by Trish D.
“Hey there stranger! Long time no see.”
“What are you doing here Eric?”
“I was just in the neighborhood. I figured I would stop and speak and meet the guy that stole my girl from me.” My tone and glare did nothing to get rid of him and I started to panic that things were going to go downhill. Before I could respond, my worst fear happened when Jason came back to the table.
“Hey, I see we have company.” He was his normal friendly self not knowing what he was walking into.
“Oh, hey man, I’m a friend of Cheryl’s and was just saying hello.” What a jerk! He even reached out his hand to shake Jason’s.
“This is Eric and he was just leaving.” I quickly interjected. I had never gone into much detail about Eric to Jason, but he knew that he was my ex-boyfriend.
“Just leaving, I just got here.”
“Fine, you can stay all you want, we were on our way out anyway.” I stood up to leave hoping that Jason would follow me and not even worry about getting the change. Jason stood up slowly and it was obvious by the look on his face he was holding back from saying a lot to either Eric or me. He could fuss at me all he wanted, I just wanted to get him out the restaurant.
“Wow Cheryl, you get with this scrub and start acting brand new?”
He yelled other stuff that I blocked out. Other patrons had stopped eating and begun to stare and I just wanted to get out of there. I thought we were doing good ignoring him and that Jason was right behind me until I heard scuffling that stopped me dead in my tracks. I was so focused on getting out of there I don’t know what Eric said that sent Jason off, but knowing his calm demeanor, I knew it had to be a pretty harsh comment. When I turned around, I saw Jason on top of Eric and they were both wrestling on top of the table. Jason was landing blows on his face and Eric wasn’t even trying to fight back. I assumed this was due to his level of intoxication and I was concerned that Jason was going to kill him. By this time a crowd had gathered to watch the fiasco and when I heard a worker talk about calling the cops, I knew I had to intervene. I yelled and pleaded with Jason to stop, but it fell on deaf ears. It took three of the waiters to pull him off of Eric. I should have known that Jason was the one that I should have been concerned about. After all I was with him and not Eric, but when I saw Eric laying there bloody and moaning my first instinct was to make sure he was OK. Jason stood there with a look of both disbelief and anger. Immediately, I knew I had messed up.
The ambulance showed up before the police to tend to Eric. By this time, he was vomiting from all the alcohol he drank making it difficult for the EMT workers to tend to his injuries. I felt bad for him but I stayed by Jason’s side not wanting to make things worse with him. When the police showed up, I pleaded and begged with them not to arrest Jason. I tried to tell them that Jason was provoked and it was just a big misunderstanding. However, I was severely outnumbered by workers and customers who told a different story. I wanted to smack all of them. Surely they all saw that we were trying to leave while Eric kept yelling comments out at us. Anyone with half a brain would agree that he was provoking the physical altercation. When it hit me that it was a Sunday and Jason wouldn’t be able to see a judge until Monday, I became hysterical. He was going to have to spend the night in jail and there was nothing I could do about it. Jason was calm through the whole ordeal. He didn’t try to argue his point or get out of getting arrested, just complied with whatever the police told him to do. When I tried to talk to him and let him know that I would get him out as soon as possible, he wouldn’t acknowledge me or even make eye contact. I cried as the police car left with Jason in the back seat. It was truly one of the worst moments of my life.
I drove around town simply because I didn’t know where else to go and what else to do. My roommates were likely to be returning back to campus and I didn’t want to explain what had happened or why I was so upset. Not knowing how else to help Jason, I drove downtown to the area close to the jail and starting looking for signs for bail bondsmen. There were several signs for them, but when I started calling, there was only one that would answer his phone. I was so frantic when I called him, that it’s a wonder that he was able to understand what I was telling him. He told me what I already knew. That Jason had to see the magistrate to get bail set before anything could be done. He wouldn’t be able to see the magistrate until the morning. He asked for Jason’s full name anyway and told me he would call back and let me know if he found out something different. I stood and watched the minutes on my phone go by and finally after an agonizing twenty-six minute wait, he called back with the same information. However, he was willing to help in the morning once bail was set. There was nothing else I could do.
Feeling deflated and angry, I went back to campus after a few hours of sitting in my car downtown praying for a miracle. When I got back to my apartment, no one was there and it was the only good thing that had happened in the last few hours. When I picked up my phone to see if by chance Jason had called, there were six voicemails all from Eric. He sounded like death and was pleading for a ride home from the hospital. The only reason I wanted to call him back was to cuss him out for the mess he had caused. The fact that of all people he called me for a ride home made me feel as though he had this all planned. I hated him and at that moment I wished that Jason had done more damage to him. I laid down in bed with my phone beside me waiting for daylight when I could bail Jason out. As I waited my phone rang non-stop. I would answer only to make sure it wasn’t Jason, but would then hang up each time I heard Eric’s voice. I wanted to stop answering and hope that Jason would call my cell phone, but I didn’t want to take the chance of missing his call. My exam was at 10am, but last minute studying was the last thing on my mind. I had no idea how long it would take for Jason to see the magistrate in the morning or how he was going to get home since he had missed his flight. Worse of all I didn’t know if he would even speak to me. The whole thing was just so messed up and I didn’t know how such a great week had come to such an awful ending. All I knew was that somehow I had to fix it.
