by Alice Tribue
“Okay, should I call Tyler?”
“No. You do not call him, and you do not speak to him if he comes to the house before I get there, you call the cops. I will handle Tyler.”
“Okay, please hurry.”
“I’m leaving now, baby.”
Luca gets here in less than ten minutes; I’ve never been so relieved to see anyone. His anger is so palpable it almost takes on a life of its own, but he places a kiss on my forehead, gathers me into his arms, and carries me out of the house with barely a word spoken.
“Where are we going?” I question after he’s positioned me in the already reclined passenger’s seat and climbed behind the wheel.
“Hospital.”
“Should we have called the cops?”
“Not here, baby. We don’t know if they’re watching the house. We’ll get the cops to come to the hospital to get your statement.”
“We should have stayed in bed,” I tell him, trying to make light of the situation, but he’s having none of it.
“This shit has to end. One way or another, this shit has to end.”
It’s been a week since I was attacked by the men who are after Tyler, a week since anyone has seen or heard from him except for a random text I got while I was in the hospital saying I’m sorry. He’s made no other contact, and I’m scared for him, I truly am, but right now I can only focus on my own recovery, especially since it’s clear that Tyler doesn’t want to be helped.
I’m finally starting to feel a little bit better. My ribs were bruised pretty badly, but thankfully, nothing was broken. Thankfully, I was able to walk away with just a few minor bumps and bruises. The police have been patrolling Luca’s street to make sure that we have at least a little bit of protection, but Luca seems to think that they won’t come after us again. He thinks that they just wanted to send a message to Tyler, but I’m not so sure they’re just going to leave us alone, especially me. My parents were frantic when they heard what was going on, and since I refused to go stay with them, they drop by Luca’s house daily, as do his parents. It was hard for any of them to believe the mess that Tyler has made of things.
The sound of my cell phone ringing startles me. I had just dozed off on the couch moments before while watching a movie with Luca. I reach for the phone not recognizing the number on the display.
“Hello?” I answer, putting the call on speakerphone.
“Everly, where are you?”
“Tyler, where the hell have you been? Everyone is looking for you.”
“I’m okay, This will all be over tomorrow, Ev. I got the money from my dad like you said; I finally went to him and got it. I’m so sorry for what happened to you, I never meant for you to get hurt.”
“I know that, Ty.”
“Where are you? Can I see you?”
“I’m with Luca, and I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Silence
“I see.” His voice cracks but he recovers quickly. “That’s good, Everly, that’s where you should be. He’ll take care of you; promise me that you’ll stay there.”
“I want to help you. You have to let me help you, Tyler, once you pay back the money. You need to see someone.”
“I’m fine, I am, and Luca, he loves you—he always has.”
“I know,” I whisper, unable to hide the sadness I feel for him.
“I’ve really made a mess of things, huh?” he questions, his tone matching my own.
“Don’t say that, you’re sick. I know that, and now I understand that. I want you to get better, Ty, but I can’t be around all of the chaos you’ve created.”
“No, I know it’s for the best. It always should have been this way, he wanted you first and I knew that, I knew that before you and I officially met. I just didn’t care. I wanted you for myself, so I lied to him and I took you.”
“It doesn’t matter now; the only thing that matters now is that you get out of this mess.”
“Tell him I’m sorry, Everly. I’m so sorry. Tell him that no matter what happens, I still love him like a brother.”
“I love you too, man,” Luca chimes in having heard the whole conversation. “Just get better; we can deal with everything else later.”
“Yeah, goodbye.” He hangs up the phone, and I think a part of me knows that I’ll never speak to him again. Luca pulls me up gently, careful not to aggravate my bruises and places me on his lap.
“How are you doing?”
“I’m okay. I’m really scared for him, though. I really do want him to get help.”
“He has to decide that for himself, baby.”
“I know.”
After two days with no further word from Tyler, I finally decide that I need to check on the house and get some of my clothes. I’ll hire movers for the rest of my things once everything with Tyler has settled down. Luca, of course, being the man that he is wouldn’t let me come alone so he demanded that he drive me. We pull into the garage and I let us in the house through the side door.
