21. The Shack

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21. The Shack

_______________

I was on my seventh shot.

The party raged on, and I was cheered on by Eddie and his friends. I knew I had to stop. I knew I couldn't drink too much, but for the first time in weeks, I was actually enjoying myself.

I didn't want it to end. In spite of Eddie and our past. In spite of everything that was going on.

I was having fun.

"Come on, man we have to do another," Phil said, pouring more liquor in the shot glasses.

"I don't think so," I said. I was feeling the effects of the alcohol already. The alcohol we were drinking was strong and it didn't take long to hit. There were already hints of my words slurring cause I was buzzed.

I was still self aware which was good, but if I kept drinking, there was no telling how drunk I'd end up tonight.

"Dude, one more shot," Adam suggested. "The night is still young!"

"Really, guys," I held my ground. "I think I'm good for the night."

"Don't be a party pooper!" Eddie chimed in, well past tipsy at this point. "We're having fun together, remember?"

"Eddie, I appreciate it but—"

"No 'buts,' mister!" Eddie interjected. "Do another."

"I can't."

Eddie frowned at me this time. I was worried in his drunken state he'd make this a bigger deal than it was. We had been getting along and I didn't want that to stop just because I was taming myself. Plus, I had to drive later on. Getting shit-faced was not on my agenda.

"Fine," he said finally. "Your loss!"

Then he'd taken the shot glass and downed its contents in one swift motion.

I spent the next twenty-five minutes hanging out in the kitchen. I was speaking to people I'd never spoken to before. I was joking and laughing with Eddie, Phil and Adam. I almost forgot that about all the bad things that had been going on in my life.

Almost.

I checked the time. I still had over half an hour before I'd make my exit. The time was actually going by pretty quickly. Time flies when you're actually enjoying yourself.

There was a shrill sound suddenly that came from behind me, and I turned to see broken glass on the floor with Danielle and Like standing over it.

"Dammit, Dani looked what you just did," Luke said in annoyance.

"Oops," Danielle said with a giggle. She'd definitely been drinking a ton.

"It's no big deal," Eddie said approaching them, overly friendly. "Someone will clean it."

Then Eddie pointed to Adam. "Hey. Clean it!"

"Why me?" Adam protested.

Eddie shrugged.

Adam rolled his eyes, but no longer objected as he left in search for what I assumed was a broom.

Danielle and Luke walked up to me.

"So how are things here?" Luke asked.

I shrugged. "Fine, I guess. Eddie hasn't tried to kill me, so that's good."

"I noticed."

"Yeah, it's like the twilight zone."

"Anyone got another beer?" Danielle blurted.

"You don't need anything else," Luke scolded.

"What are you my daddy?"

"Wouldn't be the first time you've called me that," Luke said suggestively.

Danielle's mouth dropped and then she laughed. "True."

"Seems like you two are enjoying the party well enough," I commented.

"It's okay," Luke said.

I still was struggling to pretend everything was okay between my friends and I. By no means had I forgotten the conversation they'd had amongst each other when they thought I wasn't around. But I had to play it cool for now.

I could ask Kevin about it tonight. He'd surely tell me what was going on this time.

He had to.

"I think she needs to sit down," Luke said, referring to Danielle as she was currently struggling to stand up.

"I'll help," I said, putting one of Danielle's arms over my shoulder while Luke did the same. We began walking her out of the kitchen and into the living room, where there was a much larger crowd, placing her on the couch.

"I think I'm gonna be sick," Danielle groaned.

"Please don't throw up," Luke said.

"She okay?" Came Sayora's voice. She was coming up behind Luke and I.

"She'll live," Luke responded.

I was looking at her and she took notice. This time, unlike when we'd first arrived at the party, I didn't look away. I wanted her to notice me. To acknowledge me.

"Can we talk?" The question came out before I could really stop myself.

She seemed like she would protest again, but I didn't let her. I marched over to her, took her arm and gently pulled her to the side.

"What are you doing?!" She exclaimed, pulling her arm away.

"Can you stop doing this?!" I demanded.

"Just drop it!"

She pushed past me, making her way to the front door, leaving outside. But I was right on her tail.

