When she watched him drove away from her house, there was a nagging feeling in her heart. He still wouldn’t open up to her, not in so many words anyway.
The last time something happened in his house, he showed up with cuts and bruises in the school parking lot. Will he be okay this time?
She tried not to think about it too much. She promised herself to focus on Lee these next few days they have before he leaves. But when she didn’t hear from Marlon in a few hours, she tried to call him just before she left with Lee. Marlon’s phone was turned off, and it was impossible for her to think about anything else.
She didn’t even noticed that Lee had been watching her for the past hour they were together. Her mind was somewhere else. She barely touched her food, she wasn’t even listening to what Lee was saying all through the car ride to the restaurant.
“Is there somewhere else you need to be?” Lee finally asked.
She looked up in surprise, she shook her head, “I’m sorry … no, of course not …” she put down her phone.
“Is there something wrong? You seemed troubled.”
She leaned back on the bench and let out a sigh. She didn’t want to tell anyone about it but she was too worried not to say anything at this point. “It’s Marlon.” She had to tell him, at least someone else knows about what happened and she was hoping he could tell her what to do.
Lee listened intently to the whole Reynold’s family drama while enjoying his food. It was a nice change than moments before when Hazel was preoccupied with her phone and her own thoughts in silence. She poured it all out on the table, she told him everything. So much for ‘I won’t tell’ that she said to Marlon earlier.
“Please don’t tell anyone about this, I promised Marlon I won’t tell … but I’m worried about him, his phone is dead for hours now,” she pleaded.
“The last thing anyone needs more of is to talk about Marlon,” he chuckled, “Everyone at school doesn’t seem to have anything else to talk about either … obviously … there’s so much to talk about him.”
She was a bit disappointed with his response, she thought he would care.
Lee shrugged, “He’s probably out with his city friends, partying somewhere … isn’t that what he always do? His family is messed up, I get it … but don’t you think you’re overreacting to his phone being turned off? It just shows that he doesn’t wanna be bothered.”
“But … what if he got into an accident? Nobody knows where he is … and the last person who spoke to him was me, that’s why I’m worried.”
“Yeah,” Lee raised his brows, “You worry a lot … I can see that.”
Hazel was taken aback by how annoyed Lee was. “You don’t think I should worry?”
Lee sighed, “I think you care about him more than just a friend … I mean, he was fine about it, this is his family dynamics … you were shocked because you’ve never seen something like this before, but every family is different … and now you care about this more than he does, like I said, he’s probably out there partying with his friends and forgotten all about it already.”
She realized there’s probably some truth in what Lee just said. She fell silent and thought about it.
“Look … Marlon is trouble … I know you’re friends with him and you feel like you know him differently … but he’s still trouble, he comes from a highly dysfunctional family, his brother just died tragically, and he has a lot of bad friends and a lot of money to help him escape his problems … that is a recipe for disaster, why do you want to be involved in that equation?”
“I’m not trying to get involved in anything, I’m just worried about a friend, you didn’t see him when he had a fight with Stanley … he had cuts all over his face, his body was covered in bruises,” she explained.
That raised Lee’s eyebrows higher than before, “His body?” He threw himself back and let out a long exhale. He looked away.
Hazel realized she never told him Marlon was half naked in her bedroom when that happened. “He showered at my house and changed his clothes, it’s not what you think.”
Lee shook his head, “Right …” he was lost for words.
“We’re just friends, Lee, I swear it … ”
“Yeah … yeah, I know, friends … but close enough to make me uncomfortable, but hey … I’m leaving in a few days, so my comfort doesn’t matter, right? What if I have a friend like that too, Hazy? Would you be okay with that?”
Hazel covered her face with both hands, how did the conversation lead to this? “I’m sorry, okay … what was I suppose to do? He came to ask me for help, I couldn’t possibly turned him down.”
“Okay … fine … so what now? Are we going to spend the rest of the evening talking about him? Trying to rescue him when I don’t even think he needs rescuing?”
“No, you’re right … let’s not talk about it anymore … I didn’t think it would upset you.”
“I’m not upset … I’m just worried about you …” he said.
Hazel looked at him confused.
Lee leaned over and rested his forearms on the table, “He’s going to be like this over and over again, he has problems … and you’re going to want to help him fix it but you can’t … you have to learn how to let him take care of his own problems or he’ll drag you down with it.”
She pressed her lips together. Lee was probably right. But something inside her still nagging, she had to learn how to ignore it. She put a smile on her face and didn’t say anything hoping that they can carry on the rest of the evening the way they planned, just the two of them, romantically, without Marlon in between.
She finished her dinner and turned the conversation to Lee, she wanted to know all about his preparation and what awaits him in South Korea. How his grandmother doing, how his brother and sister handling their soon to be separation with their favorite step brother. They were about to step out of the restaurant to go back to Lee’s house when her phone rang.
Unknown number.
“Hazel? I’m sorry to bother you … is Marlon with you?” Josh’s voice on the other end.
“Mr. Reynolds … no … he dropped me off this afternoon and left.”
“Did he tell you where he was going?”
“No … he just said he needed to go somewhere, I tried his phone earlier, it was off.”
“Yeah, it’s still off …” he paused, he wasn’t sure what to do next, “Okay, that’s okay, will you let me know if you hear anything from him? You can text me to my number, I’ll send you the number after this.”
“Sure … ”
“If it’s not too much trouble …” Josh added, “Would you mind trying his number every two hours or so? I’m just … worried … his probation and we’re still trying to make a deal with the York’s … he won’t answer to my calls, but he’ll answer to yours I’m sure.” Josh sounded desperate.
“Of course,” she wasn’t sure Marlon was answering anyone’s call at that moment, but Josh seemed to have a lot of faith in her. “I’ll let you know as soon as I know anything.”
“Thank you, Hazel … and … I’m really sorry about this afternoon, I’m sorry you had to see us in our worst … if I could take it back, I would … ”
“It’s okay Mr. Reynolds, I understand, ” she cut him short, “How’s Mrs. Mayhew? I hope she’s alright.”
She could hear a heavy breath at the other end, a deep exhale.
“She’s sleeping right now … but we resolved our problems if that’s what you mean …” he scoffed, “Thanks for your concern … I won’t take up much of your time now, I’m sorry to bother you.”
“Not at all,” she said and they hung up.
Lee only heard half of the conversation, but he knew the night they had planned was never going to happen. Not after that phone call, not after what happened that afternoon at Marlon’s house, not until Hazel can reach Marlon and hear him say that he’s okay. So Lee took her back to her house instead of his, and that was the end of their night together.