And slow us down it had. It took us two hours to even get off the steps of the police station. We were bombarded with questions from the news reporters and screaming and crying from the fans. Some had held signs saying Charlie is innocent, others said FREE HU! I remained silent, letting Matt do as much damage control as he could. I was certain my manager and lawyer had been calling me all day but was grateful my phone had died probably a couple hours ago. I didn’t want to talk to anyone, including my friends, except for Aron. I was secretly praying that he would call one of us, soon. I hated waiting for an answer. I needed to know if Ronnie was ok. I hoped that Danny was fighting back.
Dylan’s mom’s minivan was a tight squeeze for us. Dylan and his mom were sitting in the front and George taking up the majority of the second seat with his broad shoulders. Leaving Jorel, Matt and I to squeeze into the back seat. We remained silent. All except Dylan’s mom, who was badgering him with questions.
“What the hell is going on? Did you hurt that girl? Dylan you better tell me what is going on right this minute!”
At first he remained silent, then wrapped his calloused hand around hers and barely whispered, “Mom, it’s not what it seems. I promise. We all loved her. Jordon the most out of all of us. We don’t know everything that’s going on but you have to trust us.”
Her short Mexican stature slumped over at his vague answer; a tear rolling down her cheek. “I love you. I just don’t want to see you throw your life away.”
“Mom, it’s ok. We’re figuring this all out.”
“Thanks Mrs. Alvarez for bailing us out. We really needed that.” Jorel chimed from the back seat.
“Don’t just thank me. It was Dylan’s money that bailed you out.”
“Thanks Dylan.” Matt giggled. He was trying to lighten the mood. Truth was, we were all tired and wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and wake up as if the whole thing never happened. But that was far off from what was going to happen.
“Now, each of you tell me where you live so that I can take you all home.”
“No.” My voice was dry and threatened to choke the life out of me. “Take us to George’s house, please.” With what energy I had left I was going to get Ronnie and Danny back. If it was the last thing that I did, I was going to get them back.
Originally I had chosen George’s house to meet, because he lived in the middle of downtown, surrounded by neighbors. There were plenty of eye witnesses if we needed them for anything. His hall was quiet, which gave an added bonus of privacy as we all made for his condo. But once I stepped foot through the threshold I realized that seeing how he had lived the last couple of weeks was really insightful.
At first George had been reluctant to let us into his home and now I understood why. His house was a mess. There were clothes piled in the bedroom, dishes that had been dirty and stacked in the kitchen sink for at least a week if not more, and there were take-out boxes everywhere else. Apparently Ronnie choosing me had caused uproar in George’s life. That was when I realized how little it looked like he had slept. The sheets on the bed were thrown about as if the person had been wrestling with them and the dark circles under his eyes looked like they had been there for quite a while.
