TWENTY-FOUR
Brooke
When I returned home the next morning, I found Jocelyn sitting in my recliner crying. What now? I thought, not wanting to deal with her after such a great night.
She glanced up as I walked over.
“You’re in my seat.”
Tears streamed down her cheeks as she pouted.
“I’m…I’m…I’m fine…”
“Obviously you’re not. What’s going on? I need to get to class.”
“Go ahead,” she sobbed. “I know I’m not important to you.”
I sighed.
“If you’re not going to tell me what’s wrong, I’m leaving.”
“It’s Austin…he threatened me and stuff.”
“And stuff? What are you talking about? You were harassing him, weren’t you?”
“No, I told you I had nothing to do with it, but he sent me a nasty email last night.”
“Austin was with me last night.”
“The whole night?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Brooke I’m telling you he sent this horrible email. He threatened me.”
Another round of tears fell from her eyes. They appeared real, but it was hard to tell with her.
“I’ll call him now, but I’m sure he didn’t do anything.”
“He’s not going to admit it,” she complained.
“Maybe not, but I know him well enough to tell if he’s lying to me or not.”
She sniffed twice then wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
I pulled out my phone and called Austin. He answered on the second ring.
“Hey, beautiful. You missing me already?”
“No,” I said, not knowing how to bring up the accusation. “Did you send any emails last night?”
“What do you mean? I was with you last night. You don’t remember?”
“I remember, but I need you to answer me.”
“Um, no. Why are you asking?”
“It’s nothing,” I lied. “I’ll call you later, okay? I need to take care of something.”
“What’s going on?”
“I’ll talk to you later.”
“Okay…”
I ended the call then turned my attention to Jocelyn. While I believed Austin, I had never seen my roommate so upset before. Maybe she was attacked by someone else and thought it was Austin? If something had happened, we needed to report it.
“Come on,” I said, offering her my hand. “We’re going to report the attack.”
“No, I don’t want to get the police involved. I’ll be okay.”
“See…” I shook my head. “I knew you were making this up. You’re sick.”
“I’m not making it up,” she said, the waterworks starting again.
“Fine. We need to report it then.”
“I’m afraid, Brooke.”
“I’ll go with you,” I said. “If we don’t report it, whoever this is might harass someone else.”
“I don’t know…”
“Let’s go. I don’t have all day.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Look, if you were really threatened last night, you need to report it. Show me the email.”
She frowned, 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.
“We don’t have anything to do with that maintenance, but I agree with you.”
“Thank you, officer.”
“Here’s my card. Call me if something else happens. She didn’t give us a lot to work with. I didn’t even get a copy of the email.”
“I know,” I said, feeling bad as I took the card. “Thank you.”
“Just doing my job.”
I waved then walked outside, expecting to see Jocelyn. She was nowhere in sight. Instead of rushing off to find her, I went to class a bit early. Austin sent a text on the walk over, but I didn’t answer. I wasn’t sure of anything anymore.