Collide

by J. C. Hannigan

  "Ignore them. They're bitches," I told Jenna gently, leaning in toward her. She was breathing heavily, panicking almost. She'd moved her bag over her stomach, and was ghostly pale.

  "Oh hey, didn't know you guys had this class," Jake said, sliding into the seat beside Jenna. He paused for a moment. "Is…everything okay?"

  "Everything is fine," I told him, glancing over at Callie and Tara and sending them a glare. "She's just not feeling good."

  "Yeah, the first day back makes me feel ill too," Jake joked, looking at Jenna with concern. He started talking to her, distracting her away from her panic. Slowly, she calmed down, and was even starting to laugh when the final bell rang. I observed them with a quiet smile on my face, impressed with Jake's skill at easing Jenna's panic. It was effortless, for him.

  Our art teacher was a kooky lady named Ms. Higgins. She had wild red hair and big square purple glasses. She handed out sketchbooks and kits and told us to draw whatever we wanted for our first day back. She disappeared in the supply room for a bit, leaving the class to their own devices. Conversations erupted around us, people chatting about their holidays while they doodled. Apparently, Riley had had another party over the holidays. I overheard a lot of people talking about how hilarious that had been. But two sets of voices rang out over all the others.

  "I couldn't believe it either; obviously someone just wants attention," Callie was saying haughtily, tossing a glance over to our direction.

  "Still, that's a really dick move," Tara was saying. "So she just up and charged Andrew?"

  "Yeah," Callie tittered, turning to look at her friend. "Andrew said they hooked up at a party, but that he didn't really want to. She wouldn't stop coming on to him after he told her that he wanted to get back with me. Now she's saying he sexually assaulted her because he doesn't want to be with her. Such a whore."

  "I heard that—"

  "Oh yeah, but it's not his," Callie cut Tara off quickly, shushing her with a glare. "Andrew always uses protection."

  "Of course you'd know," Tara giggled. "So what, you guys are back together now?"

  "Well…kind of," Callie smirked. "I'm making him work for it."

  "You go girl!" Tara cheered.

  Their conversation was making me feel ill. I stole a glance at Jenna, and it looked like she heard everything too. I closed my sketchbook, shoving it into my book bag.

  "Come on," I told her. "Let's go." Jenna numbly shoved hers into her bag and stood up with me.

  "Skipping class? I'm in too," Jake decided, grabbing his things and following us.

  "I hear morning sickness is a drag," Callie drawled, pouting as we walked by their table.

  Jake gently steered both Jenna and I out into the hall before I could walk over and punch Callie's smug expression off her face. I had been tempted, and had he not taken action I probably would have.

  Jenna was ghostly white and shaking like a leaf. "I can't be here anymore."

  "Do you want me to take you home?" Jake offered.

  "I drove…"

  "I don't think you're in any condition to drive," Jake pointed out.

  "What's that supposed to mean?" Jenna snapped, glaring at Jake.

  "I just mean…you're upset, and you shouldn't drive…" Jake raised his hands in surrender. "I mean no harm…"

  "Sorry," Jenna apologized. I stood nearby, watching the exchange with a peculiar look on my face. The gentle kindness and sincerity on Jake's face was very sweet.

  "Let Jake take you home," I told her. "I'll drive your car back, then he can take me back to school."

  Jenna looked back between Jake and I, then toward the classroom and sighed. "Fine. I just want to get out of here."

  She offered her keys up to me, and I took them. The three of us started walking toward the parking lot doors. I saw Iain exiting a classroom, and I froze temporarily, caught off guard by the sight of him in the school, dressed his dressed pants and blazer.

  "Shouldn't you three be in class?" he asked, his voice full of authority. Memories of the weekend we'd just had flooded my mind and I flushed, almost feeling his lips on my neck. Jenna was looking back from Iain to me, a look of curiosity on her face.

