Page 36 of Tru Blue
“I don’t think you’re a freak,” Gemma said.
“That’s because you like my freakiness. And because you’re the least judgmental person I know.”
“I thought I was, but now I’m not so sure.” She drew in a deep breath and told Gemma about her conversation with Truman. By the time she let it all out, she was as teary-eyed and flustered as she’d been last night.
“Holy. Shit.” Crystal dug her feet into the sand.
“I know.”
“His own mother put him in prison after he saved her ass?” Crystal said angrily. “Who does that?”
“A drug abuser, I guess. That’s the thing that stood out most to you?”
“Well, no,” Crystal said. “The whole story is crazy, but he walked in on some asshole raping his mother, and you said he tried to pull the guy off. He did what he had to do. He wasn’t just protecting his mother. You said his younger brother was there, too. I could see doing that,” she said easily. “If someone were raping my mother, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to stop them. I don’t think it would take any thought, either. Mom. Raped. Kill the fucker.”
Just hearing her say it like that made Gemma’s heart race. It was hard for her to think like that about her mother. Truth be told, it was hard for her to think about her mother at all. And the really messed-up thing was that part of her wondered how she’d tell her mother she was dating a man who had been in prison for voluntary manslaughter.
“That also explains much about what you’ve said about him. No wonder he’s so protective.”
It did. She knew it did. “But…he killed a man.”
“A drug-dealing rapist,” Crystal pointed out. “Not exactly a pillar of society.”
“How does a person move past that?”
“How does a person, or how do you?” Crystal asked. “Because it sounds like he’s been moving past it for months, and the way you talk about him, it sounds like he’s got his shit together better than most of the guys I know.”
Gemma lay back on the sand staring up at the graying sky as the sun began to set. Crystal lay down beside her.
“If you didn’t feel anything for him, or if you thought he posed a danger to you or those kids, you would have already called someone—Social Services to protect the kids, or me to protect you. Are you afraid of him?” Crystal asked.
Gemma shook her head. “No,” she said honestly. “Not even a little.”
“What are you afraid of? That your gold-digging mother will have a conniption, or that he’s as uncaring or unstable as your father was?”
Gemma turned to face her. Even though those things were true about her parents, she hated hearing them said aloud. “No. I mean, we know my mother would probably lock me up in a tower and throw away the key if she found out, but that would mean she’d have to leave her throne. We both know that’s not happening. And Truman is more than caring, and I don’t think he’s unstable. If he were, I would see it, right? They wouldn’t have let him out of prison early. Besides, an unstable person doesn’t make his younger brother a priority after he moves out, or stay away from drugs because he knows what they do to a person. An unstable person would take the easy way out and do drugs to escape their life.”
“That’s what I was thinking, but what do I know?”
“You know me, and you’ve known people who were in prison before. Your brother, for one.” Crystal hated talking about her brother, Jed, but she knew her friend wouldn’t mind, given what she was going through.
“He was a thief. Is a thief.” Crystal stared up at the darkening sky. “From what Jed told me, if you are a certain type of person, no amount of time in prison will change you. He was arrested two months after being released—and that was only because he got caught. He told me that he was stealing days after he got released. So based on that, if Truman were the type of man who could kill without remorse, he’d probably have flown off the handle lots of times, not just one time when his mother was being raped.”
“He grew up with her bringing men in and out, and from what he told me, he never lashed out. Even after he moved out, a guy threatened him with a gun to keep him away from the house, but he didn’t retaliate. He just kept on going back and watching out for Quincy. But I don’t know how you accept that type of thing. He killed a man. It doesn’t even feel real. When I looked at him after he told me, I didn’t see a killer. I saw the man who didn’t think twice about raising siblings he never knew existed. The man who was ready to refuse my help because he thought I might want to harm them. But he did kill a man, and he was in prison. Prison, Crystal.”
