If I Was Your Boyfriend

Justin’s Point of View

I stare around the room, dazed and confused. I was in the apartment. My arms and legs were clearly tied with some kind of old rope. Chrissy’s legs and arms were tied as she sat across the room in the other corner. Her head hung low and her eyes were closed so I was starting to think that Carter did the same thing to her. Audrey, Alyssa, and Dustin were bound together along with their mom, Isabelle. Of course Carter paced back and forth across the room. Audrey sobs uncontrollably while Alyssa leans on her brother’s back for support with red, wet eyes. Isabelle repeatedly tells her children that nothing is going to hurt them and that they’re going to be all right. I swallow hard shifting over where I sat causing their innocent eyes to fall on me.

‘I’m sorry.’ Was all that I managed to get out shaking my head.

‘Nice of you to join us.’ Carter speaks with a smug grin, ‘I was beginning to worry.’

‘As soon as I get loose, I’m going to make you pay for every single thing you’ve done. You’re not even going to want to look at her again.’

‘You and I both know who’s the better man out of you and I.’ Carter flashes his slimy smile, ‘Pretty soon she’ll see what being with a real man is like.’ He nods his head over to Chrissy, ‘I’m going to be the best father to our child.’

I sit right there and I laugh. Right in his face. The kids and Isabelle stare at me confused while Carter stops his pacing. I couldn’t help it. He was sitting here thinking Chrissy was pregnant when in fact that it’s Danielle. He lets out a low growl from his throat before walking over to me. His eyes were filled with raged while he kept his hands at his sides formed in tight balls.

‘Don’t hurt him!’ Chrissy pleads from across the room, her voice shaky, ‘please.’

‘So, happy for you to join us my dear.’ He leaves me and heads over to her. ‘You’ve grown even more beautiful somehow.’

‘I swear if you touch her-…’ I threaten from the other side of the room squirming in the twisted ropes.

‘Did you like your birthday gift? I spent a lot of time and money on it. I figured that I would give you something and you would show me something in return, you know?’

‘You’re disgusting.’ Chrissy scoffs turning away from him.

‘You’re beautiful.’ Carter speaks back grabbing a hold of Chrissy’s face making her look at him, ‘soon there will be no one to interrupt our love.’ He finishes nodding his head towards me.

‘You have to be more out of your mind than we all think if you believe that I’m going to sit her and let you take the best thing in my life away from me.’ I laugh shaking my head at him.

‘I don’t think you have a choice in the matter.’

‘Come on Carter. We’ve been through this over and over again,’ I groan annoyed tossing my head back, ‘I don’t care what you do to me or what you say – she will never, ever want you. She’ll never feel the same way about you that she feels about me. You think that you’re so clever and ahead of us but you don’t even know that we’re engaged. That’s right - she’s going to marry me. Not you. We’ll be living our lives out as planned while you rot in the small, dirty prison cell you deserve pal.’

Carter walks over to me and hits me square in the face more than a few times. Chrissy’s desperate shrieks and pleads echo off of the walls around me. Audrey, Alyssa, and Dustin all squeeze their eyes shut as Carter sends down blow after blow. Isabelle, not my biggest fan, begs him to leave me alone.

‘Carter!’ Chrissy shouts out to him causing him to turn to her with open arms, ‘If you care about me – you’ll let everyone else go.’

‘Chrissy, what are you doing?!’ I inquire tugging on my restraints.

‘This has nothing to do with any of them. This is all about you and me, so just let them go. I’ll do whatever you want.’

‘Chrissy, no!’

‘It’s okay, Justin.’ She nods, her cheeks stained with tears. ‘What do you say?’

‘I say give me one good reason why I should let any of them go?’

Chrissy opens her mouth to speak when there’s a sharp knock on the front door. Carter stares at all of us confused as he pulls his gun from his pants. He walks to the door ever-so-carefully ducking down to look out the peephole.

‘Isn’t this a surprise?’ he speaks with a loud laugh opening the door, ‘Veronica.’

