For You

August 1st, 2011
Time – 3:12 PM
Location – Thunder Bay, Ontario
Jordan

“Jordan. Jordan are you up?”
“Guy’s, I think he’s breathing?”
“Should we have the cops bring an ambulance too?”
“Jordan damnit! Wake the fuck up!”

I hear the voices of Tanya, Marc, Jared, and Eric screaming at one another. I open my eyes and hold my arm over my face, trying to block out the sun. The three are standing over me, while Eric is checking my pulse. I blink my eyes a few times to collect my surroundings. I’m laying on my back in my driveway…well the driveway of my parent’s house.

I sit up, rubbing my forehead with my hands. Something had happened, I don’t know what had happened. I wasn’t drunk or hung-over for that matter, I was completely sober. “Jordan, are you okay?” Eric asks me as I look directly at him. I have a blasted headache. It felt like my head was going to explode as I sat there trying to remember why I was even outside in the first place.

“Jordan, what happened?” Marc asked.

I look at Marc and just stare at him. It all was coming back to me now. He was the reason I was out here. I was fighting with Azalia about Marc and how he was never going to break up with Lindsay for her, only because I was madly in love with Azalia. Hell, I’ve been in love with Azalia since the day I witnessed her falling down the stairs and then slipping in her hallway in a fifth-teen second time span.

Speaking of, where was she?

“AZALIA!” I shoot up.
“Woah, Azalia was with you?” Tanya asks.

Parts of the argument Azalia and I were having had started to come back to me. She was marching for the house when I stopped her. I remember she turned around, ready to say something but had stopped. Her face went from the Italian olive skin tone to pale white, as if she saw a ghost, within a matter of seconds. It was that moment I turned around, but that’s all I remember. “Guys, where is Azalia?”

“What do you mean where is Azalia?” Eric asked.
“Azalia and I were arguing over this son of a bitch,” I began, pointing at my Marc, “Then—“
“Woah, what the fuck did I do?” Marc asked, holding his hands up in defense.
“That’s not important right now, she’s not here.”
“Where do you think she went?” Jared asked with concern in his voice.

Azalia was his best friend; she had been ever since our moms met last summer when Jared and our mom went on a little vacation to Chicago, where she had met Azalia and her mother at the mall. The four were at a Japanese style restaurant, forced to share a table. From what Jared told my brothers and I, he knew this girl was going to be his best friend.

Jared’s face went pale white as I tried to remember the guy, but I couldn’t make out his face. I just remember him punching me; I fell, and smacked my head on to the driveway. I was lying on the driveway, on my stomach, when I noticed Azalia screaming my name. She was over the guy’s shoulder, her hands reaching out for mine, screaming for me, and screaming for me to do something. I remember yelling her name, extending my arm out, as the screams for me grew faint, as if I couldn’t hear them anymore. I remember my vision going out as I dropped my hand and closed my eyes.

But why the hell could I not remember what the guy had looked like?

“He has her.”
“Who has Azalia?” Eric asked me, tilting his head to the side.
“Guys, he took Azalia. Get the cops.”
“You mean to tell us someone kidnapped Azalia?!” Jared asked.
“Just get the damn cops now.”

Eric pulled out his phone and dialed for the police. Jared is still standing before me, as Tanya, Lindsay, my parents, Azalia’s two sisters, brother, and mother came outside. I see her mother come toward me, looking frantic as I extend my arms to her. “Jordan, where is she?”

“I need to report a kidnapping,” I overhear Eric say into the phone.
“Mrs. Mariani, if I knew where she was or who took her, I’d tell you.”
“Jordan, who took her!?”

She’s screaming now, as Marc is trying to calm her down while I over hear Eric tell Tanya the cops are coming. Marc and I are having no success in calming now Azalia’s mother, as her two sisters, Maria and Makayla, are standing with Jared, while her brother Joe chimed in to try to calm down his mother. “Mrs. Mariani, please,” I plea, as she looks at me. “I remember punching some guy who was on our drive way, I think he may have Azalia.”

“Why the hell were the two of you even out here?”
“Fighting about my brother.”
“What does this have to do with me?”
“Don’t fucking worry about it.”

I hear sirens go off as the neighbors come outside. I watch two cop cars pull up to our house. Never in my life have the cops had to come to our house over something like this. I leave Mrs. Mariani in the care of Joe and Marc when I notice the male cop come out of the front seat of the car. I march over there, with Eric next to me, while I turning around to face Marc and pointing my finger at him, while walking at the same time. “I’m not done with you yet.”

