by Emma Quinn
I didn’t mind class on my birthday, anything that made my life return to some semblance of normality was perfect as far as I was concerned. When I was with Brandon, it was like he wasn’t the only one on drugs, but me as well. I mean, not literally but I wasn’t seeing straight, I wasn’t acting normally. I had been foolish for a long time.
Well, not any longer. I hoped that during the time that me and Jake had locked ourselves away from the world, the cops had gotten Brandon and he was locked away at long last, never able to bother me again…
A weird emptiness clung to the streets around me. As I walked in the dark air to meet Jake from work to start our night in together, something chilled me. I couldn’t explain what it was since it was actually a pretty warm night, but I folded my arms over my chest and allowed the shiver to trickle down my spine. I would be inside soon enough and with the man who I hadn't been able to stop thinking of all day long, where I was happy and in love.
I really did feel like I was in love as well, real love. Not the strange thing that I had with Brandon…
“Hey.” A whisper made me jump. It was far too close to me. My instinctive reaction was to scream but since I didn’t want to be that freak who yelled for no reason, I suppressed it… just at the moment a thick pair of hands covered my mouth and made it impossible anyway. “You think that it’s a good idea to get the cops on me?”
Fuck, it was Brandon. He had me and it didn’t matter how much I tried to struggle, there was no escape. I kicked, I thrashed, I fought, I bit, but all that did was made Brandon laugh manically, unlike anything I had ever done before.
“You think that you are strong enough to fight me off, bitch? No fucking way. That’s why if all of my friends did want a go on you in Vegas, it would be easy. You are weak and pathetic and you always have been.”
His voice was weird, I could kinda tell that he was high on something without even turning around, but that only made him all the more terrifying. There was no telling what he would do while under the influence. He was more unpredictable than most and now it seemed like he had revenge in his mind. He wanted me to pay.
What the fuck had happened? The cops had clearly been to see him but they hadn't arrested him. What the hell was that all about? Why hadn't they locked him up so that he couldn’t get to me again? What was the issue?
“No…” I wasn’t sure how I managed it, but I just about pulled away. Only I wasn’t expecting it to happen, so I flung forward and tumbled to the ground, scraping my knees in the process. “No, leave me alone, Brandon.”
My windpipe felt restricted. At some point he must have had his hands around my neck, blocking my air ways and I didn’t even notice. I coughed and sobbed, feeling more pathetic than I had ever done before.
“Are you crying?” Brandon sneered. “Are you fucking crying, bitch? How the fuck do you have the right to cry when you are ruining my life? You are trying to lock me up in jail. My own fucking girlfriend…”
“I’m not your girlfriend,” I just about managed to spit out. “I never was, really.”
“No, because you were always fucking Jake, weren’t you?” The venom in his voice plus the fact that he knew about Jake had my blood running ice cold. I could hardly stand it. It made me feel sick to my stomach. I tried to stagger up to my feet but because of the shock, he found it far too easy to knock me down to the ground once more. “Yes, I saw the two of you together. I’m no fool,” he growled. “You want to make a fool out of me, but you won’t.”
A glint of metal caught my eye, a gun, pointed in my face. This was no longer just an unhinged guy threatening me because I had broken up with him and reported him to the police… this was a life or death situation. I could see in Brandon’s blood shot eyes that he meant it as well. He was more than willing to pull the trigger, to kill me.
“Fuck,” I whimpered while scooting backwards, probably scraping my ass hard along the ground as I went. Not that I could feel anything right now. “Fuck, please, Brandon. Don’t do this. You don’t have to do this.”
“And why not?” His hands shook as he took a step closer to me, but as the metal barrel grew nearer to my face I could see that it was from anticipation, not nerves. “Why shouldn’t I kill the bitch who wants to ruin my life? Are you going to promise me that you’ll take it back? Stop the cops coming for me? That you will dump Jake and get back with me? That you will come to Las Vegas with me and let me do whatever I want to you? My friends as well?”
