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Chapter 11

I decided on waiting in the car while Benji ran inside his house, which was huge by the way, to get some clothes and other things that he would need. He said that he would only be a few minutes and I was too tired to get out of the car anyway. Back at the doctors office, I had spilled my heart out which left me feeling both emotionally and physically drained. Some how, the session had found its way to the topic of my parents death, something that I still haven’t gotten over. Honestly, I don’t think I’m ever going to completely get over that. But does anyone ever completely get over the loss of someone important to them, especially their parents? How could you get over something yet keep it in mind? I think people can learn to accept things like that and can adapt to, in essence, a new life; a life without whomever was lost. Part of me died the other day in that alley, and that’s something that I have to learn to accept in addition to the loss of my parents which is gonna be difficult since I’ve yet to accept the situation with my parents.

Sighing, I rested my head against the cool glass of the window. Things were becoming so difficult right now and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I hadn’t expected things to get so hard. I was prepared for some tough times but things were getting out of hand. At least I have some good people around me otherwise I don’t know where I would be right now. I’m thankful for them, even Benji, Joel and the other guys, even though I just met them. It was them who saved me in that alley, I seriously owe my life to them. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard someone tapping on the glass of the window.

“Hey!” I opened my eyes and looked through the window to see Joel smiling at me. I sighed then rolled down the window.

“You scared the shit out of me,” I told him as I ran my fingers through my hair.

“Sorry, about that,” he replied honestly. “So how’ve you been?”

“Better,” I answered. He looked at me and he seemed to have some concern in his eyes. “Things are just really catching up with me, ya know?”

“I bet. Do you wanna talk about it?”

“No, I’ve done enough talking for today. Benji took me to see a doctor and that kinda wore me out.”

“A doctor? What happened? Are you hurt?” he asked quickly.

“I’m okay, I just kinda had a breakdown this morning, scared the shit out of me and Benji.”

“Well did it help any?”

“Yes,” I told him, nodding my head slowly. It really did help. I felt as though some of the burden had been lifted off of my shoulders. It was like I didn’t have to deal with it alone any more even though I knew that everything that was going on was a personal battle that in the end would be up to me to win.

“Good ‘cause I’d hate to see you in pain,” he told me. “And I know Benji would hate it even more. Trust me, he really cares about you and he would do anything to make you feel better.” I smiled at Joel and I knew that his words were true. Benji had already demonstrated his compassion so much already.

“But don’t you think it’s sorta weird?” I asked. The relationship that Benji and I had was far from conventional. How many people can say that they met their boyfriend in an alleyway while some strange man was trying to rape them? So far Benji and I are the only ones that I know of that can fall under that category.

“What’s weird?”

“The whole situation with me and Benji. We just met and the way we met wasn’t exactly under normal circumstances,” I said with a quiet laugh. “How can you know that you care so much about someone that you just met?”

“The world is a strange place,” he responded knowingly, “things happen that we can’t really explain. We just kinda have to go along with it and hope for the best. And sometimes real good things happen and we can’t believe that they’re real but they are. So we have to embrace those good things so they make the hard things less hard.”

“Thanks Joel,” I replied. He smiled at me.

“Anytime,” he said. “So what’s my brother up to anyway?”

“He’s getting some clothes, he’s gonna spend the night at my place. I told him I felt safer when he was around,” I admitted.

“Cool. Hey, why don’t I come too and bring Paul and Billy, we can have a slumber party.”

I laughed, “a slumber party?”

“Yeah, why not? It’ll be fun and you’ll get to know us and we’ll get to know you, especially since Paul and Billy only met you once,” Joel reasoned. “And that way, you’ll have four guys to make sure that you’re alright. So what do you say?”

“I say, do you remember how to get to my place?” Joel smiled at me. He was just so sweet and caring, how could I tell him no? Besides, he was right, it was a great opportunity for all of us to get to know each other. If Benji and I were going to be together, his friends had to accept me.

“I’ll give Paul and Billy a call and we’ll be over in a little while,” Joel told me when he saw Benji closing the door to his house.

“Sounds good,” I replied. “I do have to warn you though, my sister’s a fan of you guys.”

