What Do You Want From Me?

Leslie Deslin stood before the three men, distress written all over her features. This was the last thing she needed right then.

"Why? Look, I told you everything I knew yesterday and..." She paused, looking over the men again. The distress immediately turned to worry. "Wh-where's Jess?"

"Why do you think I'm talking to you right now? I have no fucking idea where she is. I haven't spoken to her since last night and you need to tell me what else you know."

"Oh God," Leslie lamented. "He did it. Jason really did it."

"Did what?" Zack chimed in. "Matt, what the hell is going on?"

"What did he do, Les?" Matt demanded. "Tell me everything he said."

Leslie shook her head. "It wasn't...he didn't say anything in particular about it, he just kept making little remarks about how good it felt to know things are probably gonna go back to normal. And Isabel, she just kept giggling and...I just knew it wasn't a good sign. And now Jessie's not here?" She shook her head again, and Matt sighed in defeat.

"What am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know. I honestly don't. Maybe I could drive to her house and talk to her or her parents. But that would mean doing it without Isabel knowing and I'm not sure if that'll be easily done."

Matt shrugged, entirely unsure of how to approach this situation. "I don't want to get you in 'trouble' with your clique. I just...I'm worried is all. What if something really bad happened?"

Leslie squinted at him. "What do you mean? You think she might be hurt?"

"I don't know. That's the thing. Do you think she could be? Would her parents do something to hurt her like that?"

Leslie simply looked at Matt. Did he truly not know the past Jessica had with her parents? It was definitely a possibility her parents could have hurt her. But considering how worried the man was, and Leslie could tell he desperately was, she really didn't want to further his anxiety by telling him the truth; and anyway, it wasn't her truth to tell.

"I'm sure she's just grounded. Like, big-time grounded," She told him, sounding surprisingly strong-willed.

"That could be," Matt considered. "But why would they ground her from going to school? That makes no sense. School is more of a punishment than anything."

Leslie chuckled. "That's true. I'm sure she's fine, though; well, fine compared to what you're thinking, that is."

Matt studied her for a few moments. She did sound rather convincing, but he couldn't help but feel like maybe she was hiding something. He didn't know for sure, and considering he barely knew her to begin with, second guessing the one person who really knew Jess and was willing to spill details to him kind of seemed like the totally wrong thing to do.

"All right," Matt relented with a small nod. "I guess I'll just wait and see what happens. I mean, you obviously know her ten times better than I do, so I'm sure you're right."

"Yeah," Leslie replied, feeling horrible for lying to him. "If you hear anything, let me know."

"I will. Thanks for taking the time to talk. I'll see you later."

Leslie nodded. "Bye."

Matt turned and began the trek back to his car, Brian and Zack following closely behind him. He felt a little better, but that amount didn't overwhelm the fact that he was still worried. That, and the fact that he was almost certain Leslie was hiding something; he just couldn't help himself.

"Are you going to tell us what that was about?" Zack asked as the three of them stood at Matt's car. "Is she like informing on the others or something?"

"Sort of," Matt replied distractedly.

Brian and Zack exchanged looks, both highly annoyed by this point at the fact that Matt had been leaving them out of what's been taking place.

"Can you elaborate on that or are you just gonna continue to leave us in the dark?" Brian demanded.

Matt glanced at them, slightly taken off guard by their sudden attitude changes. Then again, he'd been wondering when they were finally going to have enough of these shenanigans.

"Leslie told Jess and I that Jason was planning something. She said she didn't know for sure what it was, but that it wasn't good. Jess was worried about it, but I told her everyone would be okay. And now, she's not answering me and I think Leslie is hiding something about her and there's nothing I can do."

Matt leant back against his car and closed his eyes. Hearing it out loud, how screwed up things were, made him feel ten times worse. There was literally nothing he could do.

"Shit," Zack breathed. "Man, we had no idea."

Matt shook his head. "You couldn't have. I've been keeping this shit from you and I'm sorry for that. You guys are my best friends. It wasn't right for me to lie like that."

"Don't beat yourself up about it," Brian said, clapping a hand on his shoulder in reassurance. "We know now."

"Can we do anything to help?"

Matt shrugged. "Unless you can go to her house, get passed her parents, and talk to her." He looked to his friends with a small smile on his face, as both their faces fell. "Then no, there's not really anything you can do. But don't worry about it, guys. Just the fact that you're here is enough." The other two men smiled sadly and nodded. "I'm just not really sure what I'm supposed to do is all."

"Well," Zack started. "All you really can do is wait."

"That's what's going to drive me crazy," Matt said with a laugh.

"Then let's do something to take your mind off of everything. Let's go to beach or something," Brian suggested, and Zack was quick to squeal his approval.

"Well, it looks like Zack is on board," Matt commented with a chuckle. He contemplated the idea for a moment; sure, it seemed rather fun and it probably would take his mind off Jess for the time being, but he felt a little guilty thinking about going and having a good time while she might be in a whole world of trouble.

"I'm sure she's just fine, bro," Zack said in a gentle voice, moving to rest a hand on his shoulder. "But it's not healthy for you to sit here and worry. You'll end up making yourself sick or something."

"Yeah, and then you won't be able to party and you'll be pissed," Brian said with a laugh, and the other two joined in.

"Eh, I guess you're right. She's probably fine. I'm just...God, I don't even know! I think I need to smoke some shit to cool my nerves," Matt considered, tapping at his chin as though thinking deeply about it. Brian and Zack gave hearty laughs and acquiesced, both entirely down for whatever Matt wanted.

"Well, we can go smoke at the beach!" Zack announced. "We'll just have to go under the pier where none of those rent-a-cops patrol."

"Definitely. Those assholes piss me off," Brian scowled. "But yeah, so me and Zack'll drive over and you just meet us there, okay?"

"Sounds good. You two bring the shit. I'm so not stopping home and dealing with my mom just to get the weed." Matt rolled his eyes, the events from that morning flashing through his mind.

Brian laughed. "Don't worry about it, bro. I've got some stuff in my car."

The hazel-eyed man nodded, and the three men quickly bid a farewell for the time being. Brian and Zack headed over to where Brian's car was parked, and Matt got into his own. As he started it, a broad smile crossed his face, and he suddenly felt like maybe, just maybe things would turn out okay. Even though Jess was still on is mind, and he was still worried about her, he considered the fact that maybe Zack and Leslie were right. Maybe she was just grounded. He had faith that if she could contact him, she would, and until that time he was going to wait. That's all there was to it.

As he nodded to himself, he threw the gear into reverse and readied to back out of the parking spot. Before this could happen, though, a noticeable vibration in his pocket had Matt putting the car back into park and quickly arching up to dig his cell phone out of his pocket.

'Please be her, please be her, please be...' The chanting in his brain silenced immediately, and Matt felt himself becoming slightly confused when he saw just who it was. He then mentally slapped himself for not thinking to call this person in the first place.

"Hello?" Matt finally answered.

"Matt?"

"Yeah, it's me. What's going on?"

The man on the other line sighed heavily, and Matt felt his insides churn.

"We need to talk, man."

"Talk about what?" Matt demanded, his voice deepening in absolute seriousness.

"Jess."

Oh fuck...

"Tell me."

"She uh--" He sighed heavily, and Matt snapped.

"Jimmy, just tell me what the fuck is going on!"

"Jessie's hurt," Jimmy blurted out. "She's in the hospital."