Look Me in the Eyes, and Promise Me Friendship

“Aubrey, you need to tell someone. Like go to the police or something,” he asked of her, trying to get her better help than what she had. She started to shake and shook her head faster than she could say no, but then actually said it.

“No!” she yelled at him getting out of control. She didn’t want to get help. She was afraid. She hushed up a little bit, but then fell out of her chair. She fainted. Joe fell to his knees, and tried to shake her awake. He started to panic. She wasn’t moving, and she will still unconscious.

Joe snuck out of the storage closet, trying not to be seen, and he bought a bottle of water from the vending machine down the hall. He snuck back in and opened the cold bottle of water.

He took a deep breath, and slowly started to soak her head with the cool and refreshing water. The water idea worked. It woke her up slightly, but she was still a little out of it. He pulled her up into a sitting position and started to talk to her.

“Aubrey, Are you okay?” he whispered. She nodded, lying to him. He knew she wasn’t telling the truth, but he decided to just let it go. He heard her stomach rumble, just like he had heard a few days ago. He got a little upset after hearing that.

“You haven’t eaten have you?” he questioned. He knew that she hadn’t, and he didn’t know why.

“Aubrey, I don’t know why you are avoiding food. You are not fat. You have a great body,” he bit his lip after he said that. He couldn't believe that he just flat out told her that she had a 'great body'. He pretty much just told her that he had been looking. “Did you know that you have to eat to be healthy?” he let her know, hoping that he would get through to her. She busted out in tears. She was hiding something, and she thought that this was the right time to let him know.

“Joe… T-there’s s-something that I have to t-tell you,” Aubrey started out slowly. Joe listened in closely. Aubrey grabbed the water bottle from Joe’s hand and took a small sip of the remaining water within the plastic bottle.

“Go ahead, I’m listening,” Joe informed her and helped prop her up better by letting her lean into him.

“I don’t think I’m fat and i’m avoiding food for a reason. I am so hungry, and I want to eat something so badly, but I can’t,” she said as calmly as she could, with occasional tears streaming down her cheeks. The first period bell rang, but they didn’t bother to go to class. This was serious, and Joe wanted to get to the end of this horrible situation before Aubrey completely changed her mind about letting him know.

“My dad says i’m fat, and that I eat too much. He said that if I gained any weight or was even just one pound over what I am right now, he will hurt me. I’m scared Joe. He’s trying to kill me, but he’s doing it the slow and painful way. I don’t know why he’s being so cruel,” she explained, and Joe had a loss for words.

“What are you? 100 pounds? Your dad is crazy.”

“I’m 89 pounds,” she responded and looked down at her feet. Joe decided that he wanted to freak out. There is no reason for a 13 year old at her height to be 89 pounds.

“Aubrey, you need to tell somebody!” Joe repeated, stressing his words. Aubrey shook her head, again.

“No, I can’t,” she replied still sobbing.

“Aubrey, if they take him, he can’t hurt you. Now come on, I’m taking you to see the nurse,” he helped her up and gently forced her out of the door.

“Joe…” Aubrey whined, thinking that he was going to make her tell the nurse. She hoped it wouldn’t be the truth. Lies were the only things she could speak without getting herself hurt.

“Ree, I’m not going to make you tell the Nurse. I’m going to take you there to get taken care of,” he informed her and she felt a whole lot better. He saw that her face was a little red as they got out into the vacant hallway. He felt her head with the back of his hand and she was burning up. “And I think you have a fever,” he swept her off her feet and grabbed a hold of her crutches, carrying her down the hallway to the school’s clinic.

Aubrey was in the clinic all day, and was excused from all of her classes, but Joe had to go. He wasn’t able to stay with her, but you’d better believe it, he tried everything he could think of to be able to stay with her. None of his ideas worked, but he promised that he would come back and visit her at lunch, and get her at the end of the day.

At the end of the day, Joe poked his head through the clinic door and spotted Aubrey.

“Come on Ree; it’s time to go home,” Aubrey smiled weakly and grabbed her crutches. She gave her thanks to the nurse and slowly made her way out the door. They caught the bus together, and Joe walked Aubrey halfway home after that, but had to walk ahead of her so that they wouldn’t get caught together.

“Okay, if you can, meet me in the tree—wait, I forgot,” he looked down at her injured leg. She wouldn’t be able to climb up the tree house.

“We can meet in the secret club house; remember the one hidden in the bushes behind your house?” Aubrey asked and Joe nodded, now remembering what they had played in before the tree house was even built.

