Chapter Twelve

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Brianna


What's going on? Alexis? Logan? 

When I finally opened my eyes, I was in Logan's car. An airbag had activated itself in my face, and Alexis's. She was unconscious beside me. "Alexis," I ripped my seat-belt off my chest and examined her condition. She had small trickles of blood dripping down her face, but her eyes fluttered. Her chest still rose. I searched for my phone in my chest. When I found my phone, I pulled it out. I frantically tapped at the cracked screen three times and put it too my ear. 
"911... what's your-"
"We just crashed off the highway, and we're in this..." I looked around me. It was forest, and we must have fallen car down, because there was no road in sight. "Forest. Woodsy area. I don't know. I'm really shaken up ma'am." 
"What's your location, sweetheart?" The woman on the other line sounded genuinely concerned. I gave her my last memory of where we were and told her to hurry, that my friend was unconscious in the passenger. 
"An ambulance is dispatched. Do you need me to stay on the phone with you?"
"Yes please." My voice cracked. "Please. Is my friend okay?"
"I don't know, you tell me, sweetie. Is she breathing?"
"Yes."
"Is her pulse fading?"
"Um," I climbed over the seat of the crashed car and examined her chest, her wrists, for a pulse. It was still steady and strong. I looked at Alexis, and her eyes began to open. She was waking up. "She's waking up!" I exclaimed.
"Great, now ask her if she's okay, and make sure she's responding."
"Alexis?" I cupped the phone between my ear and shoulder. "Alexis, can you hear me?"
"Bri?"
I nodded. "Yes, it's me. It's Bri. Help is on the way, okay?"
She grinned. "No..."
"Huh?" 
"Let me go with Lucas. I want to go with him."
"No, Alexis. Stop that."
"Please."
I shook my head and held her close to me. "Just shut up, because you sound dramatic." I told her. I held on to her the way I'd seen Logan hold her. When I realized it, she was quietly sobbing in my chest. I rubbed her hair and told her everything was going to be okay. We were going to be okay.

"Aye!" I heard all of the sudden. I looked up and a woman was walking our way. She had on some tattered jean overalls, and her hair was dreaded up. It was long, and light brown.  "Ya'll straight?" I took a huge sigh, and shook my head no. We weren't.

She neared us and got a look at the scene. And I got a better look at her. She had full lips and zero make up. Her skin was caramel, a smooth caramel. "Oh, damn!" She exclaimed. She took the jammed door and tried to yank it open. The first tugs were unsuccessful until she got it. "You need some ice, or something?" She asked, looking horrified at us. "Your friend okay? She not dead is she?"

"No," I said too quickly. "She's okay. Ice would be great, thank you."

"I gotchu." She bakced up and ran back into the woods, God knows where she went. Maybe she had a house or apartment nearby.

Logan

I was starring at the barrel of a gun for moments while Buzz took his satisfaction from my expression. Scared. Hopeless. Pissed. "What's wrong, Logan? This wasn't the ending you were hoping for?"

I just watched him silently. 

"No? What? You wanted to be driving off into the sunset with your little girlfriend? Marry her? Have some little kiddos?" He laughed at me. "Tough luck for you."

"Buzz, I don't want you to do this." I told him. "I know you've got to have a heart somewhere in there, man."

"I do."

"Nah, man. I know you were better than this." I sighed. "I'm tired of asking you questions like why, or when you gained such envy for me-"

"Envy?" He clicked bullet shaft. "You think I envy you, kid?" My hands shot up in the air.
"Nah, man, you know what I'm talking about. You get what I mean?" I asked him. "You killed my mom. You set me up. You did all this to me, for what?" I asked. "I did your sister wrong, okay, so what? You gonna do that to all the assholes that do that to your sister? One day, it's all going to catch up to you."

"Won't anything catch up to me. Won't anyone rat me out, if they know what's good for them."

