Mad World - Madilyn Bailey
Pretty When You Cry - Lana Del Rey
Make It Rain - Ed Sheeran
-
"911, What's your emergency?"
"Please you need to help me!" I cry into the phone receiver. "My name's Evangeline West. I don't know what's going on but something bad is about to happen. Someone's already been shot and there are more in danger."
I pace around my dorm room and try to control the sobs that are still wracking through my body. Time is ticking by. I don't have a lot of time left.
"Take a deep breath ma'am. Where are you? Do you know who's been shot? Is he still breathing?"
"No he's dead and there's going to be more! You need to send the police over to the docks by the river right now! There's a gang there that's going to kill more and you need to help please!"
I'm surprised I can form coherent sentences with how tight my throat is and how much my lips are trembling. My hands are shaking and my breathing is unsteady. If I wasn't running on adrenaline right now, I would be having a full blown panic attack.
"Just remain calm. Do you know where at by the river they are? Are you there right now?"
The dispatcher's voice is soft and calm, which normally would make me feel better, but her voice does nothing for me now. Nothing could make me feel calm about this situation. How do you remain calm in a dangerous life or death matter? You don't. Your fight or flight response kicks in and you make decisions based on the adrenaline and panic that courses through your body. You make reckless decisions because it feels like that's what you should be doing to survive. That's all we're really doing, just trying to survive this thing we call life.
"I don't know, but I know that more people are going to die. Please help me!" I plea, putting a hand to my forehead. "This gang has been the one who's robbing the stores and setting the fires around downtown. They're dangerous and I'm telling you something horrible is going to happen and you need to help me before it's too late! Please they're going to kill him!"
Who are they going to kill? Talk to me ma'am. I am going to notify the police right now. Stay on the line with me.
I look at the call time and start to hyperventilate. Oh fuck. I don't have any more time to spare. I need to get to Tre right now. There is no more, time has run out.
"Please send help. I have to go," I stammer, my entire body trembling.
"Ma'am-" I abruptly hang up the phone and shove the phone into my coat pocket after seeing the small numbers at the end of the call time.
50 seconds.
~*~
"I dream a world where man, no other man will scorn, where love will bless the earth, and peace its paths adorn."
Tre's eye widen in astonishment when hears me recite the first four lines of a Langston Hughes's poem. He obviously didn't think that I knew any poetry, much less the poetry that he likes to read.
"I dream a world where all, will know sweet freedom's way," Tre recites the next lines of the poem and I smile, listening to his deep voice. "Where greed no longer saps the soul, nor avarice blights our day. A world I dream where black or white, whatever race you be, will share the bounties of the earth, and every man is free."
I can't believe Tre and I are reciting poetry to each other. If you had told me during the first week of school that we'd be having a conversation in poetry, I wouldn't have believed you. Tre has really surprised me. He knows his poetry. I didn't think I would ever meet someone who could recite poetry with me. It's amazing to know that Tre can recite as well as I can.
"You may write me down in history, with your bitter, twisted lies, you may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I'll rise." I send another poem his way to see if he knows his Maya Angelou, one of my favorite poets.
My mouth drops again in amazement as he recites off another part of the poem that I didn't think he would know.
"You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise."
"You really know your stuff," I say after he's done, extremely impressed by his ability.
"Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words," he simply replies.
"Edgar Allen Poe," I point out the author of the quote. "I love his work. It's very dark and delirious, but also extremely vivid and dynamic."
"I'm surprised you know Poe."
I raise my eyebrows. "And why is that?"
"Didn't think shy Eva would know something so dark."
"I didn't think you would know poetry," I retort and sit back, crossing my arms defensively.
His usual smirk is plastered on his face. "We both learned something new about each other."
"Well, apparently we learn something new every day." That's what I've always heard, anyways. I think it's true though. I learn a lot just from the simple everyday things that surprise me.
"You're the first person I've met that can recite poetry," Tre says, his eyes locking on mine.
"Me too." Is all I can say. My mind gets jumbled when I look into Tre's eyes and I can't think clearly. It's like the world around me gets blurry and all I can see is the brown pools that have a depth to them that I deeply want to explore.
~*~
"If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you be?"
Tre brings his hand up and run his thumb down my cheek.
"Right here," he mumbles and my body get chills. Our eyes meet each other and I bite my lip, knowing what to ask next.
