Unsung Heroes

Mitch came back, the next morning. He lost his key when he left the apartment – I made sure he gave it to me – so he was stuck sitting outside, waiting for Maya and me to go outside. We both called into work and claimed to be sick – I told Barb that I was feeling nauseous and Maya said she had a fever.
I watched her look back and forth between her phone and the door repeatedly, like she was waiting for Mitch to suddenly burst through, even though he was still outside. He’d left her a nervous wreck, afraid of sudden attack.
“Maya, will you relax? He hasn’t moved from the front steps since he got there two hours ago. If anything, Ms. Heild, the landlord, will call the police because he’s being fucking annoying and loitering.”
Maya set her phone down on the counter. “Are you sure Mitch doesn’t know about the baby?”
I nodded and sipped my water. “Yeah, I made sure he doesn’t know at all. He doesn’t want me, Maya, he’s only interested in you. I think it’s time you brought your evidence against him to the police and officially get a restraining order, if not arresting him.”
Maya looked at her hands. “I guess you’re right. Do you want to make the call, or should I?”
I looked at her phone. “Definitely you. Tell them you have evidence against him and that he’s been stalking you and staying outside our apartment waiting for you. If anything, I don’t matter to him and he won’t touch me.”
“But Indy, you’re pregnant, and if he hits you he could hurt the baby.”
As she said that, my stomach fluttered and I put my hand over it, over the baby. It wasn’t the baby moving, obviously, since it was still little more than cells and wasn’t capable of movement, yet. But she was right, if Mitch did anything to hurt me, he ran the risk of hurting the baby.
“Yeah, that’s true. Tell you what, I’ll call Heild and let her know what’s going on. Let’s hope I don’t catch her in one of her moods, this time.”
I pulled my phone from my pocket and dialed in her number.
“Yes?” Her voice sounded gruff. Ms. Heild was a divorced woman in her mid-forties who, when she wasn’t drinking or out partying, was at home with either a new man or adding another cat to her ever growing collection. The gruffness in her voice told me that she had a hangover and was probably sitting at her counter, a cat on her lap, and a large mug of black coffee in her hands.
“Ms. Heild? It’s Indy in apartment 3B?”
“Uh? Oh, yes, hello, Indigo, what do you want?”
“I am terribly sorry to intrude, Ms. Heild, but Mitch has basically been stalking Maya and myself for two days and hasn’t left the porch all morning. I think he may be drunk and he’s been abusive and following us around for quite some time. If you won’t, I’m going to call the cops and report him.”
Heild didn’t say anything and just breathed heavily into the phone the entire time I spoke.
“Um… what?” She still sounded groggy.
“Listen, Heild, we have someone stalking us sitting on your porch, and you better do something about it before I do because you know how much of a stink I can make. Remember Rosie and her parties?”
Heild suddenly breathed in sharply.
“Who is it outside, again?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose and groaned internally. “It’s Mitch, Heild. Remember Mitch? I stopped dating him nearly eight months ago and now he’s stalking my friend, Maya, and he’s a threat to her safety.”
Held groaned. “Yeah, okay, I’ll deal with it.” She hung up.
I set the phone on the counter and clasped my hands. “There, problem solved.”
Ten minutes later, I heard a commotion outside.
I looked out the window to see Ms. Heild standing on the doorstep, pointing away from the door, down the sidewalk, clearly telling Mitch, who was yelling, to leave.
“I can be out here if I fucking want, Heild!”
“Not on my property! If you don’t walk the fuck away right now, I will call the police and have you removed from the premises!”
Mitch looked up at my window, so I pulled back and moved to press myself against the wall next to the window.
“I can see you, you bitch! Are you putting Heild up to this?! You want me arrested?! I will end the both of you! You hear me?! You and that slut are fucking dead!”
“That’s it, Mitch! I’m calling the cops!” I saw Heild take her phone out of her pocket. I peeked carefully around the edge of the window.
Mitch let out an angry noise and threw his arms in the air. Still yelling – and scaring the crap out of people walking by – he marched away in a huff, still yelling and stumbling slightly.
“Jesus, what the fuck is wrong with him?” I wondered, walking back to the kitchen. “He just ran off acting like a lunatic!”
Maya snorted. “What?”
“Yeah, it was weird!” I laughed. “Either way, at least he’s not there, anymore.”
Maya groaned. “Yeah, but he’ll be back, and we still can’t really leave without risking him hiding somewhere out there waiting for one of us, you know.”
I nodded. “I know, that’s why we’re not going to go anywhere, today.”
My phone rang with a new text message from Heild, letting me know that she’d sent him away and that he was gone and to let her know if he bothered me or Maya again.
Setting my phone down, I walked into the living room and picked up my laptop. Setting it on the table, I flipped it open and logged in, going onto Skype in the off chance that Ash was actually on, right now.
“What are you doing?” Maya followed me.