"Sayora!" I called after her.

"I need fresh air," she said as she kept walking.

There were only a handful of people hanging out in the front yard outside, which was fine because I didn't really want an audience.

I jogged to cut in front of Sayora, preventing her from walking any further. "Stop!"

"Ricky, listen to me—"

"No, you listen!" I cut her off.

She looked taken aback by how stern I was being, but clearly this would be the only way to make her actually understand what I needed of her.

"I have given you all the time and space that you've wanted," I started. "I have been beating myself up because I let you down so badly, and I've apologized to you so many times."

"But—"

"I'm not finished," said.

She shut up, to my surprise.

"Like I said, I've apologized to you so many times. You're one of the most important things in my life right now, Say. It's not fair that you're demanding something of me that I'm too scared to share with you right now. Don't you get that?" I was on a roll now. She needed to hear everything that I was feeling.

Everything.

I cupped her cheeks in my hands as I continued, holding her gaze with mine, as I poured my unfiltered feelings out.

"I need time. That's it. But you're tearing me apart and I don't want to lose you. I can't fathom the thought of you hating me... Not when I love you so much."

Those last words stuck with her.

I froze in anticipation. What would she say to that? How would she respond? Did she feel the same? My heart was going crazy and I found that I was shaking a little bit.

"I don't hate you," she finally whispered. "I'm just upset and concerned."

I sighed in relief. "I know. But please just trust me. I need you to trust me."

Her gaze was intense and i could see that she was seriously battling with herself on the inside. She opened her mouth to say something, but then a roar of voices suddenly was present.

A plethora of people came rushing out of the front door. Leading the pack was Eddie.

Sayora snapped her head to see the commotion and both of us realized that they were heading our way.

Eddie had a wide, mischievous grin on his face and just as I was about to ask what was going on, he and some other dudes brushed past Sayora, grabbed me, and together lifted me over their heads as if I was crowd surfing.

"Put me down!" I yelled. But they weren't trying to hear it.

They laughed and cheered, roaring with hoots and hollers.

I managed to see Sayora's face and she looked completely in shock. She followed as they began taking me around the side of the house, protesting, demanding that they put me down as well.

We eventually came to the back yard, a much more popular destination due to the pool and jacuzzi.

That when I realized what was going on.

"No!" I cried. "No, don't! Stop this bullshit! Stop!"

But it was to no avail.

Once they reached the edge of the pool, I was tossed in.

The water swallowed me, consumed me. In my haste, I'd accidentally swallowed the pool water down the wrong pipe.

I quickly resurfaced, in a coughing fit. Thankfully, I knew how to swim and made my way back to the pool's edge. Sayora was there to help me out.

I was on my hands and knees, gasping and coughing. Throwing up chlorine water, soaking wet.

I heard laughs from the crew of guys and I was infuriated.

I looked up and saw Eddie, laughing the hardest of course. I stood up, stomped over to him and pushed him hard.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" I shouted.

He just laughed more. "Calm down, Rick. We were just having fun."

"If I had drowned it wouldn't have been so fun, now would it?!"

"Don't be a little bitch about it."

I stared daggers at him and I realized that Eddie never intended on being friends, or at least cordial. It was an act. He just wanted to humiliate me.

"You can't just do that to people," Sayora said.

"I'll do what I want," Eddie retorted.

"You're a fucking asshole," I pushed him again, challenging him. He stumbled more than he would have if he were sober, but drunk or not I was tired of his shit.

"Wow, someone really upset," he mocked me.

A realization dawned on me and I reached into my pocket to grab my waterlogged cellphone. It didn't work when I tried turning it on.

"Yikes," Eddie said. "That sucks."

My anger increased.

"Hey, I'm sure it won't cost that much to replace," Eddie chuckled. It was all so amusing to him. I'd had enough. It was time to snap.

"I mean now you'll have an excuse to get a better phone at least," he continued. "Ya know, I hear—"

He was cut off by my right fist hitting him in the face.

He fell to the ground and there was almost a collective gasp from the people surrounding. They took a step back, probably thinking that I'd lost my mind. Maybe they were right to think that.

