Chapter 33

NOVALEE

S creaming and panic erupted out of nowhere.

I couldn’t see it past the blackness clouding my vision, but I could hear it. It was all around. In the hurried footsteps echoing in the distance, and in the frantic tones calling out things I couldn’t quite understand. Something bad happened. I could feel it in the chill spreading though my body.

Why did the back of my head hurt so much? It was throbbing so hard I could hear my pulse in my ears. Was I dying? It felt like I was dying. It was so cold that the world around me faded into muffled sounds lost in the darkness.

Someone was calling my name.

At least I thought it was my name? I couldn’t tell for sure.

There was a cloudy face above me. I wanted to reach out for them, but I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe past the searing ache shooting up my spine. My entire body hurt, like I’d been shoved onto the pavement.

Clarity smacked me in the face sucking air violently back into my lungs.

I was shoved.

I looked up to see Simon coming, when something pushed me back onto the ground. It was all fuzzy, like the person yelling at me.

Wait a minute… I knew those eyes.

My brows pulled together as I coughed out, “Memphis?”

“Oh my God, Nova.” I could feel his hands patting my body as his face came back into focus. “Are you hit?”

He looked so scared. His eyes were wide and wiry, and there was panic written over every inch of his expression.

“No,” using my arms, I groaned and pushed myself up. “I don’t think I’m hit?”

Maybe I was? It was a lot harder than it should’ve been to push myself up. I would’ve given myself a quick check if Memphis didn’t throw his arms around me and squish me up against him.

“Don’t ever scare me like that again.”

“It wasn’t my fault.” I muttered into his chest.

I didn’t tell someone to fire a gun. He did fire it, didn’t he? Or did I just hit the ground so hard it sounded like he did? What the hell was he thinking? Had he completely lost his mind? He really needed to get some help. If Gio got a hold of him…

“Where’s Simon?”

Memphis twisted his face to the side. I followed his stare to where Atlee had Simon on the ground, about twenty feet away from us. He had that same look on his face I saw that day at home ec.

“Motherfucker,” Atlee growled and smacked the butt of the rifle on his face so hard I cringed at the crack of bone.

“Does he have to be so rough?”

Memphis cocked a brow down at me. “He tried to shoot you, Nova.”

“Yeah, but there are better ways to deal with it.” Like prison where the other criminals went.

Memphis huffed out a sigh. “You can’t save everyone.”

“I can save him.”

I was still shaking from the adrenaline pouring through my system, but everyone deserved a second chance. Although, in Simon’s case this would be a third chance.

“I love how much you care.” He kissed my forehead and added, “but maybe you should think of yourself, just once.”

I was cut off before I could respond.

“Nova!” Gio came running up and he looked more terrified than Memphis did. “Jesus fucking Christ.” I was ripped out of Memphis’s embrace and wrapped up in his. “Thank fuck. Are you okay?”

“Maw Maw wouldn’t like you using the lord’s name in vain.”

“I think she’ll forgive me this time.” Gio nuzzled the top of head, warming my scalp with his breath.

Then like someone flipped a switch, his relief morphed into rage.

Gio lifted his head and glared at Atlee. “Don’t you kill that fucker, I’m not done with him.”

“Don’t worry,” Atlee tipped his gaze down to Simon. “We’re just having some fun.”

Simon spat a mouthful of blood and snarled, “fuck you.”

At this point, I agreed that Simon needed to be punished, but punishment wasn’t what Gio or Atlee had in mind.

“Gio,” I looked up at him. “You can’t kill him.”

He did not like my request. “Are you fucking kidding me? This is the second time he’s tried to shoot you.”

“Second time?” Memphis chimed in.

“It wasn’t that bad.” They were all overreacting. “Everybody’s fine. There’s no need to be killing anybody.”

That was when I realized someone was missing.

I looked around. “Where’s Chuck?”

Then we heard it.

A soft gargled cough almost drowned out by the rain.

