Page 9 of Bristol

“And those opposed?”

His question hangs lifelessly in the air, followed only by silence.

“Then it’s settled. The search begins tomorrow. I hope you’re all prepared for what this may bring on us.”

“I’ll kill that motherfucker in front the cops, I don’t give a fuck,” Big George says.

“We won’t let you take the fall for it by yourself, brother,” Mikey says, slapping a hand on Big George’s shoulder, a wide smile on his face.

Big George is always ready when something big is going down. Whether it’s a barroom brawl or throwing a fit over someone shaking his hand with gloves on, he doesn’t hold his tongue.

“Is there anything else?” Joey asks, looking around the table.

“I got nothin’,” I shrug.

“Nope. I think we covered the only thing I’m worried about,” Mo says.

“Meeting adjourned.”

We say our goodbyes and redeem our cell phones from the bucket outside the door on our way downstairs. I check the notifications on my home screen. A single text message from Lilah, the Native American girl that gives one hell of a blow job. She’s been trying to date me for the last year, but I can’t do that. She wants all the bells and whistles and that shit ain’t for me. If she was only interested in what I could do for her in the bedroom, then that would be one thing. But I’m not the settling down kind. She wants to get married and have kids one day, neither one of those things are in my future. I’ve got two nieces and a nephew and that’s enough kids for me.

Lilah: You up for a go? Got two hours to kill between appointments.

I click the screen shut without responding. I hate to turn it down when it’s been put on the table, but I’ve got a damsel in distress to shatter and pick up the pieces when I break the news to her about the accusations against her. I can’t stop thinking about her. There’s a hollowness in her soul that calls to me. Is it sad that watching her nail her fists into Princess’s face made my dick twitch? The fierceness I saw in her eyes, that wild, uncontrolled, past the point of reasoning look made me want to tame her beneath me. I try to press the thoughts out of my head though, because the last thing I want to do is take advantage of someone going through the kind of shit Bristol is going through.

She hasn’t made up her mind on what she’s going to do, granted it’s only been a day, but she doesn’t seem to be in much of a hurry to leave. I find that both odd and satisfying. I’m still coming to terms with how I’m going to break the news to her that I read online. The rumors. The accusations toward her. I’m not prepared to destroy the very last few pieces of her world, but I don’t want anyone else to tell her, either. I wait until the sun has gone down and Bristol has had some time to calm down from her fight with Princess. She hasn’t left the room down the hall since she went in there after cleaning up in the bathroom a few hours ago. All the guys are gone now that church is over, leaving her and I alone.

I guess now’s as good of a time as any. I take a deep breath and head down the hall to the bedroom. I rap my knuckles on it twice and she opens the door almost instantly. As soon as she sees me, she starts talking fast.

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t control myself. I should have contained my anger better, but god fucking damn it she was basically begging for it,” she says, her eyes pleading with mine.

I put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Hey. You don’t have anything to apologize for. That was uncalled for. She was in the wrong. It’s okay,” I say in hopes of reassuring her.

She sighs a breath of relief and I see her shoulders visibly relax.

“We do need to talk, though. I have some stuff to tell you and I don’t think it’s going to be easy for you to hear.”

Her eyes grow dark. Hollow. Empty. Like I just ripped the rest of the soul she had left from her body and lit it up in flames right in front of her. My heart aches for her. She just nods and follows me to the living room. She sits exactly where she sat this morning, but I don’t sit across from her. Instead, I sit next to her. I have a feeling she’s going to lose it and I’ll be there to catch her again. If nothing else, she needs to feel like she’s got at least one person in this world.

“The circumstances of the day that you went missing are still unclear to the locals as well as local authorities.”

“What do you mean?” she asks.

“There was evidence that the killer was a male, but there is speculation that the male in question could’ve been your lover.”

I watch as my words sink in and she processes the meaning behind what I’m saying. Her eyes widen and she shakes her head, tears welling in her eyes.

“No. No. No. No. No. That’s not what happened. That’s absurd!”

“I know. I know that. But people talk and come up with their own explanations for why terrible things happen. They think that you were maybe seeing an older man and there’s speculation that you may have even been an accomplice.”

Tears stream down both of her cheeks at my words and I swallow hard, fighting back the emotions that are welling up inside of me and beckoning to come out of my eyes, too.

“No! I didn’t even know Patrick until that day! He told me he needed help with his radio, and I fell for it like a fucking idiot. That one decision ruined my life. It changed everything forever. How fucking dare they!” Her anguish has quickly turned to outrage. Her face reddens and though the tears are still falling, her face has hardened, and she sobs silently, seething with anger.

“What am I supposed to do, Sebastian?” she asks, looking up at me.

I wrap my arms around her, and she loses it. She cries almost as hard as she did last night when she found out her family was gone. I hold her close to me, running a hand across her shoulders in the hopes of comforting her, if only just a little.

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