offers to help. People didn’t want anything to do with this and certainly would have let Sean walk right out with Piper regardless of what state she was in.
Outside the restaurant, Michael sat down on a bench under a flickering street lamp, his arms starting to ache from holding Piper for so long. He was still supporting her under the legs, and her face was now pressed against his neck. He took comfort in the repetition of her breath and was whispering encouraging words in her ear.
The ambulance pulled up one block over from the restaurant, and Michael was relieved to recognize the EMT. It was an old acquaintance of his, Johnny Thompson. He saw him occasionally testifying in court and they still had some friends in common. They had partied together in Michael’s early days in Edenville. The move to a small town where he hadn’t known anyone had seemed like such a good idea until the loneliness had started to set in. Johnny had been a dependable drinking buddy for a while.
“Hey Mikey, what’s going on?” Johnny asked, as he and his partner, a young stout woman, hustled over toward them.
“Hey Johnny, it’s been a crazy night.” There was a good chance that Johnny Thompson no longer preferred to be called Johnny, He was probably just John now, much like Michael had converted from Mikey years ago. But the relationships you form in your youth, as casual as they might be, always seem to transport you back in time.
Michael relayed the story to Johnny and handed over the bottle of pills. They loaded Piper into the ambulance and took her vitals.
“So what’s the plan here, Mikey? If I bring her into the hospital this turns into a police report, and it won’t be something we can forget about tomorrow. Her vitals are stable. There’s been no impact to her blood pressure or blood oxygen levels. Most likely she needs to sleep this off, so if you want to leave the cops out of this…” Johnny’s voice trailed off as a police car pulled up to the scene. “Never mind, looks like this will be a police matter after all.” Johnny walked over to the police car and Michael watched a young, dark-haired cop exit his car. He could tell by his military posture and unsmiling face that this cop wasn’t one of the good ol’ boys.
Great, Michael thought, at least one of the older cops would be willing to let this go to avoid the paperwork. But an eager young rookie would be a thorough bastard tonight. Michael was confident whatever Piper was doing here tonight, she wouldn’t want it to be the start of a long-drawn-out court case. She’d want it to go away.
“Hey Bobby,” Johnny said, pulling his rubber glove off and extending a hand out to greet the officer. Michael felt slightly relieved that at least they knew each other.
“Did this get called in? I didn’t hear anything about it over the radio. I was passing by and thought maybe you could use a hand. What’s going on?” Bobby approached the open doors of the ambulance and glanced inside. Immediately recognizing Piper, his heart popped in his chest, and he felt panic briefly overtake him. “Piper?” he quaked, pulling himself into the back of the ambulance to be by her side. “What the hell happened, is she all right?”
“You know her?” Michael asked, feeling like this night was one of the strangest of his life. Living in Edenville you grew accustomed to knowing someone almost everywhere you went, but Piper wasn’t from here, and from what Michael knew she was somewhat of a loner. She never talked about having friends or family in the area. Now suddenly she was associating with cops and criminals.
“She’s my friend,” Bobby said, hesitating a little on the words. Piper certainly had become a friend over the past months, but after the kiss they shared last night Bobby had been wondering if they were becoming more. He reached for her hand and pulled it up to his chest and over his heart.
“She was out tonight with Sean Donavan. Apparently the date wasn’t moving fast enough for him and he put something in her drink. I saw him trying to get her out of the bar, clearly not of her own volition, and I stepped in. This being one of the Donavan-owned establishments we didn’t get much support from the staff, which is why we are sitting here, a block away