Prom Night in Purgatory(77)

"We haven't seen him Johnny...”

"Somebody said they thought he was here!"

"Tommy swears he saw his wheels parked here an hour ago!"

"Go home, Johnny!" someone else called out. "No one wants trash like you or your brother hangin' around here!"

The voice came from back in the crowd and Carter and Jimbo were on it immediately, a scuffle breaking out before Johnny could even see who it was. Like it had been carefully orchestrated, Roger Carlton’s friends were suddenly swarming out of the backs of trucks and cars. Fists were pumping and insults flying as Carter and Jimbo were swallowed up in the fracas. Donnie and Luke were in there somewhere, too. Luke's bright hair and superior height made him visible for a moment before someone pulled him down.

"Hey! Hey!" Johnny shouted out as girls screamed, and a few random horns bellowed as people scrambled to jump into their cars or out of their cars, depending on whether or not they wanted in or out of the trouble that had erupted.

Turning to Billy, Johnny swung his arm out fiercely, grabbing him by the shirt and pulling him in close. "Stay in the car, little brother. These guys don't fight fair, and it's gonna get ugly. I can't worry about you getting the crap beat out of you while I'm wailing on Carlton."

"Just let it go, Johnny,” Billy pleaded. "We shouldn't have come here at all. I have the willies about all of this, like cooties marching up my spine or somethin'."

"Just stay out of it, Billy!" Johnny insisted again, releasing Billy’s shirt and shoving his brother back toward his car. "Take my car and head down the road a ways. I'll meet you in an hour at The Malt."

"What if I get caught? You know I ain’t got proof! And what if I wreck your car?"

"You'll be fine! Just go!" Screams and shouts pulled Johnny's attention from his little brother, and he shrugged out of his leather jacket, threw it at Billy, and took off at a run, barely intercepting an attempt to brain Carter with a piece of a two-by-four someone had snagged from the construction debris. Alarm sounds were jangling through Johnny's head as he realized these guys weren't playing around. In his periphery, he noticed cars peeling out as the ladies apparently realized this was not a place they wanted to be. Good. One less thing he had to worry about. And there was plenty to be concerned about because Johnny and his friends were sorely out numbered.

***

Maggie huddled in the front seat of Irene’s car, hiding behind the people that perched and stood around the car, shielding her from anyone looking in, namely anyone who might recognize her.

Her heart had slammed into her chest when she had heard Johnny speak. She tried to imagine him, jeans and boots and slicked back hair, demanding to know where Roger Carlton was. The girls had giggled when he had come close, and she could almost feel their tension as he had tried to coax a little help from the redhead, who had gone on to lie to him. At least she hadn’t sent him into the school. If Maggie could just keep Johnny and Billy out of the school. Then what? She chided herself. She didn’t know what would happen. She might make things worse. And if events didn’t transpire exactly as they had originally, Maggie would never meet Johnny Kinross. He would be lost to her.

Screams broke out, and Maggie watched as people started to scramble to their cars. She had to get out of Irene’s Cadillac. She couldn’t very well be sitting there when Irene and her friends piled back in. She pushed open the passenger door and hobbled out of the car on one red heel, not knowing where she was going but knowing her conduit was about to be invaded. She turned in circles, looking for a place to shield herself.

Maggie’s gaze fell on Johnny’s Bel Air. It sat serenely while cars and trucks peeled out around it, screeches and horns blaring the excitement of raging youth. Maggie seemed to have found the best hiding place of all. She was bumped and jostled as people scurried here and there, and nobody really stopped to take a good look, though she was wearing a bright red dress and only one shoe. She watched as Billy Kinross yanked open the door to his brother’s car and slid behind the wheel, a look of pure horror stamped on his young face. He seemed unsure of what to do first and sat with his hands on the wheel, looking around for his first clue. He didn’t have time to figure it out. Glass and metal complained mightily as Roger Carlton attacked Johnny’s car with a baseball bat. He swung again and then again, battering the shiny black showpiece. The front window exploded, and Billy dove out of sight.

Maggie screamed, the sound high—pitched and afraid, carrying across the distance to Johnny’s car, causing Roger to pause mid-swing. His eyes lit on her like a rabid wolf, and Maggie froze in her tracks. He instantly dropped the bat and strode toward her, pulling a little gun out of the back of his waistband. He pointed it at her, and his hand didn’t shake.

“Lizzie says your name is Maggie, and she doesn’t know anything more.” He said this in a high pitched soprano, mimicking the little girl. “She said I would never find you.” Roger smiled, that slow creepy smile that didn’t reveal any teeth. “How nice of you to find me.”

Maggie couldn’t take her eyes from the gun. She should scream or run, but deep down she believed Roger would shoot anyway. And he was close enough to make missing unlikely. The parking lot was still half full of kids who had decided to participate in or be spectators to the battle that raged beyond her right shoulder. If Roger did miss, someone else could very easily be hit. None of this was supposed to happen! Billy had been the one with the gun...hadn’t he?