Authors: Casey Elliot
*****
David:
If someone had warned me that after a series of good fortune would come a horrible comeuppance, then I would’ve been more careful about living my life so it didn’t end up the way it did.
I was all set. Running the gang as always was a full time job, I knew that much. Many of our members didn’t have a family to go back to, and without someone leading the unit, our so called family would crumble. I’ve accepted my fate, and I was pretty content with my life, all things considered.
Next was Brooke, and how we were a couple months into our relationship and we were still stronger than steel. Sure, we still had our moments when she wanted to shoot me and I wanted to strangle her while we debated on who gets the last two slices of bread for breakfast.
Work was fine, Brooke and I were fine, and I really thought nothing would be able to bring me down from that.
I let go of the breath I was holding and tried to calm myself down. I couldn’t hear Dave talking anymore, so he was probably done with his call. I took one last breath of air before I went out of the bathroom, a huge smile plastered on my face.
A smile that slowly disappeared as I realized he was packing his weapons and gear, the ones he used when he was going to do something illegal and stupid again.
“Where are you going?” I asked, and he glanced up at me before continuing to pack.
“I’ve got a job today. I might be home late,” Dave said.
“But, I told you we needed to talk.”
“Can’t we talk later when I get home?”
“No, it has to be now!” I exclaimed, and he looked at me weirdly.
“Well, what is it then?” he asked, his brows furrowing in annoyance.
I stared at him for a long moment before shaking my head.
“I’m not going to tell you until you tell me you won’t go, and then you have to promise me you’re never going to take these kinds of jobs again.” I said, issuing an ultimatum. I was not going to raise our kid in this dangerous kind of life. I was not having it.
We yelled at each other afterward, our conversation ending with him slamming the door behind him. I had proceeded to call the others, asking them about the job Dave was referring to. I went out of our apartment with every intention of following him to stop him from doing this and tell him why I wanted him to quit.
But, I was too late.
A couple of weeks after that, we were asked to receive a package from an anonymous phone call. Usually, I’d ignore such orders, but a down payment was sent, and I had no choice. I brought one of them with me just in case the person who ordered wanted me to send over something on the way back, but when I got there, that was when I realized that I was trapped.
They came from everywhere, surrounding us and overpowering us. One guy placed chloroform on top of my mouth, so I passed out, and by the time I came to, I was surrounded by cops… and huge quantities of drugs.
I was framed. I was turned into a scapegoat.
I shook my head as I raised my hands up as instructed. The kid that came with me was nowhere to be found, so I surmised as much that he was one of them, and they split as soon as they set this up around me.
A couple of hours later, the cops walked me over to their car as the people walking down the street looked on, wondering what kind of crime I did to garner such attention. The hairs at the back of my neck stood up and I closed my eyes, realizing why his body reacted like someone dumped cold water on him. I turned my head, fearing for the worst before opening my eyes.
It was Brooke. Brooke was standing in the middle of the small crowd looking on from the street, her eyes filling up with tears as she watched me get arrested. I wanted to get out and hold her, tell her everything would be okay, but no… Brooke would get tired of waiting around and look for another way out. And, as I tried my hardest to express everything I was feeling with my eyes, I felt my heart plummet when she wiped off her tears, looked at me with part hatred and part determination before turning around and walking away, not looking back.
She didn’t have to tell me for me to know it was all over between us, and today was the first time I regretted not listening to her when she asked me to leave.
Brooke:
I clenched my fist as I willed myself to continue walking away from the scene as David got taken away by the authorities. I knew I felt something sketchy about this deal, and I told him about it, pleading with him not to go. But, like all of my appeals to him, it fell on deaf ears, and he went with it anyway. Now, he’s gotten himself arrested.
I need to tell the gang quick and get them all to a safe place. Now that Dave was in custody, no one was there to lead anymore. I wasn’t going to take that responsibility, and it was high time our gang did something more than distributing drugs. All of us had to start over, and Dave’s arrest would only spur us on.
My eyes were pooling with unshed tears when the sky darkened and the rain poured down. I spotted a nearby awning and dove under it as the rain got stronger. I looked around and I scoffed as I realized where I had ended up.
This was the exact same place Dave and I met. The day I was lost, and then I was found; the day Dave saved me in the rain. Today mimicked that moment in so many ways, except this time, it was Dave I was crying about, and I just lost him.
I sat on the ground, pulling my knees up in the exact same position I was all those years ago and I cried my eyes out.
How was I supposed to go on now?
