Page 77 of Hesi-Dating
"I don't understand. Why are you doing this? We're friends, right?"
"It's the two of us. It's always been us against the world. It always will be."
"This isn't you. You're better than this. Please, put away the gun and stop scaring us. It's supposed to be us against things that scare us. Not us scaring each other." I didn't know how to reach the Nosh that I'd grown up with. "This is me, Joley. I'm your friend, remember?"
The gun dropped.
Whew. I took another step back.
"Stop moving." He pointed the gun at me again. "You're forcing me to do this, you know. Just like you forced me to kill that bastard when he hurt you all those years ago."
"He hurt you too." Like opening a doorway in my mind, I remembered clearly what happened that day so long ago when there'd been so much blood. Nosh shot our foster mom's boyfriend, pushed him off me, and put the gun in my hand when our foster mother ran into the room yelling. He forced my trigger finger to pull. The ricochet of the pistol firing had vibrated up to my elbow. The stain of blood spread on her chest before she fell. Then Nosh shot her again in the head. "You made me shoot her. You made me into a murderer. She didn't have to die."
"She let him do all those things to us. The woman wouldn't believe me or help us, which makes her as bad as he was."
"I don't understand why we can't move on. They're dead and gone. We survived. We're not in jail. Can't we live our own lives now?" Had to keep him talking. Someone would come. At least, I hoped.
"You cheated on me with a cop." He moved like a cobra striking, slapping me so hard I tasted blood from my lip. I fell to my hands, but jumped up to be sure to keep my body between him and Junior.
"Tell me why you fucked him, Joley." He stepped toward me.
I backed away, careful to keep Junior in sync behind me.
"I'm scared," Junior said.
I craned around and leaned down to comfort him, making sure to keep him fully protected and watching Nosh out of the corner of my eye. In the distance the bushes seemed to move. I saw a flash of someone in the trees. What the hell? Was I seeing things now?
I whispered to Junior, "Let go of me and run for the trees. There's someone there that will help you."Dear God, let there be someone safe who can help us."You go get help. Okay?"
I feared he wouldn't listen to me. Took a brave kid to run when terrified.
He ran.
Thank God.
Nosh raised his gun in the direction of Junior, but I grabbed his arm. "No. He's just a scared kid. He has nothing to do with this. If you hurt Isiah's kid, that'd be suicide."
He lowered the gun.
Nosh wrapped his arm around my waist and used his gun hand to wipe blood from my lip. Then he gripped my jaw with his large hand so tight I thought the bones would crack. "You opened your legs for him. Why?"
My body shook to the point my teeth chattered. "You're nah…nah…making sss…sense. Lemme go."
"I'm done talking. If you can't follow directions and remain mine, then no one gets you." His fingers, thick and long, circled my neck and squeezed. My vision darkened. With the last of my consciousness, I slammed my knee hard into his nuts.
He howled and jumped back. The wildness in his eyes said he'd kill me for that.
I stumbled to try to run away but gasped to breathe against suffocation still gripping my throat. Massaging my throat didn't help open the airway. There was nowhere clear for me to run. The wooded area I sent Junior to was so far away. But I stumbled in that direction.
Almost to the woods, pain exploded through my arm. Blood ran through my fingers when they gripped where it hurt.
He shot me?
"You can't run from me, Joley." He was charging toward me, closing the distance. "I never wanted to hurt you, baby."
As death charged my way, I experienced no fear. Only disappointment. I couldn't save Nosh. I'd tried hard in the past, but he'd changed into someone I didn't recognize. "All you've ever done is hurt me when all I wanted was for you to be happy."
A shot rang out. I expected new pain, but none came.