“S… sure,” I stammered with my hand now blocking my eyes, not that it would do much if a bullet came for me. “Whatever you want, Brandon. I will do whatever you want. Just don’t kill me, please.”
“So, you will let me fuck you right now?”
He meant it, so of course I wanted to say no, but I nodded anyway. I just hoped that before I had to give up my body for my life, something stopped him from getting to me.
“I don’t believe you.” He spat beside me, almost hitting me as he did, just proving to me how little he thought of me now. “I don’t believe a damn word that comes out of your mouth. And that’s why you need to die.”
He pulled the trigger.
The scream that had been locked away inside of me finally burst free, shattering my chest with the full force of the vibrations.
Then everything went black.
29
Jake
“ W
hat was that?” I stared at Ashley with sheer shock as the piercing scream burst through the student bar. We were all quiet as is tradition for a surprise party to leap out at Mila and make her jump… but then go on to have a good time with all of us together… but something wasn’t right. I could feel it. “Fuck, let’s go.”
My heart raced as I pounded towards the front door. Someone was behind me, but I had no idea who. It could have been Ashley who had come for a big part of the surprise, or Victoria who was very overprotective of her cousin, or any of the others who had come to celebrate Mila’s birthday. I just hoped that we were all enough.
“Mila!” I knew that it was her, I had the same ice-cold feeling as I did when I found her half naked having been attacked by Brandon. Something was happening, and I had a feeling that it was him as well. He should have been in prison, but maybe that hadn't quite happened yet. “Mila, where are you? What’s going on?”
“Ah, Jake…” But it wasn’t Mila who answered me. It was Brandon, and as he staggered towards me stinking of what I assumed was booze, but the look in his eyes had something else going on, drugs probably, I stiffened up. This wasn’t good, there was no way that this could end well. “Good to see you here. I was hoping to run in to you.”
“What the fuck is going on?” I growled. “Where is Mila? What have you done with her?”
His hand raised upwards which was the moment I spotted the gun clenched tightly between his fingers. The shock must have registered on my expression because Brandon couldn’t stop himself from smirking.
“I don’t think that you well be seeing your little girlfriend any time soon…. Yep, that’s right. I know about you jumping in my grave the moment that me and Mila broke up. I’m not an idiot. You couldn’t wait to fuck her once I was done, could you? And the dirty little whore couldn’t wait to bed you either.”
“Don’t speak about Mila like that.” It was damn near impossible to keep my cool, but I was doing my best until I at least knew what had happened to Mila. “Where is she? Have you hurt her? I swear, if you did anything to her…”
Brandon tossed his head back and let out the most evil sounding laugh that I had ever heard. It made me feel sick to my stomach. The urge to actually throw up nearly over came me completely. “Now that would be karma, wouldn’t it?” he snarled. “You ruined my life back at that party all those years ago, and now I’m here to do the same to you. I could ruin your life by bumping off your girlfriend… or perhaps that won’t be enough. Maybe you don’t really give that much of a shit about Mila, and I couldn’t exactly blame you for that. She isn’t exactl
y memorable.”
I bared my teeth. My fists curled around so tightly by my sides that my knuckles were probably shining white. How I hadn't yet plunged my fist in to his face, I wasn’t sure. It was like a fucking miracle.
“Don’t hurt Mila. Whatever you do, don’t hurt her. If it’s me that you want to get revenge on, then hurt me.”
“That’s what I’m getting at.” He nodded, clearly pleased with himself. I wasn’t sure who was behind me or what they were doing, but they weren’t doing anything to frighten him. He didn’t give a shit about them, his focus was only on me just like mine was on him. “I’m not letting you walk away from this scot free.”
Shit, my first birthday with Mila and it seemed that it was about to end in the pair of us being killed. Why the fuck hadn't the police done anything about this guy? It didn’t make any sense. And now it was too late.