‘Mom?’ Chrissy whimpers as Carter yanks her mom through the doorway.

He isn’t rough as he was with me. He holds her close, as she was a dainty figurine that was his most prize possession. I watch as he looks at her with dark eyes.

‘Long time, no see.’

‘Larry, what are you doing?’ she fires back pulling away from his grasp with no luck, ‘What are you trying to accomplish here?’

‘At first, I was just going to take Chrissy and go but now I think I may make room for you to join us. The more the merrier, right girls?’

I yank at my restraints again at his crude comment trying to get to Chrissy who silently sat across the room.

‘You can’t do this Larry.’ Chrissy’s mom whispers, ‘She’s just a kid. You can’t take her away from the people that love her.’

‘No one loves her the way I do.’

‘That’s why you rammed my car right into her body or have her shackled up like some wild animal?’ I pipe in but Carter ignores my outburst.

‘Larry, don’t do this to my family.’ A lone tear falls from Chrissy’s mom’s eye, ‘Please. Just let them go.’

‘What are you going to do for me?’

‘I’ll go with you.’ Her mom caves in and Chrissy shouts out something that I couldn’t decipher with all of the thoughts racing through my mind in that moment.

‘I don’t know. Chrissy’s even more beautiful than you were if that was even possible.’

‘Do you remember the day we met?’

‘I could never forget it.’

‘The football team was giving you hell, again. I was coming out of my class, going to my locker when I saw you in the hallway. You looks so defenseless and hurt, everyone else just walked past you. I got down onto the floor to see if you were okay. I didn’t care if I was going to be late to English. You seemed to be a pretty nice guy, quiet, but nonetheless nice. I saw what they did to your glasses so I went home that day and had my mom drive me to store just so I could buy you a new pair. After that we just talked everyday. You showed me comics and magic tricks. I trusted you. I thought we were friends. I know that the same kid is in you right now. You have a heart deep down in there somewhere. Deep down you know that you shouldn’t be doing this. This isn’t you. Let them go.’ Chrissy’s mom speaks bringing both Chrissy and Isabelle to tears.

‘You know, I actually still have those glasses.’ Carter smiles to himself, ‘I take them everywhere with me.’ He digs through his baggy pockets to pull out a small pair of glasses, ‘I loved you Veronica.’

‘I cared for you.’ Chrissy’s mom doesn’t return his words.

‘I hate to disappoint you but I do still need to take Chrissy with me. I couldn’t make you mine but she will be mine.’ Carter retorts, ‘Thank you for the trip down memory lane though. You’re naïve to think that it would work.’

‘I didn’t plan on it to work.’

Just then the doors kicked down and literally dozens of cops dressed in heavy black armor rush inside. They tackle Carter to the ground and move aside Chrissy’s mom in the process. Chrissy’s dad rushes in and holds her in his arms briefly before kneeling to the ground with his kids and Isabelle. Jeff wraps his long arms his fiancée whispering something to her while she nods in return. As soon as the police officers untie me I run to Chrissy dropping in front of her.

‘I love you.’ We both blurt out in unison.

…

one week later

‘I can’t thank you enough for all of the work you did.’ I tell Holbrook outside of the police station, ‘Chrissy and I both appreciate it.’

‘I’m just doing my job. You two take care.’ He shakes my hand firmly before walking back inside of the building.

I go back to the apartment where Chrissy was dragging her suitcase towards the front door. I quickly grab the suitcase in my hand taking it out to the car. She sits on the arm of the sofa playing with Rocky.

‘What are we going to do now that this is all over?’ she wonders looking up at me.

‘Enjoy our lives. If we can make it through this there’s nothing we can’t do.’ I say activating the new hi-tech security system. With all of the money I paid for it this thing better tell me when a fly lands on the window.

‘Where do we start?’

‘London.’ I smile scooping my girlfriend into my arms jogging out to the car. ‘London get ready. We’re on our way.’