An update! Finally! I'm hoping that you can forgive me for the slightly longer wait because, OMG, this chapter is nearly 9,000 words (was a nightmare to edit!)! I was considering chopping it in half, but I don't really like the idea of having a part one, part two chapter over the same characters P.O.V, plus there wasn't really a good spot that I could split it on without all the drama only being in one half of the chapter or the other and there was a lot to get through, hence the super-mega-freakin-long chapter was born.
Enjoy the chapter of revelations! :D
"Ever thought about getting out?" Romeo Smith
"You don't what it's like – mate, it's the black hole." Casey Braxton
"So you're not even gonna try?" Romeo Smith
"I will…One day" Casey Braxton~ Home And Away
Chapter 12 – Moments Of Truth
Will's POV
Since I'd confided in Zane that day after my discovery of the mysterious pregnancy test in Rikki's bag (which was still an open-ended mystery) about my confusion and concerns of Bella's mystery, not to mention, the phantom child and where it fit into the big picture, whenever I thought about it, I only got myself more churned up, thinking about what the result really is, either way.
I knew that I had to know the answer, whatever it was, but I had no idea how I was going to approach that huge, daunting matter. It's not exactly something that you ask someone every day: "Hey, how's it going? Just wondering, but is that my kid?" No. And it's hardly a topic that you can weave into, or bring up in a conversation either: "That's a cute baby… it looks a little bit like me. No chance there's a reason behind that, is there?"
And then there was all the 'what if's' and all of the consequences that would pay the price for my need to know. If it is, what then?; "Okay... Cool. That's good to know"? Or do I try to get involved? Do I offer to pay child support or something? I had no idea. Before now, I'd never thought about the prospect or idea of this happening before in the past; I'd had no reason to.
Anyway, after too many mental panic attacks, I decided to go to Bella's work and confront her. I knew where she lived too, but I figured that her boyfriend might be there, which would make for a beyond awkward situation.
Driving into the City CBD, I passed the cafe where we had gone to for lunch together around a month ago, when we'd seen each other for the first time since our break up. I'd already thought over the bits and pieces of that day and our conversations that I could remember, but all of that just continued to cloud my head up even more.
After parking my car in a nearby underground car-park, I walked towards the tall building that was slowly getting marginally larger and larger as I neared it. I knew the building and what would lay inside, but I double checked, briefly reading the large sign placed proudly high up on the exterior wall of about the sixth floor up, that printed: 'L.O.T.L Design Corporations'. I continued to walk steadily towards and through the automatic double doors, through to the large reception room on the bottom storey that smelt like a combination of air-conditioning and leather. Looking down at my casual shorts, tank top and thongs, I started to question my judgment with choosing my outfit as I walked up to closest of four young receptionist girls that were sitting in a horizontal row of desks, wearing similar, if not identical, neat, crisp and creaseless suits.
"Good morning. Which floor does Bella Hartley work on?" I asked politely, trying to make up for my shabby-compared-to-the-current-environment-I-was-in-clothing.
The receptionist's auburn hair, flicked around as she looked to the computer screen having swiftly transitioned from looking at me, to typing away on a few keys, before her gaze returned to me. "Level nine. Ask at the desk that's directly in front of you when you come out of the elevator. They'll lead you to her office."
I nodded, before thanking her, keeping up my overly-polite act, before walking off towards the elevator which I took up to level nine, making good use of the instructions I'd been given.
I waited as the elevator slowly rose upwards, stopping three times as numerous more bodies flooded into the cramp room, joining me. Before long at all, the '9' light glowed and the elevator came to a halt again. Stepping out after the doors opened, the main desk wasn't hard to find, being mere metres directly in front of the elevator's opening.
Just before the desks, in the transition from the tiles near the elevator, was carpet, before a timber path lay in a strip, leading to a hall or corridor of countless doors, but I ignored them, continuing to walk straight up to the desk, similar to that which was on the ground floor, just a smaller variation with a mix of males & females manning each desk and browsing on the sleek computers.
"Can I help you?" a voice asked from a desk that was a few steps away from where I was standing currently. Walking towards it, I escaped my daydreaming-daze as I looked around the office, taking in my unfamiliar surroundings.
"Yeah. I was wondering where Bella Hartley's office is?" I enquired, but not quite as politely as I had downstairs minutes earlier.
"Her office is towards the end of the hall down to your right. Names are on the door" the receptionist responded, pointing, as I thanked her.
Walking down the hallway that I'd been looking at just before I walked over to the desks, I passed a dozen evenly separated doors before I stopped at the door with two names engraved on a strip of metal that was stuck on the door, identical to all of the other doors I'd passed, with the only difference being the names, which is what caught my attention.
