by Michelle Amy
As Jason closed the distance between us I wrapped my fingers in the back of McCoy’s shirt. “Stay away from us!”
My warning didn’t stop him. When he was close enough I kicked out at his shins, desperate to stay at McCoy’s side and protect him. He grabbed one of my ankles and tried to drag me away from McCoy, but I clung desperately to his shirt. I cried and screamed and kicked. Jason climbed on top of me and tried to pry McCoy’s shirt from my grip. I fought with everything I had.
I brought my knee up into Jason’s gut. He grunted but didn’t stop trying to force me to let go. Finally he succeeded. I screamed louder and he dragged me away across the hardwood floor. I shouted for help. There had to be someone out there who would hear me.
Jason pinned me down. I was staring up at his wide eyes and gritted teeth. He yelled at me to stay still. I couldn’t. Panic was swelling in me. Not being able to move lit a flame of anxiety that made it hard to breathe. I gasped for air. Jason slammed my wrists down on the hardwood to try to get my attention. I closed my eyes against the pain in my chest. Panic attack. I tried to tell him I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t get the words out. He started swimming in my vision above me.
Jason called my name. The anger in his voice seemed to be less intense. He let go of my wrists and shook my shoulders. “Veronica!”
Jason grunted above me and suddenly the feeling of being smothered was gone. The weight of him on my stomach disappeared. His hands were no longer on my shoulders and I could move freely again. I tried to suck in a deep breath of air to no avail.
Then someone was lifting me up. The smell of something familiar filled my nose. Familiar and soothing. Cigarettes and a sweet muskiness. McCoy.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
He placed me on the bottom step of the stairs up to the bedrooms and forced me to sit up. He was kneeling in front of me, his eyes fixed on me. He cupped my cheeks in both hands and called my name gently. “Breathe out.”
I clutched at my chest. The pain was growing worse. I wanted to breathe so badly. I wanted to cry. I wanted to tell him I loved him; wanted him to hold me. I tried to suck in a deep breath but it only burned more viciously.
“Veronica,” McCoy’s voice sounded far away, “listen to me. Breathe out. Slowly. You can do this.”
I couldn’t do it. I tried. McCoy put his hand behind my head and sat beside me on the stairs. He pulled my cheek to his chest and rested his chin on my head. He rubbed the back of my neck with his fingers. “Please,” he whispered.
The breath escaped through my lips. The agony in my lungs softened to a dull throb and I was able to draw in a shallow breath. I tucked myself in closer to him as my breathing evened out. He held me tighter and drew me up between his legs, as if he could completely envelop me into his own being.
“Are you okay?” He asked.
I nodded. My tears leaked on to his shirt. I clutched at the fabric and breathed in deep breaths that smelled like him. He kissed the top of my head and I felt him let out a deep breath of his own. “I’ve got you.”
Carly came through the front door. She was out of breath. She called my name before she saw me curled up in McCoy’s arms on the stairs. I looked up at her. She was alone. “The police are coming,” she said, and I realized she wasn’t talking to me, she was talking to McCoy.
I felt him nod. Then he motioned Carly over. She cast a wary glance at Jason, who I had already completely forgotten about. He was standing in the open archway to the kitchen. He still held the bat in his hand, but his grip wasn’t as tight as it had been, and his face wasn’t set with the same bitter anger that had scared me to death. Jason was watching McCoy as Carly approached us on the stairs.
McCoy guided her down to the bottom step beside us. She sat behind me as I still clung to McCoy’s shirt. Then he gently encouraged me to let go of him. Carly took my wrists and pulled me closer to her as McCoy untangled himself from me and stood. As I watched him step down into the hallway I could see that he wasn’t entirely steady on his feet.
Jason didn’t seem to catch the subtle sway. He stared at McCoy with an expression I couldn’t
read. McCoy stretched out an arm. “Give me the bat.”
Jason shook his head.
