Inhale, Exhale - By Sarah M. Ross Page 0,78
I will ever trust him again, but I forgave him.”
I spun her around and captured her lips. “You never cease to amaze me, Cupcake. I’m the luckiest guy in the world.”
We made it to the courtroom and walked in, side-by-side and holding hands. We took a seat directly behind the prosecutor but still had about ten minutes before the trial was to begin. Originally, the trial wasn’t supposed to begin for another four months, but we were lucky the prosecutor pushed for it to be expedited, taking into account that school was starting soon.
Taking a look around, neither Christian nor the attacker, who we now knew was a mid-level dealer by the name of Kenny Meridan, were present yet. Kenny had a record a mile long, including several prior drug arrests, gun possession, and even domestic abuse. He’d served time before, both as a juvenile and adult, and while Georgia hadn’t adopted a “three strikes” rule like California, we were hopeful the bastard would get the maximum time not only for the drug charges, but also the attempted kidnapping and attempted murder charges he now faced.
Jillian’s knee bounced incessantly, and she began to bite the side of her thumb. I pulled it out of her mouth and covered her hand with my own.
“Just say the word if this becomes too much.”
She shook her head. “No, it’s not that. I can do this. It’s the uncertainty of this whole process. What if the jury feels bad for him? Or they don’t believe me when I tell them what happened? Or what if his lawyer finds some sort of loophole that gets him off? I don’t want anyone else to have to go through what I did.”
I kissed her temple. “No one in their right mind would feel sorry for him, and even if they get some of the evidence tossed, there’s no way they can dismiss it all: fingerprints, DNA, your testimony, and Christian’s testimony. This douche bag is going away for a long, long time.”
She let out a nervous breath. “I’ll feel better when this whole thing is over.”
Ava and Trish sat behind us, offering Jillian encouragement and hugging her tight before taking their seats. Since JT wasn’t attached at Trish’s hip, I assumed they were fighting again. Those two had the most tumultuous on again and off again relationship I’d ever seen. They only knew two levels: frigid cold or boiling hot. In the two months they’d been dating, I think they’d broken up and gotten back together four times. Neither Jillian nor I knew what to make of them, but we both vowed to stay neutral parties in their antics.
“No JT?” Jillian asked.
Trish rolled her eyes. “That boy has gotten on my last nerve.”
Ava snickered. “Didn’t you say that the last two times?”
“I’m serious this time. He broke yet another date with me to do somethin’ for his momma. If it was serious like takin’ her to the doctor or somethin’, I wouldn’t mind. But he took her to play Bingo! Left me all dressed up in my favorite leopard-print dress and fuck-me boots to play Bingo with his mom, not even botherin’ to tell me until he was supposed to be at my house to pick me up. Well, I told him if he needed to spend so much time with her, fine. He could spend all of it with her for all I cared.”
I rolled my eyes and turned back around, kissing Jillian on the shoulder, grateful that she wasn’t as dramatic as her friend. Trish was amazingly smart and down to earth when it came to everything else, but when JT was involved it was all emotions with that girl.
Jillian’s mom, dad, and grandmother took seats next to us. Her sister had offered to fly in several times, but now that she was almost seven months pregnant, it was hard for her to travel. Mrs. Mayfield sniffed, blowing her nose in a slightly shredded tissue. She’d been a basket case through this whole ordeal, and I knew this trial was going to be painful for her, especially with Jillian and I heading back to college next week.
I thought turning down the internship with Google was going to be the end of my career, but my advisor notified me she’d already gotten several other interviews lined up with companies like Apple, Yahoo, and even the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that started after I graduated with my Masters in the spring. I wasn’t sure where my