The last month of summer was a busy month for me. Hershey and I visited Janet weekly and she and I had many long talks. She shared some of her life story with me, and her life had been difficult. She reminded me of my mom, a single mother raising her child and doing the best she could with the little she had. She was not able to go to college after high school, so she worked in factories most of her life.
“Ellen,” she said, “make sure you get a college education. It is so important to have a job you like and a college degree is the only way to achieve it. Driving a bus or working at McDonalds will not pay the bills.”
I told her that I had not even thought about what I wanted to do with my life yet. All I really knew was that I loved animals.
“You’re going to be a junior next year, right?”
I nodded.
“Junior year is an important year. You will need to look into scholarships and colleges. Sit down with your guidance counselor and get some advice from him or her.”
Janet’s nurses told me that her mood had improved dramatically since Hershey and I started visiting her. She seemed to have a renewed desire to recover quickly, which made me feel like I was doing the right thing.
Brandon, Cindy, Sarah, Margaret, and I had spent a lot of time together as well. Brandon got a job, of all places, at a shoe store! When he and I weren’t working, we would go to movies, to the lakefront, or to the mall. I eventually bought myself a purse and Brandon got his $120 shoes!
There were a few times when Cindy and the others weren’t available, leaving me alone with Brandon. Those were my favorite times. I was still attracted to Brandon, but our friendship was so special that I was content pushing my romantic feelings aside. It was better to have him in my life as a friend than to admire him from afar and never get to know the wonderful person inside of him.
One afternoon in late August, we were floating on air mattresses in Cindy’s pool and sunning ourselves. Looking up at the clouds was so peaceful. It cleared my mind and made me think about the future.
“Do you guys have any ideas about what you’re going to do after high school?” I asked.
“No, not really,” Brandon said, “but I do like the idea of becoming a police officer or a fire fighter.”
“I think you’d look hot in a uniform Brandon,” Cindy joked.
Brandon tilted his head to the side, pretending to consider the idea, “Hmmm,” he said, “maybe that is the route I should take.”
“I’m thinking about teaching,” Cindy said. “Definitely not high school-aged kids, but I do think teaching is my calling in life.”
“Kids are annoying!” Brandon said.
“You’re annoying!” Cindy replied as she splashed water at him.
“If you find a big kid like me annoying, how will you deal with little kids?” he asked.
“Oh, just shut up!” she said. “What about you Ellen?”
“Well, I’ve been thinking about that for a while now. Someone I’m very fond of told me that now’s the time for me to start planning for a future career.” I said.
“And just what is it you want to do?” Brandon asked.
“The more I think about it, the more I realize that I enjoy animals more than people, no offense to you guys. I’ve never had any good experiences with people, aside from the two of you. Animals are not judgmental and they give their love unconditionally. I know I don’t have the means to go to veterinary school, but I might look into other avenues in the field. The woman I work with is actually a veterinary technologist, and I would like to talk to her about it.”
“Well, I think that’s a great job for you, Ellen,” Cindy said. “You are so good with Hershey.”
“Yes, Ellen, you have a passion for animals,” Brandon said. “I would definitely trust any of my pets in your care.”
We got off of the serious subject of our distant futures and started discussing the more immediate future. Brandon and Cindy really wanted to go skating that night. I tried in vain to persuade them into another direction. I did not want to go roller skating because the roller rink was the biggest hangout for kids our age and I did not fit in, nor had I ever worn roller skates before. I kept envisioning myself falling flat on my already beaten face and I could hear the peals of laughter. The mere thought of it put me in panic mode.
Brandon got off his air mattress and announced that he was going home to take a shower and change clothes. Cindy agreed and hopped off her mattress. I froze in place, trying to come up with an excuse.
“Why don’t you guys just go without me? I have to do some training with Hershey tonight.” Lame! I knew it was a bad excuse, but it was all I could come up in the millisecond I had to think.
“Oh, come on, Ellen! You can train Hershey tomorrow. We want you to come along,” Cindy scolded me.