“I’m not asking.” McCoy’s voice was menacing. This was the man I recognized from the first night I saw him when Carly was throwing up in the grass. His demeanor wasn’t the calm and gentle one I had grown used to. His fist was clenched by his side. His back was straight. The hand he held out to Jason flexed to encourage him to hand the weapon over.
Jason still wouldn’t submit. He took an uneasy step backwards from McCoy.
Then I heard sirens whirring to life outside. A sob escaped me that I realized was relief. Carly was shaking as she held on to me. She pulled me closer and we wrapped our arms around each other.
Jason seemed to hear the sirens as well, and his reaction to the sound was not what I had been anticipating. He let out an angry yell and raised the bat over his head. He swung with as much strength as he possessed, and the bat whistled through the air, forcing McCoy to jump back a step. I watched in horror as Jason swung again, his anger pushing him forwards with ferocity. He raised the bat over his head. I wanted to scream for McCoy. The sirens were so close.
McCoy stepped into the swing as the bat came barreling down towards him. I didn’t suppress my terrified shout for him. I watched as McCoy moved in on Jason. His fist slammed into Jason’s jaw. The bat fell from Jason’s grip moments before it collided with McCoy’s shoulder. It hit the wooden floor after McCoy had already delivered his second blow, sending Jason staggering back into the wall.
His back hit one of my framed photos which cracked beneath his weight and fell to the ground, smashing to pieces beneath both men’s feet.
McCoy hit him again. Jason started to sink to the ground, his eyes dazed and unseeing as McCoy wrapped his fists in the front of Jason’s shirt. He hauled him back up to his feet. Then he buried his fist in Jason’s stomach three times.
“McCoy!” I called.
He didn’t stop. I could feel his anger boiling in him as he pinned Jason to the wall. He leaned in close, and I couldn’t hear the words that he whispered to Jason. He struck him again. There was blood everywhere. Jason’s bottom lip was split. His nose didn’t look the same. One eye was bloodied and half closed.
I extracted myself from Carly’s grasp and called McCoy’s name again as he wound his arm back to land his next blow. “Stop it!”
He wouldn’t stop. Jason was a pulp beneath him. He couldn’t hold himself up anymore. His eyes were on McCoy as he pulled back to strike him again. I grabbed McCoy’s elbow. He turned his glare on me as he looked over his shoulder.
His eyes were dark. His lips were peeled back in a snarl of his own and his jaw was locked.
“He’s had enough,” I said. “Let him go. He can’t hurt us anymore.”
McCoy’s gaze slid back to Jason. His fist was still wrapped in the front of Jason’s shirt, and he used it as leverage to hold him tight against the wall. I watched his grip loosen. Then, finally, he released him, and Jason slid down the length of my wall to sit with his legs sprawled in front of him on my floor. Jason’s chin dipped to rest on his chest, and he stayed still below McCoy.
McCoy lowered his fist and I released his elbow. He wouldn’t turn to me as I tried to pull his shirt. I tried to bring him back. “McCoy,” I whispered, “it’s okay. It’s over.”
He stayed dead still. His shoulders rose and fell with each sharp breath he drew. He was trying to calm himself. I lightly rested both hands on his shoulder blades. I pressed myself up against his back, then brought my arms in front of him to clasp my hands in front of his chest so I was hugging him.
He relaxed. The tightness in all his muscles evaporated. His breathing evened out. He hung his head and we stayed like that for what felt like hours. When he finally started turning around to face me, I released my grip around him and tilted my chin back so I could look at his face.
>
He looked miserable. He wouldn’t meet my eyes. Instead, he stared down at our feet. “I’m sorry,” he managed through clenched teeth.
“Why?” I didn’t understand.
“That you saw that. That’s not who I want to be… not who you deserve. If you hadn’t stopped me…”
“You would have stopped yourself.” I told him. I didn’t know if that was true or not. I hadn’t seen or sensed an end to the beating McCoy was delivering. Had I not stepped in I didn’t know what would have become of Jason. As it were, I wasn’t sure what had become of him now. I dared not look at him, crumpled and bloody on my floor.
