I See You

44

A lightning flashed in the street, followed by the screech of a thunder, but the words spoken by Nicola couldn’t be drowned by Mother Nature; Lena slowly turned away from Nicola and looked at Ryan, he stood there just a few feet away with the gun trembling in his hand as he aimed it at Nicola.

Junior stood in his place, his arms stiff next to his body and his eyes locked over Nicola’s face, but he wasn’t looking at Nicola anymore, he was trying to make sense of the words spoken by Lena’s boyfriend, and as they slowly dug a painful hole in his heart and soul, Junior turned to look at Ryan.

“How do you know that?” whispered Ryan “You…

But he couldn’t finish his sentence, Nicola who had been staring at Ryan, held his gaze as Ryan tried to get a hold of himself, he lowered the gun a few inches and then turned to look at Lena and Junior.

But it was a dumb question for someone who had been observing closely, like Nicola had. Nicola had seen the way Ryan’s eyes softened when he looked at Junior and the way he seemed less aggressive when it was Junior the one talking; Nicola had seen the anger in his eyes when Junior had protected Lena from the knife.

It had all unfolded before them, but only Nicola had been looking.

“Is it true?” asked Lena, she reached for Nicola’s hand and he took her hand gently, he didn’t have the strength to pull her closer or to hold her hand reassuringly, but if they were to die there, at least she had to know that this wasn’t because she had done something wrong.

Ryan looked at Lena, his eyes no longer confused, they had a new fire inside, now that the secret was out, everything had to sail smoothing.

Right?

Ryan rubbed his eyebrow with the wrist of the hand he was using to hold the gun and then aimed the gun at the root of all his troubles; his hand was now firm and the gun aimed at Lena was making Lena more eerie and nervous, she looked at the gun and then back up at Ryan.

“Ryan, please put that down” whispered Lena, “Please” she raised her hands up to her chest, in a defensive mode, but she knew her hands raised up to her chest would never protect her from a bullet.

“Please, Ryan” whispered Junior, “Put it down” Junior raised his hand and directed it towards Ryan’s raised arm, he placed it over his wrist and gently pushed it down.

Ryan allowed Junior to manipulate his hand down, but just for a few inches, he turned to look at Junior and then pulled his hand away from Junior’s hold.

“Don’t do that” said Ryan, he frowned “You know she did this, to all of you”

“Yes” said Junior “She did, but you are scaring all of us with that thing” Junior continued “You are making us nervous”

“This makes you nervous?” asked Ryan, he narrowed his eyes again “I’ll put it down, but not all the way”

“You don’t have to put the thing away” Junior said, trying to side with Ryan, maybe that way things could work for them and they could end up talking Ryan into letting Nicola go. “Just don’t aim it at anyone, please, yes?”

Ryan looked down at the gun in his hand and then back at Junior “Ok,” he held the gun and again turned to look at Lena.

“You did this” explained Ryan, almost as if Lena and him were the only two people in the kitchen.

“Ryan we’ve been friends for years” begged Lena, her hands still up to her chest, her body not daring to move, she could hear Nicola panting next to her “We’ve been friends for years, why are you doing this? Why all the photos and all the messages? Why are you doing this?”