  "Yeah…sorry, Mr. Bentley. We're taking Jenna home…she's…sick," I answered awkwardly. Iain studied Jenna for a moment. She avoided his gaze, frowning at the floor.

  "Very well…make sure you get passes from the principle's office," Iain instructed, continuing on his way.

  "We'll get them later," Jake shrugged, unfazed. Jenna was still looking at me curiously. I avoided her gaze and kept walking toward the parking lot doors, knowing they were behind me. I found Jenna's car easily enough. Jake parked on the other side of the lot, so we met up at Jenna's house as planned. I drove slower, allowing them time to talk and maybe get to know each other. I wasn't intending on playing matchmaker, but I did think it was good for Jenna to be around Jake. He was sweet, funny, and caring. Sure, he sold pot to high school students and smoked it, but that wasn't really a bad thing. I mean, there were definitely worse character traits in a person.

  By the time Jake and I returned to school, we were greeted by crazy amount of gossip. Rumours were spreading. I hadn't realized that the local paper had released a story about the sexual assault charges that were pressed against Andrew, but they had. They didn't release Jenna's name, but the school would figure it out soon. Especially with Callie fuelling the rumours. She knew exactly who had pressed charges, Andrew had likely told her.

  As the weeks passed by, the town's interest in the upcoming trial grew. I heard the gossip when I served coffee to the towns folk at the diner. I heard the gossip in the hallways. The trial was all everyone could talk about. I felt like if I heard one more person talking about the trial, my brain would explode.

  Danielle was the only one who remained uncharacteristically silent and solemn as we waited tables. I knew she was listening, hearing it all too.

  "That sweet Andrew couldn't have done that," an elderly lady was tittering to her friend, sipping a tea I'd brought her. "He shovels my driveway, that one, every winter all winter long!"

  "Well, he does…quite regularly!" I interrupted rudely, unable to stop myself. Both elderly ladies stared at me, mouths agape, and the entire diner seemed to pause, ears tuned to the three of us. "I mean, do you want some more hot water for your tea?" I asked, my voice dripping with false sweetness. The ladies looked back and forth from me to each other and nodded, unsure of what to do. I filled their tea pots up with more boiling water and carefully put it down on their table before stalking off to the cash. I could feel their eyes on me as I stood with my back to them, and the rest of the diner.

  The trial was still several weeks away. I rubbed my temples, trying to ease the tension headache I seemed to have constantly since the news broke. Thompson had warned us all of the implications, but I hadn't expected…well, this. Neither had Jenna. I knew she was panicked about it, spending more and more time at home. She had all but stopped going to school. After school, I would drop in after school with Jake to drop her homework off to her. I knew it wasn't just the fear of being discovered that kept her home. Her belly had grown in the past weeks, and now there was no denying that she was pregnant.

  "Hey, are you okay?" Danielle asked from behind the counter. She was leaning forward, putting a gentle hand on my forearm to get my attention.

  "Yeah, sorry," I muttered, sighing. "I just can't take this 'Andrew's such a saint' bullshit."

  "I know," Danielle frowned, looking back at the masses of people that had finally gone back to their meals. Only the two elderly ladies sipping tea were staring openly at me, conversing with each other out of the corner of their lips.

  "Did you think about…what we talked about?" I asked, looking out the door.

  "Yeah…" Danielle took a deep breath. "I will. I'll call that lawyer guy tomorrow."

  I nodded, unable to think of anything else to say. I felt terrible asking Danielle to relive the trauma her friend had gone through, a
nd her friend's death, but I really felt what she had to say would make a difference.

  The diner bell chimed, and two figures walked in, letting brisk late January wind nip at my exposed skin. Goosebumps arose as a hush fell over the diner, and before I even turned to look…I knew who was there. I stiffened, watching Carl Cooper and his partner, Officer Reid, walk to the back of my section.

