Jaycee's POV:
"Goodbye Jaycee Royce."
Her sad and broken voice made my heart hurt so much it got hard to breathe.
I wanted to choose her.
I still do.
I always will.
It's just that I can't keep lifting my hopes up so high only for her to smash them in the end. I'm can't keep living in a fantasy I made up in my head only to wake up to a dark and lonely reality. I've done so much and it's about time I start living again; this time for me. She will always have my heart, that's the sad truth, but I'm not going to keep feeding my apparently one sided affection.
Ever since I met her, all I could think about was how we were going to grow old together. How we would have four beautiful children who all looked and sounded and acted like her. All I thought about for the past four years was how we were going to spend the rest of our lives together.
I raised my expectations so high up the roof, even bought a diamond ring, and now I've officially hit rock bottom. I should've never let her consume me like that. I should've never let myself get close to her. I should've never even imagined a future with her. I shouldn't have, but I did and now i have to own up to it. Now I have to live with the consequences of my choices and daydreams. Nonetheless, no matter what I have to, I will forget and I will move on.
I am done.
Finally.
I inhaled deeply, and exhaled all the feelings and emotions that normal Jaycee feels. With the new breath, I inhaled Royce's gang leader status.
I am their leader.
They look up to me and I will never let anything - not even love - get in the way of that. I can't have them leaving this gang, or worse; turning against me.
I took one last puff, stepped on it and I was about to leave the terrace when Ashton came through the door.
"Mind if I join?" He asked as he came towards the balcony.
"Nah. Join away." I replied as I looked at the lake. "What's up?" I asked, sensing something was wrong due to the worried expression on his face.
"I would be asking you the same question if I didn't already know. Jaycee I already told you before that whatever you got going on would most definitely end in heartbreak. How much more are you willing to lose in the name of love?" He said, only looking at me as he spoke the last sentence.
"I know you said that Ash, but put yourself in my position; what would you have done?" I asked, my face on my hands.
"Me?..." he trailed, staring into oblivion. "Well, you know the story." He finally answered.
One thing about Ashton is that he never really lets his emotions and feelings show. He finds a way to hide them and bury them 500 ft below his quirkiness. Always covering them up with his non-existent and lame sense of humour. I really don't know who lied to him and told him he's funny.
Actually, one name does come to mind.
A name I don't think he'll want to remember; at least not for a very, very long time. Well in the least without finding the need to break down and shut off from everyone.
"I actually don't. You never really told me exactly where you were that day , or even what happened to said meant party. You kind of just came over to my place at five in the damn morning and slept on my couch for more than two weeks without as much as 'screw you'. You ate like seventeen boxes of pizza alone, kept ordering orange chicken for days and I'm sure finished the national reserve of french fries and ginger al...."
"Okay okay I get it! I shut everyone off and everything. I secluded myself from everyone and lived in my own fantasy world...." he trailed off, and took a deep breath, and with all the hardship in the world, he then continued. "She was my world Jay. She was everything that I saw. Everything that I needed. She was my whole damn galaxy. We spoke about everything and anything! There was never a dull moment with her! I don't regret anything in the world more than not telling her how I really felt back then..." He started hyperventilating, and I had to sit him down to let him calm down.
"It's okay, you don't need to continue man..." I interjected before he cut me off.
"No I need to let this out..." He said barely above a whisper. "I need to tell someone what happened that night." He said with so much sorrow.
Don't get me wrong, I do sympathize. It's just that I'm not used to this outpour of emotion; especially not from the gang's personal comedian.
Nonetheless, I gave him all the support he needed. Well, without getting all mushy and stuff, let's face it, we're not a couple of chicks.
"That night, we were all together because we wanted to watch The Conjuring so bad! Remember it used to be the talk of the town? Ashton and Brenda wouldn't shut up about it so they finally convinced us to go. After almost peeing our pants, we decided to go to the arcade so we can maybe forget about the horror we saw..."
"Arcade? You mean where I beat your butt in every single game?" I interrupted, fondly remembering how Alexis hung to me because she was scared.
Focus idiot...
"Puh-lease! I don't know what you remember Royce but I royally kicked your butt." He interjected, lightening up a little.
A short moment of silence passed between us before he decided to continue.
"Anyways, we went to eat at a diner down the Lotus Royale Boulevard and at 2 am we finally decided to go home. We decided that whoever lives close to the other will take them home. Since I was the one who invited Yasmine and since I really really really liked her, I decided that I would be the one dropping her home. Her house was a good hour and a half drive and she insisted that we leave right away.