Last question.
"Will you kiss me?"
He looks a little surprised at my question. I know he wasn't expecting me to ask that.
"Only if you want me too." He pauses. "Do you want me to?"
I had thought about this moment and how it would go, but I didn't think it would ever go like this. But now that we're here and after everything he has told me, I don't want this time to end with a simple, meaningless question and answer.
"Please."
He nods and his face comes closer to mine. My mind is swirling with all kinds of unclear thoughts, but as our faces get closer, I remember what Sam told me. Just follow Tre and do what he does.
So I angle my face towards his and his hand cups my cheek. Our lips only millimeters apart now and my nerves are at an all-time high. I don't know if he can feel me shaking, but his lips finally touch mine.
For a second they don't move and I wait for Tre. His lips then move slowly against mine and I move mine to match his. I'm not sure if I'm doing this right. Feeling his lips on mine is a foreign sensation, but not a bad one.
Tre's lips command over mine, but I keep my lips moving with his, matching in synch. I wait for him to use his tongue, but he never does. He doesn't push it any farther, not wanting to make me uncomfortable.
My body feels very warm and I surprise myself by wanting him to use his tongue and push things farther. My lips are the only things moving slow. My blood is rushing fast throughout my entire body, lighting me up like an inferno. Igniting a spark inside me that I have never felt before.
~*~
"Come on! You're not afraid for the water are you babe?" He smirks and I shake my head.
"I'm coming in." I take a deep breath to try and steady out my fast beating heart that feels like it's running a thousand miles a minute.
I hear Tre go under water again, so I first take off my shoes, then my socks. The concrete is cold under my bare feet. I don't hear anymore splashing so I look up and see Tre standing in the middle of the pool with his eyes on me. Feeling his eyes on me, initially, makes me nervous, but I grab the bottom of my shirt and pull it up over my head, revealing the small top. I think I hear Tre intake a sharp breath, but I'm not completely sure if that was from him or me. Now the night air is really cool on my bare torso and I'm sure Tre can see the goosebumps that I now have. Tre's mouth turns up in smirk and I bite my lip. I don't know whether I'm nervous or excited for him to see me, or both. Probably both.
I unzip my jeans and push them down my legs. I step out of them and put my pile of clothes next to his. I try not to think about how naked I feel, even though everything is covered. It's weird. Showing my body to someone else.
Tre's eyes don't leave me as I walk towards the pool stairs. I don't stop looking at him either. Except for when I first took off my jeans, his eyes haven't gone down my body again. He's staring right at me and only me. I notice his body tense, but his face stays the same intense expression he always has. His eyes don't seem like they're full of all lust. They almost seem more curious than anything, like he's waiting to see what I will do next.
I get to the stairs and take the first step into the water. It's very warm, almost like bath water, but it feels great against the cool evening. I smile as I submerge my body in the water and meet Tre in the middle.
"Hi." I smile at him and he laughs and smiles too.
"Hey."
I bend my knees and float, kicking my feet and floating to the other side of him. He also gets down more into the water and we both float for a moment, looking at each other with our faces close to the water but not saying anything. Tre then goes completely under the water and I feel his hands on my waist, pulling me down into the water.
I squeal from the tickling feeling of his hands on my waist and hold my breath as we go underwater. I swim a little away from him and go further down to the bottom of the pool. The pool goes deeper than most normal pools. 10 feet. My ears pop as I get down more and I turn my back to look at Tre, who's right behind me. I place my back to the wall, watching him swim closer to me. He stops a few feet away. Both of us slowly kicking our legs and moving our arms to help stay down and afloat. The neon lights make it look like we're swimming in a kaleidoscope, colors dancing on both of our bodies.
Everything down here is silent, drowned out. 10 feet down and there's nothing else in the world but us. Floating. I wish we could stay down here, like this, forever.
~*~
"I always felt like there was another piece of me missing and it wasn't my mom. It was you."
He steps closer again, so now we're face to face and our bodies centimeters away from each other.
"It was always you. Everything I searched for, it was all you. Everything I went through was to get me to you. I understand that now. It all makes sense." He pauses. "I never thought I could love another person like I did my mother. She showed me what love was and when she died, that part of me died, the part that wanted to love again. I swore that I would never love anyone again, because I didn't want them to be taken away from me. But you changed everything."