I probably got about two hours of sleep that night and finally at 7am, I got up and showered and headed right back downtown. I wanted to be right in position when the magistrate got in at 8am. At 8am on the dot, I called the bails bondsman back and he assured me he would call back as soon as he found out what the bail was set at. I knew he was doing all he could do, but it didn’t seem good enough. I needed Jason out of jail immediately. At some point I dozed off and was woken up by my phone ringing. It was 8:47am and the bondsman informed me that Jason saw the magistrate first thing and had already been bailed out. Apparently, he had someone get him out through another bondsman. It didn’t make sense to me since he didn’t know anyone else in Wilmington. Surely he didn’t call someone all the way in Chattanooga. Without time to try and figure things out, I got out the car and sprinted to the front of the jail to see Jason sitting on a bench outside.
“Jason, oh thank God. I’ve been out here waiting to hear from you. Are you ok?”
“Go home Cheryl, I’m fine.” His face and tone was so angry that it shocked me. It was obvious he blamed me and I wanted so badly for him to understand that I didn’t want any of it to happen.
“Jason, I didn’t mean for this to happen. I had no idea that he was going to show up or how he knew we were there.”
“I really don’t care. I just want to get the hell out of this town.”
“Well let me drive you back to campus. You can get some rest while I take my exam and we can figure out how to get you home.”
“I got it figured out. I’m good. Just go home.”
“What do you mean you have it figured out? Who else do you know here to help you?”
With a smile he responded, “Trish is helping me. She bailed me out and got me a new plane ticket out of here. I’m just waiting on my cab to take me to the airport.”
It was obvious he got much satisfaction out of telling me that Trish was helping him. It was his way
to get back at me and it was working. It felt like a gut punch. I watched as he walked further away from me to wait on his cab and didn’t know what else to say. I was angry but the hurt I felt from how he was treating me overpowered my anger and the tears began to fall as I headed back to my car. His bags were still in my trunk and as I drove to where he was standing to give him his bags, I hoped the tears streaming down my face would tug on the big heart that he had and he would at least talk to me. He was on the phone though and didn’t even acknowledge that I was there or bringing him his stuff. By this time, I had less than thirty minutes to get to my exam. I left feeling like it was the last time I would ever see or talk to Jason again. It was heartbreaking and go figure it had to happen on one of the most important days of my life.
I made it back to campus to the exam literally with two minutes to spare before the door was locked. By this time, I was both physically and emotionally drained. I was running on fumes from the lack of sleep and felt like my world had ended. From the minute we were able to start the exam a bad morning became even worse. My eyes were just too heavy to keep open. When I was able pry them open, the words were too blurry to read. When it was announced that we had thirty minutes left to complete the exam, I felt a wave of panic that allowed me to get some of the questions answered. When there was fifteen minutes left I began to cry because I knew even if I did finish all the questions that I had failed miserably. I was able to get them all answered with five minutes to spare and all the moderators seemed confused that I was handing in my exam in tears. I had been working so hard all year and had devoted so much time to preparing for the exam for nothing. It was inevitable that I was going to fail and wouldn’t be accepted into the program. Life sucked at that moment. Jason was gone, Shanna hated me, I wanted to physically harm Eric, and my hopes for my dream job were down the drain.
∞∞∞
I submitted my application to the nursing program for the simple fact that I had worked so hard on it. It was two weeks after the exam that I got the letter from the nursing school in my PO Box. I stood right by the trash as I opened the letter knowing what it was going to say. I only read the words “We regret” before balling up the letter and slamming it in the trash. I knew what was going to happen but it still hurt beyond words. Shanna and I still had not spoken and I no longer received the chain emails from her. I wondered how she was doing knowing that it was likely that things had not changed, but still there was a part of me that wanted to know that she was OK. I had tried to call Jason several times from my cell but the calls would not go through which led me to believe that he had blocked my number from calling him. My suspicions were confirmed as one day I called from a phone in the hospital that called out with a private number and he answered before the full second ring. There was so much that I wanted to say when he answered. I knew there was no point though since he would probably hang up once he heard it was me on the line. I had to accept that it was over. Eric called for days after the incident. It got to the point that I had to turn my ringer off and pray that he didn’t pop up at my apartment or that I wouldn’t run into him on campus. A year that had started off with such promise and happiness was ending on such a sour note. I just wanted it to be over.
No one knew the story behind me not getting into the nursing program and that was the way I intended to keep it. My supervisor for my internship, who had been my cheerleader all year, was the first to ask. I could barely answer without getting choked up, but managed to tell her that I had been waitlisted. She didn’t seem to believe one word of what I was saying and seemed even more convinced that I lied when I told her I was ending my internship. When daddy asked I told him that I had changed my mind and wanted to do psychology instead. From his reaction, I knew that he knew that something had happened to cause me to not get in but I was glad that he didn’t press me on it. I decided to go to summer school to get some psychology courses out the way and mainly to avoid going home. Daddy had agreed to help me move to an apartment within walking distance of the school since I had proven that I could maintain good grades. It seemed like a good idea after the way the semester had ended. It was my escape from the reminders of things that had happened on campus, which included Eric. I felt like if I never saw him again, that would be just perfect for me.
