Black and White

by Ludivig, K. R.

  “Katie.” This Blake called to her.

  “Blake.” Her eyes widened as he walked out into the opening of the doorway next to me. I watched him traipse across the room and take her hand. He stood by her bedside and watched her wake up

  Oh. I realized. Katie had moved on. She found someone better. That was why she didn’t say I love you earlier. He was dressed in a red polo shirt from Hollister and a pair of men’s Seven jeans. He was richer too. Katie deserved the money he had to offer her. I stood up, tempted to kiss Katie on the forehead. It was the way she loved it. Instead, I just left.

  As I awoke, I saw the last of Chris’s silhouette disappearing behind the white wall of the hospital room. Where was he going? Didn’t he know I needed him?

  Blake is just a friend! Chris come back! I shouted inside my head. Blake held my hand and kissed my cheek but I felt nothing other than the pain of a bruise on my cheek.

  “Blake,” I managed to speak. “I can’t see you anymore. I’m in love with someone else and that’s not fair to you.”

  “Katie I-.”

  “Really Blake please just go,” I said. I couldn’t look at him as he left. I felt too ashamed of myself. I was afraid to look in his eyes. On his face, when I finally did get the guts to look at him, was that pain of letting me go before something happened. Something real. My face was so scratched up that the tears that dripped down from my face when I looked at him stung the scratches on my face. The look in his eyes was painful for both of us.

  “Can I have a hug before you go?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” He said. Blake put up a shield, so I couldn’t see the emotion that he was fighting to hide. Instead of being a seriously hard rock and protective, Blake became my teddy bear.

  Ten minutes after Blake left, Chris came walking through the door with that look on his face, that cocky, satisfied grin. His was head tilted down and his hands in his pockets.

  “Why are you so satisfied?” I asked.

  “You said his name in your sleep and I thought you wanted him not me.” He said. “So I left. When he came back to get me, I was kind of excited I almost ran up here but the walk gave me time to think.” He stood and walked over so his toned muscles looked overly enlarged. “He did look upset.” I nodded. Why did he care?

  “Katie,” he sat down next to me. “I love you.” Immediately, I started to cry. “Hey, Baby Girl it’s ok. I’m sorry, what did I do?” He came up on the bed further and cradled me in his arms. His smell was distinct. I inhaled his scent through the mucus and blood in my nose. “Katie I’m here. Please don’t cry.” He kissed my swollen lips and cradled me carefully not to re-break my already broken face. “Did you call my mom?” I asked, pulling away from him.

  “Of course I did. Why would I let her sit in the dark? She needed to know what happened to you.”

  “Because you left me sitting there out in the open for the taking. Zack was planning this. He was just looking for opportunity. Do you understand what you’ve done?”

  “Wait a second why is this my fault?” he asked.

  “Because you broke up with me remember?”

  “Yeah. It could be your fault. You were the one walking down the street and he nabbed you.”

  “No you are the one that started this war. Along with Marcus who killed Alex. Alex and Zack were best friends remember? Zack is looking for every opportunity to come after you two and now he’s going to come after me because he doesn’t have anything on Marcus except Kate and Kate doesn’t know anything!”

  “How long have you had to think about this?”

  “All day.”

  “You were sleeping.”

  “I was resting and it doesn’t really take a rocket scientist to figure this shit out.”

  “Katie Marie White. You swore.”

  “Uh Yeah,” I said. “Do I care? No.” He looked appalled. “People will die because of this. People both you and I care about. You need to keep as many people that you care about as far away as possible.”

  “Does that mean that you have to go away?” Now he looked scared.

  “Baby do you remember the last time you kept me away from you?”

  “Here we are,” he said to the blankets. “I feel guilty enough don’t you think?”

  I ignored what he said. “Zack has the privilege of money and he can use that fortune against you. The eight mile will feud with the uptown Detroit. Because our click created a reason to fight with them.”

  “But is it really going to happen like that, you think?”

  “I know. And it won’t end until one of you is dead.”

  “Holy shit,” he said. He lay back against the bed next to me. He cuddled with me until my mom and dad came.

  “What the hell is going on in here?”

  “Nothing Mrs. White,” said Chris respectfully.

  “Ugh don’t call me that. Get away from my daughter you rapist.”

  “Mother!” I shouted. “You cruel unimportant little bitch. I didn’t want you here. You just came because he called you and Chris did nothing wrong. He would never hurt me. He loves me and I love him. There’s nothing you could do to change that.”

  “Katie Marie White!” What was it with people and saying my full name today?

  “Get out of here Mother.”

  “You’re underage you need us here to supervise.”

  “Fuck that shit,” I said. I stopped caring about what people said to me when I started dating Chris. I also stopped thinking about what I said.

  “Chris!” shouted Marcus’s voice down the hall. All of our heads turned toward the doorway.

  “Was that Marcus?” Chris nodded.

  “Chris!” he shouted again. Chris got up and walked over to the breathing silhouette in the doorway. Marcus said something inaudible to Chris.

  “Stop!” I heard a woman say.