“I’m going to be at your house in an hour and a half whether you’re ready or not, so it’s in your best interest to get ready!” Brandon said. “Come on, I’ll take you home.”
“I can walk, Brandon, I only live a few blocks away!” I said in annoyance.
“I’m going in your direction, anyway, so let me drive you the few blocks to your house.” he said in a stern tone.
“Whatever,” I said, rolling my eyes and climbing out of the pool.
Brandon drove me to my house and pulled in my driveway, but before I could hop out of the car he said, “Ellen, I haven’t been to the skating rink in years. The last time I was there I was verbally attacked by a group of guys calling me ‘the queer boy.’ I went berserk and broke one guy’s nose. My parents got sued over that.” He looked remorseful. “I don’t know what your fear is, but my friendship with you and Cindy has given me the self-esteem and strength to stand up to my bullies, hopefully without resorting to physical violence. I would like to think our friendship has done that for you as well.”
“So tonight is a test?” I asked him.
“No, tonight is just a night of friends going out and spending time doing something fun together,” he replied.
I put my hand on his knee and said, “Okay, pick me up in an hour or so. I’ll be ready.”
His eyes were trained on my hand on his knee, and when he looked up at me, he smiled with his eyes twinkling. He put his hand on top of mine. “Thank you, Ellen. I promise you this will be fun.”
Fun for who? I thought as I opened the car door.
When I walked through the door, Mom was standing in the kitchen holding Hershey in her arms. He jumped out of her hold and raced to me when he saw me. He rubbed my legs and meowed at me.
“Hi, Mom, how was your day?” I asked, picking Hershey up and snuggling my face into his fur.
“Oh, pretty good,” she replied, “but I need to talk to you.” She said, and her serious tone made me nervous.
She sat me down at the table and told me that my dad had called her. He wanted to see me. He said he had been trying to call my phone, but never got an answer. It was true, I was getting calls from an unknown number, but I never would answer them. I figured if I didn’t know the caller, it was probably someone I did not want to hear from. What if Darcel had gotten a hold of my number? I sure as heck wouldn’t want to take that call!
“Mom, this is not the time! I’m going skating tonight with Cindy and Brandon and I need to get ready,” I said curtly.
“Ellen, you are old enough to make your own decisions, I respect that, but remember he is your father. You don’t have to call him right now, but I expect you to return his call sometime this week.”
“Fine, I’ll call him soon, but not tonight. Give me a little time,” I replied.
“Good, thank you. Now, do tell, what is going on with you and Brandon?” she asked with a sly grin.
I rolled my eyes, “There’s nothing going on other than friendship.” I said as I headed down the hallway to my bedroom to get ready, hoping my mom wouldn’t keep bugging me about it.
I had a bit of a problem; all of my pants were too big! Okay, maybe that was more of a good thing than a problem, but I desperately needed to find something that fit. I dug through to the bottom of my pants drawer where all the pants that I had outgrown were stored. There were a few pairs of jeans that I hadn’t fit in for a couple of years. I tried a pair on. They were big in the waist, but fit pretty good in the butt and legs. I could wear a belt. I took the pants off, found a t-shirt and belt, and laid them out on the bed. I hopped in the shower to wash off the chlorine and stood at the vanity in the bathroom wrapped in a towel trying to figure out what to do with my hair. I never did much with it. It was dark brown, shoulder length, wavy, and pretty uncontrollable so I usually threw it in a ponytail. Come to think of it, I didn’t think Brandon had ever seen me with my hair down.
“Mom, do you have any idea what I can do with my hair?” I asked. She always used hair products and was very meticulous with her hair. She peeked in and looked very excited.
“Oh, this will be fun!” she said, “Go get dressed and meet me in the bathroom. How much time do we have?” she asked.
“Not long, about forty-five minutes,” I said. She groaned.
“All right, then, let’s get moving!” she said.
Mom simply used mousse and the blow dryer to make my hair look amazing. It fell down to my shoulders in loose ringlets, and the best part was that I thought I could do this myself in the future. It only took a few minutes, some ‘scrunching’ as she called it, and abracadabra! I had hair like a movie star!