“I wouldn’t have.” McCoy shook his head. “I know I wouldn’t have.”
I didn’t know what to say. So I wrapped my arms around him again and pressed myself as close to him as I could get. He held me to him with the same desperation I felt clawing inside me. Then he called over to Carly. “You hurt?”
She stood from the stairs and shook her head. Her arms were wrapped tightly around her stomach. I nodded her over. She joined us and I pulled her into our hug. At first I could tell that McCoy wanted to separate himself from us. He wanted to flee and put distance between himself and this whole mess. But I held him tighter. Eventually he softened and held on to both of us.
“Are you hurt?” I asked him when Carly and I finally had the nerve to stand on our own.
He shrugged- that same, small shrug I was so used to now. “Headache.”
“You should sit. The police will be here soon, I can explain it all.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
He didn’t bother going into the living room to sit down. Instead he sat on the stairs and I watched as he gingerly touched the back of his head. His fingertips came away bloody and he scrunched his nose at them before dropping his hand and leaning one shoulder against the wall. I knew he had more than just a headache.
By the time the police arrived McCoy’s back was against the wall and his eyes were closed. Carly and I greeted the officers at the door and explained the whole mess. One was a male officer, the other a petite female who helped my case more than I could have anticipated. The male officer was a tall, thin man with thinning hair. He scanned the entrance to my home with scrutinous eyes, and when his stare settled on McCoy I found myself growing defensive.
“McCoy is…” what was the right word? “McCoy is my boyfriend. Jason is my ex,” I pointed to Jason on the ground. “He broke in, assaulted McCoy, and then came after me and Carly. If McCoy hadn’t been here I don’t know what would have happened.”
The female officer nodded and took over the conversation from there. She flipped open a notepad and frantically scribbled down every detail I told her. I paused when I was halfway through the story. “Are paramedics coming?”
She nodded. “Yes dear, not too long now. Carl, will you check on him?”
Carl, the balding officer, nodded and stepped into my home. He made for Jason on the floor. “Not that one,” the female cop stated, then she pointed her chin to McCoy.
“Thank you,” I said to her.
She turned her attention back to me and her stern expression softened. “Of course. Now, what happened after he smashed the table?”
I continued to tell her everything and tried my best not to leave anything out. As I spoke I watched Carl stand in front of McCoy and prod his leg. McCoy didn’t stir.
“I’m sorry,” I told the female officer, “I need to be with him. I can’t do this right now.”
Carly took over for me as I went to McCoy. Carl was bent down in front of him and was reaching out to shake his shoulder. He looked over his shoulder and called for the other officer. “Jenna, how far away are those medics?”
“Not far, a couple minutes at most.”
“These boys are in bad shape.”
I sat on the stair beside McCoy. The officer tried to shake him awake. “Jason hit him with that bat,” I said, pointing at the bat on the ground. “On the back of the head. He was out for at least a full five minutes. Maybe more.”
Carl nodded. “Don’t worry miss. I’m sure it’s just a concussion. When the medics arrive they will take good care of him. We should, at the very least, try to keep him awake. If it’s a serious concussion they won’t want him sleeping just yet.”
“Okay,” I said, turning my attention to McCoy. He looked the same way he had when he spent his first night at my house. All the lines of tension around his eyes were gone. He was relaxed in sleep. I called his name and tapped his cheeks.
His eyes fluttered open and it took him a while to focus on me. “I’m sorry,” I said, trying to offer him my best reassuring smile. “You have to try to stay awake. The paramedics are coming. Everything will be okay. But you were hit pretty hard.”
“I’m alright,” he said, more for my benefit than his own, I knew. I put my hand on his knee and we sat together and waited while Carly finished explaining all that she could of the incident. When she came to the point in the story where she ran to get help, Jenna, the cop, came to stand before me and McCoy to get the rest of the details.