I put my hands on my stomach as I remembered the last time Dave and I talked.
Walking back home in the rain, I went to the bathroom carrying a pregnancy test with me. I put the lid on the toilet and sat down, tapping my foot on the floor incessantly. The five minute wait felt like forever. I held the stick between my thumb and forefinger so tightly that my hand started to shake, but that was probably because I was nervous. I mean, this stick had the power to change the course of my future, after all.
I didn’t even know how I would feel about the result; positive or not. Was I ready to have a baby? Were Dave and I ready to be parents? Would this even be the kind of life he or she deserved?
My alarm sounded and I looked down at the stick, holding my breath as I stared at it.
Okay. I guess there was no point in thinking about it now.
“It’s just you and me now, sweetie,” I said softly, feeling a little stupid for talking to a small cell growing in my stomach, but doing it anyway. “Mommy’s going to protect you, okay?”
*****
David:
Fifteen years later…
The rays from the sun were harsh and I shielded my eyes from it, scanning the road for anyone waiting for me. After fifteen years behind bars, I was still foolishly hoping that someone was waiting for me to get out of jail, ready to welcome me back with open arms.
It was stupid of me to hope for such a thing after watching the love of my life walk away from me on that stupid day I got arrested.
I was still amazed they let me out of there, really, but I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, and just gave a quick prayer of thanks to whoever was up there who had my back.
Fifteen years… man, I wonder how Brooke is doing now. The only thing that kept me going was thinking about her and how the first thing that I was going to do when I got out was to find her, then beg for forgiveness. I didn’t even want to consider the possibility that she was dating or even shacked up with someone else, but I couldn’t deny it scared the hell out of me.
I shook my head, purging the thought from my mind for who knows how many times I’ve done it. Brooke was and always would be the one for me, and once I found her, I was going to prove to her that we belonged to each other.
That was the catch: If I find her.
Brooke:
“Jacob Lucas Peters! You get your butt down here right now, and I better not call you again!” I yelled, setting the plates down on the table and looking up at the stairs impatiently.
I heard footsteps stomping on the second floor, and soon my fifteen year old son descended down the stairs in a hurry, his hands busy buttoning up his shirt as he walked into the dining room.
“Sorry, Mom,” he said, giving me a big kiss on the cheek before taking his seat on the table and piling his plate with food. I smiled as I watched him eat his fill. He was looking more and more like his father every day, it was a little scary. His eyes were mine, but the rest of him was all David; even the way he moved sometimes.
I may have lost his father to the law, but Jacob dulled the pain just by being him, and that was more than enough to heal me.
I shook my head at the amount of rice and hot dogs he planned to consume, and if I knew him, was definitely going to demolish within minutes. He was a growing teenage boy who is a part of many sports related clubs in school, so I had to keep our fridge stocked with lots of food for him. I swear to God, you’d think he hadn’t eaten in a long time by the amount he ate.
“Hurry up, you’re going to be late,” I reminded him.
“No football practice this morning, so I’ll be fine,” he assured me, but I wasn’t completely convinced.
“Still, you should’ve woken up earlier. You’re always hanging on to the last minute. Didn’t you almost get a detention for coming to Mrs. Rutherford’s class late?”
“‘Almost’ being the operative word, Mom,” he shoveled the last bite of his meal before taking his plate to the sink and washing it. I wasn’t about to raise him like a slob, that’s for sure. If he eats, he cleans. That’s just one of the rules of the household. He kissed me on the cheek again and I smiled at him. Other fifteen year old boys were embarrassed to kiss their mothers, but not my Jacob who was a very affectionate young man.
“I’ll be home a little late today. I need to finish up on my History project at the library and the materials aren’t allowed to be brought home,” he said, and I nodded before I kissed his cheek and he went back upstairs to grab his stuff for school. I took my planner out and checked my schedule for the day, frowning as I saw a red circle on the date today. I was pretty sure I didn’t have anything special going on that day, so I couldn’t have marked it down. It must be Tim who did it. I wonder why?
Tim was one of the veteran gang members left over and remained loyal to the members of the group. He pleaded for me to give him a job, as well as a fair number of our members, and I looked into different ways of making money through legal means.
I sold the bar and invested parts of it in stocks I researched were going to increase their value, and part of it in relocating all of us somewhere far away from the police sniffing around Dave’s case. The ones who framed Dave were probably out to get all of us, so the farther we were, the better. Next, I checked into a few businesses we could get ourselves by with half suggesting delivery of goods and documents at rush hours while the others suggested transport. We ventured into a few others, but those two brought in the most profits, and the members could finally live comfortable lives without having to worry about losing them.