She helped me apply some subtle makeup. My mom was like me in that we didn’t like too much makeup, just some simple eye shadow, eye liner, and mascara and that was it.
I was finished and ready to go with fifteen minutes to spare. Mom didn’t like the shirt I was wearing. “You look too good to be wearing a plain old t-shirt!” she said.
She brought out a few of her shirts for me to try on. My favorite shirt of hers was a pink tunic knotted between the breasts which made her look voluptuous when she wore it. I wanted to look like that! I tried it on, and I loved the way it looked. It was fitted at the waist and designed to make me look like I had an hourglass figure. Just an illusion, I knew, but I liked it. No one had ever seen THIS Ellen!
“You and Brandon won’t be ‘just friends’ once he sees you tonight!” Mom declared, making me blush. Suddenly I wanted to rip the sexy shirt off and throw on my t-shirt.
“Stop it, Mom!” I said as the doorbell rang.
Oh, my God! I wasn’t ready for this. I started to sweat and feel nauseous. “Mom, can you please tell him that I’m sick?”
“No,” she said.
“Mom, please,” I pleaded. It was ineffective; she opened the door and let Brandon in.
“Hi, Brandon, it’s nice to see you again,” I heard her say.
“Hi, Mrs. Jones, it’s nice to see you, too.” Brandon’s reply was nervous yet polite.
I sighed and walked through the kitchen to meet Brandon at the door. I saw his eyes widen, and I was immediately insecure. I must look like a tramp, I thought.
I said goodnight to my mom, assured her I had enough money with me as she tried to offer me more, and walked to the car with Brandon. I was nervous and didn’t know why. I mean, it wasn’t like this was a date or anything like that! I was being stupid, I realized, but I couldn’t help it.
“Wow,” Brandon said when we got to the car, “You look great!”
“Thanks, so do you.” Boy, did that sound dumb! I couldn’t look at him, so I just stared straight ahead as we drove to Cindy’s. She came out of her front door and I was thankful she wore a dressier shirt, too. I didn’t feel so overdressed anymore, not that jeans and a tunic were dressy, by any means. It was just that I was used to wearing t-shirts and sweatshirts, and not displaying my figure so much.
The skating rink was packed almost to capacity. While waiting in line to get in, I tried to talk Cindy and Brandon out of staying, but they were determined. I shifted about and looked around me. I saw a lot of familiar faces, some younger than me, some older. Quite a few of them were huddled together whispering to one another while they looked at me. Call me paranoid if you want, but I could feel them watching me. I should not have worn such a revealing shirt!
Brandon seemed uneasy, as well, which was surprising to me. He joked around in his usual manner, but seemed to have his eyes on the people around us. I had never seen the insecure side of him. Brandon was always so spontaneous and funny, never guarded like he was there in line. Cindy was the only one of the three of us that seemed comfortable.
It was impossible to get a booth all to ourselves, the crowd was too large. Cindy was the one who approached a group of younger teens and asked if we could share their table. We sat and laced up our skates, Brandon and I staying on alert and Cindy completely oblivious to our anxieties.
“Hurry up, I love this song!” Cindy said impatiently, pacing back and forth in front of us. She waved at a group of girls and said, “I’ll be back,” and took off almost running in her skates. Before long, she was out circling the floor with the girls she knew from school; girls I knew by face, but had never spoken to.
Brandon and I had finished lacing up our skates, but neither one of us made any attempt to get up and skate. We were both surveying the scene. I saw lots of people I knew from school, but most of them were freshmen or sophomores. The junior and senior kids usually found more daring activities to do on the wooded lot behind the roller rink. It was known as the “party spot” where alcohol and drugs where usually shared.
Brandon made the first move. He stood up in front of me and offered his hands to help me up. I took them and stood, a bit shaky, and fumbled to get used to having wheels on my feet.
“You’ve never skated before,” Brandon said.
“Does it show?” I jokingly asked.
“I’ve noticed that there are a lot of things you haven’t done yet, but we’re going to change that. Come on, I’ll coach you.” He led me to the roller rink, holding hands with me.
