"I didn't file a complaint," I tell them.
The woman opens her briefcase and pulls out a folder. "We have documentation you called the 1-800 juvenile justice number complaining to the operator that Caleb Becker was harassing you."
Oh my God. I shake my head and look to my mom. "I didn't call. Mom, I swear I didn't call."
"Are you sure?" the man asks. "You don't have to be afraid, Maggie. We're here to make sure you're protected."
I stand up. "I'm not afraid of Caleb. We're friends."
My mom says, "Please excuse my daughter. She doesn't know what she's talking about. She's been instructed not to have any contact with that boy. Right, Maggie?"
I bite down on my bottom lip. "Mom ..."
"Maggie?"
Last night at the park makes sense now, why he was testing me. Oh, how he must hate me, thinking I'd call and complain when I would never do anything to hurt him. Kendra would hurt him. I wouldn't. "I have to go see him."
"Maggie, come back here!"
I hobble over to the Beckers' house before anyone can stop me. Mrs. Becker answers the door.
"Is Caleb home?" I ask frantically. "I really, really need to talk to him. I know you probably hate me for being the reason he went to jail, but I think it was all a mistake and--"
"Caleb is gone," she says, totally unfazed by the words coming from her mouth. She even has a strange smile on her face. "He left."
By now my mom has followed me over to the Beckers' house with the investigators in tow.
Mom regards Mrs. Becker strangely. "Penny, what's wrong with you?"
As soon as my mom says it, Mrs. Becker slips and falls right into my mom's arms. After Mom shrieks, the two investigators help her carry Mrs. Becker into the house. "She's passed out," one of them says.
As they're taking care of Mrs. Becker, I step back. What did Mrs. Becker mean when she said Caleb has gone? I rush home, grab my keys and drive to Mrs. Reynolds' house. I check the garage, gazebo ... he's not here.
All along, I blamed Caleb for hitting me, without questioning his guilt. He pleaded guilty, but deep down I detected something strange in him. I thought it was a lack of remorse for hitting me, when all along it was a lack of guilt.
My heart sinks lower with each passing moment as I drive around Paradise. I'm looking for Caleb, or some sign he's still here. Before I know it, I'm at the place where my life changed.
The scene of the accident.
The skid marks from the car are still on the curb, a dark reminder of that day. I haven't come here since the accident. I wouldn't have had the strength before to relive it up close. I step out of the car and walk over to the fading skid marks, staring at them for what seems like forever. Will they eventually disappear altogether, so the only physical reminders of the accident will be the ones I carry with me?
I know the truth, though. That the visible scars aren't as deep as the emotional ones Leah and Caleb have been struggling with. I have a burning desire to help them, just as Caleb helped me. The most important thing I've learned the past few months is that friends are invaluable. People you love can get you through the toughest of times. They need me just as I need them. I miss Leah as my confidante, my best friend. And the love I have for Caleb is the forever kind that will never go away, no matter how hard I try to deny it.
"Maggie."
I turn around. Caleb is riding in a black Toyota, a guy I don't recognize at the wheel. Caleb tells the guy to stop the car, then he walks up to me. He looks sad and lonely and worried.
"How did we get here?" I ask.
"Here's where it all started."
"I didn't call and complain about you," I say hurriedly.
"You see, these investigators came to my house this morning and said they were following up on a complaint I made and I insisted I never made it and then I realized you must have thought I did and then--"
Caleb puts a finger to my lips, stopping my babble. "It doesn't matter."
"But it does. And I trust you. Isn't that what we're all about? Trust and honesty."
I need to prove it to him, a sign that I trust him without any reservations. I pull up my left pant leg with one hand, revealing all my scars up to my knee.
His brows knit together in pain, as if he was the one who put them on my leg. I take his hand in mine and together we trace the swollen lines with our fingers. "You see, there's nothing I want to hide from you anymore. Do you feel the same, Caleb? No secrets, no lies?" I need him to tell me the truth about what happened that night. I need to hear it from his own lips, his own words. Tell me you didn't hit me, I want to say. Tell me the truth.
"Yo, amigo, you ready to vamónos?' a guy yells from the car.
"Who is that?"
"Rio."
I'm worried. "I mean, who is he?"
"You don't want to know, Maggie," Caleb says. "Listen, I gotta go."
I look up into his beautiful, intense face. At the same time I know he's never going to give away the secret he's been holding inside. That fierce, protective spirit is a part of him, a bond he can't break.
"Where are you going? When will you be back?"
"I'm not coming back."
Looking into his serious, sad eyes, I know he means what he's saying. My eyes start to water and tears roll down my cheeks. "You can't leave me. Not now." I want to beg and plead and cry and grab him until he changes his mind. I want to play tennis with him today, and tomorrow, and the next day.