“What are you planning to do, Brandon?” I tried to keep my voice firm but there was a definite tremor in there. Much more for Mila than myself. I had heard her scream but I hadn't seen any sight of her yet, and with a gun in the picture… urgh, I didn’t even want to think about it. “I ruined your life, right? That’s what you are saying.” I figured that that if I kept him talking then I would be able to at the very least buy us some time. “At that party, my sixteenth birthday with all those stupid dares. I get you, I don’t blame you. I have been angry at myself ever since. I have punished myself I can assure you. I’m sure that it won’t mean anything to you, but that night messed up my life as well.” He made a scoffing sound, which I suppose I couldn’t blame him for. He was the one sent off to England after all. “But I have used that time to try and better myself. I won’t be having my inheritance anymore, so I know that I need to work and fend for myself, which has been good for me. It has made me think a lot about everything…”
“I don’t need your fucking life story, Jake,” Brandon snapped. “I don’t care what that night did to you. You deserve it all. You were the one who thought that your popularity made you a God. You looked down on me because I wasn’t one of the cool guys like you and you constantly made me feel like shit about it.”
I hung my head low, knowing that he was telling the truth. “I know, I was a horrible shit.”
“You don’t deserve to be on this planet.” The gun shook at me. He was getting ever closer to pull that trigger. But if he had already gotten Mila then was there any point in me continuing to fight? “You don’t deserve anything. You especially don’t deserve her. I am the one who deserves her. She should be with me… she was always supposed to be with me. I… I was the one who… who had her… I was the one who…” He trailed off, shocked with himself.
“You had her, Brandon,” I replied coldly, not about to fall for his shit. He had brought all of this on himself. “You had her in your life and you abused her. You treated her like shit, so no wonder she left you.”
“Fuck you.” Brandon staggered towards me, he was incredibly unsteady on his feet. “Fuck you.”
I stepped backwards, just because I knew that it wouldn’t be long until he fell. He went quickly, dropping the gun until it slid out of his fingers and across the ground, and smashing his face hard, hurting himself probably. It was a sickening crunch, but I was just glad that he was down. I kicked out and knocked the gun further away.
“You are a nasty piece of work,” I growled as I shot passed him. “You will regret this forever.”
But he wasn’t going to regret it because of me, I wasn’t going to do anything to hurt him and to make this all worse because none of these adult problems that he had caused could be blamed on me. He chose to take drugs, he chose to treat Mila like shit, he chose to allow himself to spiral. It never needed to be like this. Ever.
“J… Jake…” Oh my God, it was Mila, I could hear her. “Ja… Jake… I… I…”
I raced around like a crazy person until I found her in the bushes, injured but not shot. There was no blood, thank God. Not that I was ready to relax just yet. I wasn’t sure that I would ever be calm again!
“Oh my God, Mila.” I bent down and scooped her up in my arms. “What did he do to you?”
“H… hit me, with the gun, I think. I don’t know. It hurt a lot though.” She tried to sit up but she struggled. “Oh God, it hurts. What happened? Where is he now? I don’t know what… what happened to him…”
“Mila…” Ashley leaned over my shoulder to look at her friend. “That fucking bastard. Don’t worry, some guy named Matt and his friends are pinning him down. Victoria has called the cops. It’s done now. Jake filled me in with everything, and he will definitely go to jail now. I will make sure of it.”
“Oh no, Ashley is here,” Mila groaned. “I must be seeing things. Maybe I’m injured…”
“No, silly. Ashley is here for your birthday. Me and Victoria have been planning a surprise party for a while. She flew down to celebrate your big day with you. Of course, we didn’t think that it would end up like this…”
“You did this for me? Even though I was acting like a crazy bitch?”
“Of course I did.” I stared in to her eyes and smiled at her. I felt all misty eyed and weird. I needed to let my feelings out. It was crazy and insane and probably much too soon, but I couldn’t stop myself. “I love you, Mila.”
