Just One Year(18)

My heart was palpitating. Teagan and I hadn’t known each other very long, but I’d grown to care for her and everyone else in this house. The thought of someone trying to hurt her brought out a protective rage in me.

“When he ran away, I ran after him,” she continued. “All I could think was that if I didn’t catch him, he’d be out there doing this to other people.” She looked over at her sister. “I thought about Shelley.”

She ran after him?

“So I ran as fast as I could, and the theater employee ran with me. When we caught up to him, we were able to tackle the guy to the ground until the police came.”

“Holy shit, Teagan. You caught him?”

She managed a slight smile. “They took me to the precinct for questioning. And now he’s in custody. Apparently he’s a registered sex offender.”

Teagan had come so close to being raped in that theater. And instead of running away when she had the chance, she ran toward him. Her courage overwhelmed me. I was so fucking proud of her.

“I will personally do whatever it takes to see that he stays behind bars,” Lorne said.

“Thank you, Dad,” she whispered.

“Can I get you anything?” Maura asked her.

“No. I’m fine. Maybe I’m still in shock. I don’t know.”

Shelley hugged her sister. It was nice to see that at a time like this, Teagan wasn’t pushing her family away. But I knew she had a limited tolerance for being smothered.

After several minutes of sitting with everyone in quiet shock, she excused herself to her room.

I joined the rest of the family in giving her space, but I couldn’t concentrate on anything for the rest of the afternoon.

Later, Teagan didn’t want to come upstairs for dinner, so everyone just ate in silence. I felt certain every person at the table was reliving the events of the afternoon in their minds.

In a continued attempt to let Teagan rest, I returned to my room after dinner. I was shocked when she sent me a text.



Teagan: Don’t forget, tonight is our study session at 8.



What? Is she serious?



Caleb: I assumed you wouldn’t be up for it.



Teagan: Anything to get out of it, eh, Yates?



Caleb: You got me. Always the slacker. I’ll be down in ten.



It hadn’t been quite ten minutes before I made my way downstairs. Teagan clearly hadn’t expected me this soon, because when I stood in the doorway, I found her wiping tears from her eyes. Perhaps I’d walked in at the moment that what had happened today finally hit her.

When she saw me, she wiped her eyes again and sniffled. “I’m sorry.”

“Fuck, Teagan. Don’t apologize.” I moved to sit at the edge of her bed, putting my laptop down next to me. My chest felt tight, and the right words wouldn’t come out.

She spoke before I had a chance to figure out what to say. “You know what I’m the most pissed about?”

“What?”

“The fact that Maura was right. Do you know how long I defended that damn place, argued that it was safe?”

“I told you I thought it was dodgy, but I never imagined something like this would happen, either.”

She stared down at her bedspread for a while, and then looked up at me. “You caught me crying…because I let my mind go to that ‘what if’ place for a moment, but I can’t do that. The worst didn’t happen. I just need to be grateful.”

“You were smart to have that panic button in your pocket. You saved yourself.”

“I got lucky. It doesn’t matter how smart you are, how rich or poor, what you look like, if someone is attacking you, you’re only as good as your physical strength—your will to risk your life to get away.” She shook her head, as if to stop herself from thinking too deeply about it. “Anyway, let’s get to work.”

Studying at the moment didn’t quite feel right. “Are you sure you want to study tonight?” I asked. “We can just talk or hang out. You’ve had quite a day.”

“I actually think studying will help me get my mind off things.”

“Alright. Good enough.”

We dug right into our homework. And I did my best to concentrate. As usual, she stopped at a certain point to quiz me. This time, I flubbed up, but I didn’t want to admit it was because I couldn’t stop wondering about the ‘what-ifs’ of today either—the very thing I’d told her not to do.

“I’m sorry. I’m particularly bad tonight, aren’t I?” I finally said.

“It’s okay. I think we can pretty much throw away this day.” She closed her laptop. “You know what else really sucks? I loved going to that stupid theater. It was my place. Now I don’t think I can go back without thinking about what happened today.”

The fact that she’d even consider going back there baffled me. But if there were some place I loved to go, and someone had taken that from me, I might have felt the same way.

“You might be able to go back someday.”

She exhaled. “Where were you today when Maura texted you about me?”

I laughed a little, remembering my miserable encounter with Veronica’s parents. It was the first time I’d thought about it since arriving home.