Chapter 31

Mr. Campbell was furious after the hearing ended. He glared at the sheriff and then at me before stomping out of the courtroom. I resisted the urge to smile at him in return, since he was still going to be a problem for me. Though, if the judge’s threats held any weight, maybe I wouldn’t have to deal with him for much longer. Besides, I doubted he could hate me any more than he already did.

“I can’t thank you enough,” I said, turning to Mr. Eaves, who was collecting all of his papers and putting them back into his briefcase. “I assume this means all my restrictions are gone, and I can go back to my life?”

“Yes. He can appeal, but if the judge also files a grievance, and I think she’s going to, I’m not even sure the Appellate Court would take it. Either way, the case being dismissed means that, yes, you’re off all restrictions. You can go back to playing your music and leave the state if you need to.”

I actually didn’t need to do that, at least not anytime soon. With my contract gone, the only work I could reliably get was at the Blue Ridge. While not the worst thing in the world, I needed to get in front of other audiences if I was ever going to be more than a local musician. That was tomorrow’s problem. Right now, I could at least be happy that I had my life back, even if that was bittersweet since Mom wasn’t here to celebrate with me.

“Well, thanks a lot. I owe you.”

“I was just doing my job,” he said. “Not that I’m not thrilled that we won. You did everything you were supposed to do, listening to me, and it all worked out. Meet me at my office on Monday, and we’ll make a trip out to the school district to start the process of getting you back in school, since I’m assuming the school administrator is going to still be something of a problem.”

“Yeah, he’ll almost certainly try to keep me out, even though the charges were dropped.”

“Then, yeah, let’s go see the school district people on Monday and try to get some common sense back in the world. I’ll call them after we leave here and get an appointment. I’ll also start working in earnest on your contract and see what kind of options we have available to us. You understand the least likely thing to happen, especially after we start talking to them about legal action, is for them to bring you back on, right?”

“I know. I’m pretty sure I’m done with them, no matter what. So now all I can do is try and get a little something out of it. What about the District Attorney? I can’t imagine he’s going to let this drop. If anything, I feel like he’s going to try and double down on what he’s been doing.”

“Maybe, but he’s going to have bigger things to worry about than you. He made a lot of mistakes here. Even if his end goal was to find something to get you charged with, he pushed too hard on a case that he had no chance of winning. In doing so, he went way, way out on a limb, and it got noticed. The best thing we can do is keep pushing him and not give him time to get all this stuff pushed under the rug. In addition to the other things I’m working on for you, I think we should file a wrongful prosecution lawsuit against the county. Besides getting you a payout for what they’ve done to you, if we can make it expensive enough and embarrassing enough for the county, he’ll become a liability, and the county will start looking at recalling him. What’s more, with the transcript of this hearing as evidence, we have a good chance of winning, too.”

“Good. I’m done being his punching bag and trying to stay off his radar. I’ve been used as a punching bag by the school district, by the label, and by the DA, and I want to punch back.”

“I get it, and we’ll work on it. Just be aware there’s only so much that can be gained from lawsuits. The best you can get in most of the cases is a payout, except for the school district where they allow you back in school.”

“If these people have to pay out enough money, they’ll get some repercussions though, right?”

“Most of them, yeah. No one likes paying out money they don’t have to, and their organizations will come down on the person costing them. Don’t expect that to mean people get fired. The DA is an elected official, so unless he gets arrested or recalled, or loses his license, he’s going to keep his job. And the execs who made the call on your contract are the people who decide to fire someone, so they’re unlikely to fire themselves.”

“I’m less concerned about the record label. I just want to get something back so that I don’t have to start over. I’d really like the rights to my album since I don’t know when I’ll get another one made, and I don’t want them to just sit on it. I do want to see Mr. Packer and Mr. Campbell out of their jobs. I know that’s not guaranteed, but I want to make sure they don’t come after me anymore. I don’t want to always be looking over my shoulder.”

“I’ll see what I can do. Okay, get out of here. I’ll call you Monday morning.”

I gave him a thumbs up and headed out, not really sure what I was going to do over the weekend. It was Friday, so theoretically, I could go back to the Blue Ridge, but Dwight and the rest of Willie’s band were already set to play, and I didn’t want to pull the rug out from under them. Also, I didn’t have a band at the moment, so I needed to basically rework all the music to fit just Lyla and me, and we’d need to find a drummer. I could get away with no keyboard, but nothing we’d written would work without a drummer.

I was still considering my options when I practically ran into Sheriff Gibbs as I exited the front door of the courthouse. Thankfully, he was paying more attention than I was because he jumped out of the way at the last second, avoiding a collision.

“Sorry, Sheriff. I wasn’t paying attention.”

“No problem. I’m sure you’ve got a lot on your mind. Congratulations on your win. I’m glad the judge saw things for how they are.”

“I owe it to your testimony. If it weren’t for you, I don’t think we would have gotten the case thrown out.”

“I only did what anyone in my position would have done. What the district attorney was doing was wrong, and I wouldn’t have stood by and let it happen to anyone.”

“Well, I appreciate it all the same.”

“Sure,” he said, giving me a tight smile and turning to continue down the courthouse steps.

“I have to ask, why were you willing to go out of your way and put yourself in danger to help me, but you also used this to convince Sydney to break up with me? I don’t get it.”

