Pregame

by Taylor Wade

  “You fuckin’ bitch! Sit still or I’ll put this mother fuckin’ bullet in your forehead!” Jesse screamed at her, bending down and grabbing her by her hair roughly so that he could pull her face close to his. Her whole body shook and she closed her eyes tightly. His grip on her hair was so tight that I could see his knuckles turning white from his hold. I wailed at the torture he was placing on my best friend. He let go of his hold on her, and pushed her face back down, the side of her head smacking onto the hardwood floor. He didn’t move the chair upright, instead keeping her in the position she landed in when the chair tipped to the side.

  With his back to me, I took that moment to get to my feet, ignoring the searing pain running through every inch of me. I sprinted over to the kitchen and grabbed a large cooking knife, praying it could stop a bullet, but knowing that it wouldn’t. Jesse spun around and his eyes widened slightly at the sight of my meager weapon. As soon as his shock appeared it was gone, and he started to laugh hysterically. His rapid mood swings were unsettling and I felt a new wave of horror course through me as I realized that there was nothing I could do to save myself. A sob escaped me realizing my mistake. I should have called the police. I foolishly placed both Elle and myself in an even more perilous situation by not informing anyone of Jesse’s return.

  “You’re so fuckin’ stupid,” Jesse laughed, nodding his head in the direction of the knife I gripped between both of my hands in front of me. “I’ll tell you what,” he said, “I’ll give you five minutes to try to kill me with that knife before I place this bullet in your brain.”

  Elle was quiet behind him and I stole a glance at her to see her tied hands scooting towards her phone that was about a foot away from her. She must have dropped it to the ground when he grabbed her. I held back a sigh of relief at my best friend’s fast thinking and turned back to Jesse. I needed his attention to remain focused on me while Elle reached her phone and called for help. He was a sick bastard but I would play his game, knowing it was the only thing buying Elle and me five extra minutes to try to save our lives.

  “Why are you doing this, Jesse?” I asked him, unable to control the tremor in my voice. I took a few small steps closer to him. He looked down at the watch on his wrist and I noticed that his body was starting to perspire from the drugs coursing through his veins.

  “You’ve got four minutes and thirty seconds and you want to spend it taking a trip down memory lane?” he asked me, smiling sadistically. I didn’t say anything, instead taking two more steps in his direction. I stole a quick glance at Elle to see that she was only a few inches from her phone. Her panic and struggle was evident in her wide eyes but she gave me a small, almost imperceptible nod, encouraging me.

  “I want to know why you’re doing this again, Jesse!” I told him, finding strength from Elle’s support. My voice rose as anger started to shove away the fear that was suffocating me. “What happened to the guy that would spend hours trying to win me that damned stuffed giraffe?!”

  I winced in pain as my yelling put pressure on my sore ribs. Jesse’s eyes narrowed at me and I took two more small strides toward him. I was positioned right beside the door, hoping that someone would be walking by and hear the horror in my voice as I spoke louder.

  “That guy didn’t realize that his girlfriend was a philandering whore, sleeping around behind his back!” He screamed at me, his gun remaining at his side as he gave me the five minutes that he promised, despite his rising fury. I stole another glance at Elle and she had the phone in her hands tied behind her back. She was pressing against the screen, using the emergency screen built into the iPhone. She couldn’t be sure that she was dialing the right number but I forced myself to believe that help was on its way. Her face relaxed slightly and she nodded at me once more, only this time she wasn’t encouraging me, but rather assuring me that we were going to be okay.

  I swung my gaze back to Jesse, grateful that his focus was unwavering from mine. The rage in his almost-black eyes sent a new rush of terror throughout me but I pushed it aside reminding myself that I had to stay strong, and I had to play his game. It was the only way.

  I leveled a glare at him and took one tiny step closer to him. “I never once cheated on you.”

  “You’re still sticking with that story, huh?” he spat out at me, before looking back down to his wrist. “Two minutes and fifteen seconds left for you, you fucking lying whore.”

  I didn’t have time to respond to him before the door to the apartment flew open and I spun around to find Wes standing in the doorway, his hand clutched tightly against the doorknob. I tried to plead with him through my eyes to leave but he his gazed was swinging between Elle who lie helpless on the floor behind Jesse, to me. I couldn’t decipher the emotions flickering in his depths as he took in my bleeding lip and the way my body hunched from the sharp pain of my ribs. He looked at the large knife that I was gripping tightly in my hands and his eyes went wide before he swung his gaze to Jesse and the gun that he now raised, pointing directly at Wes.

  “Time’s up,” he stated.

  “NO!” I screamed, lunging in front of Wes. “Get out of here, Wes!”

  I tried to push him back with my frame but I was too weak. More sobs crept up my throat, violently releasing into the atmosphere surrounding us. Tears streamed down Elle’s face and she wailed out when Jesse took a step closer to where I stood in front of Wes.

