“That’s because the past few days were exhausting pieces of crap that no person, no, people, should endure.”
I felt more than heard her chuckle in response.
“I need to talk to you, Callum,” she said suddenly.
“And I need to talk to you. Badly,” I said, looking at the top of her beautiful head.
Just then, Sam came up.
“Can I speak with you?” She asked.
“No,” I said and I meant it.
“Please, it’s...I just want to apologize. Please?”
I sighed. “Fine. Harper, excuse me.”
She lifted her head and bit her bottom lip. I could tell she didn’t want me to go.
I kissed her neck and whispered in her ear, “It’s not her I want.”
She nodded and I stood, following Sam to a dark space near the other side of the trailer. She wanted me to follow her farther away but I felt sick leaving Harper where I couldn’t see her so I froze there, crossing my arms and waiting. Sam seemed to understand and came back up to me.
“I just wanted to apologize for earlier this morning,” she began. “I overstepped some boundaries. I knew how much you wanted her and it scared me. I always thought you’d be there, waiting, and it just freaked me out that you weren’t there when I wanted you.”
“That’s the lamest apology in the history of apologies, Sam.”
“What? Why?”
“Sam, are you really this dense?” She had the decency to act embarrassed. “You just admitted to using me. Listen, I know you strung me along and before Harper I was just pathetic enough to endure it because I thought I loved you but since meeting her I realized something about myself. I’m worth more than what you think of me. I shed some crazy when I met her, took off my blurred visioned glasses and saw what you really are...not meant for me.”
“Callum!” Sam yelled, showing a bit of crazy herself. She reached for me in desperation but I was distracted by yelling on the other side of the trailer. I ran into a crowd gathered in a circle around Harper and Charlie.
“I told you! She wants nothing to do with you!” Charlie said to a rather large man in jeans and a stained t-shirt. Harper clung to Charlie, her body visibly shaking.
“And I told you! That girl is coming home with me. She’s mine,” the man said with slurred speech.
“You’ve had a lot to drink, John. Let’s just leave,” a sensible friend of the drunk said, pulling him away from the circled crowd.
I finally reached the circle and broke through, wrapping Harper in my arms and trying to drag her away but the guy became enraged.
“Stay away from her!” John, the drunk, said.
“It’s John Bell,” Harper barely whispered, her lips quivering, her body shivering in fear.
I searched her face. John Bell, John Bell. Why does that name sound so familiar? That’s when I realized, John Bell was the sick psychotic who tortured her at her foster home.
“Oh my God,” I said, sucking in a breath. I scooped her up by her knees and carried her to my bike. “Charlie don’t let that man follow us,” I said and he nodded.
By then, the rest of the group caught on to what was happening and circled around John Bell to prevent him from coming after us. I set a shaking Harper on the ground, started the bike then began to pull the helmet onto her head but a roar of anger came from within the circle that contained John.
Before I could even turn around, Harper yelled for me to watch out. I tossed Harper and I away from the direction she screamed and saw John barreling toward us, a crow bar in his hand. I could see Charlie, Aaron, Nat, Jared and Josiah running after him. He edged toward Harper, a crazed look in his eyes but three police officers caught on to the commotion and started running toward us. John saw this and not wanting to get caught, picked up my bike and hopped on, gunning it into the crowd around us.
Harper and I stood, staring in shock as John drunkenly tried to weave through the people but he wasn’t fast enough and the cops almost reached him. We watched. My eyes wide in disbelief, Harper’s hand covering her mouth, tears streaming down her face. John turned around to check his progress and saw that there was no way out. I expected him to slow down but instead he gunned it more and we were forced to watch him hit a woman, driving over her after she’d fallen before losing control and crashing my bike to the ground.
Panicked, we all run to the woman, laying still on the ground. One of the police officers grabs John, turning his unconscious body onto his stomach, cuffing him while he calls for an ambulance standing by. The woman was still, too still and Harper screamed when she realized the woman was dead. I bent, immediately beginning CPR. Count thirty quick compressions, breathe twice, repeat. Time seemed to flow so slowly. The woman was unresponsive but I refused to give up. It was my bike that killed her. The paramedics arrived and began where I left off. We all stood, dazed, praying she came back to life but we all knew that would never happen. The paramedics stood and called it as it was. Harper turned from me and vomited all over the pavement. I held her body up to keep her from falling. Cherry, Charlie, the band, the rest of our group, even Sam surrounded the two of us, keeping us both standing upright. I couldn’t believe how quickly the night had turned.
“He killed her!” Harper screamed at the ground, doubling over. “That woman is dead because of me!”