I ran through them quickly, all the while casting worried glances in McCoy’s direction. He was awake, at least, but he wasn’t himself. It unsettled me. His motor functions seemed slower, and the grip he had on my hand was weaker than I was used to.
Jenna tucked her notebook and pen back into her front pocket of her shirt. She smiled down at us. “Well, I think this is all I should need for now. If I need anything else, I will call. Are you pressing charges?”
I looked at McCoy. His head was back against the wall again, but his eyes were still open, watching me. I nodded. “Yes I am.”
“Good,” Jenna sounded satisfied. “Jerks like this get away with this kind of thing too often. You are willing to testify in court?”
“Yes.”
✤
When the paramedics arrived they went to Jason first. I had expected as much, he was in worse shape. They loaded him on to a stretcher and then into the ambulance. Jenna went with them, telling me that an officer would be with him until he was healed, at which point he would be placed under arrest.
Carl brought the paramedics over to McCoy next. One of them, an older gentleman with a well groomed goatee, clicked on a small flashlight and shone it in both of McCoy’s eyes. “Best you come with us,” he said. “Can you stand?”
McCoy didn’t answer. Instead he rose to his feet, using the wall behind him for support. I offered him my shoulder. I was surprised when he took it. He didn’t put any of his weight on me as we started walking, but he left his arm draped over my shoulder, as if to orient himself. He climbed into the back of the ambulance and they instructed him to sit on the bed adjacent to Jason’s. There wasn’t any room for me. This caused another outburst of panic.
McCoy called my name. “I’ll meet you there, alright?”
I nodded, not looking away from him until the medics closed both doors on the back of the ambulance and he disappeared behind them. Carl gave me his card and wrote the extension to call to speak with Jenna, if I wanted to. I thanked him and stared after the ambulance as it drove away.
Carl got into his car and followed them. Carly and I stood at the end of my lawn and watched until both vehicles disappeared around the corner. I heard the ambulance sirens come to life. Then I sank to my knees and started to cry.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Carly had calmed me down and hailed a cab. Now I sat in the waiting room at the hospital, one knee bouncing anxiously up and down. Carly returned from the vending machine and handed me a bottle of water. I drank more than I expected.
“Everything will be okay, Veronica.” She sat down beside me. “Try not to worry.”
“I can’t help it.”
“I know.” We sat quietly for a few minutes. Then Carly surprised me by smiling and tapping my elbow. “So, when you get to see him are you going to tell him?”
“Tell him what?”
“Oh, you know what.” She winked at m
e.
In my mind, this was no time for jokes. I narrowed my eyes at her. “No, I don’t know what. And I don’t feel like fooling around right now, Car. Not until I know he’s going to be okay.”
“Because you love him.”
“Yes,” I said, before I realized what she had said. I stared at her. “Yes. I do.”
She grinned again. “You need to tell him. That’s all I meant. After all this, and how shitty he’s going to feel, it will be a nice thing to hear. He loves you too. It’s clear as day on his face when he looks at you.”
I took another sip of water and sighed. “How long are we going to have to wait for? It’s already been an hour.”
Carly shrugged. “Probably not much longer.”
She was right, of course. It had been no more than another fifteen minutes when McCoy came through the automatic glass doors behind the receptionist desk. A nurse was handing him a piece of paper and a bottle of water. I watched him thank her before he turned and started looking for me.
When our eyes met he gave me that smile that told me everything was going to be okay. He wove around the receptionist desk and I was on my feet by the time he made it out front. I threw my arms around his neck and he caught me and wrapped his arms around me. He kissed my cheek, pulled away from me, and held my face in his hands. “Everything is fine.” He said.
I fought the tears that were resurfacing and nodded. “Good.”
Carly stood and she hugged McCoy too. It threw him off a bit. His wide eyes turned to me as if asking for help. I couldn’t help but laugh at the startled expression. Carly pulled away and rolled her eyes at him. “Don’t be such a pansy. I’m just glad you’re okay. I’ve kind of developed a liking to you now.”