I had admitted that I was pregnant with Dave’s child a month into moving on with our lives, and though they were reluctant to do it, they all agreed to help me keep it a secret, and not to try to see him in jail for fear that the bad guys were still watching our every move and track us down. We hadn’t heard a thing about Dave ever since.
It was wrong, I know, to abandon him like that, but I had others to think about, the most important being my son. I don’t regret it at all.
I must admit, there are still days when I think about him, wonder how he’s doing, or if I’ll ever see him again, but I have other things to think about now and that includes what I should cook for breakfast.
*****
David:
I’m lost.
Tim is the worst with directions, and I shouldn’t have been surprised that I got lost because of it. The fact that I knew that he sucked and still counted on him to help me makes it even worse.
I turned my head everywhere, desperately hoping for a sign of some sort. I gritted my teeth and just chose a random corner to turn to, squeezing my eyes shut in frustration. It was the wrong time to do it because I immediately collided into something hard, making me step back. I opened my eyes in annoyance, ready to shout at the person who bumped into me.
Only to freeze as I look at a guy who looked exactly like me.
By the shocked look on his face, he was just as shocked as I was at meeting each other’s doppelganger.
I blinked my eyes rapidly, and I realized that his eyes were different from mine. They were a darker shade of blue as compared to mine. Now that I think about it, they remind me of…
My eye’s widened.
His eyes.
He has Brooke’s eyes.
“What are you looking at?” he asked warily, his brows furrowing in the same way I did and I swallowed, trying to keep my cool.
“I don’t know if it escaped your notice, but we kind of look alike,” I said, looking at him incredulously.
“So?”
Oh, so he was going to be difficult, huh? Fine. I ignored his question and asked him something else.
“I’m looking for someone. She’s about this tall,” I indicated with my hand, placing it just by the level of my armpit. “Blonde, in her early thirties, and has the same eyes as you do,” I told him, and his jaw clenched.
“That kind of rings a bell. What do you want with her?” he asked, and I smirked at him.
“The truth.”
Brooke:
To say I was surprised when my son entered our house with his father that he’s never met was the biggest understatement of the year. Seeing them standing together brought the waterworks out and the both of them scrambled to help get me water and all the other stuff. When I finally calmed down, I remained in my seat and had the both of them face me, each of them probably had counted down enough to ask their questions. I decided to get the most obvious one.
“David, this is Jacob. He’s your son…,” I introduced, and I didn’t waste any time catching up on all the years he’s lost. The both of them were quiet for a few moments, and then Jacob left without telling me where he was going. I frowned, saddened that my son was mad at me for hiding this from him.
“I’m so horrible,” I grumbled, placing my hands on my face.
“No, you’re not. I may not like how you do it, but it was what you should’ve done at the time,” he said, and I peeked through my fingers at him. He gave me a soft smile before taking my hands off of my face and brushing them over his lips.
“I screwed up,” he said, and I was about to shake my head when she stopped me. “Don’t deny it. I should’ve listened to you long ago, but I was too stubborn or prideful that I didn’t bother considering how right you were. It sucks that I missed out on my son’s life, and that I’m only hearing about him now, but that is just as much my fault as it is yours,” he said.
“Look, just because I know you’re my Dad doesn’t mean I’m going to let you off easy,” Jacob said, making me blink at how fast he was back here again. “You hurt my mother in any way, and you will be sorry,” he threatened. Dave smiled at this and nodded.
“That’s fine. I’d prefer it if you were like that instead of being a saint and forgiving me instantly,” he turned his head back toward me though, placing his hand by my lips and sending my heart into overdrive for the first time in a long time. “I am prepared to make it up to you both in any way I can, and I can promise you that this time, I am not going anywhere. Are you okay with that, Brooke?” he asked me, and I swallowed.
“That depends on my son,” I told him, and he looked at Jacob, who shrugged.
“It would be nice to get to know my absentee father,” he teased, making Dave and I laugh at this. I moved my lips to Dave’s palm and gave it a light kiss, looking at him with all the love I reserved for him for the last fifteen years since he was gone.
“I love you, you know. I never really stopped,” I whispered, and he smiled.
“That’s good because I plan to love you for as long as you let me,” he replied, and I rolled my eyes before kissing him.
We had a long way to go before we sorted out everything, but this, right now, was a perfect end of the wait, and the perfect start of our forever.
The End