Concentrating, I focused on movement I could see through the storm. Someone was lying on the ground a few feet behind Memphis.

My eyes widened.

Chuck!

He was the one who pushed me out of the way, and he was not okay.

Memphis and I rushed over, but neither one of us knew what to do. There was so much blood. I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. My hand reached out but I couldn’t tell where it was safe to touch him.

“Oh my God, Nova,” Memphis wildly looked around scanning Chuck’s body. “I don’t know what to do. What do we do, Nova? Help me.”

“I don’t know what to do.”

There was red everywhere. It was soaking his shirt, pooling around him, and spraying out every time Chuck coughed. And his eyes… When he looked at me it wasn’t with panic, it was acceptance. He knew he wasn’t going to make it.

“Chuck…”

He reached out and squeezed my hand, “don’t.”

I watched horrified as his body jerked and blood gargled from his mouth.

“No, no, no,” Memphis cradled Chuck’s head and tried to wipe the blood off his face. “You are not allowed to leave me. We are supposed to go to college and get married, remember? We’re going to have one boy and two girls.”

My heart was breaking for both of them. Chuck couldn’t do this. He needed to stay.

I squeezed Chuck’s hand and looked him in the eyes. “Don’t you give up.”

He was not allowed to do that. So many people loved and needed him. Memphis needed him. Hell, I needed him. Chuck was my friend. I never realized how much he cared, and he couldn’t go now. Not for me. I wasn’t worth it.

I held onto Chuck’s hand trying to will all of my determination into him. “He is going to make it through this.”

I didn’t know I’d said that out loud until Chuck whispered, “no I’m not.”

His eyes locked on mine and I didn’t know what to say. How did make this better? There was always a work around. Always.

“It’s okay.” Chuck said to me then rolled his eyes up to Memphis, “I love you, Memphis.” He sucked in a shallow breath, whispered, “don’t let this break you,” then went limp.

We sat there staring down at Chuck while the rain poured down around us. It was eerily quiet. Not even the howling storm could break through the dark silence that settled over us.

“Chuck?” Memphis tried, but he got no response. “Come on baby, say something.”

Darkness, blood, rain, and nothing else.

I saw the moment his heart broke and felt the crack sink deep in my soul.

“No!” Memphis screamed and snuggled his head into Chuck’s chest. “You can’t leave. Come back. Come back.”

His anguish tore a hole through me. My best friend was crying into the body of the man he loved, begging him to come back, and all I could do was hold Chuck’s hand.

No.

I wiped the tears from my face.

This was not happening.

“Come on, Chuck,” I tugged his arm. “You wake up right now!”

“Nova,” Gio put his hand on my shoulder. I could hear the sympathy in his tone, but I refused to accept it.

“No,” I slapped Gio’s hand away. “Chuck, will be fine.”

He was going to be just fine. He just had to wake up.

“He’s not fine, Baby.”

“Yes he is.” I sucked back a sob and rubbed my hands over Chuck’s arm. “He’s just a little cold, that’s all.”

Gio crouched down and tipped his head to look me in the eyes. “Nova…”

“What’s wrong with you? Go get me a blanket. He needs a blanket.” He was getting cold.

“Baby…”

“No,” I cut Gio off and turned my head away.

If I didn’t look at him, then it wasn’t true.

“He’s gone.”

Tears streamed down my face as I shook my head. Chuck wasn’t gone. He couldn’t be gone.

“Nova,” Gio tried to pry my hand away from Chuck’s.

“Don’t!” I yelled and slapped him, then I hit him again and again and again.

Gio didn’t care, he took my assault and held me in his arms while I screamed my hatred at him.

“Go away.”

“I hate you.”

“This is all your fault.”

I didn’t mean that. Chuck pushed me out of the way, and now Memphis was destroyed. His death wasn’t Gio’s fault.

It was mine.

I collapsed into Gio’s chest and let the tears fall.