“Alright, 6 o’clock, okay,” they said their goodbyes, lingering on the last hug before 6 o’clock, and Joe raced ahead of her.

Aubrey arrived at her house, and limped inside hoping that her dad would be decent to her. She saw her dad out of the corner of her eye and she walked to her room like nothing was going on.

“Hold on one second!” he yelled at her for no reason at all. She jumped 10 feet in the air and stood still, with her back towards him. She was even more scared with her back towards him. She never knew what he was going to do.

“Turn around!” he screamed and she did as she was told, as fast as she possibly could. She swallowed the big lump in her throat, but it remained where it started. She looked at him horrified. She didn’t say one word knowing that if she did, the skin on her face would be slapped off.

“The school called today,” he walked closer and closer to her, to the point that his face was about 3 inches from hers. “What were you doing in the clinic all day? You better not have told anybody!” he warned her. She shook her head quickly and started to shake.

“No sir, I didn’t,” she lied.

“I just hit my leg on a railing. That’s all,” she lied again. She could see the anger filling up in his eyes, and steam blew out from his ears. He caught her lies; one of them at least.

Unexpectedly, he pulled his foot back and kicked her as hard as he could in the shin. She pulled up and held her leg in complete pain. Now it was broken for sure.

He disappeared for a second and then reappeared with a portable scale in his hands. He threw it down violently in the front of Aubrey and forced her on the top of it. She hoped and prayed that she was the same weight as before, 89 pounds.

Joe sat in the clubhouse in the tall jungle-like bushes waiting for Aubrey to arrive. It was already a quarter after 6 o’clock and he was trembling in wariness. He had a feeling that something was going absolutely wrong. He continued to shake; more and more he was trembling every second.

He was scared for her. He wanted to tell someone, but he didn’t want anything else to happen to her. He started to feel helpless, and almost like a bad friend. He couldn’t help her, he really wanted to, but there was nothing that he could do. He didn’t want to go against her will and tell someone because it would just put Aubrey and himself in danger.

He didn’t know what was keeping her from getting there on time; he didn’t even know if she was okay, which totally killed him. He peeked out the open doorway and saw a shadow coming towards him; and he heard a crunching sound of sticks and leaves. It was a teary eyed Aubrey. She was in pain. She was without her crutches, so therefore she was shuffling her way towards him, crawling on the ground.

“Aubrey!” Joe screeched, holding back tears. His best friend was in complete pain and he didn’t know what to do. She didn’t want real help because she was terrified that her dad would get back at her somehow; probably try to really kill her. She needed to go to the hospital to get checked out, but he didn’t know how he was going to convince her to let him take her.

“Joe!” Aubrey sobbed, crawling in the dirt towards him and she knocked him down to the ground. All she could do was crawl; anything else would injure her more. Her father took her crutches away from her so she couldn’t walk. He was just cruel to her. Joe had fear in his eyes as he started to tremble. He was scared for Aubrey.

“He is so cruel Aubrey,” he broke out into tears. He wanted to march right over to Aubrey’s house and smack her father silly, but it would cause even more trouble. Plus, he himself was terrified.

“Joe, quit crying. You are not the one in pain here. I told you he was trying to kill me!” she screamed at him. She didn’t understand why he would be crying. Guys aren’t supposed to cry, they are supposed to be strong for the women. Joe was just too emotional then, and plus, Aubrey was wrong. Joe was hurting. He let her know.

“I am hurting. I am aching right here,” he gestured to his heart. His heart was torn in pieces. Seeing his best friend like this completely tore him apart.

“You don’t deserve this Aubrey. Your father needs to be severely punished. If you don’t do anything about it, it’s just going to get even worse,” he notified her, and peeled a strand of hair from her wet face and tucked it behind her ear.

“I’m 90 pounds,” Aubrey went off subject, gasping for air. “It was only one pound,” she gasped again. “One pound,” she repeated, now unable to breathe.

“Sweetie, In and Out. Breathe.…” he reminded her again, the second time since a few nights ago. He was hoping that she wouldn’t get to this point again. She started to breathe in a normal breathing pattern but she still continued to cry. That’s understandable though. Her leg was broken and so was her heart.

“Where’s your dad right now?” he whispered, trying to keep the calm atmosphere flowing. Hopefully he wasn’t home.

“He’s out at the bar. He will be gone all night,” she whispered back almost relieved.

“Good,” Joe replied, lifting Aubrey up and walked her out of the clubhouse. He had plans of his own that Aubrey didn’t know of.

“Joe, where are you taking me?” she questioned him worrying. She started to hit him a little bit wanting him to tell her. She was getting scared.

