Blue by Jesilyn Holdridge Page B

know, but you have to tell someone that isn’t a minor,” Johnny answered getting a little irritated with Meganlynn’s response.
    “So what if I don’t, Johnny? Are they going to throw me in jail? Hang me? They won’t do any of that.”
    “Maybe not, but the police will be in here in a little while to get a police report.”
    “I still don’t want to give them a statement.”
    “God will only let you die when he wants you back in heaven with him. If this guy wants you like this then he doesn’t deserve you.”
    “Johnny, I know all of this!” Meganlynn pleaded with him. She didn’t want to go back to band camp, and she did not want to have anyone bother her about it nor have anyone ask her about it. She needed that, but she also knew that she was never going to get it.
    “Meg, I know that you know all of this, but you also have to understand that there are other reasons to turn Blue in other than for you. What if he decides to do this to someone else down the road?”
    “Then they can take care of it.”
    “No, Meg! You can take care of it! You can take care of this, and you can show him that you are not going to be scared. You need to show him so he can’t think, well he can think but—anyway, he more than likely won’t threaten you with your life again if you tell more people, like the police, what had happened to you.”
    “Johnny.” Meganlynn started sitting up in the hospital bed.
    “What?” he asked, taking her hand and placing her hand in between his other hands.
    “I am so scared that it isn’t even funny. I mean, this guy raped me, and I want to tell more people about it, but you don’t understand that I am so scared.”
    “I know that you are really scared, but you have to push through all of this and see all of the good you get out of telling the people that can help you. You need to tell someone that has the authority to help you.”
    “I know, Johnny, but please, quit harping on me about it.”
    “Never, Meganlynn, not until you tell the police everything that happened.”
    “Okay, I will tell them, but if I am killed then you are totally responsible for my death for making me tell the police the whole story.”
    “Meg, he could’ve killed you as it was. I’m honestly surprised that he didn’t, considering what he did do to you.”
    “Well, it wasn’t just him. I think that there was someone else there telling him not to kill me because he loved me way too much to do that, but it still makes me wonder. If Justin hadn’t had been there would I even would be alive today?”
    “Meg, don’t think like that. You can’t die. Well, not until God says that you can anyway.”
    “I know. He was there protecting me through all of this, too.”
    “I think he was.”
    “Yeah, not exactly that hard to figure out, huh?”
    “No.”
    “How?”
    “Well, you’re alive for one thing.”
    “Good point.” They both laughed at the uncomplicated joke that Johnny had just made. He was happy to see her laughing and smiling which he had not seen her do since she was out with him and his friends the night before. He liked to see her smile; he would miss her smile once she left Arizona and headed back to Michigan.
    He knew that the next day and a half was going to be the last time that he would probably be the last time that he would see her until the next time she happened to be down in Arizona. He sat next to her bed as she spoke to him and tried to see the good in the fact that he most likely not to see her ever again. He looked back at the many memories that he had made with her from the very few hours he had spent with her. He was seriously going to miss her, but he knew that with her looks, she was bound to find someone else in no time at all. She did not need him, and he knew that.
    She knew that she was going to miss him. She also knew that she was probably never going to see him again. She had gone through a hard time down here and Johnny was here for her through the very worst of