She f
rowned, worry wrinkles appearing all over her face.
* * *
She dragged her feet as we approached the front of the campus police station, a single-story tan brick building. I turned to face her.
“Come on, Jocelyn. This is the right thing to do.”
“I’m not important enough to report what happened.”
I grabbed her hand and dragged her to the glass door. After opening it, I waited for her to shuffle inside. Part of me hated myself for being so cold and mean, but I wasn’t sure if she was telling the truth or not. Something was up, but I couldn’t put my finger on it and she hadn’t even showed me the email yet.
Inside the lobby, a bored officer behind a desk looked up.
“How can I help you?”
“My friend needs to report an online harassment,” I said.
He looked from me to her.
“When did this happen?”
“The other night,” she said then burst into tears.
“I found her crying at our apartment.” I turned to her. “Didn’t you say it happened last night?”
“I was wrong. I’m confused.”
“I’ll need to ask you some questions,” the officer said then turned to a computer on the desk and tapped at the keyboard.
“Can you show me the email?”
“Yes,” Jocelyn said in a quiet voice. She pulled out her phone shakily. She swiped through a few things and then handed it over to the cop.
He read it, his eyes widening. “These are some pretty serious threats,” he said as he continued to scroll.
“Yes,” she said. Now I felt bad, something really was going on.
“Has anyone threatened you bodily harm? In person I mean?”
“No, listen can I have my phone back? I just want to go.”
He handed it to her but said, “Hold on, miss.”
“I can’t,” she cried then sulked toward the door and left.
He looked up at me, his face full of confusion.
“I can give you her name. We just wanted to report it. I’m not sure what’s wrong with her.”
“Okay,” he said, turning to the computer.
I gave him her name, age, our address and other information.
“Be careful tonight,” he said after we finished. “I’ll ask for more patrols tonight.”
“They need to fix some of those lights on the trails, too,” I added.