I thought the carpeted floor was bad enough, but once I stood on the waxed wooden floor of the skating rink, I realized it was going to be even harder than I expected. I felt like a newborn giraffe trying out its legs for the first time! I nearly fell on my butt. Thankfully, Brandon was there to hold me up. He was laughing, but not in a way that embarrassed me. He spun around in front of me and held my hands while he skated backwards.
“Show-off!” I scolded.
“Hey, I’m trying to help you!” he replied. He took me around the rink slowly. If I wasn’t so concerned about falling, I might have felt stupid, but my fear of falling outweighed my fear of looking silly. He showed me how to use the brake on the toe to push off for speed, but speed was not necessary to me! I wanted one of those walkers Janet used in the rehab facility. Brandon was a very patient teacher. We spent a good hour just rolling around the rink until I felt confident enough to let go of his hand. Cindy had passed us up numerous times, always grinning at us and patting me on the back.
When I’d had enough, I told Brandon I wanted to take a break. “Why don’t you go off with Cindy for a while so you can have fun? I know you want to race around the rink and I’m just holding you back,” I told him.
“You’re not holding me back because I’m doing exactly what I want to do,” he said.
“Well, I want to get something to drink and sit down for a minute,” I said firmly.
“Okay. I’ll find you if you take too long,” he said and winked at me. I felt my pulse quicken a little.
I made my way to the snack bar and stood in line, looking the menu over and trying to decide what I wanted.
“Ellen?” I heard a familiar voice speak my name and felt a hand on my shoulder. My heart sank to my feet and I broke out in a cold sweat. It was John Peck! Oh, God, how could I escape?
I turned and faced him. He was directly behind me in line and alone. His skin was deeply tanned and he was wearing a white muscle shirt which showed off his arms. His blonde hair and ocean blue eyes stood out against his dark skin. He looked like a Greek god. It was not hard to see why every girl in the county had it bad for him!
“Hi, John,” I said, proud of the aloofness in my tone.
“I thought I recognized you earlier. Wow, you look great!” he said trying to engage me in conversation. I told myself to remain uninterested, so I didn’t reply.
“Is that guy you’re with your boyfriend?” he curiously asked.
“Brandon? No, we’re just friends,” I said, then turned to face the cashier in the concession stand. I pretended to ignore John and asked her for a soda, but he moved in front of me and said, “Make that two please.” He turned to look at me, “My treat.”
This was probably the most awkward moment of my life! When we were handed our sodas, I thanked him, but didn’t know for the life of me what to do next! I decided to go to our table and sit, but was I supposed to invite him to sit with me? Lord knew I didn’t want to. I wanted him to just skate away and leave me alone. The voice inside of me told me to act indifferent and leave him standing there, so I did.
I went over to our booth. Two of the girls that we were sharing the table with were sitting there eating nachos and they looked up at me as I approached. They stopped talking and stared, which made me a bit uncomfortable. After I sat down, I realized what they were staring at. John had followed me to the booth.
“Can I join you?” he asked.
“Um, I suppose,” I stuttered. Why was he doing this? Why couldn’t he just leave? I was not stupid, I was sure Darcel had some sort of plan. Make the fat girl think the hot guy is interested in her, and then do something big to embarrass her in front of the entire crowd! I looked around, searching for Darcel, surely she was there somewhere.
“So, what have you been up to all summer?” John asked, sipping his soda and watching my face.
“Not much,” I replied shortly. “John, don’t you have someone to hang out with?” I finally worked up the courage to ask.
“You want me to leave?” he asked incredulously, as if no girl had ever dismissed him before. The two girls sitting at the table snickered.
“Look, John, I appreciate the soda you bought for me, but don’t feel obligated to sit and talk with me,” I said.
“I don’t feel OBLIGATED.” He enunciated the word. “I am talking to you because I think you’re cute, and I’ve never had an opportunity to get to know you.”
I believed that the only reason he was interested in me was because the darn shirt I had on was too revealing and it created the illusion of a great figure. I’d bet if I had my hair in its standard ponytail and had my t-shirt on, this wouldn’t be happening!