“Don’t worry baby. You will be safe for right now,” he assured. He had been using all of these cutesy names for her out of human nature. He hadn’t even realized what he had been saying. He carried her to his house in hopes of being able to take her to the hospital.

He walked thorough his back door, with Aubrey still in his arms. No one was in the kitchen, but he heard the television on, so he headed toward the living room. His mom, Nick and Kevin were all in there. He walked in and lied Aubrey down on the couch. They all noticed them and totally freaked out. They jumped and ran over by Aubrey’s side.

“Joe! What did I say about hurting her! It looks like you just about killed her,” Kevin yelled at him and then punched him in the arm. He thought that other things were going to be tossed at him so he quickly defended himself.

“It wasn’t me!” he yelled as Nick and Mrs. Jonas kneeled down at Aubrey’s side.

“Who did this to you?” Mrs. Jonas asked her softly, gently propping her broken leg up on a pillow and also placing one behind her head. Kevin quickly raced out of the room and then jogged back into the room with a gallon sized freezer baggie filled with ice.

“We don't know,” Joe answered for her. She gave him a glare because she wanted to answer Mrs. Jonas herself. Joe took the ice that Kevin was thoughtfully handing to him and he carefully placed it onto her leg. She winced from the coldness.

“I was pulled into an alleyway and I was beat up by this gang. It’s all a blur to me. I can barely remember what happened,” she lied and then placed a hand on her forehead. Everyone believed her, except for Joe. Joe knew that it was a lie.

“I’m okay though,” she lied again. She was lying through her teeth. She was lucky to even have any teeth. They all looked at her like she was crazy. She wasn’t okay, and they knew that she wasn’t. If they were in that condition, they wouldn’t be either. She had bruises all over her body, newer than the ones that she had at school and her leg was even worse.

“We need to take you to the hospital,” Joe decided and spoke up for all of them. He tucked a strand of her brown hair behind her ear to get it out of her face. She couldn’t argue with him. She didn’t want her ‘secret’ to be known to the rest of his family, so she agreed. Mrs. Jonas left the room to get her purse and she was going to meet them out in the car.

“Come on,” Joe lifted her off of the couch the he had placed her onto earlier, and carried her out of the house. She held her ice on the same place and was glad that her leg was somewhat numb. As soon as Joe and Nick got out of the door, Kevin ran out after everyone with the phone in his hands.

“Nick, its the theater!” He yelled out after him, not noticing that he was right there. He covered the mouth piece as he spoke.

“Tell them I’ll call them back,” he told him continuing to the car.
“You made it Nick!” he grabbed the phone from him, and he was shocked.

“Hello,” he spoke up into the receiver.

“Yes, this is Nick. Yes. Are you serious? Wow. Thank you so much. 7 o’clock today? Well I’m bringing a friend to the hospital right now, but I will defiantly try and make it. Okay. Thanks again,” he hung up, and he was totally speechless. His mouth was hung open and he raced to the car.

“I made it,” he whispered to Joe. He looked up and an enormous smile across his face. Joe was excited for him. Kevin hopped into the car after them and slammed the door shut. They were on their way.

“Don't tell mom,” he whispered to his brothers and Aubrey.

An hour and a half later, they were already on their way back home from the hospital. The doctor told Aubrey that her leg was broken in three different places. They wanted to put a real cast on her but she didn’t want them to. She asked for a walking cast that she would be able to remove and they were a little hesitant about it, but they finally gave her what she wanted.

“Hey mom, Can you stop here for a second,” Nick asked his mother to stop at the theater where he was supposed to go. He wanted it to be a surprise.

“Why sweetheart?” Mrs. Jonas had no idea. She pulled over anyway. Joe decided to tell her before they went in.

“You know the audition he went to the other day?” he asked her smirking.

“Yes,” she replied anxiously. She was getting antsy.

“Well,” Nick paused, making her squirm. She had an idea of what he was going to say, and she wished that it was what he was going to tell her. “I made it!” Nick told her excitedly, and rushed out of the car. Mrs. Jonas screeched eagerly. He son was in yet another popular musical. She was so proud of him. Aubrey wobbled her way out after everyone else, and Joe shut the door behind her. Mrs. Jonas was left in the car to scream to herself. Both Joe and Aubrey laughed and walked through the building doors. Aubrey used the crutches that the doctor gave her to help her walk and didn’t find it so easy at first. The first time she used crutches, her leg wasn't that bad. Now after the last injury, she couldn't use her leg at all.