Chapter 14
Melissa:
"Wake up Durbs," I said prodding Durbbie with my finger to wake her up.
"Leave me alone," she mumbled.
"Should I leave you here or do you want to go back to your bunk?" I asked knowing that trying to get Durbbie off the couch when she was this tired was nearly impossible. Durbbie didn't answer. She was already back asleep. I shook my head. She was wearing herself out. This was not good. She was going to snap at any point. Last night I even saw her crying. Don't get me wrong, Durbbie's a sensitive person, but she doesn't cry in front of people. And when I caught her crying into AJ, I almost fell over. I never in a million years expected Durbbie to cry in front of him. Something was up.
I found AJ meandering around. The others were asleep already, but since we only had another photo shoot in the morning scheduled for tomorrow, I could stay up a little bit more.
"Hey," I said stopping AJ.
"Hi. What's the matter?" he asked reading my face like an open book.
"What happened with Durbbie last night?" I asked bluntly. I didn't want to waste any time.
"Nothing," AJ fibbed. "Why do you ask?"
"I saw you two last night. What made her cry?"
AJ's jaw fell open. "She just, I don't know." Was he hurting from all of this?
"Tell me this much," I asked. "Is it Scott?" AJ almost grimaced with the words. I decided to put two and two together. "She still claims she loves him right?"
"I take it you've heard that before?" AJ asked with raised eyebrows.
"Too many times. Scott's not good for Durbbie, and, unfortunately, she can't see it. I've tried to show it to her, but she refuses to really look the situation in the eye. She knows this could really be bad if it was given the chance, but Durbbie will fight back. I mean, she was only in the hospital…" I stopped realizing that I had given away too much information and if Durbbie found out my head would be on the first stick she could come to.
I thought AJ was going to fall over with that comment. "You mean he hit her?" I nodded grimly. "And she still stays with him?" I nodded again. "More than once?" I was starting to resemble a bobbing head doll. "She's got to get out of there."
"I know. I've tried AJ. He's threatened her and all sorts of stuff you couldn't even imagine. He's always nice around me and other people, but Durbbie's told me some stories…" I trailed again as I shuddered at the things I had been told. I could see the pity building up in AJ's eyes. "But whatever you do, don't let her see you feel sorry for her. She'll think you only want to help because of the one factor that she happens to be in love with and…" My cell phone rang. "Hold that thought," I said to AJ. "Hello?" I said answering the phone.
AJ:
I was thinking about all the Melissa told me, but her frantic voice caught my attention. "He did what? When? Is everything OK?" I caught her eye and she gave me a frightened look. "Do you know when he got on the plane?" Who got on what plane? I'm missing a piece of the story here. From the sounds of it, things weren't good. "Does he know Durbbie's with us and where we are?" My ears perked up. Melissa put her hands over her eyes, sighed, and swore. "Isn't there anything they can do?" She started pacing around. I tried to get her to calm down, but she wriggled out of my grasp, so I let her go. This was obviously something she had to figure out without being disturbed. After a few more questions on Melissa's part, she clicked off the phone. "This is NOT happening," she said in disbelief. "I told her not to tell him where we were."
"What happened?" I asked seizing the opportunity to get more information.
"Not now," she said brushing past me and heading straight for Durbbie who was fast asleep on the couch.
Durbbie:
"Durbbie wake up NOW," I heard Melissa's faint voice say.
I stirred. "Do you have any idea what time it is?" I said with my eyes still shut.
"Dude, I don't care. Something happened back home. Something bad."
I practically knocked over the table that was nearby I sat up so quickly. "What happened?" My voice was a mixture of severe confusion, tiredness, grogginess, and fright all at once. I started rubbing my eyes to try to wake up.
"Scott happened. You should really get rid of him," Melissa started.
"Meliss, if you woke me up for another lecture I'm moving out as soon as we get home," I said not in the mood to deal with this right now.
"We're both moving out."
"What?" I asked completely confused.
Melissa took a deep breath. "Jim just called. Scott raided the apartment. He broke in, destroyed just about everything; our work, everything. He tried to burn it too, but the dire department got to it first. Now he's wanted by every cop in the New York area. They couldn't find him until Jim found that the extra copies of our schedule were missing that we left for him. The police think he's coming here to find you." I felt myself go numb and start to shake. "That's not all." What else could this jerk do to me? Melissa read my eyes and proceeded to go on. "They think he's armed. We're not allowed to leave the bus and there's extra security everywhere. They don't know what flight he took and they don't know if he wants to target just you or the others as well. They said we should stay away from windows and try to stay calm." Are they kidding? I am the queen of overreacting! But right now, I was too numb to do anything. "They're screening our calls on our cell phones. Evidently Jim called Maggie first and told her the situation and we're completely surrounded by security. Don't worry, I don't think Scott can get to us."
My fright turned to rage. "Wait till I get my hands on that piece of scum!" I growled. I was clenching my fists so hard they were completely numb.
"Is there anything I can do?" I heard AJ ask quietly. He looked just as shocked as I felt.
I was a little too irrational to talk at the moment, but Melissa read my mind. "Don't tell anyone about it."
AJ looked back to me and I nodded. This was going to be a trip none of us were going to forget for a long time.
The Next Morning
Brian:
"What's going on?" I asked as we were bombarded with security.
"I think they heard something about an armed attack," Durbbie said dully. She knew something.
"You OK?" I asked putting an arm around her. She shrugged me off.
"I'm fine. Leave me alone." With that she left.
I gave Nick a confused look. That was colder than usual from Durbbie and totally uncalled for.
"Um guys?" Nick asked holding up a newspaper. "I think I've got some idea what's going on."
There it was in black and white: we had made the front page.
Durbbie:
I was lying in my bunk with my headphones on when Brian opened the curtain. I groaned. "I don't want to talk," I answered before turning back to my music.
"I think you might want to see this," Brian said handing me a newspaper.
"Oh my G-d," I whispered horrified. There were the guys written up in the French newspaper with pictures of both Melissa and myself and a picture of Scott. So much for keeping things quiet. I read the article easily. (After all, I was almost fluent in French and reading it was like reading English for me.) They were scanning everybody at the airport with security to make sure that Scott would be caught, but nobody found him yet. "That little piece of crap," I said under my breath. "He has to ruin every opportunity I get doesn't he?" I looked at Brian who was looking at me expectantly. I did the only thing I could do: I shut him out. I handed his newspaper back to him, put my headphones back on, hit the play button, and laid back down. I waited until after the curtain was closed until I let one solitary tear run down my cheek.
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