The Game Has Changed (18 page)

“What you've done to me!” he amended. “You just
put another nail in my coffin, that's what!”

She held the blankets tightly to her chest as
fear invaded every inch of her body. “I don't
understand!”

“Why didn't you tell me how old you were right
from the beginning?”

She shook her head with tearful confusion.
“Why?”

“It's a felony for a twenty-six-year-old to
have sex with a seventeen-year-old, that's why!” he
screamed.

She trembled with fear and shame. How was she
supposed to know that and why was he blaming her for it? She felt
so miserable, more than she’d ever felt before. She had wanted her
first time to be with him and had wanted it to be the most
wonderful memory she’d ever had in her entire life. It would have
been, she knew, but now, the moment was horribly ruined.

Her tears spilled forth as if they were as
torrential as the rainstorm that continued to drench the streets of
the small town. She sat there, holding the blankets against herself
long after he had dressed and disappeared into the rain. He was
deserting her now, she was certain of it.

A myriad of emotions raced through her. She
still loved him, but she felt hatred for him, too. Yet the love
kept overshadowing the hate. His lovemaking had been mind-blowing.
She would never forget it and she doubted that she would attempt to
find another man who would come close to how he made her
feel.

She hadn't known that it was illegal for him to
do what he had done to her. There was no way she could have known.
It was more his fault than hers. He should have known, but then
again, she’d lied to him about her age. Was that the reason? Did he
really think she was as old as she’d said she was and thus old
enough to ravish? Was it her fault that he was in more trouble with
the law than ever before? Would it even matter anymore?

He was gone. He’d deserted her. She stared out
of the front window of the motel and didn't even see him. She did
see her blue Acura sitting idly in the parking lot, untouched. The
rain was still coming down in sheets, but she could see that Evan
hadn't taken her car. He had left it there for her. She stared at
it dumbfounded, unsure of how to feel anymore. She sat upon the
edge of the bed for awhile, feeling completely numb.

CHAPTER 21

As Evan braved the torrential rain and blinding
wind, he found that he didn't know where he was going. Nor did he
know what he would do now. All he felt was bitter pain. He realized
that Jaime hadn't really tricked him into having sex with her as
she was quite child-like in everything she did, but he couldn't
help but to put the blame on her, never-the-less.

She had been so relentless about everything
that she’d fed into his weakness. She was an innocent temptress, if
there was such a thing. Yet, she had protected him once when she
could have brought him down hard and fast. Was it just a ruse to
delay things so that she could have the pleasure of bringing him
down even harder?

He felt used, manipulated. She had won the
game. But how did it happen? She was just a little school girl. She
couldn't possibly be that cunning. She couldn't have beaten him at
his own game. Why was she making him so angry, so crazy?

With irritation, he realized, he was thinking
about her so very much. How he was going to get to California now,
he wasn't so sure. Never-the-less, he walked purposefully through
the pouring rain in hopes of getting as far away from her as
possible. He didn't want to be indebted to her in any way and had
left the car behind for her.

Yet now he felt adrift. He didn't want to go
through it all over again with another person. What if that person
fought back? What if things didn't go as smoothly? He'd add another
round of kidnapping to his steadily growing list of offenses that
now included statutory rape. Deep inside, he knew he couldn't do
it.

Jaime had been an easy target. She’d also been
comfortable with him. He couldn't bear the thought of doing it all
over again. Jaime was too naïve to be playing with his head, he
rationalized. What had happened wasn't really her fault. She was
young and immature and quite helpless.

He’d walked about a mile or so from the motel
when he began to realize what he was doing was pretty inexcusable.
He was the sole reason she was over seven hundred miles away from
her home. He was the reason she was miserable and unhappy and
probably very frightened at that moment. She didn't force him to
fuck her. He could have stopped himself from doing so at any given
time. He just hadn’t wanted to.

How could I just desert her?
he wondered.

“I'm more of a gentleman than that, I think,”
he whispered aloud and stopped within his tracks, the rain beating
down on his already soaked body.

Even if he didn't take her all the way to
California with him, even if he didn't give her the love she wanted
in return, the least he could do was to take responsibility for her
and send her back home. He slowly headed back to the motel, the
guilt of having abandoned her proving too difficult for him to
bear.

When he got back to the room, he found that the
door was locked. He had no means of getting inside either as he’d
left the key with her. He remained standing in the pouring rain and
gently knocked upon the door. His heart raced with trepidation as
the minutes passed. Had she left?

Jaime sat upon the bed, fully dressed. Hiccups
jerked her entire body as she sat there brooding. The impatient
knock drew her attention and she slowly made her way toward the
window to pull a portion of the curtain aside and peer
out.

Evan stood in front of the door, pressed
against it as he sought to escape the pouring rain. His clothes
were firmly plastered against his skin. He looked so pitifully
melancholy that it tugged at her heart strings. Relief flooded her,
although she still felt angry with him.

Part of her wanted to open the door and let him
in. Another part of her wanted to leave him exactly where he was
now. He deserved it, after all. A perverse sense of satisfaction in
making him suffer a bit for what he had accused her of filled her
as she waited.

“Jaime!” he roared irritably as she ignored his
knocking. “Please let me in!”

At first, she didn't respond, even though she
desperately wanted to. This only succeeded in making him even more
impatient.

“Jaime, please!”

There was still no answer. She let go of the
curtain as her breathing became labored.

“Alright! I'll say it if you want me to. I'm
sorry!” he relented, irate.