  “Let’s go.” I said. I got up. Actually, I attempted to get up but fell. My mom and dad helped me into a wheel chair and wheeled me out into the hall way.

  “Katie, tell them that it wasn’t us.” Marcus’s face was pressed up against the brick wall and was being cuffed by a hospital security guy. Chris was also.

  “No!” shouted Hedenstrom, “They’re innocent!”

  “Miss is this true?” asked the woman.

  “Who are you?” I asked. I wasn’t about to tell someone I didn’t know a statement she didn’t need to know.

  “I’m the detective your parents hired to search your records and arrest these young men.” She said. “Detective Brass.” She put out her hand so I could shake it. I took it and thought how ironic? I played a brass instrument.

  “This is true Detective Brass.” I said. “They saved my life. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t.”

  “We need a DNA sample from both of them, and finger prints to make sure she wasn’t drugged into thinking that it was someone else.”

  “We found nothing in her system and she wasn’t raped.” Said Hedenstrom.

  Brass just stared at me. “Is this also true?”

  “Wouldn’t you like to confide the medical proof before you tell me?”

  I wasn’t retarded. I did know a little bit about investigations just from watch CSI.

  “She wasn’t raped. And I have a testimony against Zackary Michaels from Miss White saying these boys are innocent.” Boys? To me they were grown men.

  “Besides why would I still be here if I did it?” said Chris.

  “Dude you were read rights.” Said the officer.

  “Release them at once officer.” I commanded him.

  “Mrs. White has the final say. You’re a minor.”

  “Fine. Let them go.”

  He grumbled. I knew at once that he didn’t see much action working in the hospital here. I restrained a laugh.

  “Thanks Dude.” Said Chris.

  “Thanks.” Said Marcus, caressing his wrists. His cuffs were clearly too tight.

  “Miss White. This investigation is over. You should be prepared to have
a lawyer and make a statement in front of a jury.”

  “Thank you Detective Brass.” Said my mother.

  “Hey when can I go home?” I looked at Hedenstrom.

  “Another day when we know the bleeding stopped in your nose. “Okay.” I said, just thankful to be alive.

  Chapter Thirteen: The Trial

  The trial was in a week. I had six full days before to gather substantial evidence that Zack was a verbal and physical abuser along with being a hardcore alcoholic at eighteen. It usually took months to prepare evidence for a trial, at least a fair one. The difference was that all witnesses and victims were alive and well.

  First we had to collect witnesses for the first time he beat me. Chris. The second time he kidnapped me, his two friends, Chris and Marcus.

  I knew that I could have my lawyer call them up to the stand at any moment to testify against their own family. Marcus might not, but I knew Chris would. The lawyer said we could get him for domestic violence, physical and sexual abuse, attempted rape and attempted murder.

  I didn’t care what we got him for as long as he was in jail or dead. The only problem with that was that Zack had the best lawyer in the entire state or even on the east coast.

  My lawyer told me to wear something conservative not that skirt crap I wear every other day of the year. I went out when he told me to and bought the greatest looking knee length jacket and a turtle neck vest top with a pair of designer Seven skinny jeans. I wore a flashy rainbow dotted belt and a pair of Gucci checkered boots.

  I did my hair like always, I little mousse, shaking my head, making it as wavy as possible. I still put the minuscule amount of makeup on my face as I always had. My lawyer was coming to get me at one PM and we would go through it before the trial.

  When we walked in the place was standing room only and I had to use the crutches to get to the chair due to a fracture and there were no spots left. The two tables in front of the room were the only ones that were empty. Our table was bon the left walking in, Zack’s the right table.

  Mrs. Amundson sat down first. Great. I said in my head. Zack and his lawyer, Michelle Amundson, the greatest lawyer on the east coast, entered the room and sat down waiting for the judge to walk in. The bailiff led Zack in, in handcuffs.

  “Do you know who the judge is?” I asked Mitchell.

  “No but I have a good idea that it is probably going to be a female judge.” He said in a quieter than normal speaking tone.

  The bailiff walked in to announce the judge. “All rise.” A woman walked out.

  As she sat down she spoke too, “Sit.”

  “Zachary Michaels, you are being charged for domestic violence, physical and sexual abuse, attempted rape and attempted murder; how do you plead?”

  “Not guilty, Your Honor.” He said.

  “The charge if convicted is twenty-five years to life in prison for endangerment to an underage individual without bail.” The judge announced.

  “Your honor for our witness, I call Christopher Black to the stand.” I watched him cross in front of the persecutor’s desk and into the hard wooden chair.

  The bailiff went up to Chris’s stance and held the Bible at a ninety degree angle for Chris to put his hand on it.

  “Christopher Black, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God?”

  “I do.” He said.

  I sat up straight as Michelle began to question him. Paying attention to every waking moment was harder to stay awake the next minute. I was tired because this is the longest day I had to stay awake for. Since I had come home from the hospital a week ago, I had naps every five hours or so, so my face would heal and I didn’t look ridiculous at the trial. Well, here I was still with a black eye and many bruises underneath my coat. It was hard to move due to pain.

  “Mr. Black, were you ever involved with a drive by in the last few months?”