"Evangeline," he says softly and grabs my hand. He swallows hard and looks right at me in my tear-filled eyes. "I love you."
I exhale and more tears fall from my eyes.
"I love you more than I can describe to you. I burn and bleed for you. My heart hurts when I'm not with you. You're my angel, sent to make me feel again."
~*~
In bad times, it's important to remember the good times too. Memories are forever, they'll always be infinite. I always thought my life was great. Until I met him and then I started to understand that my life wasn't ordinary. It wasn't normal, no matter how much I tried to think it was.
I grew up with my life overran in a shelterâa prison that kept me locked away from everything that wasn't guarded. When you grow up in that type of place, you don't realize the shame in it until you finally experience the outside world. And now, my half of my memories are tainted. They're stained by the tears that ran down my cheeks when I was scolded or heavily disciplined and by the aching desire to be a regular teenager.
There was always a pressure pressed onto my shoulders. I've never done that well under a strict microscope. That's why I always get things done early, sometimes weeks in advance because I hate the feeling of pressure. I try to avoid it at all costs, but there is no avoiding it entirely. In life, there's always some pressure and it's up to us to decide how we act upon it.
I want to be a doctor, so I need to know how to work under some pressure, but that's a different kind. I can handle the pressure that's not about me. I am able to think on my feet when it comes to others needs, but personal pressure that's detrimental to my own self, I have a hard time dealing with that.
When the pressure is too much to bare, I revert back to the good memories I have stored in the file cabinets inside my brain. They each all have a different color, year, and age. As a coping mechanism, I made my mind into a cathedral of memories and dreams. When my world gets too much and I drown into the dark waters of reality, I unlock one of the cabinets and immerse myself into the shining happiness of a good memory. I put the memory disk into a projector and watch it fill my head with a kaleidoscope of colors and smiling images that make me forget about present reality.
This is the way I cope. It's what I've always done and today isn't any different.
It's almost like when your life flashes right before your eyes. But this time, my life didn't flash before my eyes, the good memories did. The memories of him. The memories of our love. They were a strobe light in my eyes. So bright, almost blinding and burning my pupils.
It's crazy how much everything can change in a few seconds. One minute, you think things will end a certain way. Seconds later something else happens that changes everything about what you had thought.
Time flies fast like a bullet.
The ringing in my ears grows louder as I scream as loud as I can. My heart feels like it's being ripped out from my chest. Tears stream down my face as D's finger jerks and forces mine down onto the trigger, firing the gun directly at Tre.
Bang
Bang
Two gunshots ring out, but I only felt one come from the gun I am holding in my hands.
Right after the shot fires, D's body jolts and his grip over my hands loosens. I feel liquid spurt onto the back of my head and I find myself falling back. The gun feels like it's burning into my skin and I release my grip from it as D and I crash to the ground. I hear myself let out a sharp gasp as I fall and when I hit the ground, everything goes in slow motion.
My body is in pain from the impact of the fall and my vision is blurry. A high pitched ringing is inside my ears and I roll to my side, looking at D who landed right behind me.
My mouth opens in shock as I look at the bullet hole sitting directly in the middle of his forehead. A trail of blood trickles down from the gaping wound and I look at his eyes, which are now dark and lifeless.
Everything next happens so fast, but in my eyes, everything happens slow. It's like the entire world is going in slow, blurry motion.
I manage to get a breath out of my aching lungs and I turn my head towards the direction of where Tre was. He's on the ground, laying flat on his back with his arms and legs spread out. His body doesn't move, which makes me get to my bruised knees so I can crawl to him.
"Tre!" I scream, new tears blurring my eyes.
I ignore my aches and pains, trying to crawl as fast as I can to him.
I only keep my eyes on him and his unmoving body. He's the only thing I'm focused on.
"Tre!" I scream again, internally begging and praying for him to not be dead.
My heart bursts as Tre's body twitches. His head raises up and looks at me crawling to him. I freeze up, shocked and relieved to see him moving.
Multiple gunshots start firing all around us and I shriek, putting my arms over my head. Tre gets up quickly and grabs me, forcing my body back to the ground. I let out a grunt as I hit the ground again. I curl my body up, my knees to my chest, and Tre covers my body with his. My arms are still covering my head, but now Tre's arms are also around me. His hands are over mine protecting my head and his body shields me from the gunshots that are firing in every direction.
