April 10, 2010 (27)
1:30 p.m.
Mimi’s Diner

I walked into Mimi’s, prepared for the encounter I knew I would have with Michael. I made my way up to the front counter, where the hostess was standing, watching the news on the diner’s television. I glanced up at it, but the news report caught my attention immediately.
“It was only yesterday when Will McKnight turned himself into the police, confessing to the domestic abuse of his girlfriend, Evalynne Mongolia. And psychiatrist, Craig Sullivan, has diagnosed him with severe bipolar depression after discovering that he has been emotionally abused by his brother, Michael, his entire life. However, just this morning, he discovered something else.” It was the same reporter who had described his case yesterday. But instantly, the shot switched from her to one of Will’s psychiatrist, Dr. Craig Sullivan.
“Will had already described the emotional abuse he’s received from Michael during our evaluation from yesterday. But this morning was our first actual therapy session, and I found out that he’s also received physical abuse from Michael. I discovered a horrific burn mark on his arm, that was caused by Michael. He refused to speak to me about it, but I’m guessing that this wasn’t the only act of violence his brother ever inflicted on him.”
“Thanks Craig,” the reporter said when the cameras focused back in on her face. “After confessing to punching, threatening and putting Mongolia’s life in danger, McKnight has only been charged with one year of probation. However, some believe that one year’s probation isn’t enough. Let’s go to Kurt, who’s currently standing outside of the Westchester County Courthouse,”
“Thanks Theresa,” the reporter named Kurt said to the camera, as the view flashed to him, standing in front of the Westchester County Courthouse. In the background were about a dozen people, all yelling and holding up picket signs. “Protestors have gathered outside the courthouse today, demanding that McKnight be sentenced to serve time in jail.” He turned to one of the protestors and held his microphone out in front of him. “What’s your name, m’am?” he asked her.
“Patricia Randolph,” the woman told him.
“Patricia, tell me why you’re protesting against McKnight’s probation,” he said.
“Because that boy deserves much more than just a year of probation. He hit that poor girl. He nearly murdered her for crying out loud! One year of probation is practically a reward for what he did.” she snapped back. I swallowed hard, beginning to feel dizzy. There were actually people out there dedicating their time to standing outside of a courthouse just to get Will a harsher punishment. I couldn’t help but feel slightly guilty.
“But he’s been diagnosed with bipolar depression.” Kurt replied.
“Yes, he does.” she stated. “But he can’t use that as an excuse to hurt others. He still has control over his actions, he’s still capable of making his own decisions. And he decided to take his anger out on an innocent girl. He needs to learn his lesson, and a year of probation isn’t going to cut it.”
“Well, there you have it,” Kurt said into the camera, the shot focusing in on only his face now. But it switched over to the main anchorman almost immediately.
“Thanks Kurt,” he said. He began to drone on about another news report. I once again, tuned him out though.
“I agree with the protestors,” the hostess said, still keeping her eye on the TV screen. “That boy deserves to rot in prison,” She rolled her hazel eyes and turned to face me. The moment she saw who I was, her eyes went wide with recognition. “Oh my gosh, you’re Evalynne Mongolia!”
“Yeah, that’s me,” I murmured back, still feeling a bit faint from the news report. I just couldn’t help but feel sympathetic for Will. All of these people hated him, but they didn’t even know him. They only knew about the bad things he did. None of them knew about all of the great qualities he had though. None of them even gave him a chance to prove that he wasn’t just some violent woman abuser.
“I am so incredibly sorry about what that boy did to you,” she said. “You should just be happy that you’ve gotten past that relationship though,”
“Yeah, I am,” I told her. I wasn’t quite sure whether or not that was true though. Whenever I saw these news reports about Will, I felt awful about ending things with him. Whenever I heard some stranger trash talking him. Whenever I thought about how horribly Michael had treated him.
But when I thought about the things he’d done to me–how he’d hit me, how he’d almost strangled me–I realized that I was better off without him. I just wished he didn’t have to go through all this crap though. It wasn’t fair and he didn’t deserve to be hated by people who didn’t even know him.
“That’s good. A boy like that’s not worth your time anyways,” she added. Then she sighed, remembering that she actually had a job she was supposed to be doing. “So what can I do for you? Table for one?”
“No, I actually have a job interview scheduled for two o’clock today,” I informed her. “But I have to fill out an application first.”
“Ok, hang on a sec,” She turned away from me and scanned the restaurant for the closest employee. Then she spotted Valerie. “Hey, Angie!” she called to her. “Could you come over here please?”
Valerie, who had just finished delivering some customers their food, turned around when she heard he name being called. She saw me standing there at the hostess stand and clenched her jaw. Then she made her way over to us.
“What do you need?” she asked, trying to sound as if she didn’t secretly hate me.