  Wes grabbed me by my waist with a firm grip and in one motion he pulled me behind him. “Stay behind me, Brookelyn!” He ordered, his voice somehow calm and strong. His body was tense in front of me, his posture that of a statue as he faced off against Jesse.

  “I’d walk away right now if I were you, Walker.” Jesse warned him as both men took a step closer to each other.

  “Wes, no!” I cried, begging him not to get any closer. He didn’t acknowledge me, keeping his focus trained on Jesse and the gun in his hand. The terror that encompassed me was greater than any amount of fear that I had ever felt in my life. I had never been so scared. Not when Jesse beat me that night almost one year ago. Not when he held me down and gripped my throat as he forced himself onto me. Not when I heard his voice over the phone instead of Elle’s. Seeing Wes step closer to Jesse and the gun pointed at his face paralyzed me. I was crying but I couldn’t feel the tears against my skin or taste the saltiness of them as they flowed down my lips. I was screaming but I couldn’t hear anything except for my heart beating against my chest like it was about to burst through my skin at any moment and land on the hardwood floor in front of me.

  And then, in a flash, Jesse moved the gun from Wes and pointed it in my face. Before I could register that I was about to die, Wes lunged at Jesse and they fell to the ground wrestling for control of the weapon. Elle was screaming behind the duct tape, her body thrashing uncontrollably as she attempted to free herself from her restraints. A deafening scream filled the apartment and I realized that it was my own. I fell to my knees and the knife fell from my grip as my screams tore from my body before turning into sobs. I could hear sirens faintly in the distance but they were still too far away. Elle got her hands free from behind her but her wrists were still tied together. Wes fought against Jesse, the sound of grunts and panting filling the room while each of them gripped the gun trying to rip it from the other’s hands. I was still screaming and my throat was burning from the strain on my voice but I was unable to control myself. All I could focus on was Wes. I prayed aloud for his safety as Elle worked to free her legs from the cords wrapped around her ankles.

  The sound of the sirens got closer and I thanked god just as a loud bang went through the apartment and the smell of gunpowder filled my senses.

  “WES!” I screamed running towards the entangled bodies. The gun lay beside the two men and I picked it up without giving it a second thought.

  “It’s Wes, Brookelyn!” Elle screamed with her mouth no longer confined. I snapped my gaze to hers and saw the horror in her eyes as she scooted closer, the chair still fastened t
o her ankles. “He shot Wes, Brookelyn!”

  I swung my gaze back down to Wes as Jesse panted, untangling himself from Wes’s body. The blood pooling on the floor stained Jesse’s shirt but it wasn’t his blood. I couldn’t breathe. Air left my body as I chanted, “no, no, no,” over and over again, crawling closer to Wes. He coughed and gasped for breath, groaning against the pain of the bullet lodged into his shoulder. There was a bullet hole between his shoulder blades and everything went numb inside of me as I glanced over at Jesse. He was pulling himself up to his knees, eyeing the gun that I now held in my hands. I felt the metal against my fingers and all rational thoughts escaped me. Wes was lying in front of me, bleeding out, as Elle got to him and pulled his t-shirt up to press against his wound. He cried out in agony at the intense pain and I could see that he was fighting for consciousness from the blood loss. The sirens were right outside now, and I could hear the shouts of policemen and someone telling them that they had heard a gunshot.

  I rose to my feet unsteadily, unable to focus any longer on anything other than Jesse, as he remained frozen on his knees in front of me. The malice left his features and his eyes widened as he held up his hands in surrender. I blocked out the sound of Wes’s torture and Elle’s voice calling out to me.

  “You have taken everything,” I croaked out slowly between clenched teeth, “from me.”

  I was no longer shaking. I had slipped into a numbness that completely overtook me. I refused to be afraid of him for one moment longer.

  “You are a disgusting, pathetic excuse of a man,” I spit out, “and a waste of a human life. You don’t deserve to live.”

  Jesse’s fearful expression was wiped from his face as a smirk took its place. “You won’t kill me, Brookey Baby.”

  I stared into his eyes as I pulled back the safety and watched as his eyes widened at the sound of the click. I wouldn’t shoot him, he was right about that. I wouldn’t ruin my own life just to end his. He would get what he deserved someday, but not at the hands of myself.

  Jesse reached behind him and revealed the knife that I had earlier held but dropped to the floor in my panic. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. Jesse leaned forward in one swift motion and swiped the knife at me in one sharp thrust. Half a second before the knife stabbed into my chest, I lowered the gun and pulled the trigger. Jesse screamed in pain and the knife fell to the floor noisily. The policemen rushed into the apartment and screamed out orders.

  “PUT YOUR WEAPON DOWN! NOW!” one of them shouted.