  "Fuck," I muttered, grabbing a menu. The last thing I wanted to do was serve Carl Cooper, or any of the Coopers for that matter. Begrudgingly, I walked toward the back and dropped the menus on their table. They were still dressed in their uniforms, their navy blue winter patrol coats thick with snow. Some of it fell onto my shoes as Carl shrugged out of his coat.

  "Can I get you anything to drink?" I asked stiffly. I was having a lot of difficulty keeping my tone pleasant.

  "Yes, you can…" Carl Cooper answered, exchanging an amused look with Officer Reid. "We'll both have coffees."

  I nodded, heading to grab them coffee. I hadn't realized that almost every eye in the diner was on the two policemen that had come in…but then, why wouldn't they be staring? They'd spent the majority of the morning talking about the breaking news of the charges pressed against Andrew.

  Carl Cooper also ordered a plate of bacon and eggs. He ate slowly, probably extremely aware of the fact that all eyes were still on his turned back. When he and his partner got up to leave, Carl finally turned around to face the diner at large. Everyone fell silent as his gaze penetrated through every single conversation.

  "Many of you have probably heard about the ridiculous charges pressed against my son." His voice was quiet, yet full of authority. He had every single person's attention, even those in the back kitchen. "I just wanted to say that those charges are false, brought on by a sad little girl seeking attention and validation for her mistakes. I have no doubt that these charges will be dropped." He said this last part while looking directly at me. I glared hotly back. Doubtful.

  Unfortunately, I still had to ring in the egotistic Chief of Police's order. He smiled at me, a smile that coiled the nerves in my stomach, and handed me a wad of bills.

  "Take care, Ms. Jones," he said, giving me a look that chilled me to the bone. My hand trembled against my will as I accepted his money and handed him his change.

  "You too, Chief," I said, my voice as strong as I could make it. He chuckled, giving me a firm look that said Watch your tone.

  As soon as the diner door closed behind Officer Reid, everyone started talking. I couldn't hear a single thing, their voices faded into a buzz. I brushed back a strand of my hair that had fallen from my ponytail, trying to steady my breathing. It didn't matter what anybody said; the truth would come out.

  "Are you okay?" Danielle asked, her voice full of concern.

  "Yeah, I'm…fine. I just…"

  "It's okay, head out," Danielle said, motioning to the door. "Trixie will be here in less than twenty minutes…I'll tell her you weren't feeling well."

  "Okay…" I nodded. I quickly went into the staff room and grabbed my jacket and bag, barely uttering a good bye to the kitchen guys.

  I knew exactly where I was headed. I pulled my hood up, looking cautiously around me. There were plenty of people around, heading into the diner and leaving it, but nobody was paying me any attention and there was no police cars nearby. I walked as quickly as my legs would carry me, not even pausing to knock on Iain's door. I just walked straight in and kicked off my boots.

  Iain was in the living room, a bunch of papers spread out in front of him. He looked like he was in the middle of marking assignments.

  "Whoa, hey," he said, leaning back into the couch and watching me walk into the living room. "I wasn't expecting you until after dinner…"

  "I know, I bailed on my shift," I said, leaning against the doorway. "We had visitors at the diner. Carl Cooper and his partner."

  "Not surprising, I saw the paper." Iain sighed, nodding toward the local paper on the coffee table in front of him. The front page headline read Chief of Police's Son Charged with Alleged Sexual Assault.

  "Nobody knows that it's Jenna who's charging him, right?" I asked, grabbing the paper. I'd seen it on several customers' tables, but I hadn't been able to get my hands on it to read it yet.

  "No, her name is protected…right now," Iain answered, running a hand through his hair in a distracting manner.

  "For now?" I pressed, my eyes widening.

  "The details will leak eventually. They always do during big profile cases…"

  "This is a big profile case?"

  "Yeah, it involves a possible cover up by the Chief of Police. Of course it will be high profile," Iain said patiently. Of course, I knew that…sort of. I'd seen enough CSI shows to kind of put that together, but I hadn't been thinking about that the past few weeks. I'd just been thinking about my statement and what I was going to say.

