When Autumn gets accepted in the university of her dreams she cannot believe her luck. Her mind is only focused on her scholarship and getting her degrees.
But all those goals are put aside when she meets the notorious Nicholas Payne who is everyth...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Barely twenty minutes have passed since Nick and I are arrived and suddenly she strides in. The devil himself in the form of a devious, precocious woman. Aspen. She has the nerve to walk in here as if she owns the place. Especially since she is the one who caused all of this unnecessary drama to the Payne family. It is all her fault that Tatum is here in the hospital. In her hand she holds a revolver that faces the floor. Her deadly, dark eyes are focused on Tatum who lays lifelessly on the bed. For a split second, just a split second, I see some remorse in her eyes as if she genuinely feels bad. Until it completely goes away when her eyes land on me. She slowly but surely carefully treads her way closer to me. Her ferocious eyes never leaving my own scared ones.
The gun stares at me pointedly as she cocks it. A loud sob escapes Mrs Payne's lips when she finally registers that Aspen is in the room. Nick becomes aware as well and gets up at the sound of his mother's cry. He clearly had not realise that Aspen is here before. He was too much in a daze staring at his brother, trying to get a response out of him. He has not felt the thickness of the atmosphere and the negative aura that suddenly surrounds us.
“Aspen, honey, please put the gun down," he pleads in a sugar coated tone as if he speaks to a little child.
Aspens eyes tear up when she watches as Nick towers over her, guarding me from the bullet that may or may not escape from the gun. “So this is it, Nick? You are not even going to give us a try again?”
She watched me in disgust as she murmurs, “So you are with her now?”
Nick has his arms out towards Aspen while he tries his best to keep her calm. He takes in a deep breath then sighs out shakily. I can tell that he is very afraid, as we are all, of what Aspen is capable of doing at the moment.
“Aspen, I did give us a try.” he tries to find the right words to say as Aspen stares at him expectantly. “But you were too busy loving someone else when I gave you everything. I was stressed out about you that I got into a car accident because of you. And when I needed you to be there for me... you just left.”
Aspen lowers the gun down and stares at Nick with guilty, longing eyes —— “Oh Nick. I did not know that you felt that way. I am so sorry.”
“And now,” Nick's arms fall to his sides –– “I do not think that I will ever love you the way I did before.” –– He looks defeated with his shoulders slumped.
I stand awkwardly behind him as he confessed and pours out his feelings to Aspen. Maybe he does not love her, but maybe he will never love anybody else. Not even me. I stare down at the floor and anticipate for something to happen. Anything. Nobody talks. Nobody moves. Nobody says a word until Aspen pulls the gun back up.
“You took everything from me! The last people I knew as my family!” she steps aside to face me and re-aims the gun in my direction.
“If I cannot have Nick... then nobody can.”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
It is like everything happens in slow motion, but so fast at the same time that I do not have the time to do anything. The way the bullet escapes the gun creates a scene, like a movie that is playing at a lumbering pace. The way it ricochets into Nick's skin, through the layers of clothing he has covered himself in, it pushes through his body. He stands still for a couple of seconds, just taking in his last moments before he falls back. I catch him when he collapses into my arms; his body so frail and fragile.
Warm blood gushes out of the exposed wounds in his body; two in his chest and one in his lower abdomen. I take off my gray sweater – his gray sweater – and press my hand snugly against his open wounds attempting to stop the free flowing surge of sticky blood. There lays the expressionless Nick who rests in the pool of the mild cerise substance. This stuns me as I continue to sit in his pouring blood. Immediately after the gunshots were heard in the room, two security guards come into the room and escort Aspen out of the hospital.
She tries to resists as she screams, “He is mine! I love him. I will be Mrs Nick Payne!”
Her voice slowly fades away as she leaves the room. All I can think about is Nick. Is he going to be okay? I ask myself.
