last summer - jack gilinsky

thirty seven

the level of anger i felt towards carly was unbearable.

she ruined sam's room, which was the way his family wanted it to be. she left her and sam's son like he was nothing. she lied to sam's family.

"i'm calling the police." dave said. i looked at baby sam, my heart aching. he's the only piece of sam we all have left.

i offered to hold the baby and lori gladly obliged, the infant being handed over to me.

"hi sammy." i said, feeling tears prick my eyes. the baby looked up at me, eyes wide and hands moving all about. there was no doubting this was sam's son, even at such an early age.

jack shifted uncomfortably at the sight of me with sam's baby, but i didn't care. i missed sam and would continue to miss sam every day of my life, regardless of how much i love jack.

i held him close to me but of course, laura and molly wanted a turn to hold him as well since they had not yet met him.

"i can't believe she made such chaos at an event that was supposed to be for sam." i sighed, sitting beside jack and his sisters on the couch.

"she's insane." jack responded. "she wanted to live your life."

"what do you mean?"

"before you read these, i know i should've showed you sooner."

he showed me a text thread from a contact he had labeled 'crazy carly'.

carly: hey jack it's carly
jack: yeah i know lol what's up? is rose there?
carly: do u care about rose? 😘

jack didn't reply to that. three days later, she sent more.

carly: i know u aren't with her
carly: you can be with me i'll show you what you're missing

i was disgusted. these texts were from when jack and i had split. she was pregnant.

"i can't believe her." annie scowled while reading the texts.

the police eventually came and we all headed out into the streets to search for carly. we all split up in various directions. i was accompanied by an officer and lori and dave were as well. anyone who we believed carly would try to harm. annie stayed back at the house with the doors locked with baby sam.

i noticed a girl sprinting down an alley way and i followed after her, the officer with me calling after her. she turned around and once she saw it was me, grinned maniacally.

"screw you rose, and your perfect little life."

"miss rivers, please just come with me." the officer said calmly.

"fuck you." she hissed at him.

"please put both of your hands above your head." he ignored her remark.

"you don't get a happy ending rose."

without any more time to think, a gun was drawn and one shot was fired at me.

two shots from the officer were fired at her.

"dispatch please send paramedics to 8721 shamrock road." i heard the officer say. i tried to focus on his words, but the pain i felt was excruciating.

the shot was fired to my stomach.

paramedics were there abnormally, yet thankfully fast. i didn't lose consciousness, the only thought in my mind being my own son.

i was taken to the nearest hospital and immediately into surgery. the shot wasn't fired close enough to my uterus to cause physical harm to the baby, but the stress i was under and blood loss certainly made the nurses and doctors concerned for me and the baby.

jack was the first one through the door once i was out of surgery.

"rose, baby, i'm so sorry i didn't go with you." he had been crying.

"you didn't know. it's okay." i reached over and grabbed his hand without trying to move too much.

the detectives couldn't figure out how carly had a gun. she hadn't gotten into the airport with one, and didn't have one registered to her name.

lori and dave then confirmed that very deeply hidden and more than likely forgotten was that sam had a gun in his bedroom. it was simply for self defense for his family, since at one point him and his father were the only men in the house to protect lori.

carly, of course, died at the scene. her family was notified and they were given the earliest flight to omaha the next day.

my parents flew in immediately from LA and came to see me. they both hugged jack, which caught me by surprise.

"thank you for telling us jack." my dad said to him.

"anything i can do to help." jack responded.

"the baby is fine." i confirmed my mother's question before it was even asked. "they want to monitor us."

jack was still pacing the room. my dad took him outside for fresh air.

"i think you should transfer out of alabama." my mom said. my heart dropped.

"and go where? back to california?"

my mom pursed her lips, confirming for me that she wanted that. i didn't.

"it's better for you to be close to home, mija."

"i worked my ass off to be accepted into that school. i'll finish the semester but i won't come back to california."

"then where will you go?"

i hadn't thought about other schools since i was  sixteen. alabama had been my one and only ever since i decided to leave california.

"i'll figure that out when i'm not in the hospital, mother."

my mom and i hadn't had an argument that severe since sam and i broke up. luckily, severe arguments were a rarity. i've had worse with jack.

she gave me a kiss on the forehead and left the room.

i sighed and shut my eyes, one thing coming to mind.

sam is the reason i didn't die back there.

"thank you sam." i whispered before i fell into slumber.