Now I was mad. This was the boy I’d had a crush on all of my life and he said I was cute, but I was the same person I was three months ago at the chalkboard when he asked me if all fat people were as dumb as me. He acted like I was a balloon and poked me with pencils to pop me! He purposefully whipped balls at me in gym class. His exterior appearance was pleasing to the eye, but inside, he was as ugly as an ogre!
“Hey, are you hitting on my girl?” I heard Brandon say.
“Hitting on your girl?” John asked in surprise, “I hate to break it to you buddy, but your girl told me you guys were just friends.”
At that moment, the DJ announced it was “guy’s choice”, which apparently meant the guys had to ask a girl to skate to a slow song with them. Brandon took my hand, helped me stand, and told John, “That’s because she doesn’t know yet that she’s my girl, but thanks for helping me get it out there. Ellen, will you skate with me?”
I was too stunned to speak, so I just nodded and skated off to the rink with Brandon. He wrapped an arm around my waist and led me across the floor. The lights were low and the disco ball in the center of the ceiling was sending sparkling lights across the walls. We didn’t speak to each other throughout the entire song. I just took in the moment, watching the lights dance across the floor and the walls, feeling Brandon’s warmth around my waist. When he spun me around to face him, I wrapped my arms around his neck as he skated backwards. He was looking into my eyes, but didn’t say a word. Then he put his arms around my waist again and pulled me a little closer to him. That was a mistake! It threw me off balance and before I knew it, we were laying in a heap on the floor!
Couples tripped over us. Some remained standing, but some fell and the whole group of us ended up laughing.
“Brandon, did I hurt you?” I asked between laughs, after all, I had fallen on top of him and I didn’t want to squash him.
“No, you didn’t hurt me at all.” He managed to say, he had been laughing, too. “In fact, if you want to keep laying on me, I’m okay with that.” That comment made me push off of him.
“What? You can’t blame a guy for trying!” he said as he stood and helped me up. “Can we go somewhere to talk?” He suddenly got serious.
I nodded and let him take me to our booth. Thankfully, John was gone, as were the two nacho girls. I scooted in one side of the booth and expected Brandon to sit across from me, but instead he sat right next to me. We were silent for a few minutes, both of us looking at our hands or at the skating rink to avoid eye contact. I saw Cindy and the girls she had been hanging around with round the corner and she waved at us. I waved back and decided to break the silence.
“I wonder why she isn’t hanging out with us,” I said to Brandon. “Is it because I’m not very good at skating?”
“No,” he said, “it’s because she’s giving us some time alone.”
I looked at him and he was looking straight into my eyes again, which was unnerving. I felt all sweaty and confused.
He put an arm around my shoulder and leaned in towards my ear. “I want to kiss you,” he whispered. My eyes popped open wide. I was sixteen years old and I had never kissed a boy before! What if I did it wrong? Was there something special I was supposed to do?
When I first visited Janet in the rehab facility, something took over control of me, which Jane called compassion. What took over me now was passion, plain and simple. My brain shut out all my questions and doubts and took control of my actions.
Brandon’s face was so close to my ear that it only took a slight shift of my head to face him. I touched my lips to his and that was it. My mouth knew what to do, even though I didn’t! He had one hand in my hair on the back of my head and one on my waist. My arms had found their way around his neck and my body had shifted until I was sitting on his lap facing him. I didn’t realize the two of us could fit in the booth like that!
I came up for air and had to tell myself this wasn’t a dream. Now he had both hands across my lower back.
“What are we doing, Brandon?” I half whispered.
He leaned close so we were nose to nose and whispered, “We’re making out.” His mouth found my neck and I whispered, “Oh…”
Someone pounded on the table and said, “Hey, look who we have here, boys?” Brandon and I both looked up to see a group of guys surrounding our booth. Brandon rolled his eyes and groaned.
“Who’s your friend here, Brandon?” The leader of the group said, “Does she know she’s kissing a fag?” The rest of the group laughed and Brandon moved me back into the booth. He slid out and faced the leader.
