"You ok?" Dylan whispered in my ear.
Eros left and I couldn't help but let a few tears fall. "Yeah. Can we go?"
"It's starting to get a little boring anyways. Let's get some big juicy burgers to sober you up some."
"Sounds perfect." I smiled biting my lip.
We stopped at a 24 hour diner close to where he lived in the suburbs. His family did well for themselves, but weren't like Eros' dad and mine living in our mansions with ten sport cars.
Dylan had two younger sisters and his mom was a stay at home mom. He spoke highly of them. He barely mentioned his dad though. He didn't say anything bad, but I could tell there was tension there.
"Thank you for this, Dylan. I'm sorry there is always drama around me."
"It's fine, Ella. I had fun tonight. The little DeClare drama was amusing too. I hope Amber is ok. Eros was pissed."
"Yeah, he was, but he'll get over it. She lives in France and leaves in a few days to go home."
"I heard their old man collected women."
I laughed surprised at that comment. I guess it was true. "Yeah, never really liked him. His is good friends with my dad though and they work together."
"My dad works there too. Not as high up, but I swear he envies all them."
"Well, he shouldn't. We all have our drama."
"Yeah, I guess we do." Dylan all of sudden looked somehow older staring out the window.
"Want to head out?"
"Sure. It's getting late."
We paid the bill and walked to his car. I opened my door then closed it quickly. "Dylan?"
"What's wrong?"
"Today is my birthday. I usually spend it miserable. Thank you for tonight."
"Ella!" He walked to me giving me a hug. "Happy Birthday! I wish I knew sooner."
"This was perfect."
"Come on let's get you home before I turn into a pumpkin. Next week we will go out properly to celebrate." He insisted. I smiled and got in the car.
I think I actually made a real friend. I lost the man I loved since I was twelve, but I also gained Dylan.
His phone started ringing with mom on the caller Id. He cursed answering it and immediately I heard screaming. What the hell?
I stared at him wide eyed as he white knuckled the steering wheel and increased his speed. Oh god, we are going to die. I grabbed the seat belt holding it tighter to my body like it would actually help when we flipped over doing a hundred miles per hour.
Dylan skidded into a driveway to a two story home with a white wrap around porch. "Stay in the car!" He ordered me then jumped out.
What the hell is happening? I can't take this back and forth with everyone. Please let me get home safe and I promise I'll never try to make another friend again.
I heard shouting from a deep male voice, then glass shatter. I slowly got out of the car unsure if I should go in there. What if someone was hurt or Dylan needed help? I took a deep breath slowly opening the door.
The second I peaked inside I saw a large man back hand a woman while Dylan laid on the floor with a bloody nose. I quickly grabbed my phone with shaky hands to call the police. I stood quietly by the door listening, praying the cops would just appear in thin air. That large man looked like he could kill everyone with his bare hands. With the anger in his eyes I think he just might do it too.
The man was pissed about some promotion he didn't get. He was blaming all them for distracting him from work and for asking for too much from him. The woman was crying, apologizing over and over. She promised she would do better. Dylan was holding the woman trying to calm her down. Then I saw a little girl creep pass the door. No! She can't go near that man.
I closed my eyes tight praying I had some liquid courage right now. I can't just stand here. I heard the little girl scream like she was being ripped apart. I shot the door open with pure fear racing in my veins. The man held the girl by her hair and her feet were lifted from the floor.
"Drop her! The cops are almost here and they will arrest your sorry ass if you touch her!" I shouted at him. I felt nothing but rage. Only one other time in my life did this surge of protectiveness take over. It was like every emotion shut off in my body, replaced with a radiating force to do something. That didn't end so well for my dad back then but I couldn't think about that right now.
"You little bitch. Who the fuck do you think you are?" The man dropped the girl and came right at me. Shit! He was going to kill me. His hand whipped out and smacked right across my face. I dropped straight to the floor with a sharp pain radiating up and down my head. Fuck that hurt so bad! I cupped my cheek with tears flowing down my face.
