“Five, more or less,” I told her.
“I’m sorry to interrupt you guys,” Nelle called out, “but I never said I was coming. And you’re rushing me.”
“If you’re letting a guy push you around and abuse you, then you should be rushed,” Sue objected.
“Monty’s going to be furious,” Nelle said.
“Let him be,” Mike told her. “You won’t be around to see it.”
After a couple of seconds’ silence, Nelle conceded, “OK, I’m in.”
Convincing Jack to lend us the car was easier than I’d imagined. All I had to do was say the wordemergencyand he agreed. His only condition was that Mike not drive, which meant for the first time we’d be seeing Sue behind the wheel.
It wasn’t what you’d call an easygoing trip. Sue kept stopping for coffee—she wasn’t tired, I think she was just bored. Mike sat in the back, unable to shut up, literally just singing or making noises when he ran out of things to say. And I couldn’t stop chewing my nails.
It was weird, arriving back in my old neighborhood with those two. Sue had never been there, and Mike couldn’t remember it, so I pointed out the sights. They were surprised at all my stories. I don’t think they imagined so much could happen in such a small town.
“Where’s your friend live?” Sue asked when she stopped at a stop sign.
“Two streets farther down. It’s close to my parents’ place.”
“Are we going to visit them?” Mike asked, sticking his head in between us.
After a moment’s hesitation, I said, “I don’t really know that we should.”
One thing I liked about the two of them was they weren’t pushy: they knew your limits, and even if they liked a good bit of gossip, they never felt the urge to pry.
Sue parked Jack’s car across the street from Nelle’s house. We were all nervous as we got out, but I felt better when I noticed there were no vehicles around. Not Monty’s car or motorcycle, not even Nelle’s parents’ car. She was definitely alone.
It felt strange climbing the porch steps with Mike and Sue on either side of me. I did it as quickly as I could and rang the doorbell. Nelle opened almost immediately. She looked frantic, dragging her rolling bag with a backpack slung over her shoulders. She’d obviously been waiting.
Whatever hostility she’d felt toward me was gone. In her eyes, all I saw was fear and hope.
“Hey,” I said. “This is Mike and Sue, you met them over the phone.” The two of them waved at her.
“Is that the car?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I replied. “Did you tell your parents?”
“They know everything,” Nelle said, shutting the door. “Can we go now? Please?”
I nodded and bent down to pick up her bag. Nelle was pale as a sheet. I wondered why, but then I saw the same thing she had seen: Monty was standing there on the sidewalk.
He was just as I remembered him, except even more muscular. I’d heard he’d been kicked off the basketball team and was now working at a gym. He was dressed in his work clothes—a tight, stretchy shirt and gym pants—and had on a pair of headphones, which he removed when he saw us. I guessed his shift had just ended.
“What the…?” he started, looking at Mike and Sue. Then he saw me, dropped his bag next to him, and said, “Oh, OK, I get it.”
That was enough to terrify Nelle, and I started asking myself what we should do. Nothing occurred to me at first, but I knew one thing: even if Monty did scare me, I wasn’t like her. I wasn’t going to panic. I would never let him have that power over me again. My hands weren’t sweating,and my brain was working fine. My fear was just something rational, I told myself, but that didn’t mean I had to let it control me. I looked straight at him and saw the fear burning in his eyes. Before he could speak, I said, “You can’t be here. I’ve got a restraining order against you.”
At first, Monty didn’t respond. Then he laughed sarcastically and, calm as could be, wrapped the cable of his earbuds around his phone, slipping it into his pocket.
“What kind of shit have you been telling her, Jenny?” he asked, making my name sound like an insult. “Did you tell her to leave me? Is that it?”
“I told her the truth,” I said. “That’s all.”
Monty tipped his head to one side. “You know what I think? I think you can’t stand for people to be happy without you. And it gets under your skin that things are so great with Nelle and me. Because that means the problem wasn’t me, it was you.”
I could have laughed as he went on, “What brought you back here? Aren’t things good with your new boyfriend? It’s ironic that you were so desperate for me to leave you alone, and now here you are again…”
