Finding Emily

{Chapter 19}

  His voice was deadly calm, and it chilled Becca to the bone. She'd never felt so scared in her life. What was he going to do? They could easily yell for help; all of their friends and then some were still at the beach. She never thought Brian could hurt anyone. She still didn't. It must be a mistake. What could have happened?

"What are you doing?" Star asked him in a hoarse and tear-soaked voice. "Put the knife down. Jenna are you okay?"

"Just LEAVE," Jenna shouted at them; her hair falling in her eyes as she looked down at her wound and her whole body was heaving.

"What do you mean leave?" Star asked. "You're hurt. Get up, and we're going to a hospital. That cut looks deep."

Indeed there was a slash on her flat stomach, and Becca saw blood on the knife.

"She asked for it," Brian said angrily; his hands shaking. "She attacked me first!"

"You threatened me!" Jenna yelled back at him; her eyes bulging and she looked inhuman as she sat clutching her arm and trembling. "You told me you'd kill me so I brought a knife. You're the one who followed me out here to yell at me for making out with Kevin!"

"I just wanted to talk!" He bellowed at her; forgetting the other two girls it seemed. "You went all psycho bitch on me again. You cut me too so don't act like I just attacked you out of nowhere. Look at my fucking leg! And you know that scar on my shoulder? She did that!"

"Yeah, after you slept with Carrie Allen last May!" Jenna shrilled at him and managed to get to her feet. "You deserved it!"

"We all need to calm down," Star said in a low voice as she stared between the two trembling people who were both covered in blood and looking like something out of a horror film. Becca couldn't believe it was real as she stood there and watched as if she weren't even really there but only observing. "You both need to get medical attention, and we'll all act like it was an accident. There will be no problems for any of us. We'll chalk it up to just too much alcohol and too many emotions."

"Shut the fuck up," Jenna said to Star in a deadly calm voice.

Star took a step back as if Jenna had punched her in the face.

"You're both drunk. I get that, but like I said we need to calm down," Star said and started to fish her phone out of her jean pocket. "Let me call someone-"

It was then Jenna moved so fast it seemed like the rest of them were in slow motion; grabbing Star's phone and throwing it deep into the brush. No one spoke for a long moment. Star couldn't even react she was so stunned by what had just happened.

"Your phone too," Jenna said to Becca finally as she held out her hand.

"No – no!" Brian said forcefully as he turned to Jenna, and his hand was still shaking as he held the knife. "You are not hurting anyone else!"

"Look at them Brian," Jenna shot back to him. "They fucking know what is going on. Look at Becca's face. She knows so just shut the fuck up, and let's get this done. Let's walk to my car, and no one fucking screams or this knife goes in your stomach."

Star started to cry. "What the hell is happening? I don't know what's going on. Please stop this. It isn't funny guys."

"We're not being funny," Jenna said almost gently as she grabbed the knife away from Brian, and he didn't put up a fight. "I'm not letting anyone fuck up my future – not you, not Becca, not that fucking slut Emily who was going to turn me in for cheating on the SAT. The bitch has the nerve to bang my boyfriend over and over again, and then threaten me about the tests when I get a little physical with her. I just wanted to tell her to get the fuck away from him, but no."