"One day. It will man. And you won't see the day your sister finally get's married to the right asshole - I mean, guy." I sighed. "I'm sorry I wasn't that perfect guy to you." I turned to Sharron. "I am. I could have been, you know? But somethings just don't work out, Sharron."
She had this look of acceptance on her face. The look you give someone when you know they're right and you're wrong. "I'm sorry. You deserve a great guy. I'm sorry I wasn't him." The apology was sincere, but the extra time I took saying it wasn't. I needed to spread the time out until the cops showed.

It was then I looked out the window and spotted the cars pulling up one by one. I shot a look back at Buzz. "If I did anything to hurt you, man, I'm sorry. If I knew it would amount to all this, God knows I wouldn't have even attempted it." That was the truth. "But I'm sorry. And things happen. Unfortunate things happen. At the end of the day, just like you, I have to make sure my family is straight." Buzz looked at me hard, searching for the truth somewhere in my eyes. It was clear that he was slowly coming to terms, because his arm lowered.


"Everyone get down!" The attic doors burst open and officers rolled in. "On your knees! Drop the gun or we're shooting!" Buzz dropped the gun and put his hands behind his head in compliance. I got to my knees and put my hands to the back of my head, and so did Sharron. She was crying softly as the officers put her in cuffs. 

On the way down, I watched two of the officers kneeling over Lucas. I shook my head. The man handled me to the car, but I didn't care. The cops were here, and I was innocent. Buzz was in custody, and so was Sharron. I knew one thing was for certain: We needed to get out of this place. Soon, before anyone else I loved lost a life. I couldn't handle another death. None of us could. Especially my sister.

Inside the interrogation room, I answered the cops truthfully. I didn't hide anything. They asked about Buzz and his motivation, they asked me about my relationships to the dead bodies. Some of them I couldn't recognize, other's, sadly, I could have.  Several guys barely made it out alive. I was one of the lucky ones. A few, though, were pronounced dead at the scene. I ratted Buzz out as soon as I could. They asked me about when this all started. I took them back to the beginning, when Sharron found out about me having a new girlfriend and tripping about it to her brother. Her crazy, psychotic, brother.

My phone vibrated. I looked at the caller I.D and put it to my ear. "Brianna?"

"We're okay. But, there's bad news."

"What?"

"We're in the hospital. I crashed the car."

"You what?"

She carefully explained to me what had occurred on their ride home, and immediately after, I wanted to leave. I wanted to get to them as soon as possible. When I rose from my seat, one of the officers, Officer Haney, stopped me. "Where are you going?"

"My girlfriend just called me." 

"The Brianna girl that you were talking about?"

"Yes, sir. Her and my sister got into a car crash over an hour ago and she's calling from the hospital. I'm the only guardian,"

"Say no more. Go head, son. We're going to need you three back down here for more questioning tomorrow morning."

"Okay."

"Nine thirty."

"Fine."

I just wanted this all to be over.

Three weeks later...



 Alexis


"Good afternoon, Alexis, dear."

"Hey."

"How are you doing to-"

"Good. And yourself?"

"Great, Have a seat."

I took my seat in my comfortable lazy boy. I stared at Dr. Rollings as she scribbled some notes about my physical appearance on her little annoying notebook. I was sure she was going to add lost weight somewhere in there. Everyone's been telling me that I lost it. Weight, too.

"You been holding in?"

I nodded with a blank face. 

"How about your brother?"

I nodded again.

"And Brianna?"

I nodded.

"You seem a little quiet today. Tell me what's on your mind."

I shrugged.

"You miss him, don't you?"

I didn't say anything but stared.

"I know you do. I'm sorry I even had to ask. I'm sure he would have wanted you to smile through all of this. He would have wanted you to be strong through his death."

"His death. He's dead." I laughed a bit to myself. " He's dead..." Every time I heard the word death, or dead, it brought me right back to the acceptance that Lucas was dead. He was gone. He was a short lived love. The more blissful, yet worst kind of love. Any other time, I would just straddle in my own depression and block it all out.

