(18+) RED (Complete)

Ch. 35: Lim'on me

"NOOOOOO!!!"

"YOU WERE WHAT?" Michael and I screamed simultaneously.

"THEY TOOK HIM!"

"Took who?"

"You were drugged?!" Michael and auntie Dorothy exclaimed at the same time.

"THEY TOOK HIM! THE POLICE TOOK HIM!" I yelled in panic. I wanted to break the window, jump out and run after the car to make them stop, but I needed to be more realistic than that.

"Benjamin?"

"YES!"

"He was the one who drugged you? I thought you said he saved you?" Michael asked, sounding angrier by the moment.

"Of course he saved her!" auntie Dorothy snorted, and gave Michael the eye. "Why are you even here?"

"HE'S HERE BECAUSE HE'S MY FRIEND, AUNTIE! LEAVE HIM ALONE!" I screamed and wiped away my tears just enough to see clearly. If only for a few seconds. But no matter how hard I wished, the police car didn't come back with Benjamin.

"Oh, my God. It's my fault. It's all my fault," I cried, and wrapped my arms around myself as a lousy excuse for comfort.

"How can it be your fault that Benjamin..."

"Because it is!! I don't know how or why, but I know it's my fault! He beat up Ryan to protect me, and that's why they took him!"

Auntie Dorothy tried to make me lower my voice, but all I could think of was Benjamin's sad, blue eyes. And now they were going to put him in jail?

"This can't be happening," I sobbed, while I repeated myself over and over. Auntie Dorothy tried to make me sit down on the bed to calm down, but I just couldn't have it.

"Take me there," I said determinedly. I didn't know how smart that was or if I could do anything to help at all, but I needed to go there.

"Mia, I don't think..."

"TAKE ME THERE, OR I'LL DRIVE MYSELF!"

"Okay, okay!" auntie Dorothy muttered and held up her hands in surrender. "I'll call Patrick and see if he knows what's going on with his son. Maybe he can tell us what to do."

Auntie Dorothy had a frown so deep it looked like her forehead was going to split into several pieces. She excused herself, and mumbled an apology to Michael on her way out. Good. The last thing I needed was for them to start arguing. What did she have against him, anyway?

"I feel so lost here, Mia. What happened? Someone drugged you, and...?"

Michael seemed calm, but he couldn't hide the underlying tension in his voice.

"I don't know, honestly. Benjamin knows, but he wouldn't tell me."

"But you weren't...?" he began, but couldn't bring himself to pronounce the word. The one that I'd been trying to ignore for as long as possible.

"I think he'd brought me to the hospital if that happened. And he told me that he beat Ryan up before he could... That."

"Oh, thank God!" he exclaimed in a short exhale. "But tell me who this Ryan scumbag is, so I can cut his dick off and feed it to him."

My eyes widened. The way he said that so casually almost made me laugh. Almost. Instead I told him the few things I knew about him, which mostly consisted of two words; 'intimidating' and 'deceitful'. I didn't know where he lived, how old he was or even his last name. He didn't go to school, at least not the one Benjamin and I went to, but I didn't know if he had a job. Did he live with his parents or did he have his own apartment? Why was he even friends with Benjamin in the first place? The other people in their group were nice, but Ryan... He was the misfit that didn't belong there.