Like always, Tre protected me. No matter what, he was always there to shield me from the monsters that tried to hurt us.
"Tre," I cry, worried about him, but he shushes me.
"It'll be alright," he says right next to my ear, but it's hard to hear him over the war that's seemingly going on around us.
I didn't pay attention to what was happening. We both didn't. We had no idea what was really going on as we laid there, cowering our bodies together to avoid the crossfire.
Unbeknownst to us, as D had forced my hand onto the gun, there were other people arriving around the docks. Sirens didn't blare and red and blue lights didn't flash. But they were there, quietly stalking in as Tre and I were taunted and knocked around. They waited for the right moment to make themselves known.
When D forced my finger onto the trigger, one second before the gun fired, the other shot was made from a far scope.
It was done with precision. The shot was clean and accurate, traveling right through D's forehead. As his body reacted to the impact of the bullet in his brain, his arm jerked and disoriented our aim. Shocked from his body's reaction, my finger slammed onto the trigger and the shot fired in a different direction.
"Get on the ground now!"
I hear loud yelling and shouting from multiple voices throughout, as gunshots still fire across.
"Get down on the ground and put your hands up!"
It sounds like a war zone with how many shots are firing. My body is tensed up and shaking, but it feels warm against Tre's. It's comforting, as much as it can be in the freezing cold, to feel his body so close to mine. It makes me wish that things could be different and we both could be different people.
I don't think of any more memories while we lay on the ground together. My mind is too busy with adrenaline and fear to think of anything in the past. All I can think about now is how much I love Tre and how I will never be able to fully describe just how much I love this man that I would die for.
We'd both die for each other, like a modern day Romeo and Juliet.
The gunfire abruptly stops and the air is silent for a moment. Then all chaos continues. Sirens start blaring and heavy footsteps shuffle around us. I feel Tre's arms loosen from around me and he raises his body off from over mine. I open my eyes that were shut so tightly and lift myself up, rapidly blinking to get rid of my blurry vision. I sit up with my knees bent out in front of me and look at the chaos surrounding us.
There's bodies of D's men lying on the ground and not moving with pools of blood underneath them. The men who are still alive after the shootout are being grabbed by officers and roughly placed in handcuffs. There are a lot of officers walking around in bulletproof vests, scouring the area and talking through their radios. There's three ambulances with their lights flashing and EMT's are bringing gurneys out for the injured me and officers who may have been shot.
I turn my head to Tre and he's also taking everything in. He then looks at D's body laying a couple of feet away from us. His face is emotionless, but he swallows hard and clenches his jaw. I can't tell if he's in shock or angry at what had just conspired a couple of minutes ago. Everything got out of hand so quickly.
His eyes lock on mine and I sigh, feeling my body start to crash from all of the adrenaline. We don't even say anything to each other at first. There's nothing much to say. This could be the end.
"Are you okay?" He asks, his voice a little groggy.
"Yeah I think so," I tell him breathlessly, bringing my hands up to push some hair out of my face. We both freeze once my hands are in front of me. There's dark red blood on my hands and on the arms of my coat.
"What?" I mumble, quickly checking my hands and my body to see if I am bleeding anywhere.
Tre groans and let's out a harsh breath. "Fuck."
I snap my head to him. His mouth tightens as he looks down at his right shoulder. He brings a hand up and hisses as he presses his fingers down. He immediately brings his hand away from his shoulder and his fingers are covered in blood.
"Oh my god, Tre!" I exclaim, scooting closer to him to inspect his wound.
There's a puddle of blood stained on his hoodie and some of the blood leaked down to his arm. The black hoodie obscures just how big the wound is and how much he might be bleeding.
"Help!" I shout so one of the officers or paramedics could come over and help.
My future doctor mode is immediately activated and without another thought, I press my hand on top of his bleeding wound. Tre groans again and clenches his teeth as I apply more pressure. Pressure is most important here.
As I keep pressure on his wound, I try to think of how he could have gotten shot in the shoulder from the bullets that had flown around us, but it doesn't make any sense. If he was shot as he was covering me, he most likely would've been hit in his back, not his shoulder.
"I shot you," I realize, staring at the blooding seeping through my closed fingers.
