Chapter 30: Grilled Zucchini  (Part 2)

I see Andrew and all his teammates injecting themselves with heroine. Some of them had already passed out and while some of them had that far away look on in their eyes. Andrew was one of them too, infact, he just refilled his syringe to shoot himself another hit. I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. I just couldn't.

Andrew had a dark past. But I thought he had left that behind. He was into drugs. But he stopped. He even went to rehab for it. And he promised to never to do it again. I felt disappointed in him and angry, but mostly sad.

"Drew what are you doing?" I asked appalled by the horrific sight in front of me.

He had his eyes closed, drops of sweat trailing down his face. "Go away", he said through gritted teeth. "I don't want to see you anymore". Why is he acting like that?

The people around us sensed the tension in the air. "We will leave you guys alone", muttered Will. He was one of Drew's closest friends and probably the only one who wasn't taking any drugs.

Andrew wasn't telling me anything so I decided to ask Will, "Will what's wrong? Why is he doing this? Why doesn't he want to talk to me?"

He looked at me and then at Andrew,"I can't say much. Talk to Drew. He is really upset". With that he and his friends left us alone in his room.

"Drew what's wrong?" I asked kneeling down to touch his forehead. I took the injection away from his hand. He was drunk, he reeked of alcohol too. "Drew talk to me!"

After some time he finally responded,"Get away from me Rose!" He pushed me hard, enough to make me lose my balance and fall on the floor.

I was pissed now, that hurt and he had no right to push me. "What the hell Andrew? What's wrong with you? I thought you are not into drugs anymore..... I thought you left all that for good".

"It's because of you... GO AWAY!" He cried out.

"What did I do?" I asked.

"You... you cheated on me..".

"What? What the hell are you talking about Drew? I would NEVER do that to you".

"I also thought the same but then I saw you with that guy on the couch. Just a few moments ago", he got up walking towards me, I felt fear when I looked into his eyes. I took a few steps back.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I wasn't on the couch, I was upstairs eating pizza.

"No it was you. You were wearing the top I gave you". Then everything clicked in my head. Jules borrowed my top for the party. Of course he might have seen Jules and thought it was me since Jules's new hair colour was the same shade as mine. Jules was naturally blonde but she likes to experiment. So she dyes her hair often.

Before I could explain myself, Drew pushed me against the wall, in the process hitting the back of my head against the hard surface.

"DREW!" I screamed from the pain. He was staring at me menacingly. His eyes red were red and he was digging his fingers into my arm.

"DREW LET GO OF ME! IT WASN'T ME.. IT WAS YOUR....".

"SHUT UP YOU BITCH! I LOVED YOU AND THAT IS HOW YOU RETURN YOUR LOVE?" He pulled on my hair and banged my head against the wall. I screamed but there no way anyone could hear me over the music that was blasting downstairs.

He banged my head the wall repeatedly, I tried to escape his clutches but he was too strong for me and I was getting light headed. The last blow was so hard that I fell on the floor and the last thing I remember is Drew kicking me in the stomach before I passed out.

........

Everything hurt. I struggled to get up but I could barely move my legs. I touched the back of my head to find my fingers coated in blood and I had scars all over my hand. Drew isn't in the room, so I struggled to escape but I couldn't. I knew he was going to come back again and hurt me. Tears were streaming down my face but I tried to keep myself together. I called Jules but unfortunately she wasn't picking up, she was probably wasted in her room. The only people I knew at this party was Drew and Jules so I did the only thing that I could think of. My hands were shaky but I somehow dialled number, the call went immediately "Hello 911 what's your emergency?"

What I didn't realize was that I just made the biggest mistake of my life.

............

I woke in a room that I didn't recognize. Someone had bandaged me wound. I was at the hospital. Someone opened the door. I look up to see the doctor approaching me.

"How are you feeling Emerson?" He asked checking my vitals.

"I feel okay. Much better", I said quietly. I didn't feel any kind of pain on my body but I was still weak.

"You had a few minor injuries. If I see you health is stable I will release you soon ".

I just nodded. "Emerson we tried calling your mother but it seems like her phone is switched off. Any other number we can try?"

"She is out of the country. So you won't be able to reach her number. She will call me once she gets a new number", I lied. My mother wasn't out of country. She is in L.A. for a conference. The conference was important and I didn't want her to worry or worse leave the conference and come back because of me. So I had to lie. The doctor went away. The nurse came to change my bandage and brought me my breakfast but I wasn't hungry.

After sometime the nurse came to ask me if I was ready to talk to the police. I said yes even though I was apprehensive. I didn't know what type of questions they would be asking.

A man in his mid forties stood in front  me, he had a bushy caterpillar moustache and frown on his face. His name tag read Officer Smith.

"Miss Emerson are you feeling alright now?"

I nodded my head.

"Can I ask you a couple of questions?"

"Yes", I breathed out.

"You are the one who called 911".

"Yes. Because I was scared... I was scared that my boyfriend would beat me again".

"Why did he do that?"

"He... He thought I was cheating on him. But it was all a misunderstanding".

"Did you know there were drugs at this party?"