Taking a deep breath before I knocked on the timber, I didn't have to wait long before a female's voice called out: "Come in."
I walked into the room filled with three desks –two holding computers, folders and a few personal items, with the other much-larger, circular shaped desk covered with countless spreads of papers, sketches, pens and several other folders- along with two additional chairs that were against the back wall.
The blonde girl who had invited me inside, and previously the only occupant of the room was sitting sideways on a chair at one of the desks with her back rested against the wall as she threw a small pink ball, the size of a tennis ball, up and down in the air, continuing to catch it before throwing it back up repeatedly. The girl, I automatically noted, wasn't Bella.
"Hi..." I started to say shyly, being a bit set back, having stupidly not expected or considered that anyone other than Bella would be in the room.
"Oh hey there" the girl smiled, stopping the ball-throwing, which she just placed beside her on the desk, before she sat up straighter from her previous slouched position against the wall. "Who are you?"
"Will Benjamin. Is Bella around?" I asked, standing by the door awkwardly, still trying to overcome my surprise that the situation wasn't what I'd expected and imagined it would be like.
The girl slouched back against the wall again. "Oh! Are you Will, as in the ex-Will? Bella will be back in a minute. She's just gone to get something from printing."
"Uh, yeah, okay" I murmured, trying to incorporate my answer all into one sentence, in an attempt to lower the awkwardness level.
She nodded, sat up again (heck that girl liked to move around!) before opening and extracting a small, thin piece of cardboard out of her desk drawer. Walking over to me she put her hand out as she introduced herself. "I'm Amy Reed. I work with Bella... obviously."
Shaking her hand politely, she stretched her other hand out towards me, which was holding the small card that I now realized was a business card. "Here. Take my card. They were only just printed out, like, yesterday and it's my very first official business card so I'm very excited about it... take it."
I laughed lightly, removing the card from her loose chopstick-like grasp between her index finger and middle finger. Her babbled out speech about the business card reminded me very much of Bella, which just brought that 'birds of a feather' saying to my mind as I glanced over the card before I pulled my wallet out of my shorts, slipped it inside and put it away again.
"You can sit down while you wait for her if you want" she added, pointing to the closest chair to me that was pushed in around the big circular table. I took the few steps to the table and sat down, followed by Amy who sat down on the chair next to me.
We sat in silence, neither of us knowing what to talk to the other about, so far with our only common ground being Bella.
Deciding to make use of the silence, I looked around the room, taking everything in and looking for familiarity. I saw Bella's bag next to one of the desks, her keys and phone sitting in the corner of it, placed just in front of a photo frame holding a photo of her, her boyfriend Daniel that I'd met the other day, as well as that same little girl that I was here to enquire about... if I managed to either get her alone without Amy or away from her.
"Cute baby" I commented, pointing over to the framed photo that had caught my attention.
She looked behind her at Bella's desk in the direction I'd been pointing before she smiled at the photo. "Allie? Yeah, she's so adorable."
There was another silence after that, before the sound of a door clicking open and slowly shutting again, along with the sound of high heels entering the room triggered both me and Amy to look behind us.
This time, it was the girl that I had been expecting all along.
Bella rushed inside, straight over to her desk, dumping an armful of A4 sized papers onto her desk, before sitting down and typing away furiously for a minute until she returned to going through the papers that she'd brought into the room with her.
"Bella? You have a visitor," Amy informed her, who by the looks of her, hadn't even realized that I was in the room, considering her usually more distant, awkward manner when we were confined in the same space.
She looked up from what she was doing –now scribbling something down onto the top page of the paper stack- before pausing from her motions that had been set on double-speed since she'd entered the room.
"Um... Will? What are you doing here?" she asked looking really puzzled and possibly a little embarrassed as her cheeks began to colour.
I knew she was probably expecting a simple answer as to why I was there, such as 'I have to pick something up' or 'I was in the area' or something to that degree of simple, and nothing like the question I was dying for an answer to.
"Uh... Can we talk alone for a minute?" I asked, looking from Bella to Amy, and back to Bella. I felt a little rude walking in and practically expecting Amy to be kicked out of the room, but I knew there was no chance in hell that I was going to ask Bella with Amy, or anyone else for that matter, lingering around and listening in.
Bella frowned, looking down at the papers again, scribbling something else. "Why? What's up? Can it wait? I've got this massive amount of work due to be on my boss's desk and in the client's hands in like an hour. I really don't have time for a catch-up or D&M."
I sighed, not sure where to go from there. My heart was screaming: 'NO NO NO' that it couldn't wait, while my head was yelling back at it: 'YES YES YES' knowing that considering Bella was stressed and pushing for a deadline, it really wasn't the best time to ask her.
