Learning To Trust Again

‘Well?’ Rebecca prompted when Todd didn’t say anything.

Glaring Todd said ‘you know the girl I was with last night, Jemma? Well the guy who did this is her ex. I guess he wasn’t exactly happy to find out she’d moved on.’

‘And that’s it?’ Rebecca asked looking at him, her doubt visible in both her expression and her voice .

‘Apart from the fact that he’s not the most rational guy, yeah that’s it.’

With a sigh Rebecca sat down next to him. She couldn’t help but feel relieved. She had been imagining all sorts of things, most of them worse than what Todd had just described. Not that that wasn’t bad enough. ‘You need to go to the police’ she said after a minute ‘you need to report this. He should be charged with assault.’

‘No he’s made his point’ Todd said ‘I’d rather just leave it. If he’s charged it may make him take revenge.’

‘You could take out an AVO then.’

‘And have him know where I live?’ Todd asked ‘I don’t think so. He doesn’t know anything about me at the moment.’

‘So how did he know where to find you last night then?’

Todd frowned. It was obvious to Rebecca he hadn’t considered that. ‘I don’t know’ he said without looking at her.

‘How do you know he won’t come after you again even if you don’t have him charged?’ Rebecca said still trying to convince him.

‘He may be irrational but he’s not stupid’ Todd said but he no longer sounded as confident as he did earlier. However appearing to shake it off he looked at her and added ‘he knows I can name him. I can use that to keep him from trying it again.’

 ‘Is this girl worth the trouble?’ Rebecca asked, treading as carefully as she could.

Smiling Todd said ‘you saw her Becs, she’s definitely worth it.’

Rebecca shook her head. She didn’t agree with Todd, that not going to the police was the way to handle it or with his opinion of whom he deemed worthy of getting a beating for. She hadn’t particularly liked Jemma when she’d met her. The younger woman had made no attempt to be speak to Todd’s family, even for politeness sake. She had dismissed Rebecca entirely when Todd had introduced them but almost fell over herself to grab hold of Jake’s hand even when he hadn’t offered it. The display had made Rebecca feel sick at the time, but she had been pleased Jake hadn’t looked too thrilled about it either. The unexpected thought of Jake, caused a searing pain in her chest. Rebecca absorbed it without showing any outward sign and focused back on her brother.

‘Sorry Todd, but I can’t say I saw anything that made her worth you being bashed’ Rebecca said doing her best to walk the fine line between offending him and trying to make him realise how crazy his attitude was. She could see Todd was besotted with her and she didn’t want to say anything negative about the girl, but she didn’t want to see him hurt again either. If his safety and well being wasn’t an issue she’d keep her opinions to herself and let it die a natural death. She could tell Jemma wouldn’t hang around for long. She was the type that was always on the look-out for something better.

‘Are you joking?’ Todd said with disbelief in his tone. ‘She’s gorgeous.’

‘Looks aren’t everything Todd’ she said ‘trust me, I learnt that the hard way. What kind of person they are is far more important in the long run.’

‘Yeah maybe when I’m older I’ll see it that way’ Todd said smiling ‘but at the moment looks work for me.’

‘Well I can’t say I agree really. Does she know about what happened?’

‘No and that’s the way I’d like to keep it. If I report it to the police she’s bound to find out.’

Rebecca could tell from his sudden heightened colour that this was the real reason he didn’t want to report it. He was embarrassed and he didn’t want to look bad in Jemma’s eyes. She knew now there was no way she was going to be able to convince Todd that his way of dealing with it wasn’t the way to go. She’d seen the way he looked at the girl last night. He would not risk going down in her estimation and while she didn’t agree it with it, she could understand it. So sighing, she just said ‘I think you’re mad not reporting it. There is nothing stopping him doing it again this way, but come on I’ll drive you home.’