“Walk away, Jason,” Brandon said in a frighteningly angry tone that would make me run from him, but Jason didn’t even blink.
“Walk away or what, queer boy? You wanna take this outside?” He laughed in Brandon’s face and I could see Brandon’s hands clenching into fists. “I have to say though, she’s really hot. Maybe she’d like to go at it with a real man, like me.”
Brandon’s right hook came up like a flash and hit Jason square in the face. His head snapped to the side and blood spouted out.
“No!” I screamed as I tried to climb out of the booth to grab him, but it was too late. Three of the other guys jumped in and all hell broke loose. I was shouting “Stop it!” and waving my arms around like an idiot. Cindy was suddenly at my side pulling me away from the brawl while security guards rushed in and tore the guys apart. They were dragged out of the building and the manager of the place tried to break up the group of gawkers milling around.
“Move along folks, it’s over. There’s nothing to see here.”
Cindy sat me back in the booth. “What the heck happened?” she asked.
“I don’t know! Some jerk came over and started a fight with Brandon.” I didn’t tell her about the kissing part.
“Was it Jason?” she asked.
“Yes, Brandon called him Jason. Why did they pick a fight with him? I don’t understand this.” I was so confused. One minute I was having my first make-out session, and the next minute my make-out companion smashed someone in the face.
“Did Brandon tell you about his dad?” Cindy asked.
“Yes,” I replied.
“Brandon has been harassed by Jason and his friends for years because of the situation with his dad. Jason is a mean son-of-a-bitch; he’s the Darcel of St. Augustine High. He knows he can push Brandon’s buttons and start a fight.
“Cindy, Brandon isn’t gay,” I said. “I can tell you from personal experience, he isn’t gay.”
“Jason has everyone they know convinced that he is. Jason has pretty much ruined Brandon’s social life. Girls at St. Augustine won’t go out with Brandon. All the guys joke around, claiming he stares at them in the locker room. It’s a bad situation.”
That was sad! I had no idea Brandon was bullied. He was attractive. He was the kind of guy every girl at my school would swoon over with an athletic build, dark hair and brown eyes. His eyelashes were amazingly lush. Brandon was also a very unselfish soul, friendly and kind.
“Cindy, we have to go find him,” I said, “They escorted him outside, so he must be waiting by his car for us.”
Cindy scooted out of the booth and I followed. When we exited the building, we were greeted by police squad cars. Brandon was surrounded by two police officers, questioning him. Jason and his crew were talking to two other police officers.
“What the heck is going on?” I asked aloud but to no one in particular. Cindy looked as shocked as I felt.
“Hmm, looks like little Miss Watermelon got her gay friend in a bit of trouble,” Darcel said. She approached Cindy and me, blowing out a puff of cigarette smoke. Apparently the partiers from “the party spot” had heard the ruckus and came out of their hiding place to check it out.
Darcel dropped the cigarette to the ground, stomped it out, and looked me up and down. “Boy, put a little cheap makeup on lard ass and she thinks she’s all that.” Darcel pulled a bottle of beer out of her coat pocket and took a swig from it.
“Shut up, Darcel, this is not the time,” Cindy said. Darcel just laughed in her face and leaned in towards me.
“You think your mom is the only clever bitch in town? Well guess again fatso.” After she said that, she placed the beer bottle at my feet and walked off towards Jason and the police.
My mind was so busy trying to figure out what she was getting at that I didn’t see she had set me up. She walked up to the cops and said something. They looked in my direction. Then one of them started walking towards us.
“Excuse me young lady, is that your bottle on the ground?” he asked me.
I looked around at first, thinking he was talking to someone else. “Are you talking to me?” I asked incredulously.
“Are you in any way involved with the incident that happened here tonight?”
“Involved? I don’t understand what you mean,” I stuttered. “I came here with Brandon tonight, but as far as that fight is concerned, I had no part in it.”
“I’ll ask you one more time, does this beer bottle belong to you?”
“No, it’s not hers. It was put there by that blonde girl that approached you,” Cindy chimed in. “She’s trying to set my friend up.”