In the silence, Amy added from the seat next to me "Bella's not that social when she's up against a one hour deadline. Can I help you out with anything? I've finished my part of the job."
"No, that's okay, I can wait... But if you've finished, why are you still here?"
Amy leaned a little closer to me and lowered her voice as if we were playing a game of Chinese Whispers. "I'm 'moral support' for her. And, don't tell anyone, especially not my boss, that I told you, but if I'm here, whether I'm working or not, I still get paid the big bucks."
I nodded, reassuring her I wouldn't say anything to her boss, before I looked over at Bella again who had taken our brief conversation as a chance to keep on working. After a few minutes of Amy & I sitting in silence, and Bella working obliviously, I softly spoke up. "Bella? When's a good time to talk then if now doesn't suit you?"
Amy got up from her next to me, walking back over to her desk, sitting just like she was when I'd entered the room as she continued throwing and catching the ball up in the air, leaning back against the wall.
She looked up at me for a moment, before looking down and continuing what she was doing, but answering me. "I don't know. What's it about? Can't you just make it quick and get it over with now?"
I shook my head, despite the fact that she wasn't looking. "No. It's not that simple."
She sighed, walking over and grabbing something off her desk. "I'm going to Rikki's tonight, just ask me then or something."
"Oh... so you're coming over this afternoon?" I confirmed in realization.
A couple of days ago, Rikki had given Zane and I 'advanced notice' that we were going to be kicked out tonight because she was inviting friends over for a girl's night, hence we were banished. Fortunately for us the Gold Coast Suns were playing against Port Power in a home game today at Carrara Stadium, so we were happy to be going out and cheering our teams on (Zane gets stubbornly patriotic and nationalistic about it, only supporting his 'home team', whereas I had an inclination to root for some of the underdogs... with the South Australian team falling pretty low on the leaderboard currently, despite leading over the Suns) and Rikki was happy to have the house without us for a while. It was a win-win situation. However, if I'd known that Bella was coming over... Well lets just say that I'm least going to be running late with getting out of the house when Rikki expected us to. Despite the fact that we'd decided to car-pool and go together, I figured that if I was running really late, Zane might leave without me and I could meet up with and then talk to Bella alone right when she arrived and before Rikki knew she was there.
She nodded, continuing to work as she spoke. "Yeah, Cleo was meant to be too, but she had already made plans with Lewis."
"Okay, cool" I said, with a smile starting to form on my lips.
Taking a sheet of paper over to the laminator, I watched Bella as she fed the sheet into the machine, looking up at me momentarily before she put a hand on her hip as she turned and focused on the machine again. "I'm sorry and I don't mean to be rude, but can you please leave Will? I need to focus on this and the chit-chat's distracting me at the moment."
Getting up from my seat, pushing it back into the table, I accepted her request. "Okay. I might catch you tonight before I leave then. Bye Bella" I replied, walking towards the door, hearing a "Bye" from Amy, as I turned back around saying finally before I left: "Bye. It was nice meeting you."
Leaving the huge office building, I walked out smiling as I made my way back to my car, planning on going straight home.
Even though I hadn't talked to Bella about what I'd come to ask her about, I still felt better about having at least met up with her. It just left me in a good mood for some reason.
#
When I got home, both Rikki & Zane were out and I was left home alone. Zane and I weren't supposed to be going out for hours yet so there wasn't even really much point in me getting ready to go. Considering my options, I thought that playing on the PlayStation might get a bit boring on my own and the only daytime TV on at the moment would've been either soap shows or talk-shows and neither captured my interest. Instead, I made my way to the kitchen, where I poured myself out a glass of Solo (out of Zane's bottle, but don't tell him that!) before I grabbed my phone and started browsing randomly through it, downloading apps, deleting apps, checking my messages, deleting messages, logging into this, logging out of that, and so on and so forth. Making my way to Facebook, I noticed a friend request from Amy, the Amy I'd met today -which I accepted considering I had been a bit rude and uninterested in her today being focused on Bella- as well a notification that Sophie had commented on a status of mine or something that I didn't bother to check.
Finally, after an hour or so, Zane got home and we talked, me informing him of the no interesting outcome about the fact I'd gone to talk to Bella today, while Zane whined about some girl that had been on his back with her constant texts and calls for the last few days. Very shortly after that, we left our days behind and got down to business, starting up the PlayStation, for a couple of challenges against each other before we had to start getting ready for the footy game.
I won the first game, which Zane just declared as a warm up due to his loss, before he won the next two games after that. We were nearly finished our fourth race when Rikki got home, walked in and dumped several bags on the dining table. Zane said hi to her as he raced, deciding to 'take a break' when that race was over.
We both walked over to the kitchen where Rikki was alternating between changing & going through camera lenses and taking some of the stuff she'd bought out of bags.