I walked past Eddie as he laid there on the ground, making my way back to the front yard. I heard Sayora calling me the whole way back to my car.

I ignored her as I got in and drove off. I had no way to communicate with Kevin now. So I cut my losses and decided to be at the shack early. I was so over that party.

___

The shack was nothing but a dark silhouette in the moonlight. It was ominous. I'd never been here at so late of a time. With me was a small flashlight.

Kevin was not around yet and I'd expected as much. I had no way of telling the time at the moment, but I had enough sense of it to know that I was very early.

So I waited.

Several minutes passed. How many, I wasn't sure, but if I had to guess, it was somewhere between twenty and thirty. Including the time it took to drive out here, I knew Kevin and I'd meeting time was nearing closer.

I kept my ears peeled for any and every sound. There was a din of cricket chirps and I occasionally could hear an owl. But no footsteps.

At least until I heard a snap of a twig near by.

I was suddenly at full attention and called out. "Who's there?!"

It was probably a dumb move considering on the off chance that I were to get attached again out here, giving my position away would be the quickest way for me to be murdered.

I looked around and couldn't pinpoint where the sound came from until there was another. I faced that direction in anxiety. Not sure if it were an animal, a killer or Kevin.

"You're early," came his voice closing in.

His shape came into view and I let out a sigh. "You scared the shit out of me."

He chuckled. "Sorry, little brother."

"Where have you been?!" I demanded, walking closer to him. "Why haven't you been in contact with me? I thought something terrible had happened."

"You worry too much," Kevin said.

"And you're not worried enough apparently," I retorted.

Kevin examined me. "Are you wet?"

I'd dried off a little, but my clothes and hair were still damp.

"Can we stay on topic?" I said.

"I'm sorry," Kevin obliged. "I've just been trying I figure things out. I don't want you to be too involved."

I scoffed in disbelief. "Are you a dumbass?!"

"What does that mean?"

"Kevin, I was attacked."

He paused for a brief moment. "What?"

"I think your attacker was after me," I told him. "It was recent. I barely escaped alive. A friend and I."

"Your friend?"

"You don't know him, he... He was the one who saw us the first time we met."

"Shit, Ricardo. We can't be getting other people into this!"

"I know that!" I snapped. "So tell me everything! Tell me so we don't drag this out."

"Fine," Kevin said. "I'll explain. What do you want to know first?"

Finally. I was finally going to have answers. But I didn't know what I wanted to know first. There was so much.

"What are Mom and Dad hiding?" I settled on this first. "You especially said not to tell them about you. You don't trust them. Why?"

"It's mainly Mom," Kevin admitted. "She and Raymond are hiding something... Something big."

"And that is?"

Kevin sighed. "There's another."

I raised an eyebrow. "Another?"

"Another us," Kevin clarified. "Another child."

I was still confused and it showed on my face.

Kevin continued: "Years ago, Mom and Raymond had an affair. They had a kid together."

My eyes widened and I shook my head in disbelief. "No way."

"Yes way," Kevin said. "They had an affair and a kid came from it. But they never told Dad. They hid the kid. There was a time when Mom and Dad split for a year, before you were in the picture. It was a couple years after I was born. I don't remember much, I was young. They didn't divorce, but they were on the verge of it. Mom even moved out into a separate apartment in town.

Somewhere in that timeline, Raymond got Mom pregnant. Presumably almost right after the split. During the second half of the year, Mom went out of town. She couldn't very well hide the pregnancy with her beginning to show, so she left me with Dad and told him that she was gonna get away for some months. To clear her head and 'find herself.' But really, it was so she could deliver the baby without him knowing.

Once she came back, she wanted nothing to do with it. Raymond raised it as his own in the next town over for years. That's why we never go to see him. He always has to come see us. Cause we had a sibling living with Raymond this whole time and they didn't want us to know."

"How did you figure that out?" I asked. This was sounding crazy and I partly didn't believe it.

"The kid contacted me. We exchanged letters and eventually decided to meet up."

"That's who those letters are from?" I asked. "The ones you left for me? They came from Raymond and Mom's illegitimate child?"