“Can you grab us some waters while I run upstairs and grab some clothes?”
“Sure,” he says heading over to the refrigerator while I head upstairs to what once was my bedroom. It feels so strange to think of it as part of my past, but that’s exactly what it’s become. I open the door and gasp at the sight before me, my eyes go wide, and I suck in a deep breath. I can’t think, can’t process anything around me all I can do is stare at Tyler lying on the floor in a pool of blood. I shake my head slowly in disbelief, his eyes are closed, and his skin is pale, so pale.
“Oh, my God.” I run over to him and fall to my knees as my body starts to tremble and my eyes glass over. No, this can’t be happening. “Tyler?” I call out through tears. “Tyler, please… please,” I beg. “You have to get up, Ty, we have to go.” My eyes get blurrier with each passing moment.
I touch Tyler’s cheek, and it feels hard, so cold, and I don’t understand. I don’t get it. I don’t accept it.
“Please, Ty, don’t do this. Why are you doing this?” I scream as I shake him harder. “No, no, no, no, no…” I scream, pushing off the floor and running into the hallway. I collapse in the hall and continue to cry and scream. I’m losing my mind, I have to be losing it. This isn’t real; it’s not possible.
“Jesus, Everly. What the fuck?”
“Luca, Luca, please, please help me,” I cry through chattering teeth.
I look up at his stunned face.
“Okay Ev, I’m just going to help you up, okay?”
I’m numb; my whole body is numb. I don’t feel his arms wrap around me as he helps me back into the room. I’m shocked and completely dazed. “Tyler,” I cry.
Luca stares at the scene for a moment and nods slowly.
“Fuck.”
I close my eyes and shudder. The tears rolling down my cheeks are the only thing I can feel. “Please, Luca. Please help him.”
“Fuck,” I hear Luca scream, and I jump back. I open my eyes, and he’s hovering over Ty. Why isn’t he helping him?
“Do something!” I screech. No longer able to control my tears. “Please…”
“Baby, he’s been shot in the chest. He’s gone.”
Gone. Gone. Tyler’s gone. Those are the last words I hear before my world goes black and before my entire life collapses around me. Tyler’s gone.
“Everly.” I hear someone call from a distance. “Everly, you have to wake up.” My mom, it sounds like my mom, I think as my eyes flutter open.
“Everly.” I hear again followed by a knock on the door. I shoot up in bed looking for Luca, looking for-
“Tyler,” I whisper, remembering how I found his body only moments ago. I was with Luca and Tyler…
“Everly, you really have to get up.”
“I’m coming,” I call trying to figure out what’s going on. I look around the room and a gush of air escapes from my lungs as I see it. My wedding dress hanging on the closet door.
“It was a dream?” I ask out loud, still feelin
g out of sorts, but it felt so real, everything about it felt real. I glance at my phone and look at the date, my wedding day to Luca, four years after Tyler was killed in the park, four years after my life fell apart. He didn’t survive, but God, for a minute there I thought he had, for a minute there I thought the dream was real. I look down at my left hand and see the beautiful diamond on my ring finger. I’m engaged to Luca, I’m marrying Luca, and we’re having a baby.
“Mom, I just need a minute. I overslept I’ll be right down,” I say in order to keep her from knocking again.
“Okay,” she says as I pick up the phone again and call Luca.
“Good morning, baby.”
“Hey, how was guys’ night at the hotel.”
“Very PG-13, I promise.”
“Good.”
“What’s wrong, Ev?”
“I just had the strangest dream.”
“What about?”
“I dreamt that Tyler survived, that you went to the park instead of him that day and you were shot, only you didn’t die. You were hurt, though.”
“Some dream.”
“I know. But Luca, the dream was worse because instead of fixing things, Tyler just made them worse, he got you shot and he got me in the middle of things but you know what was the strangest part?”
“What?”
“You and I, we ended up together anyway. We found each other, no matter what, and we couldn’t save him, Luca. Tyler died anyway.”
“I think maybe Tyler’s trying to tell you something.”
“I think so, too,” I say wiping a stray tear. “No matter how it would have all played out, no matter all the what if’s we’ve asked ourselves over and over again things ended up as they should. We were going to find each other no matter what, weren’t we?”
“Yes, baby.”
“Okay.”
“Feel better now?”
“Starting to, yes.”
“Everly, we’re a family. We were always meant to be that—you, me, and our little boy you’re carrying.”
I smile, taking in his words, and place a hand on my stomach.
“I still can’t believe it.”
“Believe it, baby. We deserve to be happy, that’s what we do for each other and we’re going to keep on doing it.”
“He said I should be with you—in the dream, Tyler told me I should be with you. He said you’d take care of me; it’s one of the last things he said.”
“And I will—always. I promise you.”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too. I’ll meet you at the altar; I’ll be the one in the tux wearing a stupid grin on his face.”
“Got it,” I say with a giggle.
“See ya, baby.”
“See ya,” I reply before hanging up.
There have been so many times over the last few years, especially after Luca and I got together where I’ve asked myself what if? What if Tyler survived, what would have happened? Would he have gotten help or kept on his destructive path? Would we have made it or would I have found my way to Luca anyway? After the dream, I feel like all of those questions have been answered, I think Tyler was trying to tell me that I am exactly where I’m supposed to be. One way or another, I would have ended up with Luca, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. He really is the love of my life.
“I did this for you,” I mutter as my mother fixes my veil for the hundredth time today. “
“You look stunning,” she tells me through watery eyes.
I’m fighting the anxiety as best as I can, but it’s grabbing hold of me and I can’t seem to shake it. “I don’t know if I can do this.”
“Honey.” She turns me to face her and gives me her brilliant smile. “You have nothing to worry about.”
“I wanted to get married at a courthouse, just me and Luca, but I did this for you… I did this to make you happy and now I’m freaking out.”
“Everly.”
“What if something goes wrong? What if…”
“What if what?” I hear from behind me somewhere inside the back room where I’m being stashed at the church.
I turn, only to come face to face with Luca, the man I love, the man of my dreams. One look at him and the panic and fear I’ve felt all day begins to recede.
“Baby,” I call out to him, the relief in my voice is clear.
“Did you think I’d ditch you?”
I spot my mom out of the corner of my eye moving out of the room, and I release the gush of breath that I must have been holding and shake my head. “You’re not supposed to see me in my dress.”
“When this day is over, we’ll be married. It’ll be just us, me and you.” He walks into the room and stops just a few feet away. “Once you walk down that aisle, I will not leave your side, and I won’t let you go. I won’t leave you alone; I will not go away… so whatever fear you’re holding onto, you need to let it go because this is not that. This is our story, just you and me and the past cannot touch us anymore.”
“It’s not you leaving me that I’m afraid of, not by choice anyway.”
“I’m not going to die, babe. Not today, anyway. I can’t promise you that it’ll never happen, that something won’t happen to me one day, but what I can promise you is that you will never lose me to something that I could have prevented. You’ll never lose me because I chose something else over you, over our baby. Can you live with that?”
“Yes. It’s just hard to let you walk away from me sometimes.”
“Today?”
I nod my confirmation, and he gets it. I know he understands my irrational fears, and I love him even more for not making me feel like I’m crazy.
“Come on. Let’s go get married, Ev.”
“Okay, you’re right. I’ll meet you at the altar,” I tell him with a smile.
“No. You and I—we’ll get to the altar together,” he declares taking my hand and pulling me out of the room.
“What? Luca, what about my dad? He’s waiting to walk me down the aisle.”
He squeezes my hand and smiles. “He’ll understand. We’re having this wedding to make our family happy. They’ll understand that we need to do this together, and they’ll give us that much.”
I stand by while Luca has a word with my father, who just nods and gives him a pat on the arm. My dad walks over to me and pulls me into his arms.
“I love you, sweetheart. Don’t you worry, okay?”
“I love you too, Daddy,” I tell him before he walks into the church and take his seat up front.
When the music begins and the double doors open, all of my fears, all of my doubts and worries fade away and all that’s left is us. Luca and I, his hand holding mine, our baby growing inside of me, and it’s perfect. The perfect ending to a difficult past, the perfect beginning to a beautiful life.