“You do?” Tears trickled down her cheeks. “Because I love you too.”
Sirens blasted out around us which meant that all of this was finally coming to an end at last. I leaned down and kissed Mila’s lips gently, grateful that all of this could finally be done at last because me and Mila could finally be together and happy at last. We deserved this, we had come a long way. If we could survive this, then who knew what else we could get through? I had a feeling that me and Mila were going to last forever from here on out.
30
Mila
Months later
“ I
can’t believe that you are going to be leaving me soon!” I half sobbed on Victoria’s shoulder. “I can’t believe that you’ll be graduating. I mean, I’m proud of you and everything but I just don’t know how I will cope…”
“Hey, you’ll be fine.” Victoria pulled back to look at me seriously. “I know you will. After everything that you have been through, well you’re undeniably stronger now. There’s no escaping it. And with that wonderful man at your side, well you can’t go wrong, can you? Jake will look after you no matter what.”
I looked over to my boyfriend and smiled, so happy inside that everything had finally come together at long last. It had taken me longer than I would have liked to realize that Jake was the man for me but now that I had him, all of him, everything was perfect. I honestly wouldn’t have been able to survive everything without him.
The nightmare with Brandon, the police investigation dealing with the whole debacle, and the following court case… Jake was there with me through all of it, proving that he was the best guy ever. Every time I felt like I was about to fall apart, he was there for me, picking up the pieces, making me see that I was okay.
As it turned out, the mess that Brandon was involved in was so much bigger than me. What I experienced with him was nothing in the grand scheme of it all. His work place was a cover up for a major drug ring and the people that he was involved with were really dangerous. It scared me to think what might have happened to me had I ended up in Las Vegas with them all. Not only would I have been subjected to whatever the hell they wanted to put me through, I don’t think that I would have made it out of there alive. Witnesses and victims weren’t wanted.
But getting Brandon finally taken down by the police was the start of the whole drug ring unraveling. It was an ongoing thing, and would probably take some time to destroy completely, but at least it was on its way out. Because of the horrors that I had to face, I was saving this town from more drugs and more women being put through hell. If I thought about it in that way then it all felt like it was for something. Then I could cope with it all.
Therapy h
elped as well. I wouldn’t be where I was today without my therapist, but mostly it was my strength that helped me to survive. I couldn’t put myself down. I had kicked ass and would continue to do so the whole time that I was here. Especially when I headed to the summer internship that I had finally managed to score a place at. I would show them then that I was worthwhile and that if they ever wanted someone for a full-time job when they finished their college degree, then they would pick me. Or that I would get a very good reference anyway…
Jake was going to stay with me during that time as well and get a job to support himself. I told him that he didn’t have to, but he insisted. As it turned out, he couldn’t without me which was just freaking adorable.
And after the summer, who knew? Maybe next year we would get an apartment together. I still didn’t want to live on the college campus so that I could focus on my work, but I could handle Jake in my home. He was happy to be quiet when I needed it and to support whatever I wanted as well… just as I would do for him. He really was working hard for his future as well, which made us quite the team. We were going to be one of those high powered couples in the future for sure… me as a journalist and him running his own business.
“You will survive, Mila.” Victoria hugged me once more. “But keep in touch, okay? I don’t want to cope without you for too long. Having you in my life this year has been awesome. I don’t want it to end.”
“It won’t,” I promised her. “I know what it’s like to try and live without you now and it turns out that I don’t do so well.” I laughed and she joined in with me. “I will email and video message you all the time, I promise.”
We hugged and spread out our emotional goodbye for a little while longer, but soon it really was time for Victoria to leave me and to head off in to her future. The tears streaming down my face reminded me of my birthday when Ashley had to leave after my explosive party which ended in an almost shoot out. It always hurt to say goodbye to anyone, but at least I didn’t have to let go of Jake. I never wanted to let go of him…