Kevin nodded.

"But... if this boy was living with Raymond then what does SPI have to do with anything? The letter I read came from someone who said being at SPI sucked." I inquired. "How does a mental institution connect to him? Or you for that matter?"

"I don't know the full story," Kevin said. "But I have nothing to do with SPI."

"But the picture."

"What?"

"There was a picture of you in an article talking about an escaped SPI patient. It was you in the featured photo, Kevin."

Kevin frowned. He clearly was at a loss for words.

"Kevin, you have to tell me everything you know!"

"I'm trying to," Kevin said defensively. "Look, I can't explain that. There's obviously something going on that I'm unaware of too."

This still wasn't making sense. But I moved on... For now.

"Well, what happened between you and my friends? They've been acting shady and now they know you're alive."

Kevin's eyes widened. "They know?"

"I fucked up," I admitted. "It was my fault, they found our texts. They haven't confronted me, but that's why I need to get to the bottom of this!"

"Ricky, do you know what you've done?!"

"Tell me! What did they do to you?!"

"They tried to kill me!" Kevin blurted.

My heart sank. "You sure?"

"Yes!" Kevin said. "It was them! They beat me, tied me up in the woods, and left me to die! Right here in the shack."

I inhaled and exhaled several times before trying to wrap my head around this new information. Which still, in a way, didn't make sense.

"How are you so sure now?" I pressed. "When we first met up, you said someone tried to kill you. Implying that you didn't know. Now you're so positive it was them?"

"I didn't want to think so at first. I didn't want to tear your friendship apart without being positive, but after giving it thought it makes sense to me."

"Well, it doesn't to me. My friends aren't murderers."

"Maybe not most of them, at heart. But Luke..." Kevin trailed off.

"What about Luke?"

"He initiated my attack and the others followed suit after he pressured them. That includes your girlfriend."

"Why? Why would they... Why would Luke ever—?"

"Because of Danielle," Kevin deadpanned. "A couple years ago, she and I... We did things."

"You slept with her?"

"Right," Kevin muttered sounding partially ashamed. "But Luke found out somehow and instead of telling the truth, Danielle threw me under the bus."

"Threw you under the bus how?"

"It was completely consensual," Kevin replied. "But she made it sound like I forced myself on her. Made it seem like I was a monster so she didn't have to own up to what she did. Luke didn't like that obviously. Nobody would, it's a disgusting thing to do. But I didn't do it, and Danielle didn't want to tell the police though. Surely because bringing them into it would escalate a situation that she lied about."

"So then Luke took things into his own hands," I added.

"I was hit in the head off-guard one night," Kevin went on. "When I woke up I was blindfolded in the shack. My arms and legs were tied up. I remember hearing voices. Luke and Danielle were a couple of them for sure. Danielle was asking him to stop, but he wasn't trying to hear it. Thinking about it, he was the only one beating on me when he found out I'd woken up, but the others sure helped with tying me up and getting me here. He kept on telling them that I was a scumbag. That I'd violated Danielle in the biggest and most heinous way possible."

I heard the trembling in his voice as he kept talking. He was about to be in tears. All I could do was listen.

"Of course with me being a senior and her being a sophomore, it was so easy to believe that I'd done it," Kevin said. "So he'd beaten me so badly, I could barely move. And they just watched. Then when it was over, they all left... Just left me there to die. I was carrying my lucky pocket knife that day—ya know the one grandpa gave me?—so I was able to cut myself free after three fucking hours. They must've assumed I'd get out somehow because after taking the blindfold off I saw a note on the floor telling me never to show my face in Hillbury again. So I left town."

"I still don't understand why you wouldn't go to the police," I said. "Or how you suddenly can just remember Luke and Danielle were there."

"Like I said, I wasn't positive at first," Kevin retorted. "I was beaten to a pulp and everything was a blur. But you said it yourself; they know I'm alive after thinking I was dead. If they weren't guilty, why wouldn't they confront you? Why would they be so shady unless they had something to hide?"

I didn't want to answer his question out loud. Cause I knew what the answer would be.

"That's how I know now that it was them. I'd always had my suspicions, but you confirmed

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