Meet You in the Stars

“That thing is gorgeous,” I said, eyeing a leather jacket on display. I knew it was way out of my price range, but a girl could dream.

I flipped through rack after rack and found a few things I liked. I retreated to the fitting room to try everything on. When I reemerged, Jimmy was leaning against the wall next to the fitting room door, a bag in his hand.

“What’s that?”

Looking pleased with himself, he held it out to me. Inside was the jacket from earlier. “Jimmy I can’t take this!”

“Too bad. I already bought it.”

I ran a finger over the cool material and smiled. “Why would you buy me this? We barely know each other and it’s expensive.”

“It was worth it to see the smile on your face. Plus, you’ll look badass in it. Now go pay for other stuff and I’ll show you my favorite ice cream shop!”

I handed over the cash for the clothes I’d picked out, trying not to dwell on the fact that the total didn’t even reach half of what the jacket had cost.

“Let’s go!” I said, his excitement was contagious. He took the bags from me and grabbed my hand with his free hand, leading me out of the store.

“It’s just down the street. We can walk.”

I couldn’t help the big goofy grin that was on my face as we made our way down the sidewalk. That all changed when my eyes fell on a figure that made my blood run cold.

"We need to go now!" I said loudly and tried to pull Jimmy along behind me when I tried to run, but it wasn’t easy.

“What’s going on?” he asked, but I was so relieved that he started to follow me on his own. I turned down the first alley we came to and turned onto the next street at the end.

“This is like a movie or something!” Jimmy shouted and I shushed him. I finally decided this was far enough and turned down another alley between a restaurant and a store.

“If it was, it would be a horror movie,” I somehow managed to say while gasping for breath. I was bent over with my hands on my knees trying to get my breathing back to normal.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Jimmy asked, suddenly more serious than I had ever seen him before.

I opened my mouth to give an excuse, but none came to mind. Finally, I sighed in defeat and sank down so that I was sitting on the ground with my back against the brick wall.

“It’s a long story.” Jimmy sat down next to me and reached over to lay his hand on top of mine.

“I’ve got all day. I could see the fear in your eyes back there and I just want you to know that you can trust me. You can tell me anything.” He was looking right into my eyes as he said it. I knew I could trust him, I had decided that on the day I met him. He was different than anyone I had ever met before.

“It’s about my ex, the abusive one I’ve mentioned before.” I paused to take a deep breath before continuing on with my story. “My parents were killed in a car crash when I was sixteen. I had no other family so I had nowhere to go. I bounced around the foster system never quite fitting in anywhere. I stayed in the system until I was eighteen then I took off. I didn’t have any money and I couldn’t find a job so I crashed on a friend’s couch for awhile. Then I met Trevor. He was the nicest guy I’d ever met, or so I thought. Things started off great, we hit it off quickly and within a month I had moved in with him. He had a lot of money from an inheritance plus he had a job with a high salary so he gave me access to his bank account to use whatever money I wanted. Things were great for a few months until one day I came home with a new haircut he didn’t like. He told me I was never allowed to cut my hair without his approval again. Two weeks later I decided to do my makeup a different way and he slapped me across the face as soon as he saw me.” I had to stop to regain my composure at that point and I jumped when I felt Jimmy’s hand on my cheek. He gently brushed away the tears that had fallen.

“I tried to make excuses for him. He just wasn’t feeling good or he’d had a shitty day at work. I thought it was only a one time thing, but I was wrong. He started telling me exactly what to wear and how to fix my hair and makeup each day. If one little thing didn’t satisfy him, he’d hit me. I wanted to leave so badly, but I couldn’t. I had no family. He’d made me stop talking to all of my friends so they didn’t want anything to do with me. I had no job, no money. There was nowhere for me to go. He told me if I ever did leave him he would hunt me down and drag me back and things would be even worse. After that, I started taking money from his bank account. Little amounts so he wouldn’t notice. I stashed the money in the bottom of a box of tampons so he wouldn’t find it. When I finally had two thousand dollars saved, I made my move while he was at work. I stole a few of his expensive watches to take to a pawn shop, which gave me another thousand dollars. I went to the airport and bought a ticket for the first available flight. That took me to Los Angeles. I rented a car and in the waiting room I noticed a brochure for a place here in Huntington Beach, so I decided to come here. You know the rest.”

I could sense Jimmy’s anger, he was practically shaking. His hands were clenched so tightly his knuckles were white.

“So that’s why you flinched away when I raised my hand to ask you to dance the night we met? That next morning when you practically threw yourself off my bed? Things were that bad?” he asked, his voice was quiet.

“Yeah, things were horrible.”

“None of that explains why you were running.” He finally relaxed slightly and flattened his hands out on his knees.

“I thought I saw him,” I said and Jimmy jerked his head sideways to look at me.

“Why didn’t you tell me? I would have beat that motherfucker’s ass.”

“I didn’t want to draw any attention to myself.”

Jimmy wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer and I leaned my head against his shoulder. “Just stick with me, I’ll never let that pathetic excuse of a human touch you again.”

Despite everything, a small smile found it’s way onto my lips. I believed him and I knew that he would do anything to keep that promise.

We sat there for a while until I told Jimmy I still wanted ice cream. With one of his arms wrapped around my shoulders, he walked to to the ice cream shop. As we were walking inside, the man I’d seen earlier was walking out. I realized it wasn’t Trevor. Same color hair and similar body type, but not him. I breathed a sigh of relief.

“That was who I saw. I must be going crazy. That doesn’t even really look like him,” I said.

“You were just spooked. It’s understandable after everything he did to you,” Jimmy said. We gave the lady behind the counter our ice cream orders.

As embarrassing as it was, I was glad that it had happened. It was like a weight was lifted off my shoulders now that Jimmy knew everything. Keeping the full truth from him was eating me up inside.

Ice cream cones in hand, we made the walk back to his car. “I just want you to know I would never hurt you like that,” he said suddenly.

“I know you wouldn’t, Jimmy. I have never worried about that with you.” He smiled and popped the last bit of his ice cream cone into his mouth.

“I just don’t understand how anyone would be able to hurt you. You’re beautiful and you’re nice. Despite all of that, you seem so strong. You didn’t let him break you and that’s amazing.”

We made it back to his car and he leaned against it and pulled me closer so he could wrap his arms around me.

“It’s surprised me that I’ve been able to open up to you so easily. There’s just something about you that comforts me,” I said.

“I’m glad. You deserve comfort and protection and I hope you know that I’m here to give you that. Whatever you need, I’m here.”

I looked up into his blue eyes and I was thankful that I’d met him. I knew that my life would forever be better just because I know him.

Notes

So sad what happened after the Avenged show in Germany yesterday. I can't imagine how everyone involved and the two families are feeling. Life is so fragile.

Anyway hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Let me know what you think.