The Day We Met

Chapter 38

I laid up against the wall, waiting for the shooting to stop, hoping it would. I look up and laid my head against the wall. I felt the tears run down my face and to my neck, then soak into my shirt.

"Please, God." I say while look up. I put my hands over top of my head. Then I run them down the sides of my face, then rub the tears off my neck. I aggressively rubbed them off. I didn't want any tears anymore. I just wanted to be home. Where I could be safe. And where I wasn't alone. The shooting finally stopped, and I slowly turn around the corner of the wall and see a bunch of bodies all over the floor.

I bite my finger to stop me from screaming. Oh God. I don't want to see anyone I know. I bite my sleeve to resist screaming in pain. I walk out of the restroom and don't see any sign of Daniel. I'm walking down the hall so quietly while thinking: Where would they go? Where would they go? Radrika and Aria. They could've done the same I had done, or not. They could've been smart and got out. Hopefully they got out. Successfully too.

Then something worse can to my mind. Where's Edward? I started walking down the hall faster. I hear shooting again. It came from shortly in front of me. But I kept walking. I come around the corner and see people running away in the cafeteria. Just awhile ago, I was selling cupcakes. Right there. And with Edward.

Then I remembered the food fight we had at my house while making them. And the spider that was in my room. And the chicken flights at Thomas' house. Wait. Thomas. I look down and see a path of blood. My eyes follow this path that leads to Thomas under a cafeteria table.

"Ashlyn?" He said with pain. Holy crap! I look at Thomas. Then at Daniel. Daniel was about to leave the cafeteria. I run over to the table Thomas was under, quickly and quietly. I bend down and see him covering his stomach with his hands. He lifts his hands and they're covered in blood. He lightly coughs. I go under the table and my hands start shaking. And I feel more tears go down my face.

"Listen to me if you want to stay alive." I say and look up every now and then to see if Daniel is coming. He grabs my hand, and I say, "you stay here and I'm gonna get something to cover that up. Keep putting pressure on it! Stay here! And stay with me!" I stare into his eyes for a second. His head falls back, but his grip in my hand is still tight. I let go and look around to see if it's safe. It's all clear and I get up and run into the kitchen. Hopefully there's something in here somewhere. I go all the way into the back and see the towel hanging from the oven handle. I grab it and quietly run back to the table.

He's still there. And still moving. Good. He's still alive. This towel is white, but won't be for much longer. I roll the towel into a ball and apply pressure onto his stomach.

"Don't die on me. Don't die on me!" I whisper very quietly while dragging him out from under the table. I then lay him up against the wall. He sits up at first, then falls over to his side. I catch him and hold him up.

"I don't know what to do!" I whisper again.

"Just go." He says and weakly swings his arm towards the door. "I can stay here." He swallows. "I can take care of myself." His voice starts drifting.

"Ok we're getting up." I wrap my arm around his waist and grab his hand to cover up the wound, with my hand over top. Then I grab his other hand and put it around my shoulder.

"Either you work with me to get out of here, or you don't and keep us behind." I say in a tone to confirm him understanding.

"Got it." He says as he walks along with me to the door. When we get to the door, I let go the the hand that went over my shoulder, and pushed the door open. I grab the hand again and use my body to keep opening the door. I finally get passed it and realize there's another door. I sigh, then open the door the same way. We're finally outside and I hesitate on if I stay here and put him down, or if I keep walking. I decide to keep walking, but I couldn't get that far. It's hard to carry someone weak and unable to stand. I set him on his back and keep my hand over the wound.

"It's too open here." I whisper and look around for a better spot to hide. I see an area in the grass to my right. There were some bushes we could hide behind. I grab him by the armpits and drag him to behind the bushes. Before I do anything else, I look around to see if anyone saw us. No one. Thank god we're here. This is the safest place we could be right now.

Thomas coughs weakly again. "Ashlyn. Wh-"

"Shh." I let more tears out. "Don't worry about anything. It's gonna be okay."

"But wh-"

"Shh! You need to stay calm." I wipe the tears off my face.

"Why are you doing this?" He says and looks at me straight in the eyes. I squish my eyebrows together. Then I swallow and break eye contact with him.

"Because you're my friend." I look back into his eyes. I take a deep breath in, then out. I swallow again. "And I don't wanna lose you."

Then I hear distant screaming. A girl. They were crying too. Then gunshots. I look in between the leaves, and see Aria running away from Daniel. She trips and cries even louder.

"Please don't!" She sobs louder. "Please!" I look down at Thomas. Then back at Aria.

"Thomas." I say quietly, not intending to communicate with him. I put my hand over my mouth. I hesitate to leave him.

"Go." He says.

I half disagree. "But it's now my job to-"

"I might not be able to win a chicken fight, but I can survive a bullet to the stomach." He takes his fist and weakly punches my arm. "I believe in you." He means it.

"But-"

"Go." I should go stop or do something, but I have to take care of Thomas. It won't be a good thing if he dies as I'm trying to save someone else. But I believe in Thomas.

"Ok." I confidently say. I nod and stand up. I walk away from the bushes and towards Aria. "Hey!" I get his attention. "Get away from her!" I keep walking towards the situation. "Why are you killing innocent lives? Why would you-" he points the gun at me. I immediately put my hands in the air, and stop walking. "Daniel, we can work this out. Just put the gun down and don't shoot." I finally hear the sirens of police cars and ambulances. I look at Aria, and she's still sitting on the ground, still scared to death. I look back at Daniel. I swallow, then take a deep breath. The sirens become louder and louder, as the vehicles turn into the parking lot.

"I've always wanted to shoot you." He said. "Always." I felt my heart stop. I could hear him heavily breathing. The sirens are still getting louder. I close my eyes. "Especially you." I keep my eyes shut, then hear the same damn sound. The fireworks.

In the same second, I open my eyes and see Edward lying on the ground in front of me. Bleeding through his shirt.

I let out all of the air inside of me and replace it with tears. I fall to my knees and put my hands on my face. My head falls over his stomach.

"No! Please no!" I scream in agony. I grab his hands and squeeze them. No matter what I did, nothing happened. No reaction came out of him. "Wake up! Wake up!" I screamed and yelled. I could barely see with my eyes all teared up. Then the doctors from the ambulance come over and pick him up to put him on the ambulance bed. They set him down and raise it. I continue to scream, "No! No!" No one would listen. I crawled and followed the bed. I was stopped by Aria. I fought to get out of her grip, but I couldn't. I cried harder as I asked myself: Will I see him again? Will this be the way I say goodbye? Then I thought: I'm gonna get that little shit, Daniel.