I shot my ex-boyfriend. Now I probably really should be locked up in a mental institution.
Tre lightly chuckles and briefly smiles. "I know."
His smile then vanishes as he grimaces from the pain. This is the first time I've ever seen him in physical pain and it makes my own heart ache more. For someone who never shows his true emotions to others, he's letting it cover his face now. He's in a lot of pain and the bleeding isn't stopping, which really concerns me.
"How did I- What happ- Why-" I try to form a sentence but I can't get anything out. I'm feeling the panic start to come back and my eyes dart around, noticing a paramedic making his way over to us.
"I'm so sorry." Is all I can say to Tre and I shake my head.
"Don't be sorry," he tells me in between his grimacing. "You saved me."
I don't feel like a savior. I fucking shot him.
"You are an idiot for coming here though." He starts to say and I let out a small laugh and nod in agreement. Only a deeply-in-love idiot would risk her life for her ex-boyfriend and then proceed to shoot him in the shoulder.
"But you saved my life."
I don't have time to respond as the paramedic crouches down next to us.
"He has a gunshot wound to his right shoulder. The bleeding hasn't stopped yet," I report to him and take my bloody hand off of Tre. I rub my hand over my jeans to get some of the liquid off. My jeans are covered in scuff marks, rips, and now blood.
"Let's get him to one of the gurneys," he tells me and I nod.
We help Tre stand up, much to his protests and groans. "I'm fine, Eva," he stubbornly starts to say, but I cut him off.
"No you're not Tre. Stop talking."
We manage to get him over to a gurney next to one of the ambulances. When we get Tre to sit up, the medic examines him, taking his vitals first and then inspecting the wound. "It was a clean shot. The bullet went right through," he says, checking the back of Tre's hoodie that has a small blood stained hole in the fabric.
He then proceeds to help Tre take his hoodie off so he can access the wound. As Tre's bare torso is on display, he doesn't even seem affected by the cold air. Tre's gunshot wound is small, but very bloody. There's blood running down his entire arm and seeing him wounded affects me more than it does him. He just sits there in silence, looking at me the whole time.
"It seems to have missed the subclavian artery and the brachial plexus. Doesn't look like he'll need surgery, but he'll still need to be examined at the hospital to make sure there is no other damage," the medic says, giving Tre a shot for the pain and then grabbing his tools for stitching up.
I let out a sigh of relief. I'm glad I'm studying to be a doctor because I know exactly what he said and why it's good news. If the subclavian artery was hit, Tre could loose a lot of blood, and if his brachial plexus was also punctured, he could have severe nerve and blood vessel damage and loss of motor function. A shoulder wound always seems not as serious as other wounds because there are no vital organs around the shoulder, but there's still a lot that can go wrongâdamaged nerves, loss of the whole arm, or the bullet ricocheting internally and penetrating your vital organs.
While the medic stitches up the wound, I look around at the scene that's drastically dissipated since we got to the ambulance. The dead bodies are now covered by white sheets and there's a few of D's men that are still being taken into the police cars. Officers are walking around and I make eye contact with one of them. I quickly divert my eyes and look back at Tre who's clenching his fists from the pain that he still has. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the officer speak to another man who is wearing a navy jacket with DPD on the back. They both look at us and start walking towards our direction.
I focus on Tre and his eyes grow soft at me. I give him a toothless smile that's not genuine because I need to think about what to say to the approaching officers.
"Excuse me, are you Evangeline West?"
I turn towards the man in the jacket who is now standing in front of Tre and I. The other officer is standing right beside him, his hand resting on his hip.
"Yes, I am," I reply, glancing at Tre who is now looking curiously.
"I'm detective Sean Miller with the DPD. The dispatcher gave us your name from the call you had made earlier. Would you mind answering a few questions?"
I can feel Tre staring at me with questioning eyes, but I ignore his stare. He's probably now figured out that I was the one who had called the police.
I clear my throat and nod. "I can answer some questions."
The other officer gets out a small notepad and pen as detective Miller asks the first question.
"Can you tell me what happened here today?" His eyes drift over to Tre getting stitched up, but then land back on me.
I take a moment to think of my answer. If I tell the full truth, then Tre will also be arrested for the crimes he committed. But I've never been a good liar either. I've always been an open book.
"She's here because of me," Tre speaks up. "I'm the one who- "
"Needed help trying to get our friend out of the gang," I finish his sentence before he could.
Tre narrows his eyes at me but I stare intensely back at him, internally begging him to go along with what I had said. I know that he was going to come clean about everything that happened and what he did for D, but I can't let him do that. If he came clean, he'd be arrested and taken away. I don't want him to end up like all the others.
He had wanted to get out of his violent world, so I'm helping him leave it behind.
I risked my life for him and now I'm lying to the police for him. Honestly, I don't feel guilty about either one.
"Our friend, Latrell, was trying to get out of the gang," I explain, trying to keep my voice steady and calm so it doesn't sound like I'm being untruthful. My eyes are on Tre's the entire time I'm explaining this to make sure he knows the story and doesn't say anything to contradict me. "He told us everything that happened. Tre and I went to try and help him because he didn't want to keep doing what D, the leader was forcing them to. But we were too late and got caught right in the middle of it."
Technically it's not a lie, but definitely not the complete truth either. Sometimes a little white lie doesn't hurt anyone. In this case, it won't hurt anyone, which makes it seem like it's okay to do. It's kind of crazy just how easy it was for me to tell this lie. It just rolled off my tongue without another thought like the devil serpent in front of Adam and Eve.
"Is that true?" Detective Miller poses the question to Tre.
Tre breaks the intense eye contact with me and nods his head slowly. "Yeah it's true. We just wanted to help our friend." His eyes are dark with sadness and it registers all over his face.
The detective and officer stare at us intently like they're analyzing our facial expressions and body movements to see if we're telling the truth. I've never had to work so hard at containing my true emotions.
I hope our story was convincing. It basically did say what happened, just without the mention of Tre also being involved. And if the roles were reversed, Trell would've done the exact same thing. Because that's what you do when you love someone. You'd die for them, you'd lie for them, and you'd do anything for them.
Latrell and Tre weren't bad men, they just got into a bad situation they couldn't get out of. They had done some bad things, but that doesn't make them a bad person. Their hearts were pure, even if they didn't realize it themselves.
"Latrell was a good guy," I say quietly, feeling my throat become tight with emotion. "He didn't deserve to die today."
I bite my lip that's still dried with blood and blink away the threatening tears.
"You were right to call us, but stupid to come out here alone," Miller reprimands, but his tone isn't accusatory. It makes it seem like he's believing our version of the story. "This gang was a highly dangerous threat. We had been investigating them for over a year but we never had any solid evidence against them. Diablo was a power hungry, vicious man. He dealt cocaine and illegal firearms to other gangs throughout the Midwest. He was always under the radar and sent his men to do his dirty work for him so we could never catch him. He liked to terrorize the city and invoke fear into people. This had gone one for too long and now we got him."
His explanation gives me whiplash. This was so much deeper than what I had first thought. And now I really know just how stupid it was for me to come here by myself. Yes, I am a love drunk idiot, but I honestly wouldn't have done anything differently. I did what I had to do for Tre and I. I don't have any regrets.
"You're both lucky to be alive and leaving here with only a couple of minor injuries," he reminds us and I nod in agreement.
We are pretty lucky. We escaped this and it's all over now. Everything that happened to the both of us, it's over. This is the end.
"What happens now?" I ask, but I don't know who it's really directed to.
"Well, we've arrested the remaining men and will be taking them into custody," Detective Miller explains. "Everything else you won't need to worry about. If we have any other questions for you we'll be in touch." He reaches into his pants pocket, pulls out a small business card and hands it to me.
"You both should get checked out by the hospital first and then your lives can go back to normal."
"Normal," I mumble, looking down at the card in my hands.
Nothing's ever been normal and nothing will be the same. How do you go back to normal life after all of this? Is there even a normal? Or is normalcy just a social construct that we've been brainwashed into believing in?
Detective Miller puts a hand on my shoulder and I look up at him. "Take care of yourselves."
I nod and then he and the other officer leave us. The paramedic is finished with Tre's stitches and puts gauze around the tender area.
"You're free to go," he says, taking off his surgical gloves. "Make sure you go to the hospital and get that checked out."
Tre nods silently and starts to put his hoodie back on, wincing as he lifts his arms to get in the sleeves. Once his hoodie is on, Tre slowly stands up from the gurney and faces me.
