Under My Skin - 17. Part II, chapter 7

- VII -

It was May fifteenth. I will remember that date until I die. Sam had to go out of town with Matt for some computer conference, so it was just Christy and me. I missed Sam, but I loved spending time with Christy. We spent almost an entire day just sitting on the couch, watching TV, and I swear, we’ve gone through at least five boxes of ice-cream.

“Bailey...” I sighed after she finished the last box. “How do you manage to stay so skinny after you eat shitload of ice-cream almost every night? And it’s real ice-cream too! Not some fat-free crap...”

“Ugh,” she shuddered. “Those things should be illegal!”

“Seriously though,” I stretched my legs. “How?!”

Christy shrugged and gave me a smug look.

“It’s a gift,” she said. “I got great metabolism from my mom. She eats like a horse and never gains an ounce!”

I snorted.

“Right... Mary eats like a horse!”

Christy looked at me intently.

“Jake,” she said. “She has almost an entire pizza every night!”

I shook my head in disbelief.

“I hate both of you,” I said with disgust. “Really, I do...”

She laughed.

“Why? It’s not like you are fat or anything... You look great, believe me!”

“Yeah, yeah,” I waved my hand. “I know that...” She laughed at that. “But I would be three hundred pounds by now if I was eating as much ice-cream as you do...”

“Yeah, well,” she shrugged. “Weep with jealousy, Summers...”

I thumped her on the forehead and she winced.

“Speaking of ice-cream...” she looked into the empty box and sighed. “We are out. Let’s go get more.”

I stared at her with horror.

“You can’t be serious!”

“Come on,” she snorted and got off the couch. “A walk would do you good anyway. There is a gas station, like, two blocks away from here.”

“Bailey...” I groaned when she pushed me off the couch. “Can’t we just vegetate...?”

“We did,” she nodded. “All day.”

“Ugh...” I said, thinking that she was right. I could feel the couch embedding into my body by now.

I sighed and got my jacket.

“Fine,” I growled. “Let’s go.”

We almost made it to the gas station, when Landon appeared from what it seemed nowhere, right in front of us. Christy gasped and took a step back. I was startled at his sudden appearance. He reminded me of Jack-in-the-Box. He looked at us thoughtfully and made a small ‘huh’ sound.

“Well,” he said slowly. “Aren’t you the two musketeers... You know,” he shoved his hands in his pockets. “I was always wondering about you two.... I mean, you always hang out together, always whispering to each other...”

“Get out of here,” Christy said in a low voice.

He shot her a dark look.

“No,” he said.

“Are you drunk again?” she narrowed his eyes, and he immediately shook his head.

“No,” he answered quickly. “I am not drunk... I stopped drinking ever since...” he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Christy, I just need to talk to you...” he muttered.

I could feel the same old hatred waking up inside me again.

“Landon,” I said evenly. “You are lucky that you didn’t get arrested. Or that I didn’t kill you several weeks ago. I would have but they stopped me.”

“Oh, shut up,” he winced. “Summers, why can’t you just shut up for a while, huh? I know why you were so pissed. You are sleeping with her now, aren’t you?”

I stared at him in disbelief, and he laughed bitterly.

“Oh, don’t look at me like that, Jake! I wasn’t born yesterday, you know... I mean, you are spending every day with her ever since I am out of the picture! One doesn’t have to be a freaking genius to figure out why...”

“Jesus,” I shook my head. “Landon, you are an idiot... And a rapist,” I added, and his eyes became two angry slits. “Get the hell out of our way!”

“Screw you,” he hissed and looked at Christy. “Christy, I just need to talk to you, that’s all... Please!”

“We have nothing to talk about,” she said icily. “Leave me alone, Alex... I can’t even look at you. Get out of our way!”

“Christy...” he closed his eyes briefly. “Please! I know that I am worse than any word can describe... I totally fucked up, I am sorry!! I love you, Christy! I seriously can’t function without you!”

“Go away,” she said tiredly.

“Christy, please! I swear to God or anyone else, I will never hurt you! I swear! Please, just give me a chance, Christy! I’ll do anything you want, just please...”

“Alex,” she said softly and I blinked, thinking that if she forgave him right now, she’d be completely out of her freaking mind.

He looked at her with insane hope in his eyes.

“Alex,” she repeated almost lovingly. “Go to hell!”

I couldn’t help but grin at his expression.

“Move it, Landon,” I said and he started to shake.

“No,” he muttered. “Christy, no! You can’t just leave me like that... Please...”

“Leave me alone,” she said. “Or I will have to get a restraining order.”

“Landon, get the hell out of the way,” I said evenly when he just stood there, blinking rapidly.

“No,” he muttered again, and I was getting really pissed by now.

“Move,” I repeated and shoved him slightly on the shoulder.

He looked at me and I almost winced when I saw his eyes. “Jesus,” I thought. “He looks like he is about to snap...”

“Let’s go, Chris,” I said quietly and pushed her behind my back. “Landon, go get some professional help. You look crazy.”