“I’ll need to take statements from the two of you,” he said in a very official tone that scared the heck out of me. Was I going to be arrested?
“Can I please call my mom?” I asked.
“You just might want to do that. Your friend Brandon will be going to the station with us and you’ll need another ride home,” he said.
Holy crap! This night could have ended on a much better note than this. I reached my mom and gave her a brief rundown of the events of the night. She was upset, but she would pick us up. There was no rush. We had to give statements to the cops.
The police officer introduced himself as Officer Long. I told him my side of the story. I wasn’t sure if I should leave out the kissing part; I mean, it isn’t illegal to kiss in public, is it? At any rate, I told them that Brandon and I were minding our own business and sharing a kiss when Jason and his crew interrupted us. I fibbed then, telling them things happened so fast that I did not see who threw the first punch. When he inquired about the beer bottle, I told him Darcel was the one that put it there. I pleaded with him to give me a Breathalyzer test. That would prove to him that the bottle wasn’t mine.
Cindy had much less to tell since she wasn’t anywhere near us when it happened. She went so far as to tell Officer Long that Jason was a bully who had been instigating fights with Brandon for years. She also told him that the beer bottle was Darcel’s. Darcel had been bullying me for years, but her tactics were getting more vicious.
“See the scabbed-over wound on Ellen’s face? Darcel attacked her in the street in front of my house a few weeks ago and beat her up pretty badly. Tonight she tried to get her in trouble with that open beer bottle. Can’t a person be arrested or something for bullying people to this extreme? It’s ridiculous and it has to stop.”
Cindy was pretty fired up, and I had to admit, her defense of me touched my heart.
“Bullying can be viewed as a criminal offense,” Officer Long said and his demeanor softened. “My suggestion to you, Ellen, is to start documenting everything that happens to you. You can obtain a copy of this statement in a few days to keep with your documentation. Also, you should file a report regarding the physical abuse you underwent; it’s not too late to do so. Make sure to get your parents involved. Have them go to the school official whose responsibility is to file these types of complaints. Cindy, you, too, can report any bullying you’ve witnessed. You can even do it anonymously if you wish.”
“Oh, I don’t need to remain anonymous,” Cindy said, “I have no problem reporting it all.” She was still pretty fired up.
“Could you ladies hold on for a moment?” he asked as he motioned to his partner to come over. “Dan, can you find the blonde girl that reported this beer to us and take her statement?” His partner nodded and went off in search of Darcel.
“Okay, back to the conversation we were having. Why don’t I take your statement about the incident where you were physically attacked?”
“I don’t know. I don’t even remember the date or time it happened.” I stammered, scared to take it so far. I knew the repercussions would be ugly.
“I do,” Cindy said, and she began to tell him everything from that incident. She saw more of it than I did; after all, I was face down on the road and didn’t even know who had hit me until I heard Brandon and Cindy approaching the scene.
I confirmed everything Cindy had said, showed him my healing palms and face, and lifted my shirt to display some of the yellowed bruises on my ribs.
Dan approached and told Officer Long that Darcel had fled the scene. Cindy told Officer Long where Darcel lived. I saw my mom’s car pull into the parking lot and my heart sank. I sure as heck didn’t want her to see me blow into a Breathalyzer! I already had so much to explain, I didn’t need to add that!
“Officer Long, my mom is here. Do you need me to blow into your Breathalyzer? I’d rather she not see that,” I asked sheepishly.
“No, I don’t see that it’s necessary. This is a judgment call on my part. I see no signs of intoxication nor do I smell alcohol on your breath.”
He reiterated what he had said earlier, that I should get a copy of the statements I gave tonight to keep with any documentation I record. He encouraged us to share all of this information with Brandon. He gave Cindy and me his business card and told us to call him if we ever felt the need to. On the back of the cards, he wrote down a website where we could find the anti-bullying regulations for Wisconsin along with two other resources on bullying.
We thanked Officer Long for his time and advice. He was no longer the scary police officer he seemed at the start of it all.