We just stare at each other. I look at the bruising around his face and the blood that has dried onto his lips. His right eye has some bruising and he has a small cut in his eyebrow that now has a butterfly bandage on it. As I look over his injuries, he also looks at mine. My cheeks are red and there's a purple bruise forming on my cheek bone. My nose is a little swollen and my eyes are puffy from all of my crying. My lip has a cut that's now dried up and my mouth still has the faint taste of blood in it. We both look terrible, like we just got out of a caged fighting match.
The lamb managed to escape from the lions den, but not without a few cuts and bruises.
"What happens if the other men rat you out?" I ask Tre about the other men who were arrested.
"They won't," he replies nonchalantly.
"How do you know?"
"No one's going to talk." He steps closer to me and puts his hands in his hoodie front pouch. "Loyalty means everything to a gang. They know better than to reveal any information about D. If they did, they won't live very long because nobody likes a rat, especially in prison."
It should make me feel better that Tre will be safe from this situation, but it doesn't.
"Why did you cover for me?" He asks me in a soft tone so nobody else could hear us. "They should've known what really happened."
"I told them the truth," I tell him and shrug. "I just left you out of it."
"You didn't have to do that." He shakes his head. "I don't deserve it, Evangeline."
"Yes you do," I retort and feel my emotions take over. "You deserve to have a life, a good life. You don't need any of this. You have so much to live for and so much potential to make your life what you want it to be. You're intelligent and strong. Yes you had a rough life but that doesn't mean that you can't have a good life now. Correlation does not equal causation okay?"
I take a deep breath and then my mouth keeps spewing out words. "You're a good man, Tre, you have a good heart. You deserve to get away from this and now's your chance, so take it."
I end my unexpected rant and catch my breath. I meant every word I said to him. I have been waiting to say these things for a while now. It's what I always had thought about, it was just never the right time to say them. Back then, I don't know if they would have the impact on Tre that they do now. I can see in his eyes just how much it resonates within him.
"Nobody's ever said this to me before." He admits, the ambulance blue and red lights dancing across his face.
"It's about damn time someone did," I say full heartedly with my chest.
"Thank you," he pauses. "For everything."
I nod and the corners of my mouth turn up. I don't need his thank you's. I would do it over again if it meant he got to keep living.
The ambulances and police cars are starting to leave the scene and some officers are still walking around, but there's not as many. The ambulance that we are standing near takes off, leaving Tre and I standing there. The sky has now gotten dark with rain clouds rolling in, thunder starting to softly rumble.
For the end of it all, the rain is very fitting.
"What do we do now?" I question, not knowing where to go from here.
"What do you want?" He answers my questions with another question.
"I want you," I answer truthfully. "I want us to be okay. I love you so much, I don't care about anything else. I just want you."
I should've said this a while ago, maybe it would've made more a difference then.
"That's kind of the problem isn't it?" Tre scowls. "That we both want each other so much that we don't care about anything else around us."
"What are you saying?" I shake my head, knowing where this conversation is going. "Don't do this Tre."
He grabs my hand and our fingers intertwine. His fingers are cold against mine. "You deserve to have someone you don't have to lie for. You deserve to have someone who wouldn't put you in a dangerous environment."
"Don't tell me what I deserve," I talk back. "I get to decide that, not you."
He puts his hands on the sides of my face and bends down to rest his forehead on mine. "Listen to me, please."
I shut my mouth and let him explain himself like I should've done all along.
"You deserve the world. And I love you so much, but I can't give you the world. Not yet," his voice is low, but it triggers the tears that I thought I had cried all out earlier. "If getting shot had made me realize anything, it's that I know there are a lot of issues I need to work on. You're right, I do want a better life. So I need to work on it and get myself to the man that I want to be, because this isn't it."
I let out a breath and swallow back tears. "And you can't do that when you're with me?"
"No baby I can't," he replies, shutting his eyes like he's in pain. "I don't know how long it's going to take. And I can't ask you to wait for me until I'm ready."
"I'd wait for you," I tell him and mean it.
"Don't." He shakes his head and runs his thumb underneath my chin. "Life's too short. Be the amazing Evangeline I know you'll be. We both need to spend time figuring out who we are and what we really want. Can you understand that?"