"So what's your plans for tonight?" I asked, despite knowing half of the answer, just hoping for more information as I snooped through her chocolate and chips filled bags, with just a few other things squeezed in as a minority of other purchases.
Slipping a camera back into the bag, she shrugged. "I've just got a friend coming over. Might watch a movie or talk something, I don't know. See how it goes I guess."
Zane's looked up as his interest was pricked. "A friend? Guy or a girl, Rikki?"
I hadn't told him that I knew who it was.
"Mind your own business!" she lectured with annoyance, grabbing all of her bags and walking upstairs.
After Rikki had left the room, I decided to follow upstairs separately to get ready and changed to go out later that day.
#
A while later I came back downstairs, ready and set to go but realized that Zane would still be a while longer which suited me and my plans to be late perfectly as he passed me on the stairs, going up as I came down, probably to do everything that I'd just done to get ready.
Walking into the living area, Rikki was downstairs too, carefully chopping a carrot for what looked like a dip-platter, appearing intently focused on it (probably to avoid another 'big knife' incident like how she'd injured herself the last time she was chopping). Walking straight past her, I headed over to the couch flopping down and trying to get comfy, considering whether I'd have enough time to have a quick nap or something before Zane would be ready to go.
Laying there, eyes shut, I heard the loud chops of Rikki's knife hitting the chopping board every few seconds as well as the occasional thuds or noises from Zane walking around and doing whatever he was doing upstairs. It wasn't the most relaxing environment and I couldn't feel myself drifting off to sleep anytime soon but I figured that a few minutes shut-eye wasn't too bad.
Moving around on the lounge, another noise was added to the atmosphere. That of slamming doors and yelling. I assumed it was another usual fight from the family diagonal from our house. They were definitely consistent with their blowouts, ranging from yelling bouts and arguments over who let the dog out of the house as they'd chase the Retriever around their front yard, to more even intense dramas like when a couple of months ago, the wife discovered that the husband had been having an affair, which I'm sure was broadcasted loud enough for the whole street to tune in and listen to. Then there was the parties and the aftermaths of the parties that their teenage kids threw... Gosh, they could be considered as the neighbours from hell, maybe?
Anyway, the current fight wasn't quite loud enough to hear what was going on and to find out who had done what this time, and even though it didn't sound 100% percent like them, I didn't really bother thinking much of it. The voices yelling at each other were a lot less screechy and annoying than normal and were perhaps a bit easier to listen to... Was there even such a thing as that?
Letting out a sigh of exertion from getting up, I looked over to see what Rikki was doing; arranging crackers on the plate before I walked over to the stairs to yell out and ask Zane how much longer he'd be.
At a quick glance, looking out through the window that was across from the stairs that had a view of the front yard and across the road, I noticed a car parked along the curb where it was normally vacant and saw two blondes, possibly a couple, arguing.
"ZANE! How much longer?" I yelled from the bottom the stairs, not exactly wanting to rush out incase I had an opportunity to catch up with Bella before we left, but just wanting an estimated departure time.
"I DUNNO! JUST GIMME A MINUTE" Zane yelled back a couple of seconds later as I turned and started walking back to the lounge, but after another glance out of the window, my attention was caught. The two that had been arguing stopped yelling momentarily and I saw the guy swing his arm in the direction of the girl who threw her arms up in front of her face vertically, managing to block his horizontal hit.
I watched for a minute longer, slightly mesmerized from the shock of the guy's outburst, while trying to work out or recall his familiarity. I couldn't see him properly, considering he was quite a distance away from me, but something about him looked familiar. The car and the girl were no help to jot my memory, having never seen or known anyone with that model car before and all I could see of the girl was blonde hair up in a ponytail, and that she was wearing a white dress.
After the attempted hit, I was tempted to just yell out at the guy from the front door to back off and leave her alone, I hated abusive guys with a passion, but a slither of recognition bet me to it, completely changing my frame of mind in the process. That was the guy who had rocked up at our place a couple of weeks ago… Bella's boyfriend, Daniel or Damien or something like that, which meant…
I think I yelled something out to the others to get their attention and help quickly, before I ran to the front yard, immediately standing in-between Bella and her boyfriend, facing him.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, mate?" I asked loudly, questioning him seriously, figuring that he better have a damn good reason to avoid being decked.
Instead of answering to me, he took a step forward, pushing my shoulder and arm with force on an angle so that I was pushed to the side from where I'd been standing in between the middle of the two.
"Look what you've done now, Bella!" he shouted accusingly, waving his hands spastically in her direction.
"What are you talking about? It's not her fault!" I yelled in defense, before Bella could get a word in, even though she didn't look like she was planning on answering back any time soon as her head lowered, looking at the ground.
