April 12, 2010 (34)
11:30 a.m.
Evalynne’s Apartment

The sound of my cell phone ringing woke me up from the nap I was taking. As soon as I’d gotten home from work, I’d climbed into my bed and caught up on my sleep. When I glanced over at the digital clock on my bedside table, I saw that it was already eleven-thirty. Yawning, I reached for my phone and answered it.
“Hello?” I said, my voice groggy.
“Hey, it’s Shaun. Cole gave me your number,” Shaun said into the phone.
“Oh, um ok,” I replied, confused as to why he was calling me. “What’s up?”
“Cole and I are thinking about going down to the diner. We want to confront Michael, tell him that he better leave or else we’ll break his face. Screw the police. This guy needs to be threatened with violence. Maybe it’ll actually work,”
I bit down on my lip, wondering if this was really such a good idea. Yeah, Cole and Shaun were pretty strong guys, but who knew how strong Michael really was. And what if he carried a knife around with him? Or a gun? Cole and Shaun wouldn’t stand a chance. It was best if they just kept their distance and let me handle Michael myself…not that I knew how I was going to handle him.
“Or maybe you’ll get yourselves killed,” I replied, cringing just at the thought. “Michael’s a really dangerous guy, Shaun. He’s killed a person before.”
“So you don’t think we should go?” he asked me. I sighed, not wanting to doubt them as much as I did. I wanted to have faith in them, but I just couldn’t. I was too afraid.
“Evalynne,” It was Cole’s voice that was now on the phone.
“Hi, Cole,” I said. When I heard his voice, I was immediately reminded of the situation between him and Chelsea. He’d dodged that conversation yesterday because of the whole Michael thing, but we were going to have to talk about it sooner or later.
“I don’t care what you say. Shaun and I are going to the diner, whether you like it or not. We’re going to show Michael that he can’t just go around destroying everyone else’s lives and get away with it. He’s hurt you so much, Evalynne. I just want him to pay for what he’s done to you.” Cole replied, his anger apparent by the tone of his voice.
“Cole, that’s really sweet and all, but I really don’t think this is a good idea. I don’t want you to get hurt.” I told him. I was still mad about the Chelsea situation, but that didn’t change how much I cared about him.
“Don’t worry, the only who’s going to get hurt is Michael,” he assured me, sounding confident. I wished I could be as confident in him as he was in himself. But I’d seen the things Michael could do and I just didn’t want to risk Cole’s safety. It wasn’t worth it to me.
“I’d really feel more comfortable if you didn’t do this,” I informed him. But he wouldn’t listen to me.
“I’m sorry, Evalynne, but I’ve already made my decision. I’m going.”
“So am I!” Shaun said in the background.
“Please don’t do this!” I cried, feeling desperate now.
“I’ll see you soon,” he replied, completely ignoring my pleading. Then he hung up. I flipped my phone shut and sucked in a deep breath. I had to get to the diner. I had to stop them. So I climbed out of bed and headed out the front door of my apartment.