  Two officers rushed to grab the gun from my grip and two others pinned my hands behind my back. Officers shouted into their radios for back up and EMTs rushed passed me into the apartment as I was led out by two armed policemen, my hands cuffed behind me. EMTs rushed for Wes, a man and a woman attending to his wound as two other men loaded him onto a gurney and rolled him out of the apartment. Three other medics tended to Jesse and there was an officer freeing Elle from her ties, another firing questions at her rapidly. The two officers guiding me pulled me around the other side of the building to ask me a few questions without the distraction of all of the officials and spectators crowded outside of my apartment. After I told them the gist of what had happened, they steered me back out front. Elle was sitting on the back of an ambulance with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders as she tried to keep herself collected. She recounted what had occurred to three different officers who each took notes while she spoke. Elle saw me being led out and rushed towards me, wrapping her arms around me as she wept. In that moment everything rushed back to me and I tried to reach a hand to mouth to suppress a sob before remembering that I was handcuffed. My cries escaped me as I leaned into her tight embrace.

  The three police officers previously questioning Elle walked over to where I stood with her and the two other officers who were still gripping each of my arms. The three men who were speaking with Elle instructed the others to remove my cuffs and as soon as I was free I wrapped my arms around Elle and didn’t let go.

  “Please tell me he’s alive,” I asked her in a whisper, my voice breaking through my tears.

  “He’s alive,” Elle told me, pulling back to look me in the eyes. “He’s not in good shape, B, but he’s alive.”

  “We need to ask you both some questions before we can let you go to the hospital and see Mr. Walker,” one of the police officers told us. Elle assured me that she had called Colin and he and Reese were driving straight over to the hospital to be with Wes until we could get there. She also called my parents and they were on their way, planning to meet us at the hospital.

  The police officers led us over to the steps leading to our apartment rather than bringing us back to the station and started asking us question after question after I handed them the restraining order that I kept in my purse with me. A female officer took pictures of my injuries and the red lines across Elle’s wrists and ankles from where the ties had cut into her skin. The officers commended us when Elle recounted how she managed to make the phone call while I stalled Jesse. After two hours of questioning and the cops assuring Elle that I would not be getting in trouble since I had shot Jesse in self defense, we were finally allowed to head to the hospital to see Wes. If he didn’t make it I would never forgive myself. I don’t think I could recover from that.

  TWENTY-FIVE

  We were forced to sit in the waiting room for another two hours once we had finally made it to the hospital. Wes had to be rushed into surgery to remove the bullet and the doctors wouldn’t allow anyone into the recovery room immediately after he was released from surgery. Time seemed to pass by slower than usual as we all waited for Wes to be transferred into another room where he would be allowed visitors. The doctors told us that he would need to be held for a couple of days after he woke up so that his progress could be monitored. They couldn’t say for sure when he would wake up, only that it could take anywhere between a few hours to a few days due to the amount of blood loss he had suffered from the bullet wound. He would also have to participate in physical therapy for a few months after his release in order for his right shoulder to regain its strength and full usage.

  I had to have my ribs and lip bandaged but luckily that was it. My ribs were bruised but they weren’t broken. The tenderness was still there but the doctor provided me with a prescription for painkillers that was helping me cope. Elle was given a special cream to apply to her wrists and ankles before wrapping them up in gauze. The cords didn’t do too much damage but there were parts of her skin where the wire had created lacerations, so the treatment would help prevent heavy scarring.

  Elle sat beside me in the waiting room, holding my hand while I sat in silence, blaming myself for Wes getting hurt. Colin was on her other side chatting lightly with Luke, Jade and Savanna who had all shown up as soon as they heard what had happened. My mother and father sat to my left, finally allowing me to wallow after forcing Elle and I to recount everything that happened for the second time that night. My mother cried hysterically and pulled Elle and me into a long hug. My father’s eyes were moist but he held it together to comfort my mom. He wrapped his arms around both Elle and me, telling us how grateful he was that we were okay and placing a kiss on each of our heads. Elle’s parents were on vacation in Europe and I was glad that she had always had such a close relationship with my family so that she didn’t feel alone in her own parents’ absence.

  Roy and Ariana had rushed to the hospital as soon as Reese had called them. Anne stayed home with the twins so that they could have time together as a family. It was heartwarming to see Reese and Roy speaking amicably across the waiting room. Ariana was still wiping away tears with a tissue clutched firmly in her hand, her eyeliner and mascara running down her eyes. I apologized numerous times to all three of them, blaming myself for everything but they assured me that they didn’t hold me accountable. I knew that Reese also felt like it was his fault, since he had been the one to invite Jesse over to Wes’s apartment that day, but none of us could have known what
Jesse would do.

  Jesse was located somewhere on the other side of the hospital while his injury was treated. There were guards around his room waiting for him to recover before they would arrest him for contempt of court for violating the restraining order. He would be facing many other charges as well. I knew that my father wanted to sneak away to find his room and finish what I had started but he stayed put.