Never Walk Alone

After the family had dinner, Jo answered the door when the door was knocking. She opened it up and found Miranda and Gordo standing there. “Hi… is Lizzie able to talk?” Gordo asked.
“Well, she’s not busy but let me see if she’s up for some company. Come on in.” Gordo and Miranda walked in then Jo closed the door and went up in Lizzie’s room. She knocked gently then pushed the door open.
“Lizzie?” Lizzie was laying on her bed but she was awake.
“Yeah?” she said quietly.
“Honey, Miranda and Gordo are here. Do you feel like talking to them?”
Lizzie paused for a minute then sat up to look at her mom. “Can you bring them up here?”
“Sure, Honey.” Jo left to get Lizzie’s friends and sent them upstairs to Lizzie’s room. Lizzie looked up when she saw them and stood up.
“Hey, guys,” Lizzie said.
“Hi… are you okay?” Miranda asked.
“I’m fine. It’s been a really bad day.”
Miranda moved up closer to Lizzie a little. “Lizzie, we are so sorry.”
Lizzie shrugged. “It wasn’t your fault. It was mine. I never should’ve walked alone in the dark, especially not in the ally. I should’ve let you walk me home or waited for your mom to get here so she can take me home.”
“Was your mom pissed that my mom wasn’t home to take you home?”
Lizzie shook her head. “I don’t think so. I think she just felt really bad about what happened.”
Gordo nodded. “Yeah, we feel kind of bad, too. Is there anything we can do?”
“I don’t think so. Did you turn in our project?”
“Yeah, it’s been covered,” Miranda answered. “So, what did they say? Can they catch the guy?”
“They already did. I had to go to the police station and identify the man they brought in and they thought it was him so I went over to confirm it.”
“Wow! Lizzie, that must’ve been scary and hard.”
Lizzie nodded. “Yeah, it was. The good news is they did catch him. So, they arrested him.”
Miranda and Gordo went to sit on her bed as Lizzie joined them. “When is the trial?” Miranda asked.
“I don’t know. They just arrested him today so I guess they’ll have a hearing tomorrow morning and decide on the bail.”
“I hope they don’t give him a bail.”
“Yeah, me, too. Well, I promised myself that I will never, ever, walk home alone again in the dark no matter what. We’re also going to get a security system alarm. Maybe tomorrow I’ll go over and see a counselor and get into that support group. The police gave us a name of it.”
Gordo nodded. “That’s good. You just need time to heal now that they got the guy.”
“Are you going to the hearing tomorrow?” Miranda asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t even know if my family will go. I mean, Matt has school so he wouldn’t go. I’m not sure about going to classes tomorrow. I’ll just have to e-mail my professors and let them know what happened. Maybe they’ll let me get some rest for a while.”
“No, don’t worry about emailing them. I’m in almost of your classes. I’ll talk to them and maybe when you’re ready, I can bring you the homework for you to do.”
“Thanks, Miranda.”
The room was quiet for a minute then Jo lightly knocked on the door. “Guys? How’s it going here?”
“Oh, just fine. In fact, we were just leaving here. It’s getting kind of late.” Miranda told Lizzie’s mother.
“What?” Lizzie said. “No, you don’t have to leave.”
“No, I think we should keep this short so you can get some rest. You had quite a day.”
“I agree,” Jo said. “Honey, it’s late so why don’t you just get some rest and you can see them tomorrow after they get back from classes.”
They all agreed then Gordo and Miranda had left Lizzie alone in her room. Lizzie got up to get ready for bed and put on her pajamas. She sighed as she got into her bed and turned out the lights. For a minute, it was quiet then she heard the door open. Suddenly, Lizzie gasped and sat back up fast. “Mom!” she yelled.
Matt’s head popped up into the room. “Sorry… it’s me, Matt.”
“Matt, don’t scare your sister like that,” Sam called out to him.
“Sorry, Dad. I was just saying good night to Lizzie.” Matt walked into the room and Lizzie sighed in relief.
“What’s going on, Matt?”
“I just wanted to say good night and see if you were okay.”
Lizzie nodded. “Yeah, I’m okay. I mean, I’ve been better, you know.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“What about you? When we were in the police station, it looked like you wanted to break the door open in that interrogation room.”
Matt sighed and shook his head, sitting next to Lizzie. “I wanted to kill that son of a bitch. I guess in a way, I’m glad I didn’t. It’d make things worst.”
“Yeah, it might. It makes you glad that you have classes tomorrow so you don’t go to that hearing.”
“Are you going?”
“I don’t know. I don’t even know if Mom and Dad wants to go.”
“Well, they might want to. Are you going to see that counselor?”
“Yeah, I think I will. I told Miranda and Gordo that I’d take some time off until I’m recovered after what happened.”
Matt nodded. “Well… I got to get up in the morning for school. Good night.” Lizzie didn’t say anything then she let him reach over to her and hug her. Matt finally left the room then let Lizzie get some good night’s sleep. Lizzie was in bed and it was hard to sleep the first night. She went through a few nights of having difficulty sleeping, a nightmare but it was being helped through counseling and support group meetings she has been attending. Lizzie went to a few court hearings of Clarence but mostly, her parents to almost each of them. It took a while to recover and the verdict gave the family full relief when Clarence has gone to jail for a very long, long time.

Okay that's it, please review. Thank you.