by Lipa Nandes
"I bet you must have done something to her, she would not leave just because she wanted! After all the work we had to get her to call you so that she somehow wanted to see you... And what did you do?" My body began to fill with a fit of anger I didn't know, that I didn't even know it existed inside me. "After all those nights planning how we were to bring her back. After all our plans to make her stay with us! Why do you think your parents brought Mrs. Gladys house? Because my parents talk to yours, just to make sure you stay close to her. You fucking ruined everything!" He shouts to me. His face turns bright red, and I... I didn't even know the reason behind why my parents bought that house.
All this time, I was part of their plan, but they forget the most important thing. To tell me all about it.
But before he continued to speak; "Owen shut up. She didn't call me because she wanted to be with me or because she needed to talk or anything else she might need. Clark called me because... Because she hates me! And what the fuck? I thought we were at the same time here." I start to pace back and forward! I'm about losing my mind here.
This is not the right way to deal with her; I always said that it would be best to tell her the whole truth when she came home because if we all wanted her to trust us, to go back to us, and try, I don't know, to be what she was before.
We could avoid so many things, we could stop her from going back to that guy who has so much influence and power over her.
She was right when she said it would be better if only she had known all through us!
But no, of course not, her family didn't agree with it, they just said we should protect her from the truth and just look at how far it retook us!?
"You know what, Kyle? You don't have to worry about her anymore. She's my sister, and we're gonna do this without you." He told me with inevitable anger in his voice. I couldn't consider or ponder the idea of being away from her or not fighting for her. I know I have to be around, I'm the best chance for them to get her back to us and they know it.
"You're crazy, you cannot do that, you know you need me. She's your sister, you're right, but she's the girl I love, and you're not going to take me away from her!" I screamed at him! Now I can understand Neva more when she used to complain about how Owen annoyed her and how he didn't know how to deal with her. He's a sturdy head and wants to do everything at once on his way, and he thinks he's always right and that his ideas are still better. In his mind, he believes he's the owner of the reason, but this time he will not be that lucky!
"The girl you love? Are you really sure about what you're saying? Because I saw you leave the first party we had at college with a girl with purple hair and tattoos on her arms. You're going to tell me that you didn't sleep with her?!" He screamed back at me.
What is he saying there? I didn't sleep with anyone, how could I do that to Neva?
"Oh my God, Owen, that girl is my cousin, Tyanna. She's in her third year of college, I thought you recognized her." I shouted this time even louder than he, and then I started to feel a pain in my throat. I almost felt my vocal cords burst.
"Yes, yes; your cousin! You're going to get away from Neva, and that's the end—"
"Enough!" Tom says to both of us inside of the yacht. How did they know where I was?
"We're here to bring Neva back and not to kill anyone, okay?!" Tom glared at Owen.
"But she was here with him, and he, as usual, ruined everything, and she was gone!" Owen accused me, pointing the finger at me.
Tom ran his hand over his head to the back of his neck. He passed his fingers through the lips and then to his face.
Like if he's trying to think in some sort of plan or something to say.
"Marcus is almost here, we have to think in a new plan, and we have to keep calm, okay, this is for Neva's sake."
As I swept the shards of glass from the whiskey bottle, Tom and Owen sat on the couch. Owen was looking at me furiously, and Tom was responsible for preventing something to happen between Owen and me. I didn't know how far Owen could go at that moment, but if he tried to do something to me... I would lose my head, and I would not let me stay! Maybe I even thanked him for trying to do something, it could be that the anger that I have inside me, for having first followed the entire Clark family plan, disappeared. But I knew that this was only going to happen when I could finally tell Neva the whole truth, it was and always was the right thing to do as soon as she returned home.
As I carried the shards into the trash, I began to hear someone walk on the main deck. I put the shards in the dumpster and then head out to see Marcus looking for us.
"We're in here," I told him. He looked back, and I could see that something was going through the look of emptiness in his face, something happened that I do not know.
We walked into the living room, and Tom and Owen were still sitting in the center of the sofa, while I sat in one corner and Marcus sat in the other corner facing me.
After some silence between the four; "We have to think of something to get Patrick out of Neva's life," Tom said first.
"Did you do what I asked you, Marcus?" Owen asked.
What is he talking about? What did Marcus do?
"Listen, man, don't ask me to do one more thing like that! She—" He dropped his head, staring at the floor, let out a sigh. "I don't want to hurt her again."
"Hurt her? What the hell did you do to her? " I shout to him completely enraged!
"Why do you think she called you earlier dumb ass!? Because Marcus did what he should have done and once again you ruined everything," Owen answered me in the same tone as me, getting up from the sofa and I do precisely the same. I don't really want to lose my head and end up doing something that I'll regret later; "You ruined everything at your party, then you screwed up again when you went out with her the next day. How are you supposed to help us to bring Neva back to us if you keep pushing her further and further? And now, this.
She called you because she needed someone to talk to, and as Marcus told her some horrible things, she didn't have anyone else. You ruined everything! No matter how many more dates, or plans to bring her back to you, you always end up pushing her away." I could see the veins in Owen's throat as he spoke to me thoroughly enraged, but he was not right in what he was saying, and I wasn't wrong to show my feelings for her because I know that's what she needs, the truth, and not of an elaborate lie. Lie not, omission!
"Enough!" Tom said again to both of us. I don't know how he can keep his cool in this situation, I couldn’t...
"That guy should be arrested, yeah, or be beaten in such a way that for me he could stay in the door of death and never come back."
"We cannot do this, are you crazy, Owen?" Marcus said.
"So we have to find something else because everything we've been doing so far is not working," Tom answered.
"And if I talked to her, I don't know if I told her everything since she went to rehab so far? That's what she needs, she needs to know the truth, and maybe she'll trust us again, or at least in me." I suggested, but then I remembered everything Owen had told me; "I promise that this time I put my feelings aside," I added.
"Nope... It will not work," Owen told me looking at me with rage in his face.
"Do you have a better idea?" I asked him.
After my question, his expression became empty and turning his back on us; "I already know exactly what needs to be done."
chapter twenty-five
neva
After having showered with Patrick as soon as we got home and after we had eaten our breakfast, we put on our pajamas and went to bed.
Patrick fell asleep as soon as he laid down, and I was still awake for a few minutes thinking about the night I had, thinking about my conversation with Kyle.
As of today, I will not call anyone again either for Kyle or Marcus, they both hurt me a lot today and honestly, I was not expecting that from them.
But Marcus... Wow, he really surprised me by the negative. How could he be so cruel to me? He was supposed to be my best friend and
not that person who spoke to me on the phone.
The tears came back again because of everything that had happened to me keeps hit hard inside my head, and once again, I can not sleep! I'm tired as hell and even so I cannot close my eyes and sleep because my mind doesn't turn off, it doesn't leave me alone and continues to do what it has been doing... Torturing me.
I get out of bed slowly, so I don't wake Patrick, he must be exhausted from working so hard. I start to walk on tiptoe and open the bedroom door slowly.
I walk down the hall to the stairs and into the kitchen.
As I walk in, I see Miles sitting at the breakfast table; "Good morning," he told me with a smile from one end to the other.
"Goodnight," I told him, picking up a bottle of Jack from inside the cupboard.
"Isn't it a little early for you to drink?" What the hell did he tell me? I didn't ask for permission or any opinion on when I should or should not drink. What the hell!
"Miles, shut up, you don't know what I'm going through now! This," I said, lifting the bottle up, "is my pill to get to sleep, so let me sleep, please."
Miles lowered his gaze to the bowl of cereal he was eating and didn't speak to me again.
I left the kitchen and went to the living room, sat down on the couch, and started drinking straight from the bottle.
"Clark," I heard someone in the background call me. Am I dreaming, or is this really happening?
"Clark, are you listening to me?" This time, beyond the voice, I felt myself being shaken.
Oh, shit is this... real?
I slowly begin to open my eyes, and Patrick's face appears in front of my eyes. I rub them to make sure that it is authentic.
"How did you fall asleep here?" He asked me something worried.
"I couldn't sleep, so I came here and drink. That's why I'm sleeping here," I told him, dragging my words as I held out Jack's bottle.
"Come on, I'll help you go back to bed, and you'll stay there while I fetch something for us to eat," he told me as he helps me to get up off the couch and put one of my arms around his neck to help me balance.
"What time is it?" I asked him with a colossal headache and completely confused.
"It's almost one o'clock in the afternoon,"
Our steps were small, and mine were small and drawn, at this moment, I had the strength of jellyfish to walk. It was as if I had no bones to support the weight of my body.
The main hall now seemed an infinite mile road, because it must have taken forever to get to the stairs.
When we were going to start climbing; "Carson Police, open the door."
Carson police? Did I hear, right?
Patrick and I stand on the second ladder, waiting for something to happen. Or did they leave, and was it all a mistake!?
"Police?" I looked at Patrick even more confused, letting that word hover in the air.
"Last warning, open the door," the man shouted again, knocking on the door.
None of us could move, and my brain could not make a single line of reasoning for that. It didn't make any sense of what was happening.
Suddenly we heard a loud bang, and the wooden door fell to the floor.
Patrick and I shuddered at the sound of that big bang, and my heart went off.
Then it all happened too fast, it looked like a scene from a movie or something.
Three men entered the house; "Patrick James, you're under arrest for kidnapping, whatever you say—" One of the cops said, holding him while another held me by the arms. What? Arrested for kidnapping? Who did he kidnap? What is this, anyway?
"Miss Clark?" The third policeman asked me, I could not answer as much as I wanted, so I nodded to him, then the third policeman said; "You're safe now."
Am I safe? I don't need to be saved, I'm fine where I am.
Wait? Am I safe? So, you mean...
Oh shit, fuck! Is Patrick being arrested because they think I was kidnapped? What the fuck is this shit? Who did this?
To that question, I had a big list of names that could well be the answer; Kyle, Marcus, my parents! Oh shit, shit...