The man stood over me and I saw those dark eyes, just like Dylan, staring down at me. This was his father. I looked to Dylan cradling his mom and sister trying to calm them. He shooed his sister out the other doorway then slowly approached me.
His father bent down and grabbed my hair to stand me up.
"Dad, please stop." Dylan stood to his shoulder and was half his strength in size.
"You little shit brought home this whore. Another mouth for me to feed. None of you appreciate all the fucking shit I sacrifice for you."
He let go of my hair and his attention was back on Dylan. I can't let him hurt them again. I heard the sirens and let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.
The man's eyes were back on me and I smiled at him. "Hit me again, I dare you!" I taunted him. He was going to jail tonight and he wouldn't touch them ever again.
"Ella, don't!" Dylan pleaded walking towards me, but he wasn't fast enough.
The man rose his hand and it came back down hard on my face. I was knocked right out the door. I tried to pick myself up and fell right back down. "You little bitch, you have a fucking mouth on you."
I saw the cops run out their cars just as his foot came to my stomach and flipped me down the front porch.
"Don't move." An officer had his gun raised at him and the man began cursing. He slammed his front door shut and I heard yelling again. No! They were in their.
Five cops rushed past me knocking the door down. I slowly stood up and used the railing to walk back in. I couldn't believe my eyes.
The cops had the man in cuffs as his tried breaking free of them. That wasn't the surprising part though. It was the wife, the mother of these children. She was crying hysterically hitting the cops to let him go. What?
Dylan was trying to calm her down and asking the officers to leave her be. Then she saw me.
"You! You did this, you little whore. Arrest her! I want her arrested." She began screaming at me. What the fu...?
"Ella?" Rich was standing between us and I had to do a double take. I knew he was a cop, but I didn't expect to see him here.
"Rich?"
Dylan dragged his mom out of the room and the cops took his father to their car in cuffs.
"Are you ok?"
"I am now. I want him in jail for a long time."
Rich gave me a little smile. "I plan on it. Did he do this to you?" His hand brushed lightly over my face.
"Yeah! That's assault, right? Can I press charges?"
"Ella, don't do this." Dylan came rushing to me.
"What?" I'm so far out of my element here.
"You don't understand. My dad can't go to jail. I'll pay you, whatever you want, just don't do this."
"What are you talking about?" Did I just enter a weird twilight zone? So much just happened and the adrenaline was still pumping in my veins I wasn't processing anything.
"Officer, I'm sorry about this. It was my fault." Dylan pleaded to him.
"I have to do my job, Dylan."
"What is happening?" I shouted.
"If my dad gets arrested we will lose everything. My mom needs her meds and my little sister has a heart condition. Please, I'm begging both of you, don't do this. He only gets like this when he drinks too much. I'll be more careful so he doesn't get this out of control."
I looked up the stairs and saw his sister watching down to us crying. She was just five feet in the air being held by her hair in that monster's hand.
"I'm sorry, Dylan. I'll help you pay for whatever you need, but I can't let him near her again." I said looking up to his sister. He followed my line of sight.
"Ella, you don't understand." He closed his eyes about to have a break down.
My hand came to his shoulder. "I don't and I'm sorry. There has to be another way. I promise I'll help however I can, but that monster can come back here, Dylan. Do you want her to grow up like this?"
"No, but I don't want my other sister to die either."
"There's another way."
"Get out!" He shouted. He looked so pissed at me. "I said get out. I should had never talk to you, felt bad for you and your pathetic existence.."
"Enough!" Rich grabbed Dylan by the shirt. "You're upset and it's not Ella's fault. Don't be like that scumbag out there."
Dylan pushed Rich off him, "Say a fucking word Ella and you will regret it. I fucking promise you."
I stood there crying silently as he yelled at me. How was he mad at me? How could he protect that monster?
"Come on, Ella." Rich guided me outside and I was just numb to everything. I thought my day was bad this morning. I had no idea how far it would spiral out of control.