“Ash and I are planning on Skyping, today. Have you talked to Jinxx yet?”
She nodded. “Yeah, actually we were gonna skype, too, so I’ll go do that on my computer.” She left quickly to go to her room, a look of excitement on her face.
I laughed quietly and looked at my screen, going to Ash’s account. He had just signed in, so I sent him a message. Almost as soon as I sent it, he sent me a video chat request. I pressed enter, and Ash’s face appeared on the screen. He was sitting at the table, wearing a black tank top. His hair looked mildly sweaty and his cheeks looked a bit flushed.
“Hey, baby,” I said happily getting on my knees in front of the coffee table where I’d set the laptop.
“Hey,” he sounded tired. “How you doing, Indy?”
“I’m okay,” I said, getting comfortable. “I miss you so much.”
He smiled. “I miss you too. I can’t wait for you to get here on Friday. Has Mitch turned up, again?”
I nodded and sighed sadly. “Yeah, he was here this morning. Thankfully Maya was smart enough to look out the window to see him walk up, so we’ve basically been hiding out here all day and called in sick to work. I eventually got the landlord to make him leave, so he’s gone now. He doesn’t have a key to get into the building, anymore, so Maya and I don’t have to worry about him coming directly into the apartment.”
Ash groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Indy, why don’t you call it in? You know that the cops will make him leave you alone, and you can put him away for hurting Maya.”
I nodded. “I know, but it’ll cause me stress, and according to my doctor stress is the last thing I need right now, especially in this stage, could cause problems. It’s best if Maya reports it, not me. I’m not the one he hurt. If she wants him gone, she needs to make that decision, herself. We have the evidence.”
“Jinxx wants her to report it but he doesn’t want to push her. He thinks she’s afraid of him and is afraid he’ll come after her if she tries to do anything. But if he finds out he’s been basically stalking you guys, he might try and do something, himself. I don’t want to step in and do something you can handle yourself, Indy, but you need to do something because the last thing I want or need is to wake up one day to a phone call from cops or a hospital saying that you were hurt because he wouldn’t leave you alone. I love you Indy and I worry, so please, please do something to fix this.”
His eyes, by this point, were watering and he got a bit closer to the camera and was staring directly into it. I could see the desperation in his eyes, and I could feel my gut drop in guilt. I knew he was right, and I was just putting off the fact that I needed to report Mitch, and if I didn’t do something soon, something bad could happen.
“Alright, enough about that,” Ash said suddenly. “How’re my babies doing?” I knew he meant me and the baby.
I smiled. “We’re great; I haven’t experienced too much discomfort yet, but I’m predicting it’ll happen, soon. I don’t have morning sickness, but lately, every now and then, I get nauseous. But my stomach’s gotten a bit harder so the baby’s growing.”
Ash smiled. “I’m glad to hear that, Indy. When can we find out the gender?”
I laid a hand on my lower belly. “After my fourth month, so not for a while. What are you hoping for?”
Ash scratched his shoulder. “I don’t really know, because I can see myself being happy both ways. With a son I can teach him all I knew and do the cliché of taking him to sports games and shit. With a daughter I can spoil her rotten and treat her like the princess she is. Either way, I’d be happy.”
I smiled. “I’m glad, but there is something I’d like to clear up before we do anything.”
“Oh?”
“I hate gender roles, especially since it was forced on me when I was little. My grandparents forced me to play with dolls and I wore prissy dresses until I was old enough to say no. No matter the gender, we will not make him or her dress in “girl” or “boy” colors. They get to decide that. And if it’s a boy who prefers being artistic and wearing more feminine clothing than being super masculine, so be it. Same if it’s a girl and she prefers to be a tomboy.”
Ash pursued his lips as I spoke and nodded when I finished. “I can agree to that.”
“Same if he or she tells us they are trans or gay or bisexual, or pan, or even asexual.”
Ash raised an eyebrow. “That’d be the day if I, Ashley Purdy, known for my sexual prowess before you, had an asexual child.”
I snickered. “Yeah, but even then, those are my rules.”
I clapped my hands together. “Alright, enough of that. How’s the tour going?”
Ash grinned. “It’s amazing! We’re going to be in Iowa when you get here. At least you’ll be interesting, cause there’s nothing interesting there.”
A shoe flew past Ash’s head, suddenly, and Ash flinched when he saw it.
“Hey!”
“Fuck you too, Ash!” Jinxx retorted with a laugh.
Ash rolled his eyes and chuckled while I put my fist over my mouth to stifle my laughter, which got even harder when Jinxx appeared behind Ash briefly to push his head forward and then walk off snickering. When I raised an eyebrow, Ash mouthed:
“Just walked in.”
“You see what I have to deal with, here?” He said sarcastically as CC walked behind him and made an obnoxious face at me as he walked by.
I smiled and propped my head on my hand and smiled.
“That’s why I’m looking forward to avoiding Mitch there.”

