off, Brian walked by, with a few other people she knew as his lawyers. He had a sly look on his face. It made her shiver.
“I’ll be back in three years,” he said to her, and smiled. “Restraining orders don’t last forever. Make sure you look behind every tree, girl. I’ll be looking for you.” Kris looked at his lawyers. They pretended not to hear a word he was saying to her. Cheap bastards, she thought
“Fuck you. Get away from me before I put you in jail.”
“Behind every tree.”