We were walking away when he screamed in a shaky voice:

“Oh, no you don’t!! Christy, stop!”

I definitely did not like this. Landon sounded downright insane right now. I couldn’t figure out if he really loved Christy, hated me, or if it was all of the above. I didn’t really care, to be honest, but those shrill, mad notes in his voice made me pull Christy forward, and she looked at me with scared surprise when I shoved her ahead of me and stopped suddenly.

“Jake, what are you doing?” she whispered.

I turned towards Landon, making sure that Christy was behind my back.

“Landon,” I said calmly. “Go home, okay?”

“Oh, just shut the fuck up!!” he screamed, and I stared at him in disbelief when he suddenly pulled a gun out of his pocket.

Oh, Jesus Christ! Are you serious? A freaking gun?! I looked at him and suddenly became so calm that it almost felt unreal. I calculated the distance between us and thought that there was no way in hell for me to get to Landon before he fired the damn gun if he was crazy enough to do it. I looked into his eyes and understood that he was just crazy enough.

“Landon,” I said quietly. “Put that thing away, will you? This is insane...”

“Shut up!” he barked and aimed the gun at my chest. His hands were trembling so bad that for a second, I thought he’d pull the trigger just because his fingers were dancing a jig.

“Landon,” I said very calmly. “Put it away, okay? Do you really want to hurt Christy?”

He grinned at me, and I had shivers run down my spine because of that grin.

“No,” he said earnestly. “I don’t want to hurt Christy. I want to hurt you. See the difference?”

“Alex, this is so nuts!” Christy said in a shaky voice.

Landon looked at her and his hand slightly lowered, so I decided to take my chances before I got his full, undivided attention again. I lunged at him, and his reaction was so quick that I couldn’t believe it. He fired the damn gun, I thought in astonishment. I literally could feel the bullet flying through my hair or somewhere really close. I thought that God was probably having loads of fun right about now, and then I slammed into Landon full speed, and we both went to the ground. I tried to push his hands away from me, and I could hear Christy screaming bloody murder by now. She’s got a very good set of lungs on her, I thought briefly, and then Landon smacked me in the face so hard that I saw stars and could feel blood trickling down from my eyebrow. Dammit, he probably cut me with his freaking school ring.

“Help!” Christy was yelling. “Somebody help!!”

I realized that Landon would probably kill me if I didn’t get that damn gun out of his hand, so I headbutted him in the face. He screamed when my head collided with his already broken nose, and his grasp on my wrist lessened a little. Guided by sounds, since I was almost blind because of the curtain of blood streaming down my face, I went for the gun. I grabbed the pistol grip that was strangely warm and slick, and tried prying it out of his fingers. He growled when he realized what I was trying to do, and hit me in the face again.

This time, I became lightheaded and could taste the tangy, metallic flavor of blood in my mouth. I guess my father was right, I thought indifferently. I will die in some dark alley, next to a dumpster, just as he predicted several years ago, when he found a few of my drawings hidden underneath my mattress.

I heard Christy yelling, then I heard somebody else’s voices, but somehow, it didn’t matter anymore. Landon landed another blow on my face, and I became so dizzy that my ears started to ring and I actually felt nauseous. I wouldn’t let go of the pistol grip, and pulled it towards myself as hard as I possibly could. I could hear someone screaming, I could hear footsteps, and I could hear police sirens in the distance. And then I couldn’t hear anything, because the damn gun went off again, and it was louder than I expected. It felt as if I’ve gone completely deaf for several seconds, and a sarcastic voice in my head started laughing hysterically. “Well, isn’t this great? Now you are not just a lost cause or a devil’s tool, Jake! You are deaf and freaking blind! Oh! And you are shot now too! Isn’t this simply bloody marvelous?!”

“Shut up!!” I screamed, and suddenly, Landon’s body went all rigid, he howled in pain, and then finally, I managed to push him off me. The sirens were really close by now, and I tried getting up, but I couldn’t even get on all four, my entire body shaking badly.

“Oh, but Jake!” Oh, Jesus, now it was my mother’s voice. “Jake you got shot, honey...”

Honey? My mother never called me honey, not even when I was three and made a little bouquet of roses that she liked so much. I gave it to her as a birthday present. She looked at the flowers and started screaming almost immediately. “Jake!” she screamed, her eyelid twitching, a vein about to pop on her forehead. “Jake! You took those out of my garden, didn’t you?!” Yeah, I knew better after that than to go anywhere near her damn garden.

Christy and somebody else were trying to pull me up, and Christy kept saying something, but it sounded like she was really far away. I shook my head again, feeling so sleepy and dizzy that it wasn’t even funny. All I wanted right now was to be left alone so I could sleep. I tried saying that, I tried telling Chris to let go of me, but I couldn’t say a single word. Finally, I managed to pull myself away from her and whoever else was trying to get me up, and then I collapsed on the ground and everything went dark. My last thought before I passed out was:

“Sam...”