This is a continuation of Old friends by (that1hugboxer)
You are Duncan. Today you are spending the day with Jane .
Of all the things Jane could have chosen. She chose to watch the original Nosferatu. The movie starts and Jane wraps herself in a blanket like a cocoon then lays her head on your shoulder.
“Jane please don’t do that.”
Jane sits up and pouts.
“Jane you promised you wouldn’t do this.”
Jane turns her back to you.
Suddenly the doorbell rings.
You pause the movie.
“Just sit tight Jane I’ll be right back.”
You open the door and see Zoey standing there. She looks pissed.
“Enjoying your little movie date?”
“Zoey it’s not a date. It’s just my turn to watch her.”
“You expect me to believe that the woman who held down a full time job needs a babysitter.”
“Yes Zoey I do.”
“The woman who broke your heart, smeared your name on social media, and put a betting pool out on how long it would take to make you crack. Needs A babysitter?”
“It’s more complicated than that.”
“Duncan because you are my friend I’ll bite. What is going on?”
“Today is one of her bad days.”
Zoey speaks in a sarcastic tone
“Oh that clears everything up.”
“Zoey I’m going to take you back. The year is 2005 . 1 of your only 3 friends comes to you crying. Begging you to make the pain stop. She has no bruises or marks of any kind on her body. The pain isn’t physical it’s emotional. Your friend is 9 years old. She tells you that she can’t take the abuse from her father anymore . You try to think of something anything . You remember that your great grandfather has a special bottle he drinks from to feel happy. You find that bottle and give it to her.
Over the next 7 years she comes to you again and again for more of what you now know is vodka. You’re too afraid to tell your great grandparents that you’ve been giving your best friend alcohol for the past several years to help her cope with her father’s sexual abuse. You’ve unintentionally stunted her brains growth and now as an adult she has the same reasoning skills as when she was 9. You find her a room mate who you thought was a decent person. It turns out that she took advantage of her and used her as a scapegoat in a payroll fraud scheme. She fills your highly impressionable and mentally handicapped friend’s mind with notions that you never cared about her. This person then “helps” your friend get payback.”
Zoey covers her mouth in shock.
“Zoey I created this. I can’t fix it. The least I could do is not abandon her.”
“But the betting pool, the slander?”
“Zoey do you honestly think someone with such limited mental faculties could manage such a multi layer smear campaign on her own? Who do you think put this all together?”
“And the payroll fraud?”
“I told Femi that Jane could really only handle menial tasks . Femi abused the trust our boss and lied to her about Jane being capable of managing such a task. Since they lived and carpooled together all femi had to do was get Jane to enter the access passcode and then femi could alter both her and Jane’s payroll essentially using Jane as the fall guy when things went south. I knew the moment I picked Jane up for our date that something was wrong. But I wanted so much to believe that Jane had finally gotten better , that I became lost in my own delusion.”
“How the heck did Femi convince your boss that Jane was suitable for the job?”
“A lot of coaching and rehearsal on Femi’s part. It’s the same way she convinced me that Jane was capable of understanding what Dates were like. It all fell apart the moment they were separated and Jane had to improv . It wasn’t until the ride home that she spilled the beans. And told me everything. I told Jane to follow Femi’s instructions and I would work something out. I was afraid what Femi might do if she found out I knew.
I contacted my boss and we staged Jane’s firing . Once I got Jane away from Femi My boss laid the trap . Unfortunately Femi found out and seeing no way out decided to punish me by killing Drupal.”
Zoey is in a shock induced cold sweat.
“Who the hell raised Femi!?”
“Her dad is Nigel Henderson one of the R&D scientists at the Texas branch of Hasbio Laboratories”