Finding Seventeen (On Hold)

In the Heat of the Night

I leaned further out the window to get a better look at him. He pointed to himself, " Hudson Braverman" 

"Hudson? Wow!"  He had changed. Hudson was a tall, lanky nerd in high school. Now he was even taller, broad sholdered and quiet handsome. " I didn't recognize you." 

He laughed a little. " No one ever does. You back in town?" 

"Yeah, I'm sure you heard about Ryder." 

"Yeah, I worked his wreck, How is he doing?" 

"Better."

"That is good to hear.  I'm just going to let you off with a warning, least I can do for an old friend. You aren't supposed to pull off to the shoulder of the road like this." 

Once upon a time, Hudson and I had been friends but things change when you get to be teenagers.   I wasn't a snob to him, but he didn't fit in with my group of friends and I just kind of left him behind. 

"It was good seeing you, wish it would have been under different circumstances. What are you doing on the side of the road anyway." 

"Trying to make myself go back. Not an easy thing to do after all these years." 

"It was hard for me too, I came back about four years ago." 

About the time we were about to continue the conversation, a bulletin came across his scanner. 

"Attention all available officers, we have a man who is 10-51 on the corner of Sage and Main." 

"Duty calls. Nice seeing your Jules. I'm sure I'll see you around. If you need me, you know where to find me" He said with a big grin on his face. 

As he walked away I heard him say. " Squad car 21 responding." 

I thought to myself. 'A police officer, good for you Hudson.'

He quickly turned his car around headed back towards town with blue lights flashing. 

I took this as my cue to go as well. I figured now was as good a time as any. 

The town looked exactly the way I left it, with the exception of a few new stores here and there. The town was fairly dead driving in during the middle of the night. I felt like a bandit, coming in the heat of the night. It was the only way I felt like I could do it. I had to ease myself back into the town I once called home for so long.

My brother had been in a rehabilitation center for months. He had been on a long hard journey, and still had a long way to go. He'd be there for a while longer. I wanted to come sooner, but I had to gather my affairs, sell my loft apartment, and work out a new job back in Long Beach. My brother and I had talked on the phone everyday since the accident. I had taken my brother for granted all these years.

When I left town, I left everything behind. I refused to go back. I'd been so hurt by my past that it kept me from really being able to ever go home again. The closest I would go was Gulf port, and Ryder would drive out to meet me, and we'd usually spend a week together once a year, talk on the phone about once a month. We always sent Christmas and birthday cards and sent bi-weekly emails. We weren't close any more. We used to be close. I missed that. I don't know why it took a terrible accident to bring me back to him.

Ryder was the only family I ever really had, except for Dallas. Our dad took off when I was ten, Ryder was thirteen. Our mom had always been a drunk. Our home; if you could have called it that, had always been like a revolving door of men, for as long as I could remember even before my parents got divorced.  From the time I was ten until I was eighteen, I'd had four step dads. But that was not even half of the men who had been in my life, that was just the number that she had married.

Ryder had always stuck by mom no matter what mess she got herself into. I think he always felt like her protector. No matter how much she ignored or forgot about us, he would always take up for her. When he was a teenager and she'd get drunk, she'd always call him and he'd go pick her up. When he turned eighteen, he started bailing her out of jail. It always made me so mad that she took advantage of his kindness. I hated it, for him but it was his choice and I tried not to hold it against him.

Ryder, Dallas and I were like the three stooges. We were truly best friends. Most older brothers wouldn't want anything to do with their bratty little sister and her best friend. He was always there, and he always included us. Dallas was crazy about Ryder. She'd had a crush on him since we were eleven. He knew it because she wasn't shy about it. He didn't care and neither did she. It was all in good fun.

When Dallas got sick, Ryder came home from college every weekend, and when she died, a part of both of us died with her. We were never the same. It was part of the reason we grew apart. How could we be the three stooges when there were only two. I always loved my brother more than anything, but being around him reminded me of being around Dallas. Back then, I couldn't handle it. I was young and my best friend died. It wasn't fair to my brother, but it also wasn't fair that my best friend had to die when I was seventeen.

*** Hey everyone! I know this is short, but the first few chapters might be that way. I want to give background in small chunks. I think it will have more impact that way. I hope you enjoy! Feel free to vote and give feedback! ***