Bedroom Bully by Harper West

24

Rebecca

As if myday couldn’t have gotten any worse, I got back to my apartment and found a letter from the courts waiting for me. Tears rushed into my eyes as I rode up the elevator toward my apartment because I knew what the letter contained.

And I sure as hell wasn’t ready to endure any more mental hardships.

Still, after flopping down onto my couch, I ripped the letter open. Right there, at the top of the heading, was the date and time for the first part of Tommy’s trial. I had been anticipating this letter for a couple of weeks. Time flew by in the blink of an eye, and it was time for testimony as to what the hell really happened in the garage the day JoJo saved me from Tommy’s onslaught.

“Why can’t he just be like that all the time?” I whispered to myself.

I pulled out my work phone and plugged the date into my calendar. I blocked off the entire day so JoJo could see that the only thing I’d be doing on that random Wednesday morning was testifying, and then going home. If he expected me to work after being berated on the stand by some fucking lawyers, he had another think coming.

I wish I would have never let him talk me into this.

My lawyer said it himself: they had enough evidence between JoJo’s testimony, pictures, video, and audio to put Tommy away for a very long time. And yet, I had somehow allowed JoJo, in a moment of weakness, to talk me into getting up on that stand and slaughtering the man straight to his face. My hands trembled at the mere thought of it. The counter-questioning alone and the things that might come to light that I’d have to tell the truth about made me nauseous.

So nauseous, in fact, that I dashed to the bathroom and threw up in the sink.

“Oh—ughmgh—oh, God.”

I washed my mouth out with water and brushed my teeth. My forehead started to sweat with the sheer amount of energy it took to hold myself upright. I gazed at myself in the mirror, taking in the dark bags underneath my eyes and the permanent circles that never seemed to dissipate.

My face seemed thinner than usual, and that only served to remind me how much I had been neglecting myself in pursuit of other, lesser things.

“Jesus, what have I done to myself?” I murmured.

The truth of the matter was that if I could have waived all charges against Tommy just to get rid of him, I would have. And I bet if I called my lawyer to tell him exactly that, I could get myself out of this for good. All I wanted to do was put it behind me. All I wanted to do was go to bed and actually sleep through the night. I wanted to have one regular day. One boring, routine, regular day, where JoJo didn’t piss me off and the girls didn’t want to gossip, and work didn’t sink me to the bottom of the ocean floor with its weight.

I wanted one day to be normal. To be regular. To love regularly and exist regularly and work regularly.

Yet, the universe apparently saw fit to keep torturing me.

“Jesus Christ!” I bellowed.

Someone banged on my wall to get me to shut up, but I simply balled up my fist and banged back. Fuck my neighbors. They were assholes, anyway. And if I could stand to work at TechGiants for a few more weeks, I’d have enough money to put a down payment on a house anywhere in the country.

Maybe then, I’d finally be able to get away from all this fucking nonsense.

You’re losing it, Becca.

I dug my hands into the heels of my eyes before my cell phone vibrated in the other room. I heaved a heavy sigh before I dragged myself over to my purse and dug around for it. Of course, it was my work phone. And of course, it was JoJo messaging me. Part of me wanted to ignore it and turn off my phone.

But I needed my job for at least a couple more months.

However, when I opened my phone, I didn’t see a text message. All I saw was a picture of the same letter I had just received from the court. It was too good to be true, though.

Because a verbal message rolled in right after I opened the picture.

JoJo: You going to chicken out and not show up?

I wanted to shove my phone right up his puckered asshole.

Me: I see things through, even if they do scare me. So, you can cut the shit.

JoJo: Good girl. See you there. I’ll be blocking off my day as well.

The shiver that worked its way up my spine made me furious with myself. I roared out all of my pain and anger and confusion as I slammed my work phone down against the couch cushions. The last thing I needed was to destroy another phone, but fucking hell, that man knew how to make my blood boil.

And yet, even as my neighbors continued to bang on my walls to get me to shut up, all I wanted was to hear him whisper “good girl” in my ear.

“What the fuck has he done to me?” I asked breathlessly.

I collapsed onto the couch and curled my knees up to my chest. I pulled a blanket over my body and buried myself, hoping that if I fell asleep, I wouldn’t wake up. The darkness I had slipped into was so deep and so extraneous and so exhausting that I wanted to sleep until the nightmare was over. Until JoJo disappeared, until Tommy was in jail, and until my sister decided to start answering my goddamn questions. But I knew that when push came to shove, I might not ever get the answers I sought.

Which is why I picked up my phone, pulled it beneath the darkness of the blanket, and started bookmarking homes that were for sale.

In fucking Alaska.