Post 21

After their statements were given, Dan drove them home. Laura’s father was extremely happy to see her home in one piece. Her mother had come home as well, and she was introduced to Peter and Dan. They thanked the boys for helping return Laura home safely before they went inside. At his house, Peter received a similar welcome from his parents. They were proud of their son for being able to fight this guy off and get out of the situation safely. They all knew it could’ve gone much worse.

In the morning, Dan showed up at his father’s house and picked Peter up. From there, they picked up Laura. When they got to Laura’s house, Peter got out and met her halfway to the car. As he approached, he noticed that one side of her face was a bit swollen and bruised. He gave her a careful hug, not wanting to hurt her, then walked her over to Dan’s car. He held the front door open for her, then got in the back. From there, they drove back to where they had left Laura’s car the night before. They talked on the way over.

“How are you feeling today, Laura?” Dan asked.

“I’m a lot better. I was pretty shaken up last night,” she answered. “How about you, Peter? Are you feeling alright today?”

“Actually, I am. I didn’t get any nosebleeds or anything, and I slept pretty well. Everything seems to be normal today, or at least as normal as it gets with me.” He chuckled. “Have you heard anything more about Gerald?” Peter asked Dan.

“I checked in this morning before I picked you guys up,” Dan said. “There was no sign of the guy after everything happened last night, but they did find an abandoned car that was registered to Leanne. They assume it was what he was driving that night, and that he ditched it in his getaway.”

“That’s just great. So we have no idea where he might have gone?”

“No, although according to the report I got, Leanne actually took a fair bit of cash out of her checking account late last week. We can only assume that went to Gerald.”

“Fantastic,” Peter said sarcastically. “So we don’t know where he went, and he has enough cash that if he wanted to do something bad to us, he could.”

“We’re doing what we can, Peter,” said Dan. “I’m sure you’re both going to be safe.”

Peter laid a hand on Laura’s shoulder. “I hope you’re right,” he said. Laura looked back at him over her shoulder. They stared into each other’s eyes for a moment.

Traffic was light, and they got to Laura’s car pretty quickly. Peter got out and got into her car to take it to the garage for a repair estimate. Laura stayed with Dan at Peter’s request. He wasn’t sure how well the tire would hold up, and didn’t want her to be in the car in case something happened. He didn’t think anything bad was going to happen, but he just wanted to be sure she would be okay.

Dan led Peter around on some side streets until they emerged on a bigger east-west street. Dan then led Peter directly to the garage. They went inside to hand over the keys and let the workers know what needed to be done. Peter took the lead. “I hit a pothole with the back tire, and it kindof bent it in a little.”

The mechanic went out with them to look at the condition of the tire. “Boy, that had to have been some pothole to bend your tire like that. And how did you get it to bend in sideways? Were you sliding around or something?”

“I was backing out,” Peter said.

The mechanic said something under his breath that Peter didn’t hear. “Alright, we’ll take a look at it. We’ve got your contact information, so we’ll be in touch.”

They said goodbye to the mechanic and got back into Dan’s car. From here, Dan took them back to Peter’s and his father’s house. Peter and Laura went inside while Dan left to follow up on whatever information he could find out about Gerald’s whereabouts.

They didn’t live that far apart so it was not a big problem that they didn’t have a good way of getting around for the moment. They spent some time talking at Peter’s house. After they had some lunch, they walked over to Laura’s house. Her parents were away, so they went around to the back porch. Peter remembered his first time standing in the back yard of her parent’s house and all the things that happened to him that day. They sat on the steps behind the house, going over the various injuries they sustained in the fight against Gerald. As they explored each other, they edged closer and closer together. Then they began kissing and holding each other close. With the privacy fence in the back yard, nobody could see them, and they were a little more bold with each other.