"It's none of your business, get out of my way!" he screamed, grabbing my shirt and shoving me to the ground in the opposite direction, just as I watched Rikki come running out from the house. "Are you okay?" she checked, looking down at me before I got up.
As I nodded definitively, she moved to her next question. "What's going on out here? Why did you shove him over Daniel?" she questioned, looking over from me, to Daniel, to Bella.
Immediately pointing an angry finger at me, Daniel yelled blaming me with a very childish, not to mention false accusation. "IT WAS HIM! He started it!"
Rikki looked over to me. "What happened, Will?" she asked, wanting my story about the fight.
"He tried to hit her" I said, staring over at Dan with daggers as he moved back next to Bella again, taking a grasp of the top of her arm.
"Bella? Seriously?" Rikki clarified, as her nostrils began to flare up, making it evident that Rikki was getting angry and was growing angrier.
I stood there looking at everyone who was looking from each other also. Daniel was clinging onto Bella, looking visibly angry also, Bella was stroking and wriggling her hand over and under his to try and release his grip on her, and Rikki resembled a firework awaiting its almighty explosion, but then, catching my eye from just behind Rikki, I noticed the car was parked a couple of metres away from Rikki. Sitting in a car seat in the back of the open-windowed car was Bella's previously mythical and phantom little girl, with its head tilting to the left a little, fast asleep as it sucked on its dummy subconsciously in a rhythm.
I stared over at it in the car momentarily before firework-Rikki exploded, distracting me away from it.
"YOU DID IT! DIDN'T YOU? YOU GUTLESS BASTARD!" she screamed as she barreled straight over to Daniel & Bella until she was standing directly in front of him, which I noticed only prompted his eyes to widen and his hands to clench up into fists.
That's when everything made sense… the penny dropped.
Bella's boyfriend must of been the person who had bashed her up that time when she came to Rikki for help. That must of been why she had belittled the idea of going to the police about her attack, claiming that she'd 'never be able to give them a helpful enough description or sufficient information' and that it was just 'pointless'. I had just brushed the fact off that any time when she'd been questioned about what had happened or where it had happened or whatever, she'd always change the subject of the topic, or slowly fade out of discussing it. I just figured that it was still a matter of fresh wounds.
"Just leave, Rikki!"
"Or what?" she taunted. "Will you beat me up too? If you go near her, touch her or hurt her again, I'll make sure that you regret it."
Lunging closer to her, his broad shoulders were square and his extra height made him stand tall over Rikki's smaller frame, but without touching her, he stared angrily at her, his pupils dilated wide. "Don't tell me what to do. You have no say in our relationship. She needed to learn her lesson the hard way."
Learn her lesson the hard way? The guy made me feel sick. I don't what had gone on between them, but he had very little right to discipline her, let alone to ever physically punish or hurt her in the name of 'discipline'. Why didn't she tell us? Had he threatened her about if she did say anything to anyone? We could've protected her from this monster that she was forcedly dating.
Being wrapped up in my thoughts, I missed part of the argument that Rikki and Daniel were currently engaged in at the present time, but I immediately noticed he was pointing over to Bella, who had since started to cower away after having taken a few steps backwards, yelling at her and then back at Rikki. I heard Rikki spit out the threat of frying his brains out painfully, but I wasn't focused on them. I was watching Bella as she slowly lowered herself down, sitting on the few-inch-tall concrete curb bordering the separation between the road and the grass of the front yard of our house.
Taking another look at the two blondes fighting, I too decided to back away and move closer to Bella, moving even slower than she had towards the gutter until after a while I was seated next to her on the thin concrete strip.
I'm not even sure whether she registered that I was next to her as her blood-shot eyes appeared to have tunnel-vision, looking straight on at the others fighting, totally unaware and not even flinching as I sat down next to her slightly shaking body.
The others kept fighting, oblivious to us also and I considered talking to Bella, really wanting to know more about why she had kept her shocking turmoil a secret, and more importantly, if there was anything I could do to help her.
Eventually I worked up the courage to question her, softly asking her in a whisper, "Why didn't you tell anyone, Bella? We would've helped you."
She ignored me, continuing to look ahead motionlessly, like she was in shock, so I decided to direct another question at her, which was partially in the form of a statement at the same time. "He hurt you that night you came over, didn't he?"
Again, no response.
"I'll call the cops. They can charge him, hopefully even lock him up for this" I stated, leaning backwards slightly as I weaved my hand into the front pocket of my jeans to pull my phone out.
"No" she whispered, before pushing my arm away from where it was digging into my jeans.
I frowned, looking over at her as she went on to explain herself a little more. "It'll just make things worse, you know? If police were involved…"
"No, you're wrong; I don't know what you mean. What he's doing... its assault – domestic violence, Bella. You can't just stand back and let him do this to you. It's disgusting. He can't get away with it."
"It's my problem, I'll deal with it. I'll make it better. I don't want you, or anyone else becoming a part of this too."
I nodded at her, knowing that if I didn't agree and if I continued to push, then she'd be sad and angry at me also. I just had to find another less front on and direct approach to help her.
"Okay, but just know that if you ever need a place to stay, we've still got that spare room."
Looking at me strangely, my gut twisted inside a little as I realized what that meant. "I won't need it."
"Are you insane? You have to get away from him! Open your eyes, Bella. He doesn't care about you and I don't know what excuses you're making for him, but he won't change."
She shook her head and bit her lip as her red eyes slowly welled up and she began shaking a bit more noticeably. "You don't know that he won't... I just... I can't leave him, Will."
"You can't or you won't? There's a difference…"
"I'm not going to tell you again – stay out of this. I'll sort it out over time."
"Please let us help you! You don't understand the mistake that you're making. You shouldn't live for what your going to do or what you're going to change in 'the day after' or 'next week' or whatever. You don't know what's around the corner, Bella. It could be all over for any of us tomorrow – we just don't know and you don't want to have to live with the regret of 'what if'."
I'm not sure whether my question even computed because as I continued watching her, the only movements that followed after a time was that her eyes and lips scrunched up taut as she lowered and pressed her face into her open palms on her lap, but all without responding to my question.
It hurt me seeing her like that and as I heard the muffled sniffles and chocked up breathe through the noise barrier of her hands, I had to fight the urge and instinct to once again comfort her physically, unless I wanted my head bashed in by her boyfriend who was in the same vicinity that we were. Instead, not really knowing what else to do or how else to be a help for her, I just awkwardly looked up to the others who were still verbally fighting each other aggressively, as Zane came out from the house and joined them wanting to know what on earth was going on.
"What's all this about guys?" he questioned as I noticed him looking between the two for any other hints about the reason behind the yelling.
With crossed arms and an angry expression she turned to Zane. "He's been hitting Bella. That's what happened to her the other week, except he's too gutless to admit it."
Zane looked over to him angrily. "Are you serious?"
Rikki nodded and out of nowhere, Zane punched Daniel with such a strong force that the impact made him instantly fall to the ground.
I continued watching in shock with no idea why Zane had lost it so quickly at him and as he got up with an angry groan, he stared Zane down, despite his injuries from the punch – a bloody nose and a reddening eye.
"You" he stated, pointing to Zane with a threatening finger as he staggered on the spot, losing balance momentarily. "You won't get away with this."
Standing a little taller, Zane edged closer to him confidently. "Oh won't I? Besides, if I don't get away with that, then at least I know that you're more screwed if I am too."
"Oh really? I didn't touch you. And if you're talking about Bella, what evidence have you got? What evidence have any of you got against me? There's no scars or cuts, but this" he said, pointing to the side of his face where the skin around his eye was red and the blood was still slowly trickling from his nose. "With this, I can charge you with assault. It was an unwarranted attack. I can say that you all ganged up on me. There's no way they'd believe I hurt Bella if I'm the victim here."
I almost laughed in disgust from the sickening irony of the matter. He was the one who had hurt Bella and now there was the risk that he could not only get away with it, but also be declared the victim. I was so tempted to ignore Bella's request not to and just call the cops, but then I remembered the enormous implications that would result from the normally basic charges if Daniel revealed that Zane was involved, which was already an action that he was threatening to pursue.
My thoughts were interrupted by Zane's agreement. "Fine! Go ahead, I don't give a damn because I know that the real crim will be caught at some point."
I jumped up, pulling Zane's shoulder so that we each moved a few steps away from Daniel. "You idiot! Don't aggravate him to go to the police" I growled quietly. "Do you remember what month it is? It hasn't been the full eighteen months yet!"
Zane's face scrunched up and let out his frustration through a kick at nothing but air. "Damn! I forgot. We can't just let him get away with this though! He deserves to be locked up."
"You don't think that I don't know that already? We just need to find another way around it without getting you in there with him."
Zane nodded and we both turned around to face the other three again where there was another argument in the process. Daniel was trying an attempted drag to pull Bella over to the passenger's side of the car, while Rikki had an arm on Bella's shoulder and a hand clutched onto her wrist, trying to edge her the other way. Bella looked emotionless and exhausted, her body obviously moving in whichever of the directions she was being pulled with a stronger force and saying something that I couldn't hear over top of Daniel and Rikki's loud arguing.
"Let her go and we won't call the police" Rikki offered with a tug on Bella's arm.
"As if" he spat, glaring at Rikki. "That's no threat to me. Innocent until proven guilty, right? She's coming with me."
"Stop fighting. Just stop it" I only just managed to hear Bella say quietly.
Releasing her hand's grip of Bella's shoulder, Rikki pulled her phone out from her pocket. "Fine then, but the police are worth a shot. I'm sure we'll have something against you. "
I butted into the trio's argument, with the view of making sure that the police and Zane wouldn't be involved in anything together, but trying to think of some way that could help Bella with getting away from the monster at the same time. "Let her go! Just let her choose who she wants to be with."
I was confident that this opportunity would work as a perfect getaway that her boyfriend couldn't dispute. If she didn't want to go with him, he shouldn't force her to and just suck it up and accept it.
"Fine" he smirked, letting go of her arm, holding his hands up in the air next to his face making it look as though I was aiming a gun at him. "Go on. Let her choose then."
After he'd let go of her completely, Rikki patted Bella's shoulder in reassurance before letting go of her too.
"It's your choice, Bella. It's up to you…" I said as we locked eyes for the first time that day.
Rubbing his foot into the ground that he was looking at, I heard the open-ended threat "You know what will happen…" that Daniel murmured to her, despite the fact that he looked as if he didn't want anyone else to hear him speak.
Watching her with hope, none of us, not I, not Zane, not Rikki, nor Bella or Daniel moved an inch, standing in complete silent for close to a minute, before Bella edged closer to the car as with a small, helpless shrug in our direction, while Daniel had already moved over to the other car door at her first movement towards the car.
Rikki rushed over to her again fiercely, while Bella just whispered something to her, gesturing her arms in a manner to calm her.
Turning back around and making her way to the car, there was nothing else that Rikki, or any of us could do to help Bella when she made the decision, as well as the move to get into the car.
Letting out a sigh as I watched the car drove off, Rikki angrily stormed over to Zane and I. "What the hell do you think you were doing, Will? You pretty much just helped him get her!"
"I'm sorry… My idea didn't go according to plan. I was hoping to try and- " I started to explain before Rikki cut me off.
"You shouldn't of been trying to do anything! I had it under control! I was going to win! I remembered that I had a group photo on my phone with me, Cleo and Bella when she was staying with us just after he did that to her and you could see her injuries. We had evidence that she's been being abused and I could've persuaded him to leave her here."
I shook my head. "It's not that simple. You don't understand, Rikki. I'm sure that he still would've told the cops about Zane punching him. He would do done anything he can to paint himself as the victim. That would mean really, really bad news for Zane."
"Well if the cops are such a big problem for you Zane, for whatever reason, then why did you punch Dan in the first place? Trust me, I wanted to just as much, but you don't even know the guy."
There were a few moments of silence as Zane took an audible breath and even I was interested in why Zane had punched him. It's not like he was best friends with Bella, or ever had been and it wasn't as if Daniel had broken his trust like he had broken Rikki's. Sure Zane had a temper but he wasn't purposely aggravating Zane either.
"Yeah, Zane… Why did you punch him in the first place?"
Scratching his face awkwardly and looking down to the ground cowardly, Zane let out a few unusually unconfident 'Um's' and 'Uh's'. "Well it doesn't really have anything to do with Bella and Daniel personally, but it's more so just the principle of the matter."
"What do you mean?" I asked, continuing to question him further for a better insight into his reasoning.
"It's about the whole abuse thing. I made a promise to myself when I was younger."
This time, it was Rikki's turn to ask for more information. "Why? What sort of a promise?"
"My dad used to hit my mum before she left us. I was way too young to be able to do anything to help her then, but all I remember is feeling so scared at how loud my dad would yell and I got really frightened seeing my mum crying, I mean you think of your parents as being so much stronger than you are, but she always looked so weak and helpless and I couldn't do anything, so I promised myself that if there was ever something that I could do to help a woman, or anyone really, that was in the same situation, I would do it."
I was surprised. Zane had never mentioned anything about that before, not that it was the sort of thing you just blurt out, but let's face it, Zane isn't exactly the most self-sacrificing guy so hearing that coming from him was quite surprising, but in a good way.
I looked to Zane who was alternating between staring off into the distance and looking at the ground, just doing anything to avoid eye-contact with me and Rikki. Then I glanced at Rikki who was smiling ever so slightly at Zane, who still wasn't looking at either of us.
"That's a really nice thing Zane, but I still don't understand why the cops are such a big problem for you" Rikki questioned with confusion, but with her small smile still marginally evident.
"They're just a no-go zone for him, Rikki. At least for a couple of months" I reasoned.
Looking at each of us with confusion, Rikki continued. "What? Why? What has he done?"