“Oh yeah? Maybe we should have her spend the night at a friends then,” he said jokingly.

“Uh-uh, I’m not gonna be the only woman in the house with all of that testosterone. It’s just not gonna happen buddy.”

“Joely, what’s up man?” Benji said once he arrived at the car.

“Nothing, but me and the guys are gonna be joining you tonight, it’s gonna be a big ass slumber party,” Joel explained. Benji looked over at me and I shrugged. He smiled and tossed his bag into the backseat.

“Awesome! We’re gonna have a shit load of fun then,” Benji exclaimed.

“See you guys later,” Joel said hitting the top of the car then turned around and walked away. I looked over at Benji who had already gotten into the car. He smiled at me.

“Feeling better?”

“Yeah,” I told him. What Joel had said to me about embracing the good things was replaying itself in my head and it was really helping me to try to think about the better things in my life. I really needed to hear that and it helped hearing it from him. He seemed so sure, there was no way that I could doubt what he had said.

“Great,” he replied as we started to pull out of the driveway. “Hey, you think we should drop by blockbuster and pick up some movies for us to watch?”

“Yeah,” I answered. “I don’t even know what I have any more. I haven’t gotten a new movie in so long.”

“Understandable, you had other things you needed to worry about,” he replied. “So what kinda movies are you into?”

“All kinds, mainly horror though. I grew up on those kinda movies so I’ve kinda fallen in love with the genre.”

“Cool, I like all kinds, as long as it’s good,” he replied. I smiled at him, I was starting to feel really good about things, at least a little bit anyway. I needed a day like today. I needed to see a doctor, I needed to hear Joel’s words. Everything about today was helpful in assisting me in putting the pieces back together. Maybe things weren’t going to be so bad after all. The ride to the blockbuster was a short one so before we knew it, we were walking the aisles of the store looking for movies.

“Lets try to get something from like every genre,” I suggested.

“Good idea. Lets start with your favorite, horror,” he said as we walked towards the horror section. “Anything in particular that you wanna see?”

“How ‘bout we go for some classic Friday The 13th,” I answered. He nodded and pulled the case from the shelf. Benji and I pretty much covered every square inch of the video store picking out movies. I knew that we wouldn’t have time to watch all of them but variety was key. We had to have something to pick from so we just grabbed a bunch of movies that we liked and ones that we thought the guys would like (well, he thought that the guys would like anyway).

“Oh, I’m gonna go get some popcorn! We can’t a movie night without popcorn!” I stated, all of my worries temporarily pushed out of my mind. Tonight was going to be the first night I started to take my life back.

“Okay, I’m gonna get on line.” I nodded and I turned to the section of the store where the popcorn display was located. I walked up to the display and grabbed a box of microwave popcorn and began my journey back to Benji, which was only about twenty feet. Suddenly, I was frozen in place. Fear started to blanket my body as I looked into the eyes of the last person that I ever wanted to see again. My mind started to flashback to the alley, all the fear I felt that night was coming back to me in tremendous waves. It was him. I snapped back into reality as I saw him take off out of the store, but not before he gave me this look. A look that was filled with so much evil that I thought that I had fallen into the inner most core of hell. My hands trembled as I stood there.

“Benji!” I suddenly yelled, reality catching up with me. Benji’s head turned so fast that I thought he might get whiplash. I guess he saw the look of sheer terror in my eyes because he immediately left the line and made a dash straight towards me.

“What? What happened?” he asked worriedly.

“It… it.. I saw him,” I stammered. “He.. He was here..”

“The guy from the alley?” he asked, shocked. I could only nod. “Which way did he go?” I lifted my arm and pointed in the direction in which the man had gone. Benji handed me the videos that he had in his hands and turned towards the direction in which I had pointed.

“Benji,” I said desperately. He stopped and turned towards me.

“Don’t leave me.” He looked at me, turned his head in the direction that the guy had ran and then moved back towards me. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his cell phone.

“I’m gonna call the police,” he told me.

“Benji, I’m scared,” I admitted. He looked at me, his eyes so gentle, so filled with concern and what I believe to be a feeling of helplessness.

“I know Angie,” he said. “I know.”