“Evalynne here needs to fill out an application. You mind taking her back to get one?” the hostess asked her.
“No problem,” Valerie remarked, feigning a smile in my direction. Then she guided me past the hostess stand, leading me through a door marked employees only. We walked through the kitchen to a hallway in the very back of the restaurant. I followed her to the last door on the right and we both walked inside.
She shut the door behind us and opened up a drawer of one of the file cabinets that lined one of the walls of the boxy little room. “So I figure you saw the news report just now, right?” she said to me.
“Yes,” I replied, although I really didn’t feel like talking about it with her.
“Well I’m dying to know,” she began, turning around to face me with a sheet of paper in her hand. “What did you do to make Will start hitting you?”
I bit my lip, debating whether or not I should give her any information. But there was no reason not to, so I did. “Because when Michael started sending us those text messages, it got him all worked up. He told me he knew it was Michael, but I just kept on denying it, trying to get him to stay positive. Until finally, he just snapped.”
“That’s it?” she scoffed.
“Yeah,” I replied, a bit confused. “Why?”
“Well it’s just that when Will and I were together, we fought thousands of times. And about half the time it was because he told me Michael was some horrible person and I kept denying it. So we were pretty much in the same exact position as you were with him…but he never hit me. In fact, he would always end up apologizing to me, telling me that he didn’t want to fight anymore.” She smirked at me arrogantly, and I wanted to claw her eyes out for it. I couldn’t help but feel jealous when she told me this too. Why had Will hit me and not her? We’d both argued with him about Michael. We’d both denied the things he told us about Michael. So why was it that he apologized when he fought with Valerie, but yelled and got violent when he fought with me?
“I don’t care,” I lied to her. “I’m done with Will now anyways.”
She laughed haughtily and rolled her eyes. “Face it, Evalynne,” she said to me. “Will loved me more…but apparently that wasn’t enough. You might have stolen Will away from me, but there’s no way in hell I’m going to let you steal Michael from me too.”
“What are you talking about?” I demanded. “You and Will were already broken up when I started going out with him. And believe me, you don’t have to worry about me taking Michael from you.”
She glared back at me, rage radiating off of her. “I know that Michael likes you. We both know it. But I’m not going to let you have him. He’s mine, and you can’t take him from me.”
I sighed, pitying her. “Valerie, he’s not worth your time. I know that he likes me, and I can’t stand it. But you really shouldn’t care about that. In fact, you should break up with him before he has the chance to hurt you.”
“He would never hurt me,” she retorted matter-of-factly.
“Well according to him, he would.” I said.
“What do you mean?” she demanded.
“Yesterday, he told me that once he got me to himself, he’d have no problem getting rid of you. He doesn’t really care about you like he tells you he does. I’m really sorry, Valerie.” I told her.
A look of shock and sadness filled her eyes. “No,” she said breathily. “That’s not true! He loves me! He said so himself!”
I bit my lip and looked up at her sympathetically. “He’s a liar. You can’t trust what he says,”
“But if he doesn’t really love me, then why is he still with me?” she remarked.
“He’s just using you. But once you’re no use to him anymore, he’s going to kill you. Don’t let him get the chance to though. Get out of this relationship while you still have the chance.” I told her.
She looked at me, her eyes glassy with unshed tears. “You’re telling me the truth, aren’t you?” she asked. I nodded in response, feeling a bit sympathetic for her. She sucked in a deep breath, blinking away the tears, but not the sadness. “Here’s your application,” she uttered, handing me the piece of paper.
Then she turned and walked out of the room. I struggled to catch up with the long strides she took down the hallway. When we walked out of the kitchen and back into the actual restaurant, I finally caught up to her. “I’m really sorry, Valerie. You don’t deserve this. Michael’s just–”
“Michael’s just what?” I froze at the sound of Michael’s deep voice, which came from behind me. He took a step forward so that he was now standing right next to Valerie and I. “Well?” he said when I didn’t answer him. “What were you just about to say, Evalynne? Michael’s just what?”
“Just…uh…” I scanned my mind, but came up with no good lies.
“You know what? Forget it.” he said. “I know you’re just going to lie to me anyways, so don’t even waste my time.” He sighed as he draped an arm around Valerie’s shoulder. I saw her tense up as he did this. “So did you see that news report, Evalynne? The one with all the protestors? They seemed pretty p***ed off about that McKnight guy getting let off with only a year’s probation. I can’t help but agree with them though. Abusing women is just unacceptable. Don’t you think so, Angie?” He was taking on the role of Ben again. And it p***ed me off because I knew that everyone bought it.
“Yeah,” she replied dully.
“Well, we’d better get back to work now. See you around, Evalynne,” He then turned around and walked away from me, pulling Valerie along with him.

Author's Note: Check me out on Youtube for videos of the EC+AM=4ever series! My username is LexiWrites (: