Unsteady

Prologue

This is where the chapter ends
A new one now begins
Time has come for letting go
The hardest part is when you know
All of these years, when we were here
Are ending, but I'll always remember
-Time of our lives
-Tyrone Wells

•••••

One year before

"Oh honey! How have you been? I hope my baby is taking good care of you!"

"Don't worry Mrs C! I don't think your daughter can live without me," Brandon smirked and wrapped his arms around my waist.

Is it normal to scream and punch someone and then the next second caress them lovingly?

Maybe it's just a phase.

I smiled, "No, I don't think there'd ever come a day where I'd have to leave this idiot."

Mom smiled and turned around, busying herself with the dishes. Brandon held my hand and pulled me out of the kitchen and onto the front porch.

"I love you, you know that right? I'm sorry I did that to you, please forgive me. I'm only trying to be better. I promise."

I lifted my head and raised myself onto my toes to give him a kiss on his cheek.

"You can't leave me okay? We belong together and no one will love you like I do," he looked like he was about to explode again and I couldn't let mom or even Brody see that.

I cleared his doubts by gently placing my lips on top of his. I wouldn't leave him. Of course we're meant to be. There's no other person I'd rather be with.

•••••

Three months before

"You killed her! You fucking killed her!"

"Listen to yourself! You sound crazy! Now here's what you're going to do. You're going to stop yelling at me, get your ass out of your house and meet me at the park down the road.

If you follow those steps, we can forget about this and I can forgive you, and this will all just be like a bad dream. Okay?"

"I'm not crazy! You killed Lee and you expect me to just forgive you? Are you insane? I'm calling the cops! You're fucking mental!" I yelled cradling Lee's head.

"Don't you dare. I swear to god if you even think of calling the cops, Lee won't be the only person dying. That's a warning princess. A fucking warning."

Mom burst into the room in a rush. I've never seen her look so worried. Her lipstick was smudged, her eyes red and puffy, shirt wrinkled and just not...mom.

"Did you call the ambulance?" she asked pushing me to the side and pressing her suit jacket on the wound on Lee's head.

"Yes mom," I whispered.

"How did this happen?" she asked glaring up at me as if she already knew I was the reason for Lee's death.

That's because you are. You're a cold blooded murderer.

•••••

One month before

"Get in the car Riley!" Brody shouted.

I rushed to the passenger side of the car and quickly jumped in.

I turned around in my seat so that I was facing the back seat and saw Danté still fast asleep, strapped into his car seat.

Brody jumped into the car not wasting any time to start it and speed out of the parking lot and down the road.

"He didn't hurt you right?" Brody asked frantically running his hand through his hair while the other controlled the steering wheel.

"I'm fine. We're going to be okay right?"

"We will," Brody said so sure, "take a nap. When you get up, we'll be at the airport already."

"I'm fine, honestly!"

"We're going to be okay Riley! I promise!"

It was a lie.

I checked the side mirror on the car door and saw a beat up sky blue Chevrolet some miles behind us, but because I was so stupid it never once registered in my mind to warn Brody about the truck.

Or tell him apart from us, that was the only car on the road and maybe, just maybe, we were being followed.

But with Brody's reassuring response, I leaned my head back onto the seat and closed my eyes. If only I knew the next time I opened my eyes I'd be in a hospital bed, hooked up to a heart monitoring machine. If only I stayed awake and told Brody he was most probably in the car behind us.

But I didn't.

•••••

I am so tired but anyways I hope everyone is having a great morning/night/evening! : )
Thank you for reading my chapter! : )
-Grayx