Daddy, Mommy, and his friend Sam came down to bring me furniture and help me get moved in. Their original plan was to just stay the night and head back to Charlotte. I felt like Mommy could sense that I wasn’t myself and convinced them to stay for the weekend. It was nice to have the company for the weekend. When they left it was immediately evident that moving off campus by myself wasn’t all I thought it was going to be. After my two classes, I was pretty much left with nothing to do. I grew tired of the beach pretty quickly and clubs didn’t seem appealing to me. I started looking for jobs as a last resort. I was disheartened that the only call back was for a server position at a retirement home. It was by no means an easy position or one that paid well. To make matters worse, there was some housekeeping involved. All the other servers were high school students, but I took it anyway hoping that along the line something else would come up.
School, work, home became my normal routine. I felt like such a loser watching all my neighbors enjoying their summer and having so many activities to involve themselves in. I hadn’t taken the time or initiative to meet any of them but it happened that one day after working a lunch shift that as I was headed up the steps to my apartment I heard a familiar voice. A girl walked out of the one of the ground floor apartments talking on her cell phone and though she had lost around 20 pounds, I instantly realized it was April.
“Hey April.” I was shocked to run into her, that I immediately spoke before considering that she still hated me.
She did not share my enthusiasm in seeing each other after so long. She stopped what she was saying mid-sentence when she saw me, but did not speak back. Instead she gave me a look of disgust, rolled her eyes and went back into the apartment. I wasn’t surprised at her reaction, but the way she slammed the door made me jump. I respected her reaction though and the next few times I saw her I acted like I didn’t know her just like she did me. It was awkward acting like we weren’t good friends before, but I had put so much energy into making amends with her before, that I felt like there was nothing else I could do. It appeared as though she was living in the apartment with her boyfriend and looked great, so I couldn’t help but be happy for her. It was two weeks later that I got a knock on my door and saw her out the peephole. I hesitated before opening the door not knowing if she was coming to argue. Reluctantly, I opened up the door.
“Hey, were you busy?” I assumed she asked since it took me a minute to open the door.
“Not really, just reading for a class.”
“Oh, well UPS delivered your package to my apartment. I just wanted to bring it up.”
“Thanks.” I couldn’t help but snicker at the show she was putting on. I had been there for several weeks and never had UPS mess up a delivery. I felt like she had set up this whole thing, but took it as a sign that she wanted a reason to come up and talk.
“Well, I’ll let you get back to studying but also wanted to let you know that my boyfriend Stanley’s band is playing tonight downtown. Here’s the flyer with the address if you want to come out.”
“Ok, thanks, I’ll try to make it. When April left I wasn’t quite sure what to think. Not only had she gone through the trouble to come up and talk to me, she had also invited me to see her boyfriend’s band play. Nonetheless I was excited about having something to do outside of work and school and mostly at the prospect of having my old friend back.
The show started at 9pm, but I was careful to get there later around 9:30 just so I wouldn’t seem like I was too eager to be there. April was sitting by herself so intently glued to the drummer that she didn’t notice that I had sat at the table with her. When the band stopped playing the current song, April jumped up to cheer louder than anyone in the building and
it was only after she sat back down and I tapped her on the shoulder that she realized that I was there. She did a double take as if she was surprised that I had actually come but she seemed pleasantly surprised. When the band wasn’t playing we talked about school, and life in general, but neither or us brought up the incident with Daniel. If what Daniel and Eric had told me were true I knew it had to be an embarrassing subject for her. Plus, it seemed like so long ago and there was really no point in bringing it up. I just hoped we could truly move past it. I can’t say that I enjoyed the music they played even slightly but it felt so good to be out the house that I stayed until their set was over.
That night when April said she would call or come by sometime for us to hang out, I only half believed it. I wanted to believe it but a part of me felt like she was probably content with clearing the air and felt fine moving on. She surprised me though over the next few weeks. We didn’t hang out a lot being that she did have a boyfriend that took precedent, but it was nice to have company from time to time and to get out some. Things were looking up from the start of the summer, which made the start to the second summer session not seem as dreadful as the first session. It was the first time I had felt content since all the drama at the end of the school year and I hoped that things remained mellow for me for a while. It seemed like it would for a while until the day I was walking around the mall to kill time before work and literally ran right into Eric as he was coming out of a shoe store. I said, “Excuse me” without realizing who I was talking to but even once I did it was my intention to keep going. In true Eric fashion, he was not willing to let things go that easily.
“Hey wait up Cheryl.” I still wanted to keep walking but he was so loud that I stopped. It also dawned on me that if I gave him his time to talk then maybe he would leave me alone.
“What’s going on Eric? I’m on my way to work and don’t have a lot of time.”