Safe

Chapter 4

Jonathan entered the bar, instantly disgusted by the atmosphere as he tried to weave his way to the back where his teammates were sitting. Normally he didn’t attend gatherings like this, but Lindsey wasn’t coming home that night, so he decided to grab a drink with his team.

While scanning the bar for his table, Jonathan’s eyes landed on a familiar face. Jonathan could hardly control the rage that he felt upon seeing the man from the diner. An internal argument ensued as Jonathan tried to decide whether or not to take action. Eventually he decided not to do anything for fear that he would take it out on his girlfriend. Instead, Jonathan decided, he would keep a close eye on him.

Jonathan found his teammates and took a seat on the end of the booth next to Patrick Kane.

“Hey, Tazer! You showed up for once!” Patrick yelled over the chatter of the people around them. Jonathan simply nodded in response and trained his eyes back on the man that was now buying drinks for girls around him. “Jon? Are you alright?” Patrick asked, concerned about his friend who seemed more distant than usual.

“Yeah, I think I’m gonna cut out though,” Jonathan replied, keeping his eyes trained on the man, who was getting close to the door with another woman. Jonathan decided that he would follow the man in the hope of seeing the woman again or where she lived. Leaving he bar as quickly as he came, Jonathan jumped out of the booth and followed the tall dark haired man outside, trying not to look suspicious. Getting in his car, Jonathan watched the man pull out in the same beat up truck and waited a beat before he did the same.

The truck was a few cars in front of him, weaving through the busy Chicago streets until it pulled off to a less busy side road, continuing into a residential area. The man pulled into the driveway of a ranch style house with shutters falling off of the windows, shingles coming off of the roof, and overgrowth in the front yard. Jonathan continued driving slowly down the road and parked in the street a few houses down, turning to watch the man exit the truck with the woman that was definitely not his girlfriend. Jonathan’s blood boiled at the sight, not being able to stand cheaters.

Lights flicked on in the house and Jonathan craned his neck as he saw the outline of a woman, presumably the same woman from the diner, coming toward a door on the side of the house. When she came outside Jonathan noticed her bare arms under the light right outside the door and cringed at the amount of bruises that covered them. Jonathan decided to spring to action, whether it was against his better judgement or not. He exited the car and walked as quietly as possible up to her, trying not to startle her. He felt and heard a branch break under his foot and looked up to see she had snapped her head to him, a confuse look in her eyes.

“Are you stalking me?” she asked, and if Jonathan hadn’t known her current situation, he would’ve laughed.

Jonathan struggled to find words to explain why he was standing outside her house at 11 o clock at night and eventually decided to just explain the situation. “Well, I saw your boyfriend at a bar and followed him because he had another woman with him, and it seemed like you guys were in a relationship the other day so I wanted to tell you that he might be cheating on you,” he rambled. His eyes scanned her and then fell to the ground as he realized how crazy he sounded.

“Trust me, I know what is going on, but why do you keep following me?” she asked. Just then he heard a door slam and saw the other woman walk outside and lift her phone to her face, probably calling a taxi.

“Charlotte, where the hell are you?” The man screamed, probably from the backyard.

“You have to leave!” Charlotte hissed at Jonathan. She sprang into action, reentering the house and shutting the behind her. Jonathan heard another door slam, most likely the door to the back of the house, as the man realized that Charlotte was inside the house. Jonathan turned to leave, walking quickly back to his car and writing down the address of the house.

-

“Where were you last night?” Lindsey asked. She had ended up showing up at the apartment around 10 last night, while Jonathan was at the bar.

“I was at the bar with some of the boys,” he stated, not sure whether or not to tell her about what else he was doing.

“Yeah, I know, but I talked to Patrick last night and he said that you skipped out early. What’s that about?” she inquired, pressing him further.

“I saw the guy from the diner and decided to follow him home,” he replied, unable to come up with an excuse, so he decided just to tell the truth. “I saw him with another woman so I followed him to his house and then I saw Charlotte-“ he was cut off by Lindsey.

“Who is Charlotte?” she asked.

“Oh, that’s the girl’s name, the girlfriend. Anyway, what I was saying was-“ he was cut off again.

“Why don’t you just drop it?” Lindsey asked, rather annoyed. Jonathan was taken back, wondering why his girlfriend was all of a sudden agitated by what he was doing.

“I thought you said that I have to do something,” he replied, not sure of what else to say.

“I know but now that I think about it, this isn’t your problem and it’s been distracting you a lot over the past week so I think you should just let it go,” she stated. Jonathan couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“Lindsey, that woman is being beaten by her boyfriend and you want me to just forget about it? What if she were to die? How could you live with yourself?” Jonathan almost spat the words, disgusted at the thought of letting things continue the way they were.

Lindsey sighed and stormed out of the apartment, not saying a word to Jonathan, who was trying to decide what to do next.
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This isn't the greatest chapter, but things will start to pick up soon. Let me know what you think!