“Because you’re dangerous for her. I know you don’t mean to be, but you are a magnet for bad things happening, and I don’t want Sydney put in that kind of position.”

“Every time I’ve gotten in trouble, been a ‘magnet’ for trouble, is because I saw something wrong happening and tried to do something about it. I would never have gotten into so many fights at school if I hadn’t tried to keep Aaron, Harry, and Paul from beating up Hanna’s little cousin. I wouldn’t have gotten Aaron’s father gunning for me if I hadn’t stopped Aaron from assaulting Camille at Prom. I only try to do the right thing, and it feels like I’m being punished for it.”

“That’s completely fair, and as a person, I think you should be commended for being willing to stick your neck out for other people. But as a father, there is no one I’d want my daughter to date less than you. I know you’re just trying to help people, but you put yourself in positions where you make the kinds of enemies that put targets on you. Other people, they see things happen, they call the police or let someone in authority know about it. That’s what makes you dangerous. You act without considering the consequences.”

“So I should just call a cop and wait? If I had done that Camille would have been assaulted before you ever showed up. I guess my dad would still be alive, but my mom would still be dead. Sam would have had the crap kicked out of him, and the bullies would have been long gone by the time you showed up. Sometimes, there isn’t time to stop and think.”

“Maybe, but like I said, there are consequences. I’m glad you managed to get your case dismissed, Charlie. I really am. But please respect my daughter’s wishes and stay away from her.”

With that, he turned and continued down the steps. I still thought he was wrong, and it was insane to say someone should just walk away when they see something bad happening, just because they don’t want to get into trouble. He was undoubtedly going to face some kind of repercussion for standing up to the district attorney, and that would affect Sydney, but he did it anyway. To me, it was an unfair double standard.

Not that I’d want to be back with Sydney now. She walked away when I was at my lowest. She knew how bad I was hurting and called us off anyway, even though she’d said she loved me. If she was willing to drop me then, especially after saying that, I couldn’t ever trust her again. And I couldn’t be with someone I didn’t trust.

As soon as I got back to Wellsville, I headed straight for the Blue Ridge. I needed to get things going again, and that started with being back on stage. I already knew I wasn’t going to play this weekend, but I needed to find out if I was going to be able to count on this for regular work while I figured everything else out.

I could probably manage without it, since I had a roof over my head and Mrs. Philips refused to allow me to pay rent or even for the food I ate or any of the bills, but Lyla needed the work. Yeah, she was living with Tabitha, but no one wanted to be stuck, reliant on their significant other for everything. Besides, we needed money if we were going to start trying to book gigs out of town.

Chef must have seen me coming because he came out of the front door and was up on the porch before I even got to the steps.

“I hear congratulations are in order,” he said, beaming.

“Mr. Eaves called you?”

“Yes. Case dismissed and all restrictions lifted. I bet you’re feeling pretty relieved.”

“I am. That’s actually why I came by. I wanted to see if there was any chance I’d still get to play here, I...”

“Absolutely. I’ve had people asking every night when you were going to be playing again. Not just townsfolk either, but people who made the drive regularly to see you from all around the county. Lots of people have been missing your music. I might have to change the sign on the highway just so everyone knows you’re back. I already talked to Dwight, and he doesn’t mind splitting sets with you this weekend and going back to the old schedule next weekend.”

“I can’t do that. He’s already counting on working full nights all weekend, and I take enough business from those guys. Let him play this weekend.”

“He doesn’t mind, really. The audience has started to fall off since you’ve been gone, and some nights the count is lower than what he got for the second show since so many people would stay on to hear them after you finished. I think he’d be happy to do it.”

“I also need some time. The band’s split up, and right now it looks like it’s just going to be Lyla and me. I’m headed to talk to her next, but we have to rewrite everything to cut out the keyboard parts, and I’ll need to talk to Arnie about covering us on drums while we try and find a replacement for Seth. I know his elbow has been hurting him, or it was the last time I talked to him, and it’ll be hard to play both our set and Dwight’s, so I might need to come up with someone else.”

“Okay, I’ll let them know, but get back to me by Monday, and let me know if you’re good to play next weekend, because I really need you back and I want to market it a little to get things kick-started.”

“Yeah, I’ll let you know.”

“Good. Now, I know you rushed back here from Asheville, so come in and let me feed you, then you can run off and start taking care of things. I want to hear the details about how the hearing went and what your plans are moving forward.”

I really just wanted to get going, because I was excited to start working on my music again, but he held open the door and gave me a look that told me I wasn’t going to talk him out of his offer. Considering all I owed him, it wasn’t like I could say ‘no.’

After a quick meal and answering a barrage of questions from both Chef and the rest of the guys working there, who came out of the kitchen when they realized I was in the dining room, I finally made my escape. It had been a full day and it was getting late, but I wasn’t ready to head home yet.

Chef had made it clear that he wanted me back playing next weekend. The reason he gave was because he was getting a lot of requests for me to come back and play, but I think he really wanted to get me back up on the horse, so to speak. Dwight came by to set up while I was eating, and Chef had him come over and he practically demanded that I start playing tonight. Again, it felt like a setup, that maybe Chef had called Dwight to come by since it was a little earlier than they usually started setting up, but I wasn’t going to call them out on it.