"Hey, you ok?" Rich looked at me through the rearview mirror. On top of everything I was sitting in the back of a cop car. I wasn't being arrested, but definitely not how I thought my birthday would turn out. Maybe spending my birthday crying myself to sleep wasn't so bad when the alternative was this.
"What did I do wrong?" I looked to him and I saw the sadness in his eyes for me.
"You didn't do anything wrong, Ella. It was actually pretty badass how you stood up to that man."
"I don't feel badass."
"I've been to Dylan's house more times than I can count because a neighbor called the cops from the yelling. Every time they make excuses for him and we have no reason to arrest him."
"Why do they let him keep hurting them?" I couldn't understand how this was happening. How they thought they could live like this.
"Partly because it's their normal, Ella. I see it a lot with domestic violence. They don't want to lose that person they love. They don't want to be alone or they don't want change. Kids feel a need to protect their parents and spouses are abused so long they think they deserve it."
"Deserve it? How could anyone deserve that?"
"When you're told for so long it's your fault, you start to believe it. Dylan's mom is bipolar, which depression usually goes hand and hand with it. She got really bad the few times we had to arrest him. It was only a day or two we could hold him, but it was enough to send her off the deep end. Then there is his sister that has a heart condition. She needs monthly check ups and probably heart surgery in a few years. Without the money she will be knocked down the list."
"It's doesn't seem fair. Can't they put their mom in a hospital? She can get real help she needs and the little girl they can find the money. You said in a few years and might need surgery. I'm sure there are funds to apply for, or money they can take from the father he saved. This has to be another way then to let him keep abusing them."
"There could be a way. I don't know though. Dylan has been dealing with this for so long and he knows at the end of they day his mom won't have an episode and his sister will get the medical attention she needs. He thinks he is doing the right thing by keeping the status quo."
"Do you think I should press charges?"
"My job is to make sure you're safe, that everyone is safe. You would all be safer with him locked up." He looked at me and I could see how he felt sorry for the position I was in. "We all saw him kick you down the stairs. We will be pressing charges either way. It's your choice to add your own."
We pulled into the police station and I watched three officers drag the oversize man out of the car and inside.
"He'll be locked up and no where near you."
"Ok. I really just want to go home." Tears bubbled in my eyes. I never cried so much in my life and I cry all the time.
"How about we get a few pictures and a short statement. I can stop by tomorrow for an official one."
"Ok, thank you."
We walked inside and everyone was looking at me. Normally a million thoughts would be racing through my head, but all I could think about was that little girl.
Rich got a camera and introduced me to a female officer that would assist him. She got a few shots of my face and for some reason I felt so exposed. They were just pictures, but somehow it made it more real.
"Did he hit you anywhere else?"
"My stomach." I answered lowly.
"Do you feel comfortable to let me take a picture."
"Yeah, it's ok." I slowly lifted my shirt and more tears rolled out my eyes.
She took her pictures and wrote some notes.
"I'm off and will take her home." Rich told the lady and she nodded to him.
She knelt in front of me as I sat in a chair not really feeling anything. "Ella Jones, you are a very brave woman. I know everything that happened tonight was scary and I'm sure you're in shock. I just wanted to say I'm proud of you and I think you're doing amazing." She gave me half smile then got up and walked off.
"She is right you know. I've seen many people unable to speak up or they just hide away instead of doing the right thing. It took a lot of guts to rush in that house to help that little girl and now to press charges after your friend turned away from you."
"Thank you. I don't feel very brave right now. I'm just tired."
"If you need anything you can call me anytime. Ok?"
"Yeah, thank you, Rich. I'm glad you were there."
We were silent the rest of the ride to my house. I watched the small middle class town rush by the window of his truck, then the scenery turned to the city, and finally to the mansions. This world was filled with so many different lives. Billions of people walking around just living half a life.
"Thanks again." I said getting out of the truck.
"Ella, you did good today. It'll get easier."
I nodded my head to him and closed the door. I glanced to Eros' window and sighed. One person in my corner is all I wanted.