“What the fuck does this have to do with me?”
“Like I said, don’t fucking worry about it, but right now, I’m not finished getting ready to fuck you up.”

I turn around as Eric gives me the death glare. I know this wasn’t the proper time to threaten my brother, but he kind of deserved it, with all the shit he has been pulling on Azalia lately. “What has gotten into you since you snapped back to reality?”

“I’ll tell you after the cops leave,” I snap as we stop in front of the cops.
“Who made the call?” The male cop asks, as Eric slowly lifts his hand up. “I’m officer Johansson, this is officer Mittchell, Daley, and Hager. Who was kidnapped?”
“Our friend Azalia, I somewhat witnessed the whole thing.”
“What happened?” The female cop, I am assuming is Daley or Hager, asks me. “And why didn’t you try to stop him?”
“We were out here, fighting –“
“Fighting about what?” Officer Mittchell asks.

The one thing I hated about having to deal with the cops was that they wanted a detailed explanation on what had happened. The sad thing was I wish I could remember exactly what had happened or the whole thing. Hell, I couldn’t even remember what the guy had looked like. “We were fighting about my brother, Marc. She’s in love with him, he’s engaged, and he’s just leading her on.”

“So that’s why you want to kill Marc right now…” Eric says.

“She was heading for the garage when I stopped her, she turned around and was going to say something, but stopped. I remember her face went so white; it looked like she had seen a ghost. I asked what was wrong but turned around and saw someone standing there. I had asked him to get off the driveway twice, but when he didn’t do it, I marched over to him and told him to leave. He didn’t…so I punched him. Apparently, he didn’t like that. He punched me and I remember my head hitting the pavement. I looked up, and saw her yelling for me…after that it was black.”

The cops are writing this down as the two female cops are trying to calm her mother down. The cop is looking up at me now, as officer Mitchell clears his throat as Jared comes over to the two of us, with a picture in hand. “Officer, I have a picture of her if you need one,” he says, handing over a picture of Azalia and himself when they came out for the Penguins Hurricanes game. The cop nods and looks at the picture, then back at us.

“What’s your name kid?”
“Jordan.”
“What did the man look like?”
“Honestly, I don’t remember.”
“There’s an escaped convict on the run, that’s why I ask.”

Well that was reassuring to hear, considering the fact none of us have been watching the news since we all got here, which was three days ago. Eric and I just stare at each other, while Jared is bringing his one fist into his hand, cracking his knuckles. “What do you mean there is a convict on the run?” He snaps at them.

“Look, we can’t do anything about the situation right now,” Officer Mittchell tells us.
“What do you mean you can’t do anything about the situation? My best friend was kidnapped and there is a convict on the run, and you mean to tell us you can’t do shit?” Jared yells, as I hold him back with my arm.

I’m pissed about this too, but I’m trying to hold it in. There had to be something the cops could do, at least get the get the goddamn story out or something, so people could be aware that there is a nineteen year old missing. “Look, we’ll get the story out, but we can’t do anything about it because you don’t remember what the kidnapper looked like Jordan.”

“If I can remember, I’ll let you know.”
“Thank you, until then, we will let the town and everyone else know of the situation.”
“Fine, thank you,” I sneer.

I watch the cops all pile back into the cars and pull away. Jared’s angry, Eric looks defeated, and I’m ready to punch the next person who was going to come near me. I turn around and begin to march over to Marc, who sees me coming at him. I then take my fist and swing it at his face. I falls to the ground after I punch him and I raise my fist higher when I see him lying there. “Dude, what the fuck was that for?” He yells at me.

“YOU’RE WITHOUT A DOUBT A FUCKING ASSHOLE!”
“What the fuck did I do?”
“She loved you Marc and you fucked with your head.”
“What are you talking about?”
“She fucking loves you, Marc! And you want to know a secret? I fucking love her, I’ve loved her from day one, hell, I even broke up with Heather for her, but that didn’t do shit. She’s in love with you, and she’ll never love me. Even if you do end up marrying Lindsay, she’ll never stop loving you.”

Marc is taken aback by the comment I just made. I look at Lindsay, who is stunned to hear that someone else is in love with her fiancé. Marc wipes the blood away from his face and stands up. He’s looking directly at me now, as I mentally prepare myself for a punch to the face. “If you want to punch me Marc, do it.”

“I’m not going to punch you.”
“What?”
“And guess what, I have a secret for you too. She loves you Jordan, she’s been in love with you for a long time.”