Chapter
38
The rest of the week passed quickly. Josh had to work all week, but I had managed
to get a week off so I could spend time with my friends.
That
Saturday was the day of the big party we had planned. Everyone’s family had been arriving in town
all week, and that Saturday afternoon, they all began arriving at our
house.
By
four in the afternoon, everyone that was coming had arrived: Heidi, Sammy, Megan,
Nick, his whole family, Brian, Leighanne, Hope, Brian’s parents, his brother
Harold, Harold’s wife Tracy, Kristin, Kevin, Kevin’s mom, his brother Tim,
Howie, AJ, Amanda, Josh, Josh’s whole family, my sister Breanna, her husband
Matt, and me. Our big house was packed
with people, but I was glad so many of them could come. However, my happiness would soon turn to
terror.
***
Later
that night, after we all had dinner, I brought out a huge cake, decorated with
the words, Congrats Nick and Sammy! Sammy gasped in delight when she saw it.
“Aw,
Julie, you guys didn’t have to do this for us,” she said.
“We
wanted to,” I replied. “Plus, you did it
for me.”
She
grinned. “Well, thanks,” she said.
“Yeah,
thanks, Jules,” Nick echoed, his arm wrapped around Sammy’s waist.
I
cut the cake and doled out pieces to everyone that wanted one. Then we all scrunched into the living room to
eat.
“Hey,
we’re out of beer,” AJ said suddenly, as he finished up his cake.
“I
can go pick up some more, if you want,” I offered.
“Would
you? That would be great,” AJ said.
Brian
rolled his eyes. “Hey, Julie, I’ll go
with you. I don’t want you out driving
by yourself,” he said.
“Okay,
thanks, Bri,” I said. “You ready to go
now?”
“Sure,”
he said, standing up.
We
both grabbed our coats, and I got my keys.
Then we headed out to the car.
***
A
few minutes later, the rest of the group still sat around the living room,
finishing up their cake.
Suddenly,
there was a knock at the door. Nick’s
brother, Aaron, was nearest to the door, so he got up to get it. To his surprise, when he opened the door, no
one was there. “Kids and their stupid
doorbell ditching,” he muttered, rolling his eyes, and started to close the
door. But suddenly, a man leapt onto the
porch and flung the door back open, catching a shocked Aaron off guard. The man quickly punched Aaron hard in the
face, knocking him to the ground, and swept into the living room.
Heidi
screamed first, as she recognized the man that walked inside. Everyone looked up in alarm. They sat stock still, paralyzed with fear.
Kevin
stood up though, his green eyes narrowed with hatred as he eyed Justin. “Get out of here, Timberlake,” he said, his
voice low and menacing.
“Make
me, Richardson,” Justin replied. With
one swift movement, he pulled out a gun and pulled the trigger.
Kristin
screamed as the bullet went straight for her husband. Kevin jerked out of the way just in time, and
the bullet barely grazed his shoulder.
Pain flashed through his eyes, but the hatred had not disappeared from
them.
He
lunged at Justin, but Justin had quick reflexes. He grabbed Kevin and whacked him hard on the
head with his pistol. Kevin’s eyes
rolled back in his head, and he collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
“You
ain’t da one I be aftah anyways,” Justin said smugly and pointed his pistol
towards a new target, Nick, who stood there, too horrified to move. “Third time da charm, eh?” Justin asked, his
voice low, his blue eyes narrowed at Nick.
He grinned evilly and squeezed the trigger.
With
a scream of terror and fury, Sammy suddenly charged into Nick, knocking him
aside. Instead of hitting Nick, the
bullet struck her instead, right in the chest.
Gasping for air, Sammy collapsed to the floor.
“You
mother fucker!!” Nick screamed, his normally kind blue eyes filled with more
hate than ever before. Filled with
adrenaline, he lunged at Justin. He
grabbed a heavy metal doorstop, which stood near the front door, and slammed it
over Justin’s head. Justin immediately
collapsed to the ground, his gun falling to the carpet next to his motionless
form.
Breathing
hard, shocked at his outburst, Nick stood back.
“Oh,
God, Sammy!” Heidi cried suddenly, causing Nick to snap out of his stupor. He spun around to see Heidi hovering over his
fiancée.
“Sammy,”
he moaned, hurrying over to her. Sammy
was sprawled on her back on the floor, breathing erratically, blood spilling
from a bullet hole in her chest. “Oh,
God,” Nick murmured.
Josh
was next to him in a moment. “Someone go
get some towels,” he yelled. “We need to
stop the bleeding! Somebody else, call
911!”
The
room interrupted into activity.
Leighanne ran to get towels, while Howie called 911.
Josh’s
mother, Terri, sank to the ground next to her son. “I’m a nurse,” she said.
Leighanne
came back with the towels, and Terri and Josh quickly covered Sammy’s wound
with them. Terri put pressure on them,
while Josh quickly took Sammy’s pulse.
Nick
took Sammy’s hand, which was clammy, and squeezed it. “Calm down, love, it’ll be okay,” he said
soothingly, though his voice was shaking.
“You’ll be okay. Just hang on,
baby, hang on.”
***
Brian and I took a shortcut on some back roads to the
closest grocery store to buy the beer.
The
road was dark, so I had my bright headlights on. I could make out another car coming towards
us on the road, so I dimmed my headlights.
I
didn’t see the deer until it was too late.
One minute, the road was clear, and the next, a big deer was standing in
front of my car, frozen in the beams of my headlights.
I
tried to swerve into the other lane to get out of the way, but it was too
late. My car struck the deer, which
crashed into the passenger side.
I
struggled to regain control of the car, but the impact of the deer had sent us
spinning out of control. I saw the
bright lights of the car coming in the opposite direction and heard the shatter
of glass as the car collided into us, nearly head on.
The car stopped spinning and came to a stop. I found myself crashing into my inflated
airbag, which stopped my head from hitting the steering wheel.
Breathing
hard, I lifted my head and tentatively sat back against my seat, trying to
figure out if I was hurt. I was achy all
over, and my stomach hurt, but I didn’t think I was hurt badly.
The
headlights of my car and the car that had hit us brightened the scene around
me. I looked next to me to see Brian
sunk down in his seat.
“Bri?”
I asked nervously, my voice shaking with panic.
He shifted in his seat and cried out in pain. “Brian?” I asked again.
“Yeah?”
came his voice, soft and hoarse.
“Are
you okay?” I asked.
“I
hurt all over,” he mumbled.
“Don’t
move,” I said. “Just try to stay calm,
and don’t move.”
“How
about you? Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yeah,
I think so,” I replied.
“I…
I think I’m okay too. It’s mostly just
my leg,” he said. “It kills, and I can’t
move it.”
I
nodded. “It’s probably broken,” I
said. “Don’t try and move it.”
“I
won’t,” he said. His face turned towards
me, and I saw it was badly cut up from the glass that had hit him when his
window had shattered from the impact of the deer on his side of the car.
My
attention focused on the other car. The
headlights prevented me from seeing into the car. I wanted to make sure that the people in the
other car were okay. My hand found the
door handle on my battered door, and I pulled it, hoping the door would
open. It was stuck at first, but I
leaned my weight against it, and it suddenly popped open.
“Bri,
I’m going to go over to the other car to see if they’re okay,” I said. “I’ll be right back, okay?”
“Okay,”
he said weakly. “Be careful.”
“I
will,” I said, and slowly climbed out of the car.
***