I looked at Zane who shook his head at me so fast that I think if he'd shaken any harder, his head would've fallen off. "Don't worry about it. You've just got to trust us on this and understand that Zane can't get in any trouble with the police."
"But why? Tell me or I'll call the police for finding my money, phone and laptop conveniently in Zane's room…" Rikki threatened seriously.
"You're not kidding, are you?" I questioned cynically, looking at her intently for any sign of it being a half-hearted joke.
She shook her head definitively and Zane added to clarifying an answer to my question . "She's not joking, Will. I can tell."
I looked over at them both once again to ensure that I wasn't being played, for an unobvious reason. "Just tell her Zane. She would find out sooner or later and you don't need any more trouble with the police."
"Whatever…" he sighed before walking away, prompting Rikki to almost instantly start jumping down my throat with questions.
"What's going on Will? Why does Zane have to avoid the police?"
I took a deep breath, realizing that he hadn't exactly told me not to say anything to her and it was a lot better telling her now and letting her have a spaz out now about why we couldn't involve the police and try to get their help with Bella because of Zane's fault.
"He's been on a good behaviour bond for the last year or so. If he breaks it at all and has a run in with the police, then he goes straight back to jail."
She crossed her arms and her eyebrows furrowed in seriousness. "Why does he have a bond? What did he do? Don't tell me that I've been living with a drug-dealer or a serial-killer or something."
Laughing her overreaction off lightly I shook my head at her. "No. I don't think he could get out for any reason and there isn't anything that his dad could've tried and bargained with if he'd done that. It was a condition of bail."
"What did he do then? Steal a little old lady's bag? Litter in public?" she asked with an increasing frustration as I took my time to answer her.
"He was arrested for being caught grafitting a school out in the suburbs, between Nerang and Worongary with a group of mates, but it was only him and another guy that the police managed to catch."
"Who else was it? Were you there?"
I shook my head. "No. I was still too busy pitying myself in 'Heartbreak Central' back then. I think Nate and a couple of those other guys were the ones with him, not sure who the other guy who got caught is though."
"What? Why would they just leave him to cop the blame? Some mates…" Rikki said to me, looking annoyed.
I shrugged at her. "I guess they didn't want to end up in trouble either. They put themselves first. You can sort of understand it, but at least Zane hasn't spoken to any of them since."
It's strange how one event can have both such strong negative and positive impacts; I mean, it was bad because of the legal repercussions and the loss of so many 'friends' for Zane, but in a way, I guess that I was secretly glad that it had happened. I doubt that we would've become friends if we both hadn't been such lost souls having a rough trot at the same time. Me? I'd lost the girl that I loved due to a couple of stupid mistakes on both of our behalf that we didn't allow ourselves to move on from, while Zane hadn't been in a serious relationship that lasted more than three weeks since Rikki. Mates-wise, I was a bit of a loner. Spending half of your life underwater and still being a bit of a newbie to the Gold Coast didn't assist with forming friendships, while Zane had made the decision to disconnect himself from all of his mates that he realized were all the same and Nate and the others. Just in it for a good time, not loyal and not the sort of association that he wanted to surround himself with.
That's how we connected and when we bumped into each other for the first in ages, we could for the first time ever relate to each other, I mean, without him and Rikki being together we didn't have a reason to even talk anymore before that… We were two lonely, betrayed guys and needed a friend and each other as much as the other did.
"Why was the idiot grafitting in the first place? If he hadn't then none of this would be happening and we could be helping Bella get away from that prick!" she said loudly looking extremely annoyed before storming off inside, calling out Zane's name.
As she left me, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and made a call. I made arrangements to meet up with them purely with the hope and prospect of helping Bella. However, I knew that it was a weak and possibly futile idea, but it was all I had and was better than nothing…
After ending the call, I walked back inside to see Zane sitting on the couch, not exactly looking happy.
"What's up, mate? What did Rikki want?" I asked, taking a seat next to him.
"To bite my head off."
I nodded solemnly. I thought that this would've been the case, especially considering Zane's current demeanor of self-pity, but I still asked anyway.
"Am I right in saying that by trying to make things better, I think we made things even worse?" he questioned.
"Spot on. Life sucks…"
So... A lot going on there, hey? What did you guys think? Tell me everything! What do you all think about Amy & the monster called Dan? What did you think of Zane's criminal past, secret and promise to himself? Who did Will call? And will Bella ever get away from her boyfriend? Then there's still the open-ended mysteries of Allie; and with Rikki eliminated, is Cleo or Bella the possibly pregnant mermaid? Also, for the super cluey ones out there, did any of you pick up on a bit of sneaky foreshadowing about one other upcoming *hint hint* fatal, tragic accident.
Next up? Lewis.
Have a good one :)