  "Relax, Harlow," Iain finally said, seeing me stressing and worrying about it. "She's safe."

  Chapter Thirteen

  The town gossip increased as the weeks led up to the trial. Iain had been right; the case had everybody's attention. Anywhere I went, I heard about the scandal. Most of the townspeople were torn: many of them stood by the Coopers with unwavering support, but more and more were questioning Carl Cooper's morals and ethics. The department had begun an internal investigation on Carl Cooper. I wasn't sure what they would find, I didn't know how good Carl was at covering up his tracks. The whole thing had me on edge and anxious.

  It was late one Sunday night, three days before the trial was set to begin, and I was working a shift at the diner. Danielle was working alongside me, although the place was nearly dead.

  "Go home," I told her, motioning to the door with my head. "I've got it from here."

  "But…" Danielle hesitated, looking at me with concern.

  "I'll be fine," I told her firmly. "Go home to that little boy of yours."

  Danielle chewed on her lip, clearly torn. I knew she was hesitate to leave me alone in light of the chaos of the trial. It wasn't like I was being harassed, in fact I hadn't heard or seen the Coopers since Carl's grand speech in the diner a few weeks before.

  "Seriously, I'm fine," I rolled my eyes. "Besides, Ryan's here."

  Danielle gave me a look. After the accident, Danielle and Ryan had started seeing each other. Their relationship was still new, still sweet and innocent. Danielle was taking her time, and Ryan was just happy to be with her after months of pinning for her.

  "I'm sure we'll be fine," I said sternly. "Ryan's good now." It'd been months since we'd gotten jumped outside of the diner, and Ryan was better. He'd actually gotten a gym membership and started working out, taking self-defence courses. He'd beefed out a little in the muscle department, and was determined to never let anyone get him on the ground again.

  Danielle pursed her lips, considering. Ryan came out of the kitchen with a tray of clean utensils.

  "Ryan, tell Danielle to go home, that we'll be alright," I demanded, rolling my eyes toward her. Bemused, Ryan set the tray down and leaned over the counter. He smiled at her.

  "Babe, we'll be fine," he said, reassuringly. He looked ecstatic that she was worried about him, that she cared. He showed off a muscle, flexing it for her. "See? All good here."

  "Alright, alright! Put the gun show away," Danielle laughed. I could tell she wasn't quite sure still, but I shoved her coat and bag at her anyway.

  "Just go," I said. "No sense in both of us being here."

  "Alright, I'm going…" Danielle said, sliding into her coat. She waved at Ryan, mouthing for

  him to call her later. He nodded, heading back into the kitchen with bins full of dirty dishes.

  I watched as Danielle left. I locked the door behind her quickly, after all…it was after hours and the diner was deader than dead, and it had been for the past hour or so. I began my closing prep. I vacuumed the floors, cashed out the till while Ryan waited, laying down in an empty booth across from me.

  "How
's Danielle doing, really?" I asked him, looking up briefly.

  "She's…good, I guess," Ryan said, still lying in the booth. "She's distracted with this whole trial thing. I think it's dredging up bad memories."

  "No kidding," I sighed, leaning back in the chair I was sitting in. "Did you know Rachel?"

  "Kind of," Ryan shrugged. "It's a small town…everyone kind of knows everyone else. Plus she'd come in with some of their mutual friends when Danielle was working the breakfast shift. She also attempted working here. Didn't last long, she was the worst hostess ever…"

  I was silent, thoughtful. Unable to think of a reply, I headed to the office to drop off the cash out. I slid into my coat as I walked back out to the dining area. Ryan was standing, waiting by the back door. I quickly punched in the lock code while Ryan waited outside. I made sure the door was locked, then adjusted my jacket collar. The February air was sharp and chilly, slicing at my exposed skin like tiny razors.