On the road, we were talking and laughing about random things. Although we were both tired, I never felt that she wanted to end the conversation to sleep; which was very heartwarming for me. Despite that, I noticed that the closer we got to her house, the more she seemed nervous and fidgety. I kept asking her if something was wrong but she would always look at me for a good five seconds before she would just brush it off. Out of nowhere, I started seeing several headlights getting closer to where we were. At first I thought they were just some random dirtbags, but the closer they got, the more anxiety fell on Yasmine. I also realized that whoever they were, they were on motorcycles.
She also kept mumbling 'I'm sorry' countless times. In hindsight, I should've sped faster or maybe even let her sleep over, or something; but I didn't and it's all my fault!" He screamed as he slammed his hand against the railing. His head was in his hands, and his eyes were most likely shut as well.
"Ashton, what happened? And how come I never heard of this before? It's been a a little over seven months since since any of us last saw her..." I tried calming myself because I could clearly see that he was in so much pain.
It was getting hard for him to breathe, so I lead him to the sofas behind us.
"Here, drink this." I said, giving him a bottle of water from the mini fridge.
He drank a few, long sips, most likely because he was trying to put off telling me what actually happened. I gave him some time to chill out and collect his thoughts.
After a few agonizing minutes, he finally spoke again.
"The motorcycles got closer to my car and a couple of them stopped in front of me. Since I didn't want to smash into them, I was forced to stop. I got out to confront the idiots before I realized something - their jackets had the black phoenix drawn onto it. That's when I realized that this was a gang related attack. I got hit from behind and I fell to the ground for a few minutes. That was all the time they needed to get ahold of Yasmine.
The leader, Giovanni, was holding her by her hair and two of his goons were holding me from both sides, punching me every chance they took. He wanted information on where we took his brother, which I genuinely knew nothing about." He looked at me for half a second like he was silently accusing me, but he continued without lingering any further.
"He kept saying that he will take something precious from us if we don't tell him where he was. I kept telling him that I don't know where he was and they kept sending punches my way. When he realized that those punches weren't doing anything, he turned to my precious, crying Yasmine. She kept begging him not to hurt me and I kept assuring her that we'll be okay; I promised her. I think it clicked in his pea sized, almost-non-existent brain that she matters to me more than I let on. So he held a gun to her head Jaycee!! A frickin gun!"
At that point he had his head between his knees and he was just shaking with sadness. I put my hands on his back to let him know that I was here for him.
He lifted his head up to stare at the sky with an intense amount of pain and remorse radiating from him. I never knew he had all that bottled inside him.
What kind of a leader does that make me?
Scratch that.
What kind of a friend does that make me?
I was completely oblivious to everything my friend - my brother- was going through. He never showed it and I never asked, and I really regret it now. Seeing him like this, like a mess, it made my blood boil; someone was going to pay.
He continued, still staring at the clear night sky.
"He said that I had ten seconds before he would kill her. I thought he was bluffing because why would you take a soul - an entire being - just because you want to know where someone is?? Every time he counts one down and I don't say anything, his minions punch my gut. He reached ten, but instead of punching me, they pulled the trigger. I didn't feel them leave. I couldn't feel the pain. All I could see was my girl's limp body lying on the street, her pure face tainted with tears. I tried, I really did. I tried getting her to the hospital but unfortunately she was dead on arrival. They treated my wounds, made me speak with countless officers before my dad came and took me home. That is how I ended up in your couch. Her parents wouldn't let me say goodbye to her or even attend her funeral in Texas. Why would they? I was the one who took their little girl away from them.
I promised her that I would keep her safe, but she died. I tried rescuing her and taking her to the hospital on time, but she died. And there's no one to blame but myself!" He screamed, sobbing into his knees.
"No Ashton! None of that was your fault! You didn't kill her and you sure as hell didn't pull that trigger! These jerks are going to pay! No one messes with the Dragon Warriors and gets away with it!!"
"What's the point of all this? She died Jaycee! Nothing we do now can ever bring her back! No amount of killing or punching or illegal drag racing can bring my girl back!" He said before he was cut off by my phone pinging.
I got a new message, from an unknown, blocked number.
From: UNKNOWN
Message: She looks awfully pretty. Would most definitely be a shame if something was to happen to her.... I mean.... accidents happen everyday no?
It was a picture of Alexis surrounded by many people; but still her
My Alexis!
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AN: HELLLLLOOOOO FROM THE OTHER SIIIIDDEEE!!! Guess who's back!!! Sorry it took this long to get here but here we are!! Hope you guys didn't give up on my story yet!!! More suspense to comeâ¤ï¸â¤ï¸â¤ï¸â¤ï¸
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