How the hell I'm going to take Patrick out of jail?
The third police put a coat over me, but that didn't awake me to reality; "Miss Clark, you have to go with us to the police station to identify the assailant."
The policeman who was keeping me on my feet led me to another police car.
The sunlight burned my eyes as I got out of the house, and my head looked like a time bomb ready to explode at any moment.
I got into the car without a fight because A) I didn't have the strength for much more and B) because going with them was the best way to know where the hell they took Patrick.
For the way I reminded that not even my phone I had brought, how am I supposed to ask for help if I didn't bring my phone? I don't know anyone's number by heart, and now? Where the fuck do I go? I cannot go home, to that family, to that room...
When we got to the police station, I saw in the parking lot right in front of the building, a black GMC. My jaw dropped to the floor at that precise moment.
Did Kyle do this to me? How could he do such a thing to me?
The officers got out of the car, and one of them helped me out of the backseat. I could feel myself a little more, strong maybe, I don't know how to explain... It's like having seen Kyle's car build all my anger inside me, which ended up giving me the strength to walk and maybe talk.
What the fuck, Kyle, what did you do?
As I entered the station, I saw the four of them sitting in the chairs. There was the whole gang together, Kyle, Tom, Owen, and even Marcus.
If I had until now any doubts about Kyle, they were undone entirely as soon as I saw him sitting there!
The police took me to them; "Owen Clark?" Asked the policeman.
"It's me," He said as he rose from the chair.
"Please follow us to formalize the complaint."
What? It can't be, please, please, no!
My body rebuilt with rage and fury. I couldn't stand the fact that it was my own brother who did something like that to me, how could he do this to me? Why?
"What are you doing?" I screamed at him.
Tears took possession of my eyes, anger took possession of my words; "Your selfish prick! Motherfucker, I will burn you, Owen, I will burn you until you die," I tried to give him a kick as he walked past me, but that damn cop pulled me away from my brother, and then closed me into a fucking a room.
I started to walk back and forth. I wanted to think, I tried to find out how I was going to get Patrick out of there.
I sat on a black couch inside the room, and my hands as they held my head, I made an extra effort to gather all the pieces of that strange puzzle, or whatever.
The tears continued to fall, and my despair and sense of impotence increased every minute, the anxiety was so big that I found myself gnawing my nails until bleeding.
Suddenly I heard someone knock on the door glass, I looked up, and Kyle signaled the police to unlock the door. I don't know where he's headed, but it's not safe for anyone to be around me now.
As soon as he entered the room; "It's was you, you did all this..." I accused him as I get up from the couch.
His expression carried pity, sorry for me. I don't want pity from anybody, I just want to be away from them all and stay close to Patrick.
"No, Neva, I wasn't," he sighed. "We all tried to stop Owen from doing this, but— He doesn't listen."
"And how did he know where I was, or with whom I was? Huh? I was with you not a few hours ago and you, you ran to my brothers straight away to tell them that you had been with me... Don't try to fool me, Kyle. I know you well enough." I said to him in a menacing tone.
Who does he think he is to try to turn me around? To try to trick me!?
"Nothing like that happened Clark, I swear to you, please believe me."
"Believing in you? Not in the hell did I do that... Wait there, you followed me, did not you?" I said, touching his c
hest with my finger. "You followed me, and then you made a false claim on my brother's behalf to get me out of my house?? "
"No, no, and no, Clark, I would never do that to you, I want you to come back to me, but I would never do that to you, and you know it, it's true! You know me better than anyone else, you know I could never do such a thing to you. "
His voice carried so much heartache, so much sadness. Should I believe him? It doesn't matter if I should or should not believe him, I need to get out of here and go to the only person who can help me at this time.
"Take me home," I asked him.
Kyle looked at me, completely confused; "I already told you that I don't know where you live, I didn't follow you anywhere, please you have to believe me." He said, bagging me to believe in those words.
But for the big brain, he has inside that little head, he can sometimes even be so dumb...
"It's not for my current home dumbass, take me home," I repeated with more emphasis the last words.
And so, out of nowhere, he realized that what I wanted was for him to take me to my parents' house. I don't know where I'm headed right now, but it's the right thing for me to do especially since I can't do anything to help Patrick now.
I zipped the police jacket up to the top (I still cannot believe they brought me here in my pajamas) then I looked at Kyle who started walking towards the door, he opened it for me letting me out first.
Then and as soon as Owen saw me leave, he came running toward us; "Where do you think you're going?" He asked, grabbing my arm. I immediately shook him out of his hand and looking directly into his eyes and without a trace of fear; "I'm going to solve the crap you just did."
That was my cue to leave the police station with Kyle on my first, and I hope the last, attempt to get Patrick out of jail.
chapter twenty-six
neva
I still cannot believe how he could do such a thing to me.
Does he hate me so much to want me even more unhappy?
As I walk out the door of the police station, Kyle puts his arm in front of my chest preventing me from moving forward; "What the hell are you doing?" I looked at him with a furious and confused look at the same time.