"Let's work on some more acceptance exercises today."


After my therapy session, Logan picked me up afterward. He was driving a rented Porch. He waited for me in the lot at promptly 4:30. He had been puffing on a cigarette when I got into the car. It was at it's butt, and he was still hitting it. I sighed. He was smoking at least two packs a day since all of this. 
"How was therapy." He asked as he pulled off the lot. I nodded. "Good."

We drove in silence all the way to the gas station. Logan left me in the car while he went in and came out with another pack of Newports and a honey bun. He tossed the bun on my lap before he started pumping the gas. I ripped it open and took a bite. It didn't taste like my favorite snack anymore. It didn't taste like anything, nor did it provoke any happiness inside of me. I took another nibble, and stared out the window. 
When we got into our hotel room, Brianna was knocked out on one of the beds. Logan tossed his keys on the bed and took his jacket off at the door. He had been murmuring something under his breath the entire way. I heard stuff like "get out of here" and "Montana". Lord knows I wanted to move to Montana now. Me, Brianna, and Logan, so that we can start a new and fresh life. I didn't want to be here anymore. I didn't care for anything here. I didn't want to be around this place, I freaking hated it here.
 He opened up the fresh box of cigarettes and took two out. He excused himself out on the balcony and shut it behind him. I got up and crawled onto the bed with Brianna. I curled up beside her and shut my eyes.


Logan 


"Yeah, I'd like to book a flight to Montana for July 15th." Brianna lifted her head from her book. "Yeah, Three tickets. No, not a round trip. Just going there." I gave the phone operator my credit card information and finalized my ticket orders. Brianna listened, with a growing smile on her face. I hung up and sniffed a little. "I can't do it anymore." I mumbled. "I just can't. We gotta get out of here." Things were finally being cleared up with the police. Sharron got fifteen for conspiracy of murder, and Buzz got life for conspiracy of murder, murder itself, and possession of a gun with several bodies. Leaving here had been on my mind for a while now. Months. And I made that clear to the girls. That whenever they were ready to drop everything here and move to Montana, that I'll make that phone call happen.  When Brianna said she'll go with us after she turned 18, and her birthday was yesterday. The opinions and ideas of her mother no longer mattered.


We had a better life ahead of us, I hoped. Alexis would find some country boy down there eventually and fall in love again, and Brianna and I can start planning the wedding we rightfully deserved. Better yet: The past was being left there where it belonged. The ride to the airport was filled with excitement. More excitement in weeks.

"You think Grampa will teach me how to ride the horses from his ranch?"

"I want my own," Brianna said. "I want to name him Lucky."

"He has a bunch of them," I said, taking a bite from my cheeseburger as I focused on the highway. "I'm sure he'll let me name one Toe-Jam if I wanted." We all laughed. 
"Oh, shut up, Logan." Alexis said. "I know Grandma makes the best pancakes. Breakfast is her specialty."
"Oh yeah," I licked my lips. "I remember those savory sausages she cooked for me when I was young. Those, were the definition of home cooking."

"I bet. She'll have to teach me how to cook, too." Brianna said. She kissed me on my cheek. "And we can finally start planning that wedding." I reached over and took her hand in mine. "Yeah." I smiled at her, so genuinely. I nearly cracked my face the way my smiled reached both of my cheeks. I saw my future in her eyes. I saw some hope.


We got out the car and took our luggage with us to the front desk. Hours later, we were flying off to Montana. 

A fresh start.


Our grandparents embraced us in welcoming hugs. They were in tears just knowing that we made it here safe. I sat my things down at the door and looked around the house. The memories. When I went up to my old room, there was a woman undressing herself in the middle of it. She jumped and looked over at me. "God, I'm sorry," I edged out of the room quickly and turned around. My face stung red. Who the hell was that?

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