I nod. "I understand. I know it's the right thing to do, that doesn't make it hurt any less though."
A tear leaks out of my eye and Tre gently wipes it away.
"We'll be alright."
"Maybe one day we'll be together again." I tell him, trying to remain the optimistic that I am. If things are mean to be then they will be.
"One day," he promises, smiling softly and then rubbing his nose against mine.
I close my eyes, memorizing how his skin feels. It was always addicting feeling his skin touch mine.
"Please kiss me," I beg, needing to feel him one last time. "Please."
"I love you, Evangeline Rose West," he says, his lips against my skin.
"I love you, Trevante Michael Newman."
He tilts his head up and presses his lips against mine. Neither of us care that we both have cuts and dried blood on our faces. We send our love through our lips so that both of us can feel how igniting it is when we're together.
As we kiss for the final time, thunder rumbles loudly above and rain starts falling on top of us.
The rain falls harder and our kiss deepens. I clutch his forearms tightly, trying to feel him as much as I can. I want my body to always remember him and how he touches me. I want my mouth to remember the impressions of his lips and how his tongue gently twists against mine. I want to remember everything, no stone untouched.
It's ironic that while it's cold outside and raining, our bodies are feeling warm with love. I'm going to miss that feeling from Tre.
"My heart belongs to you," Tre says against my lips as we reluctantly pull apart minutes later.
"You'll always have me," I express, brushing my cold lips against his. "Always."
We are now drenched from the rain, but we ignore the possibility of getting hypothermia out here. We ignore the world to be in this moment. Just like in the pool at the mansion party, it's only us in this moment that I wish we could stay in forever.
Tre steps back and grabs my hand again. He lips turn up in his usual smirk that I've missed seeing. "Dance with me."
"What?" I question, my eyes widely looking at him like he's the crazy one.
"Dance with me in the rain," he simple says and I think I fall been more in love with him than I already am. He remembered one of my childhood dreams.
"You always said you hated clichés," I remind him, letting him pull my body closer to his.
"But you love them."
He puts his other hand on my waist and I place my hand on his shoulder, a smiling growing on my face. I can't believe this man in front of me. He hates romantic clichés and doesn't dance, but he's doing it for me now.
We sway gently amongst the raindrops, my smile never leaving my lips.
It may look completely random to the other people around that we're slow dancing in the rain in the middle of a crime scene that we were apart of, but to us, it's apart of our relationship. Apart of our normalcy. This is who we areâTrevante and Evangeline. We grew up in shitty environments and were damaged by our pasts, but we love hard and never let the other forget it. We support each other's desires and we have a connection unlike anything we've ever felt before. We know exactly what to say and do to each other to remind us why we fell in love in the first place.
When you love someone, you make sacrifices for them. You compromise, you persevere and you keep on going.
Even if my heart hurts right now that this will be the last time I get to be in Tre's arms, I know we're making the right decision. This is for the best. Finally, it feels like we're doing something right.
As I look at the smile Tre beams at me, I feel an inner peace with how this has ended. Both of our hearts are bursting with so much love as we have our first and last dance together in the rain.
Like Trell said to me before, Tre and I are fire and gasoline. We'll always burn for each other. The flames will never die out.
We'll be alright.
This may be the end of our chapter, but it's not the end of our story.
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(IMPORTANT please read the note below)
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Okay I'm writing this note because people are emotional with how this chapter ends. Instead of commenting separately on everyone's comments, I'll just say it right here.
I tried to make this story as realistic as possible, which means that not everything turns out the way you want it to.
When you have toxic traits like Tre and Eva both do, you should not get back together with someone when you know that you're toxic. No matter how much you love someone, if you are toxic to them, you should not be with them until you fix the issues you have.
I like the way this chapter ends because even though it's sad, it shows Eva and Tre's character development. Their conversation didn't turn into an argument. They both listened to what each other had to say and didn't get so caught up in their emotions. They properly communicated and understood that this isn't their time to be together yet. They acted maturely and are taking responsibility for themselves.
I am proud of them for mutually understanding what the right thing to do is. They've come a long way in their character development, but the story is not over yet.
Thanks for reading and supporting this story, highs lows and all! Sorry if you don't like me after this chapter, but I'm not changing the ending.
In Tre and Eva's words, "We'll be alright."
~Bekah