In the last message I sent her, I told her that Kyle and I were going to sit and watch movies tonight. I slowly sit on the couch and stare at the message before replying.
“No movie anymore. Kyle went home.”
There’s no reply for a long time. Just as I’m about to put my phone away and ignore it, it rings in my hand. I start and pick it up.
“Hello?” I say.
“What do you mean he went home?” Jacqui yells, and I flinch, p
ulling my phone away from my ear. “Did something happen? Is he okay?”
“He’s fine,” I say sharply. “I sent him home.”
“...What?” Jacqui says, sounding lost. “Why?”
“Because…” I trail off. It suddenly feels petty to say “because I discovered something about him that I didn’t like’”.
“Did you guys have an argument?’ Jacqui presses.
“Sort of,” I hedge. More like I yelled at Kyle and he just let me. “I might have told him I’ll call the police if I see him around here again.”
There’s shocked silence on the other end.
“Is this about him stalking your home?” Jacqui asks, hushed. “Because I thought you were okay with it?”
“I was,” I say. I know I’m not making a lot of sense, and I’m not surprised that Jacqui’s very confused. But my thoughts are all really muddled right now; I’m still trying to figure out what I’m feeling. “I just overheard something, and then we argued, and…”
I shrug helplessly, forgetting that I’m on the phone and that Jacqui can’t see it. I can’t almost hear her mulling over what I’ve said, trying to figure out what’s going on.
“Alright, I’m going to need you to start from the beginning,” she says. “Last I heard, you were buying movie snacks, and now you’re threatening Kyle with the police. What happened that could have been that bad?”
“I…” I draw in a deep breath. “I got home and Kyle was in that alley, with his bike. But he had someone with him, someone with the same jacket.”
“Okay,” Jacqui says slowly. “But you already knew he was part of a club.”
“It was probably a bit of a shock to see someone else with the jacket,” I say, thinking about the odd feeling I got when I saw the other man in an identical jacket to Kyle’s. It had really hit home that Kyle was actually part of a club of motorcycle enthusiasts. Then I remember calling them a “gang” to Kyle’s face and I wince. “Anyway, they were talking about Jesse.”
“He must have been one of Kyle’s friends, then,” Jacqui muses.
“Probably.” I hesitate. I know I’m beating around the bush, and I’m surprised that Jacqui isn’t more impatient as she waits for me to get to the point. “The other guy asked Kyle what to do about Jesse if they found him, so they must have been planning to look for him. Kyle told him… He said he didn’t care what happened to him, he just wanted him out of my life. He strongly implied that he wouldn’t even mind if Jesse was killed.”
“Really?” Jacqui asks, surprised.
“I confronted him about it and…he pretty much admitted that he didn’t care if Jesse died, as long as he was gone,” I say. I run a rough hand through my hair. “He didn’t care that he was essentially giving a kill order. He tried to apologize, but he was more upset that I had overheard and that I was upset by it. Now I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Jacqui doesn’t say anything for a long moment. I wait tensely as she thinks.
“Well…” she says slowly. “I have to admit that a lot of our problems would be solved if Jesse just disappeared.”
It isn’t the reaction I was expecting. I gape, horrified.
“Jacqui!” I yelp.
“What?” Jacqui asks sharply. “I’m sorry, Allison, but I’m not such a good person that I’m going to stand by and not feel a certain degree of hate for the man that has hurt you. I’d never do anything about it, but I definitely wouldn’t care if Jesse just stopped turning up.”
“I would!” I exclaim.
“Why?” Jacqui asks curiously.