Friday could not have come faster. Mitch showed up where I work and where Maya works several times in the days following the day I had Heild kick him out. I hid in the back room until Barb was able to get him to leave, and I texted Maya, who hid in the back, too, despite Agnes’s protests. Apparently Mitch them came storming in, demanding to see Maya. Agnes squawked and ran into the back, so some customer who weighed close to 250 of basically solid muscle had to bodily drag him out of the store.
Friday morning, we got up extra early to get to the airport before Mitch showed up, again. On the way there, I made Maya promise me that as soon as we got back, she would report everything to the police and get a restraining order against him. She told me that she’d been talking about it with Jinxx and she’d already agreed to it, but would stay with Jinxx while it all was processed, mostly for Jinxx to not freak out while they were apart.
As we pulled away in the taxi, though, I saw Mitch pull up on his motorcycle, and felt my stomach clench, slightly. I tapped Maya, who was looking on her phone and texting Jinxx.
She looked up at me. “What?”
I jerked back with my thumb. “We left in the nick of time. Guess what psycho just turned up on the doorstep?”
She groaned and fell back. “God, why won’t he just leave me alone? Hasn’t he done enough to me? It took me forever to get comfortable around Jinxx.”
I sighed. “Maya, why do you keep putting off telling the police? You know I can’t do it for you, and as much as Jinxx would like to, he knows he can’t force you, either.”
Maya rubbed her eyes. “Indy, what do you think will happen if he found out I reported or put a restraining order on him? He’d come after me even more, regardless of the restraining order. He could go after Jinxx, or you! Indy, think of the baby, I couldn’t do that to you! What the fuck am I supposed to do?”
I groaned. “Maya, he already fucking stalks you! A restraining order would keep him from doing that since you would basically have the court on speed dial and you would be able to put him in jail for violating the order, and he would finally be the fuck away for good. Maya, I know you’re scared of what he could do, but that’s what the cops are for! You have evidence of photos and of all the texts and voicemails I made you save. Fucking hell, I will testify against him if I have to!”
Maya looked close to tears. “Indy, I don’t want you to have more strain than you need. The baby doesn’t need stress right now, and you getting involved would create more for you. Let me handle this, please!”
I groaned. “Maya, I’ll only stay out of it if you swear to me and to Jinxx that you will report this! He’s worried about you, May! I keep getting texts from him asking me if you’re okay. Then the rest of them started texting me telling me that he’s losing his fucking mind worrying over you, and it’s affecting how he’s performing. ”
Maya’s head shot up when I said that, and her eyes grew round.
“What?”
“May, that boy’s on love with you, and the longer you wait to turn Mitch in, the harder it will be for him. He’s going crazy worrying about you, and he wants you safe. And until he knows that you’re gonna do something about it, he’s not gonna let you forget about it.”
Maya wiped a stray tear away. “How do you know?”
I sighed. “Because every time I talk to Ash, he complains to me about how Jinxx won’t shut the fuck up about how worried he is about you, and he keeps asking me if you are okay! Maya, you need to take care of this. If you don’t by the end of the week next week, I will do it for you.”
Maya stared at her hands, tears silently sliding down her cheeks and dripping off of her chin. I knew she was afraid. But she could quit her job and stay on the road with Jinxx until he could come home and protect her. I know that sounds incredibly sexist, but until that lunatic was put away for good, there was no way in hell she was safe without Jinxx.
Maya nodded and wiped her tears. “Okay, I will. I promise.”

Notes

I am so sorry it took me so long to update! I had graduation and a million things going on plus writers' block XP
But here it is!

Don't forget to rate, comment, and subscribe!