Holiday From Real

Pete, Ashlee, Vicky, and Brendon had been sitting in Pete and Ashlee’s living room for the last hour and a half waiting to hear from either Gabe or Mary Jane as to what had happened at the trial. And, for the last hour and a half, Brendon and Vicky had been ignoring each other, not looking at or talking to the other person at all.

“Okay,” Pete finally said, sick of the way Brendon and Vicky were acting. “Can we quit acting like we’re in the second grade and stop ignoring each other? What the hell is with the two of you anyways? You broke up how many weeks ago? And you guys still won’t talk to each other? What’s so different about this time?”

“Pete, stop,” Ashlee told her husband.

“No, they’re being immature and childish,” Pete said.

“What? Didn’t Brendon tell you the reason we broke up?” Vicky asked.

“No,” Pete replied.

“Oh, well, the reason we broke up was…” Vicky began.

“Vicky,” Brendon yelled.

“What, Brendon? Shouldn’t your best friends know why we broke up?” Vicky asked him.

“They don’t need to know why we broke up, okay? Can’t we just leave this alone?” Brendon pleaded, looking over at Vicky.

“No, Pete wants to know, so I’m going to tell him,” Vicky replied, anger running through her. She turned around to look at Pete. “We broke up because Brendon refused to sleep with me.”

“What?” Pete asked looking back and forth between Vicky and Brendon, while Ashlee just put her head in her hands. “Dude, why?”

“Can we just stop?” Brendon pleaded.

“No, Brendon, why don’t you answer his question?” Vicky asked him. “I mean I’d like to know the answer myself.”

“Vicky,” Brendon began.

“What? You don’t have an answer? Well, then why don’t we talk about how you can sleep with any other girl on the face of the planet, but when it comes to the girl that you dated for months, you won’t get anywhere near a bed with her,” Vicky said, letting all of her emotions that she had been keeping inside of her come out.

“Vicky,” Ashlee said, trying to get her to calm down.

“No, Ash. I really want to know,” Vicky told her. She looked back at Brendon. “So, what’s the reason Brendon?”

Brendon opened his mouth to speak, but just at that moment, the front door opened, and Gabe and Mary Jane came walking through. Gabe had his arm around Mary Jane, blocking her from the others in the room as they came in.

“Gabe, MJ, what’s the verdict?” Pete asked hopefully.

As the two of them walked around to the couch where everyone sat, they could all see Mary Jane’s face, with her eyes bloodshot from where she had been crying.

“Please, don’t tell me he got off,” Ashlee said.

Mary Jane couldn’t say anything, so she just nodded her head. “They said he was innocent,” Gabe told everyone.

“What?” Pete yelled, outraged. “How the hell could they find that son of a bitch innocent? We were there. I heard MJ yell for help and to stop. We saw him rape her!”

“Yeah, well apparently the jury didn’t believe us, and they believed him,” Gabe said.

“Are you going to ask for a retrial?” Brendon asked.

“No,” Mary Jane said shaking her head.

“What?” Vicky asked, looking over at Mary Jane.

“No,” Mary Jane repeated. “I just want all of this to go away. The jury found him innocent, even though we all know what he did. There is no way I’m going to go through all of that again just to let him get off again. So, no, I’m not going to ask for a retrial.”

Gabe put his arm around Mary Jane, looking at everyone, letting them all know not to ask anything else about the trial.

“Listen, I think I’m going to go back to my place,” Mary Jane told everyone.

“I’ll go with you,” Gabe offered.

“No, Gabe, you stay here. I’ll be fine,” Mary Jane said smiling at him.

“Are you sure? I don’t mind going with you.”

“No, really, it’s fine. I just want some space right now. I’ll see you all later,” Mary Jane told them as she got up and walked toward the door.

“Bye,” every said together.

“Bye, guys,” Mary Jane said turning around before heading out the door.

“How’s she doing?” Vicky asked as soon as she had left.

“I don’t know. I mean obviously she’s upset, but she’s trying to get over it. I think she just wants to put everything behind her,” Gabe told them.

“Yeah, I can see that,” Ashlee said. “I hope she’s okay, though.”

“She will be,” Gabe said. “We just need to be there for her. And I feel really bad about letting her go back to her place by herself. I don’t know if she should be alone right now, but she didn’t want me to go with her,” he said sadly.

“Gabe, you have to know that she loves you,” Vicky said with a smile. “But, if it’ll make you feel better, I’ll go check on her.”

“Actually, it would. Do you mind?”

“Of course not,” Vicky said grabbing her bag and walking toward the door.

“Wait a minute,” Ashlee called out. “I’ll go with you.”

“Okay,” Vicky said pausing at the door. As soon as Ashlee was ready to go, she turned back around to look at Gabe. “Seriously, don’t think she’s pushing you away, Gabe. I think she just wants some space right now. I mean Chris just got off. I’m sure if you were in her place, you’d want some time, too.”

“Thanks, Vicky, Ash,” he called as they walked out the door.

“No problem,” he heard them say. He turned back around to look at Pete and Brendon. “So now what?” he asked them.

“Now, Brendon’s going to tell us the whole story behind him and Vicky’s breakup,” Pete replied with a smile.