Safe

Jonathan groaned as he missed the net for what felt like the hundredth time that practice. In the week since Charlotte’s early morning visit, Jonathan had been distracted. Very rarely was he distracted from hockey, but he couldn’t shake the brunette from his mind. He had only seen her three times since the diner, but each time he did she seemed to have a new bruise or scratch, and that made him sick to his stomach.

He hoped that none of his teammates noticed how poor he was playing and how distracted he was, mostly because he didn’t know what he would say if someone asked him about it. He would try to avoid it, but he was afraid that someone would ask the right question and everything would come spilling out. Unfortunately for him, his thoughts were squashed when Duncan Keith and Patrick Kane walked up to him in the locker room after everyone had cleared out.

“Alright, what the hell is up with you?” Patrick questioned. He was worried about the team, but more so about his friend.

“Nothing,” Jon replied dismissively. He turned to pull a shirt on and gather up his things to leave, but his friends obviously weren’t going to let him off so easy.

“Cut the bullshit, Jon. What’s going on?” Duncan asked, his tone critical.

“I just…remember that girl? From the diner?” Jonathan said, knowing that he would have to tell his friends eventually, and now seemed as good a time as ever.

Both men nodded in reply, eager for Jon to go on.

“I’ve seen her a few times since then and I just have a bad feeling. The other night she asked if I would loan her three hundred dollars,” he said, realizing he could have probably chosen his words better. He realized that his friends probably thought she was using him for money.

His thoughts were confirmed when Patrick said, “Whoa, man, I think maybe you should just get your money back and let it go.”

“No, she’s not like that. It was three in the morning and I told her that if she ever needed anything to call me so I guess I sort of brought it upon myself. But I don’t think she would use m for money,” Jon said, hoping it would put is friends’ minds at ease.

“Why did she need the money?” Duncan asked.

“That’s another thing, I don’t know. It was such a weird hour and she was very brief and I just don’t know, but I hope she used it to leave that asshole boyfriend of hers” Jonathan rambled, having already been frustrated that he didn’t know why she needed the money.

“Okay, so what are you gonna do?” Patrick asked.

Jonathan scratched the back of his neck and then ran his hand over his face in exasperation. “I don’t know. I still think I should go to the police, but I don’t have her last name or her boyfriend’s name and I don’t have any proof that he even abuses her.”

“I don’t know what to tell you man, but I hope whatever you do, you do it soon. The team needs your full focus,” Duncan said, reversing the roles of the two men.

“You’ll figure it out, Jon,” Patrick said, offering him a pat on the back before he and Duncan left.

“God I hope so,” he said to himself.

-

“Hey babe,” Jonathan greeted when he shut the door to his apartment and saw the blond sitting on the couch.

“Hey, how was practice?” She asked, looking up from her phone for a split second before returning her eyes to the screen.

“It was alright. Can we talk?” He asked, hoping to pick her brain about what to do about Charlotte.

“Sure, babe, what’s up?” She said, though her attention was clearly still on her phone.

“You know what, never mind. Obviously your phone is more important than whatever I need to talk about so just go back to it,” he snapped. Lindsey was taken aback by his sudden outrage.

She set her phone down on the coffee table before standing up to face Jonathan. “I don’t know why you’re freaking out, but I sure as hell know that I don’t deserve it. Do you wanna tell me what’s going on?”

“I wanted to talk to you about Charlotte,” Jonathan said in a much calmer tone than he had previously used.

“Who is Charlotte?” She asked. Jon knew that they had talked about her before, so he didn’t know why Lindsey was acting like she had no idea who it was.

“The woman I told you about that I think is being abused,” he replied.

“You’re still stuck on that? Jesus, just let it go. It’s her life, not yours,” Lindsey said.

“What the fuck Lindsey? Do you even realize what you’re saying? This woman is being beaten and you just ignore it? Act like it’s not even happening? It’s not my life, and I know that, but she’s a person too. What if it were you?” He said, growing angrier by the second.

“I don’t know, Jon, but don’t you think at least some of it is her fault? If he’s such a dick why does she stay with him? She let it get this far, she has to deal with the consequences,” Lindsey said. Jonathan couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“How is a girl who asked me to borrow three hundred dollars supposed to be able to leave?” Jon said.

Lindsey was even more pissed off when she learned that he had given her money. “What the fuck? You gave her money?” She screamed.

“Yeah, I did, because it’s my money and I can choose what to do with it,” he said, trying his hardest to stay calm. Lindsey, however, was seething.

“She’s obviously using you for money and she’s making all this up with her boyfriend,” she said.

Jonathan had almost had enough, but he shot back, “Or maybe you’re just too dense to think that maybe she just needed a favor and I’m the only person in town that she knows?”

“So now I’m dense?” Lindsey screamed, walking closer to Jonathan and tensing up.

“I didn’t mean that,” Jon said, wishing he had picked better words to use.

“Well you sure as hell seemed like you did,” she relied, raising her hand to hit him, but Jon caught her arm and held onto it before she could make contact.

They stood there for a few moments before Jon finally broke the silence. “I think you should find somewhere else to stay.”

Lindsey turned and gathered her belongings before storming out of Jonathan’s apartment.