  “No Ma’am.” He said.

  “Why is that, do you suppose?”

  “I don’t play the same game other guys in town play.”

  “What game is that?”

  “Let’s see how many times we can get ourselves killed.”

  “How often since September were you with Katie.”

  “Almost every day and every night.”

  “All of the time or some of it?”

  “Most of it.”

  “What were the other parts to it?”

  “We were separated for about a month, February twelfth through about a week ago, when we found her at Zack’s in his basement.”

  “Have you ever been friends with Zack?”

  “We used to be friends and then he left Katie at a party to die there or be taken advantage of.”

  “Can you elaborate?”

  “She was just sitting on the couch, drunk off her tail end, might I add. She was gazing up at the ceiling as if she was looking at something really interesting.”

  “When you say taken advantage of, what do you mean?”

  “I mean being raped or something.”

  “Objection! Relevance?”

  “I have a point! I promise.”

  “Then make it,” said the judge.

  “Mr. Black, if you would have done this to Miss White would you be the first to say it was you or would you deny the whole thing ever happened?”

  “Of course I would tell someone, I wouldn’t be able to live with the guilt and shame of assaulting and attempted rape.”

  “But wouldn’t you want to keep it a secret, if you did do it?”

  “No it would eat me alive inside.” I love you Christopher. I caught eye contact with.

  “No further questions.” Said Michelle.

  Mitchell got up before Michelle had finished her last sentence. “Mr. Black I see that you are wearing an orange jumpsuit. Why?”

  “I am wearing this jumpsuit specifically because the police who arrested Zack, thought that we were accessories to the whole plot.”

  “Plot? Mr. Black.”

  “It was something Katie had taught me for one of my English tests.”

  “What does the word plot mean?” Mitchell asked.

  “A plot is a secret plan or scheme to accomplish some purpose, in this case a hostile situation.”

  “That’s my man.” I said under my breath.

  “No further questions, Your Honor.”

  “I call the defendant, Zackary Michael’s to the stand.” Mitchell added first.

  The bailiff stood in front of Zack and held out the Bible. “Zackary Michaels, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole true and nothing but the truth.”

  “I do.” He was lying. I could tell by the smug expression on his face. It was ridiculous.

  “Miss White has filed a restraining order against you, Mr. Michaels. What is the purpose of this order?”

  “To keep me away,” Zack said, as if he already knew that.

  “Why would Miss White want you to stay away from her?”

  “I thought she just needed space.” Zack said, “and all I want is a relationship.”

  Mitchell glanced at me. I tilted my head down immediately.

  “When you got intimate, did Katie ever say ‘no’ or ‘stop’ to you?”

  “We never had problems. It was like we were the most perfect couple. We almost never fought. And I most certainly would have stopped if she said it. But like I said, we never had problems.”

  “Where did this rendezvous take place?”

  “My basement. Katie and I went there to stay far away from my family so they couldn’t interrupt us.”

  “Interrupt you doing what?”

  “Having intercourse.”

  “Mr. Michaels, did you and Katie ever fight?”

  “What do you mean by fight, Council?”

  “Verbally?”

  “Yes sometimes.”

  “Did you ever get so angry that you would hit Miss White?”

  “No! What kind of a question is that? I would never hit such a prett
y face.”

  “If you’d never hit Miss White then how do you explain the bruises and broken bones on Miss White? She very well can’t walk can she?”

  “Katie’s very clumsy. She tripped and fell every time we went somewhere. Her shoes don’t help.”

  My best pair of Gucci boots was now ruined just because Zack mentioned them. Great this day is amazing. That was sarcastic.

  “How can you justify the rib cage?” The doctor said that specifically being kicked in or hit can only initiate the breaking of rib cage bones.”

  “Like I said she is very clumsy. Only a young woman as talented as she could manage to hurt herself so badly.”

  “No further questions.”

  “Thank you, Your Honor.” She turned from the high priestess table to Zack at the witness stand. “Mr. Michaels, how long have you known Miss White?”

  “Exactly?”

  “More like a rough estimate.”

  “About since before school started,” he coerced.

  She was polite and demanding, that’s how she appeared to me. But the deviance in her eyes told me she wasn’t here to defend him. She was trying to get him prosecuted because she knew it was wrong to do what he did to me.

  “Where were you on the night of Katie White’s disappearance?”

  “I was at home with Katie in the basement. We had intercourse and fell asleep together. When Chris and Marcus noticed Katie was gone, they proceeded to break and enter into my house, steal Katie and kick my ass.”

  “Why would they proceed to assault you if you didn’t apprehend Miss White under her own consent?”

  “Because they’re psychos.” Zack said.

  To make an accusation in court in front of a jury like that was gutsy, especially in front of a jury. I gasped.

  “But why would they have both said in separate questionings that they had to untie and untape Miss White in order to bring her home.”

  “Objection! Leading!” Said Michelle.

  “Nothing further.”

  “It is time to request that the victim proceed through the table and place your right hand on the Holy Bible,” said the Judge, as I was hobbling with crutches up to the stand.