I pursed my lips. I didn't know if I should say the truth. I didn't want to put Drew in any more trouble. Yes he deserves to be punished but I didn't want to get him into trouble for drugs. After all its the first time he did it after quitting and all because he thought I was cheating on him. In a way it's my fault, I shouldn't have insisted Jules to wear my top. But then he should have trusted me. Even though he was a little possessive of me but he should have trusted me and listened to me.

I nodded my head,"Yes the usual- alcohol and weed", I said curtly.

"Yes but not only that. But there were drug dealers too. In fact your boyfriend was one of them. He confessed. Did you have any idea about that?"

"What?" I cried out, beyond shocked. Drew told me he was not into this anymore.

"Yes. He confessed everything including the fact that he physically abused you".

After the was done interrogating me I was left ashtonished. Everything I knew about Drew was a lie. All these information was too much for me to handle. I was seeing him in a different light. He isn't the person who I thought to be. In fact I was disgusted by him. I felt nauseous, I just couldn't handle it anymore.

...............

I was having a hard time sleeping. All these things were hard for me to digest. I felt betrayed. I just couldn't get over that night. Every time I closed my eyes flashes of that night came to me. I was afraid of Drew now. I knew he was under police custody but I felt like he would come here and attack me again. But somehow amidst of the tossing and turning I managed to close my eyes for an hour or two.

I opened my eyes too see, a woman sitting in front of me. She looked oddly familiar but she was facing the other way wiping something off her face. Her hair was tied up in a bun and she was wearing a sundress.

"Mrs. Garcia", I acknowledged her, she immediately turned to look at me. Her eyes looked swollen and red as if she was crying, and her face looked tired.

"Are to okay Emma? I am sorry I didn't mean to wake you up", she said looking at me with a concerned look on her face.

"It's alright", I sat up making sure to keep the pillow under my back to give me support.

"How are you doing?" She asked.

"I am doing okay. A lot better than before".

Mrs. Garcia wasn't quite meeting my eye. In fact she seemed to be looking away. She took a long breath," I am ashamed. I can't believe my son is capable of doing such a heinous thing. I am sorry. I am so sorry", she placed her hand on mine, tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Please don't be sorry. It's not your fault. Please don't blame yourself for this", I patted her hand reassuringly.

"But he ended up ruining lives of not one but two people. I am ashamed to be called his mother".

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Jules..", she sobbed harder," Jules..... She is at the hospital.... She went under a major trauma after she heard what happened to Drew".

"Oh my god. Where is she? Is she at this hospital? I need to see her", I was about to get up but then a pain shot up my spine. I moaned in pain.

"Please don't Emma. She is okay now", she said stopping me, she tucked me inside my blanket,"Did Jules ever mention her parents in front of you?"

"Yeah she did once. She told me her parents are abroad so she stays with you guys", I was confused about the fact where this conversation was going. I just wanted to see Jules and make sure she was well.

"Well she thinks that now. But in reality her father was a drug dealer who used to abuse Jules's mother and that's how Jules's mother died. He burned her alive because she wouldn't give him money for drugs. Her father is still in jail". I was shocked to hear this, I didn't know she went through so much,"She couldn't get over that trauma so she was in therapy for years. But she made this whole thing in her mind that her parents are abroad. That's her way of coping up with the trauma and we never bothered correcting her. She grew close to Drew after the incident. He helped her get better. So when she heard what Drew did, all those memories came haunting back to him. She saw her father in Drew and that's how she had a mental breakdown".

"Oh god. This is just... I can't believe Jules has to go through this....", my throat went dry. I couldn't get any words out of my mouth. All this was weighing down on me.

"The sad part is Drew ruined things by falsely confessing the fact that he was involved in Drug dealing. In fact he hasn't done any drugs after he got out of rehab".

"What? You mean he took all the blame on himself just because he felt guilty about what he did? But the police said-".

"Yes. He told me. I tried to talk him out of it, telling him how crazy it sounds but he is blindly in love with you. I know for a fact he wasn't involved with drugs because I used to take him for a check up every two weeks. He is been found clean every time".

"That's stupid of him to do. I called the police because I was scared of him, I didn't say anything about any kinds of drug dealing going on. In fact I didn't know".

"Exactly", she said finally looking at me,"Emma only you can save Jules now. But that means.... that means lying to her".

"How? I am willing to do anything to help her", I was feeling guilty for calling the cops. I mean I knew I was in trouble and I did it out of fear. But maybe he could have just gone for some anger management therapy.

"I will tell her that.... You have been cheating on Drew for a long time so Drew was frustrated and so he started doing drugs months ago. When he tried to confront you, you straight up denied and called the police on him. You lied to the police about how he is involved in drug dealing. And police even found evidences of drugs in our house which was hidden by Drew's friends".

"But that-".

"Please Emma, I don't want to do this either but that's the only way we can save Jules's life. Besides it wasn't for you my son wouldn't have done drugs in the first place and gotten busted. This could have been solved over few therapy sessions!"

I couldn't bear to look at the hopeless look in Mrs. Garcia's eye. She was in lot of pain and I was the cause of it. I knew this was the only way we could save Jules's life," Okay Mrs. Garcia".