Page 68 of Best Man on Campus

“Used to.” It’s more than I expect.

“Do you know where she is? A phone number?”

* * *

I go to Jazzy’s apartment. It’s time to tell her about Sarah and what she’ told me, about Killian and about her mother. The only way for her to live a real life, to have a real relationship with me, is to move forward and deal with the truth of what Killian did to her.

She opens the door when I knock, but she’s not smiling.

“What’s this surprise visit about? It doesn’t look like anything good judging by the serious look on your face. But then maybe that’s the trouble with you, you’re always so serious, Ben.” She walks away from me and goes to the window, so I follow her.

It sounds ridiculous to me now, but on a sigh, I say, “We have to talk.”

She laughs and so do I. some of my tension leaving so I have just enough room to breathe and talk. There’s no other way to start except to get it out there.

“I talked to Sarah again—”

She turns and slaps me across the face so hard and so fast, I’m stunned enough to stand there when she runs from the room.

“You have no business in my business. I don’t need you and I don’t want you and your interference.” She’s out the door before I move.

I run after her, but she’s damn fast. She gets ins her car and the last thing she should be doing in her state is driving. Not that my state, my heart racing past what I’m sure is normal healthy limits, is any better. But I’m not about to let her go, not when I know she’s hurting. Her words are lashing out in anger, not how she really feels. That’s what I tell myself as I jump into my Jeep Wrangler and peel out of her apartment’s parking lot, chasing after her as if we’re in some kind of cheap action movie chase scene.

She drives to straight to Majik’s house and I follow, worried about her fucking reckless driving as it starts raining. She loses me before we arrive, but I know the place, so I turn down her street and see Jazzy’s car. I’m parked out front, pounding rain filling the silence as I take some deep breaths to calm my adrenalin when my phone buzzes.

It’s Majik. Fuck. She never calls. I pick up the phone and tap it on.

“I’m outside—”

She cuts me off with a roar of rage. I’ve never experienced Majik’s anger. And I never want to experience it again.

“Get inside this fucking house and straighten this out you fucking asshole.” She ends the call and my head vibrates with the cold fury she leveled at me. Over the phone. I hesitate about going inside to face her, but only for a flash. I need to talk to Jazzy and straighten this out. Majik’s right about that.

Running through the rain across her small front lawn, Majik stops me at the front door.

“Before you come bull-rushing in here, boy, you’re going to tell me what you found out.” Her hand is flat against my chest and she stands with her door swung open on the threshold, making me stand out in the fucking rain. The look on her face is fierce and I search for the understanding woman I know. She’s disappeared and been replaced by a fucking mother bear with some muscle behind her heft and I’d put her against any two guys on the football team’s defensive line.

I’m so fucking hot to share what I know with Jazzy, as if I know best, but more to see her, to make things right, so I don’t argue with Majik. I spill my guts and tell her everything I know.

“Sarah told me Killian raped her that night.” I shake my head, “That’s why she shot him. I also talked to—”

“Nooooo” I’m interrupted by Jazzy’s ear-piercing scream of pain and denial.

She’s behind Majik who spins around and I see her, her hands covering her ears because she’s heard me say that Killian raped her.

“Jazzy—” I rush past Majik and she lets me, but Jazzy takes off through the house and out the back door. This time I have no idea where she’ll go, what she’ll do. This time there’s no way in fucking hell I’m letting her get away. I chase her down and catch up to her on the front lawn before she gets to her car, capturing her in my arms as we tumble to the ground. The rain pelts us and I hold her while she sobs.

“Jazzy, it’s okay, he’s gone. He can’t touch you again.” I whisper the words into her ear over and over while her body shakes and uncontrollable sobs wrack her.

“I knew. I always knew in my heart and soul what he did, but I didn’t want it to be true,” she says, wailing the words as if I’m not there, not hearing me. I lift her to her feet and then hold onto her, my arms circling her, protecting her with my body with the onslaught of a hard downpour.

“He… he wasn’t all bad--” It’s the hardest thing for me to say, but it’s also true. Part of her truth. “I found out where your mother is. She can tell you about your father. Killian’s brother. We can talk to her, visit her.”

“We?”

“I’m in this with you.”

“It’s not your fucking problem. Leave me alone. Let me go. I’m no good for you. I don’t fit into your Disney life.”