Managing Boys

Managing Boys (35)

I was in tears by the end of my story. Reliving everything... All the details, all the feelings I had felt, all the people I had seen that night... It made me feel absolutely disgusting.

“That’s all I need to hear from you, Aria,” that defense attorney finally said, and I was allowed to go back to my seat.

I just wanted this all to be over. I just wanted to go home. How much longer was this going to take?

“I would like to call...” The defense attorney looked out into the crowd behind me and pointed right at my boyfriend. “I’d like to call you to the stand. I’m sorry, but I’m not aware of your name.”

Grim said nothing as he stood up from his spot next to Gwen and made his way over to the stand. He swore to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, and then sat down.

“What’s your name, son?” the defense attorney asked him.

“My name is Gregory Worthington,” he answered.

That was strange to hear. I had never heard Grim call himself by his real name before. Sometimes I even forgot that his real name wasn’t actually Grim.

“Yes, well, Gregory,” the defense attorney continued on. “You’re dating Aria, correct?”

“Haven’t we already established this?”

“Please answer the question, Gregory.”

“Yes.” Grim did not seem happy with the fact that he was being asked such unneeded questions, but he was going to do what he was told when he was inside a courtroom with multiple policemen around. “Aria and I are dating.”

“And how long have you been dating for?” the attorney questioned.

Oh, no. I was hoping that he wouldn’t ask tha. Ian thought that we had been dating for months. If the jury found out we were lying about that, who knows what else they could’ve thought we were lying about?

Grim thought for a moment. “Only for a couple of weeks,” he answered simply. “But we told Ian that we’ve been dating since before he came back from Texas so he would leave Aria alone. That didn’t seem to work very well.”

I glanced at the jury. None of them even batted an eyelash at what he had said, so obviously the fact that we had lied to Ian meant nothing to them. That was good.

“So did you get together with Aria before or after the second supposed attack?”

Grim lazily shrugged. “After.”

I didn’t know if this was going well for us or not. I had absolutely no idea which way the jury was leaning. I could hardly breathe.

“How long have you had feelings for Aria?” was the next question the defense attorney asked.

“Is this really necessary?” Grim looked like he did not want to answer this question. “What do my feelings for Aria have anything to do with what Ian did to her?”

“Please answer the question, son.”

“Don’t call me that. I’m not your son.”

“Then answer the question.”

Grim looked exasperated. “I don’t know,” he finally answered.

The defense attorney raised an eyebrow. “You don’t know?”

“No, I don’t.” Grim shook his head and didn’t look at me. “My feelings for her were confusing in the beginning so I don’t even know when it started. Now are you going to ask me some valuable questions or can I get off the stand?”