Going Nowhere Fast

20. Scared

My mind was going crazy with the possibilities of what happened to him that he wouldn't answer the phone. My lawyer sat there staring at me.

"You have to tell us where he was staying. It could help us find him."

"No!" I shouted in response. My parents shot me angry looks. "I mean," I started quickly changing my tone, "Billie can be a little unpredictable I get it, but I can't let him get arrested. He didn't do anything wrong."

"We can't prove that if we don't even know where he is and we can't talk to him."

"Can you tell me right now if you think they're going to send him to jail if they find him?" I asked.

"I don't think so. There is no evidence to prove that any of these claims against him are true. Everything seems to be circumstantial at best, but he needs to be here. I can't guarantee anything if the wrong person gets to him first," he said. "Oh, and I will be sharing your statement with the school so that they may take the correct actions when investigating the party we discussed."

"Will those guys and Trish get into trouble for what they did?" I asked.

"Sweetheart," my dad interrupted in a calm tone, "Just tell us where you were so we can go look for him and not the people who want him in jail." He gave me a small smile.

"The police will most likely be notified and they will launch a thorough investigation. They might even be able to get Ryan too for assault," he said, confidently.

I was thankful to hear some good news but I really didn't want to out his location, but he didn't give me much of a choice. "We were staying at the Holiday Inn on the west end of Vancouver."

"Thank you, Scarlet. I'll send some personal investigators out to look for him and bring him back. Now, you just have to tell me why you two left together and where you went. I need the full story to write up your statement for the police tomorrow."

I stiffened in my seat. I didn't need my parents knowing all the shit I just went through. They'd never let me leave the house again. I figured they had already bolted my window shut.

I looked over at them. They were sitting next to each other on the fancy bench in the study in my house. Woolridge was a private lawyer and my parents had a lot of money so he was willing to come to our house and work in my dad's home office. My parents were wearing their usual over-dressed get ups and my mom even had on her pearls. I knew a lot of it was about keeping up appearances which is why they were so willing to get me this fancy lawyer to clear our family name. I'm sure they would love it if he were able to make me look like some hero.

"I decided to run away after getting beat up at school and they blamed Billie for it. I was pissed off and I needed to leave," I said with a bit of an attitude. "I went over to his place because I knew how far the bull shit of this town was affecting him too, so I asked him to come with me."

My mom flashed me a dirty look but Woolridge just smiled and said, "Go on."

"We decided to go to Canada because it seemed like a place we wouldn't be found. We stayed with aunt Rose."

My mom let out a loud sigh and said, "I knew that woman was in on this!"

"She's your aunt, Kathy," my father pleaded.

"She's nothing but a dirty, old hippie," my mother complained.

"Mr. and Mrs. Grant," Woolridge said in an assertive voice. "Please." My parents went silent. "Go on," he insisted.

"We stayed there for a night and she called her friend in Vancouver who manages a Holiday Inn. He gave us a free week. That's the number I called. That's where Billie should've been." My voice felt strained. The realities of the situation were tearing me apart inside. He was such a flight risk when it came to his own life. It hurt to think that he was in some kind of trouble. I didn't know whether or not he could handle the situation he had found himself in that he couldn't do the one thing he was most excited for that day.