She released a shaky sigh, but held her ground.
She wasn’t sure what she would do if she were to give in and let
him in, then and there.

“What do you want me to say, then?”

“Just go away!” she cried. “I don't need you
anymore!”

“Oh, I see!” he yelled as the rain and wind
whipped at him. “You got what you wanted from me this morning and
now you're casting me aside. Is that it? Sounds a bit familiar,
wouldn't you say? Leaving me on the side of the road, are
you?”

She took offense to his words. “I got what I
wanted? Are you telling me you took no pleasure in it, either? You
just went through the motions for my sake, is that it?”

“Open the damn door, Jaime!”

“Why should I?”

“Because I said so, that's why!”

“You're a fuckin' idiot!” she
screamed.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “I realize that completely
now, but let me in anyhow. It's fuckin' cold and wet out
here.”

She relented, albeit a tad angrily. She turned
away from him as soon as she opened the door. He walked inside,
slamming the door behind him. He yanked off his wet leather jacket,
threw his gun and holster on the table, and set about in hunting
for dry clothes. He dug through the plastic bag they were using as
luggage and pulled out what he needed.

She sat down upon her bed, holding her beloved
backpack across her lap. She soon held it close against her chest.
She didn't want to watch what he was doing as she was still angry
with him. Yet she found herself doing so,
never-the-less.

Uncaring as to whether he’d offend her, he
pulled off his wet clothes and let them fall to the floor. It was a
moot point by now anyway as they’d seen one another completely
naked earlier. He quickly pulled on dry underwear, trousers, and
tee shirt, and then replaced his holster and jacket.

“Get in the damn car!” he ordered once he was
done.

“Where are we going?” she replied with
insolence.

“Away from here!”

“You're not in charge of me!” she
shouted.

“Thankfully, no, but get in the damn car
anyway!”

He didn't hesitate then. He grasped her arm and
yanked her to her feet with more force than he’d intended. She
cried out with pain, shock invading her every limb. He forcefully
pushed her out the door and toward the car. Her heart pounded as
she realized that he was acting like a real kidnapper now. He’d
become mean and violent and it was all because of her.

CHAPTER 22

Evan took to the roads again, driving
erratically through the pouring rain. He was having difficulty in
seeing through the windshield even with the wipers running as fast
as they were able. The torrential downpour did nothing to mar his
driving. He sped along, driving like a maniac at well over sixty
miles-an-hour. He no longer cared as to whether they skidded
horrifically across the slick highway. He felt as if he would soon
reach his breaking point anyway, so what did it really
matter?

Jaime felt both fear and resentment. The fear
stemmed not only from the reckless way Evan was driving, but also
because of the way he was acting. She had never seen this
particular side of him during the entire time they’d spent
together. He was irrationally angry and she knew that could be a
scary thing within a man. Her beloved father had been jovial and
kind to her, most of the time, but she mournfully remembered a few
occasions where his temper had blown a fuse and he had actually
struck her.

The worried anticipation that it might happen
now with Evan was sending her into a panic. Yet, at the same time,
she felt such utter resentment at his displaced anger. He had no
right to blame her for what happened between them that morning. If
anything, they were equally at fault. No one had forced the other
to do it. No one had been abused or raped.

Both of them had wanted it.
Even him,
she thought. He had loved it while it
was happening, she could tell by his moans and groans. He had
absolutely no cause to lay the blame entirely on her. Granted, she
had lied to him about her age, but there was no reason to blame her
for everything that had occurred between them.

The atmosphere inside of the car was heavy and
suffocating as they sat in silence. She began to wonder if the end
was near. The passing minutes and the silence itself were torturous
and agonizing. She didn't think she could suffer much longer. Over
an hour had passed when she finally broke the cavernous and deathly
silence that lay between them.

“Stop the car!” she ordered.

“What?” he asked with annoyance.

“You heard me! Stop now!”

“Not likely!”

“If you don't, I'll jump out!”

“I'm going almost seventy bloody miles-an-hour!
How can you possibly jump out?”

“You don't think I would do it?” she
goaded.

He stared at her with wide eyes. She was
testing him. That much was obvious. The look upon her face was
downright inflammatory.

“No, I don't think you . . .”

Before he finished his sentence, she wildly
threw the door open. He slammed on the brakes in a panic, causing
the car to skid across the slick two-lane road. Another car coming
in the opposite direction honked its horn at them in alarm. Evan
managed to turn the car's skid back towards the road’s shoulder.
Even so, the car whipped about to face the wrong way as it finally
came to a stop.

“What the hell was that about?” Evan cried with
anger, breathing heavily as he glared back at her. “What are you
trying to prove?”

“That you're an asshole!” she shot back. “But
you've proven it just fine by yourself, anyway, so I guess it was
unnecessary, after all!”

She jumped out of the car and grabbed her
backpack. She started walking away, oblivious of the falling rain.
She no longer wanted to be near him. His mere presence upset her as
did the injustice of the entire situation she now found herself
in.

Evan sighed with exasperation and climbed out
of the car. He sprinted after her in hopes of catching up. “Where
do you think you'll go exactly . . . on foot, in the rain, and in
the middle of this podunk shitsville?”

“Anywhere,” she cried. “Anywhere that doesn’t
include you!”

“Amazing!” he shouted. “Just this morning, you
loved me and now you want to leave me?”

“I was really stupid to say I loved you. I
admit it now,” she screamed back at him. She gained momentum and
continued on, well aware of the fact that he was starting to catch
up to her. “I never meant it!”