When I reached the diner, I quickly scanned the parking lot for either Cole or Shaun’s car. I didn’t spot either of them, but I couldn’t be positive until I went inside and made sure they weren’t in there. Letting out a small sigh, I walked into the restaurant. As soon as I stepped inside, my eyes met with Michael’s.
He was standing at a table across from the door, taking someone’s order. When he saw me, a small smile spread across his lips. Trying my best to ignore him, I made my way to the kitchen.
“Evalynne, what are you doing here?” my boss asked when she saw me walk in. “I gave you the rest of the day off, remember?”
“Yeah, I know,” I said. “But I’m fine now. I promise.” I assured her. “Can I please just pick up on the rest of my shift?”
She sighed and bit her lip as she thought this through. “I guess so,” she finally agreed.
“Thank you,” I told her. I quickly grabbed one of the small pads of paper in the kitchen along with a pen and headed out into the diner. And just as I was walking out of the kitchen, Cole and Shaun were walking into the restaurant. I was too late. They’d already spotted Michael and began to approach him. Frantically, I walked up to them.
“Shaun, Cole,” Michael greeted the two boys when he saw them. “Didn’t our hostess seat you?”
“We’re not here to eat,” Cole remarked, narrowing his dark eyes at him.
“Cole, don’t do this,” I spoke up, stepping in between him and Michael.
“Don’t do what?” Michael asked, that eerily amused look of his visible by the expression on his face.
“Oh, you’ll see soon enough,” Cole snapped back, getting all up in his face.
“Oh yeah,” Shaun added, sounding pumped. “I’ll be on you all day!”
Michael raised an arched eyebrow at them, smirking smugly. “Oh, you will?” he asked, cocking his head to the side a bit.
“No, he won’t.” I remarked, giving Shaun a warning look.
“Oh yes we will,” Cole replied. “In fact, maybe we should take this outside.”
“I’m sorry, but I’m working right now.” Michael told them matter-of-factly. For once, I was actually grateful for what Michael said. He wasn’t going to fight them.
“It sounds to me like you’re scared.” Cole retorted. “What’s the matter? You don’t think you can take us?” Now he was just taunting him.
“Can we please just stop all this. No one’s going to take anyone!” I cried desperately. But no one listened to me.
“I know I can take you. I’m just choosing to be civil about this.” he told them.
“Lies!” Shaun exclaimed. “You just don’t want to admit that you’re scared!” Now people were beginning to stare.
In return, Michael laughed haughtily. “I’m not scared. Especially not of you,”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Shaun demanded. “You think you can take me? Fine! Get at me bro!” He was beginning to lightly hop up and down, throwing practice punches, like a boxer preparing to fight.
“Oh my gosh,” I uttered under my breath, a blush spreading across my cheeks. Now pretty much everyone was watching.
“Alright, you really want to do this?” Michael said, that amused look never leaving his face.
“That’s what we cam here for,” Cole answered.
“Fine, let’s just get this over with,” Michael replied. They all began heading for the door of the diner. They were actually going to do this. I had to stop them!
“Guys, stop it!” I cried, following closely behind them. They headed out into the parking lot, Michael leading them to the small alley behind the restaurant where the dumpsters were located.
“Wait,” Cole said, holding a hand up. “Before we start this, I want to offer you an ultimatum.”
“An ultimatum?” Michael remarked, scoffing.
“Yes,” Cole said. “You have two choices. The first choice is that you leave Evalynne alone. That would include you leaving Michigan and never coming back. It would also include you not ever texting her, calling her or coming in contact at all with her ever again. Your second choice is to have you a** handed to you by Shaun and I.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Michael replied, laughing derisively at him. “Is he serious?” he asked me. I sighed and nodded my head. “Wow, you actually think you can beat me up.” Michael said to Cole in a patronizing tone. “How cute,”
I watched in fear as the muscles in Cole’s jaw clenched. A vein in his forehead bulged. His eyes were filled with a mixture of rage and determination. His hands were balled up into tight fists at his sides. And soon enough one of those fists was swinging at Michael’s face. But before it came in contact with it, Michael quickly stepped out of the way of it. He then swung his own fist towards Cole’s face, hitting him square in the jaw.
Cole let out a small yelp of pain, his hands flying to the damaged bones around his mouth. “Oh my God!” I cried out in panic. At this, Shaun got in on the fight, trying to punch Michael back. Michael saw it coming out of the corner of his eyes though and ducked away from his fist just in time. When he came back up, he used all of his strength to push Shaun back against one of the large blue dumpsters. He hit the metal with a loud thud, stumbling a bit, but managing to keep his balance.
“Michael, stop it!” I shouted, tears of desperation brimming my eyes. “Please, just stop it!”
He spun around on his heel and reached a hand out towards me. I tried to flinch away from him, but I didn’t do it in time. He had already gotten a good grip around my neck. I began to choke and memories of Will trying to strangle me flooded my mind.
“My name is Ben.” he reminded me through clenched teeth. That was when I realized just how loud I’d shouted his name. Someone could have heard me.
“Get your hands off of her!” Cole commanded…or at least he tried to. But his jaw was pretty messed up so it came out sounding all slurred together. Michael turned his head at the sound of this yelling and just as he did, Cole came charging at him. He threw another punch, and this time he actually hit his target.
Michael’s head whipped to the side and his tight grip on my neck released. Grateful for the full use of my airway once again, I sucked in a deep breath. Cole wrapped me up in his arms, gently stroking my hair and looking deeply into my eyes. Shaun came rushing up too, shouting “Watch out!”
At first, I wasn’t sure why, but when I turned my head to the left, I saw Michael moving towards us. He lifted his fist, about to hit Cole once again, when one of the cooks walked out the back door of the diner with a trash bag full of garbage in his hand.
“Hey, what’s going on back here?” he demanded. He looked over at the dumpster, which now had a dent in it from the impact of Shaun falling into it. Then he glanced over at Michael’s enrage eyes, along with his balled up fists. Lastly, he looked at my terrified face and Cole’s jaw, which was most likely broken. “Sue!” he called back into the diner.
The manager came barreling out with a fed up look on her face. “What is it now?” she asked. But once she stepped outside and saw the scene that was playing out before her, her eyes went wide with shock. “What is going on here?” she cried. No one spoke. I watched as her teeth gritted together in frustration, knowing that she was probably extremely sick of dealing with all the drama I’d been causing at her restaurant. “Ben, Evalynne,” she began, “please turn in your nametags. I’m sorry, but I can’t have all these constant spectacles between you two at my diner. You’re both fired.”
“What?” Michael demanded, obviously angry about this.
“I’m sorry, Ben,” she replied, “but this is just too much. There’s been yelling, arguing and now things are getting violent. You two aren’t even doing your work anymore. You obviously have some issues you need to clear up, so why don’t you get those taken care of. Then, maybe, you can have your jobs back. But for now, you both need to turn in your nametags.”
Sighing, I followed her directions and gave her my nametag. Michael, however, made a huge scene out of it. He ripped it off of his shirt and tossed it on the ground at her feet. Then, without another word, he stormed off towards the parking lot.

Author's Note: Check me out on Youtube if you wanna! I posted videos based off of this series & my username is LexiWrites (: