What it all comes down to |Chapter 3|

The dinner party was boring, as usual, and Chris and I were forced to greet everyone as if they were our best friends. I rolled my eyes as the older woman with the pretty pearls and green dress walked over to me. The smile I had on felt as if it were burning a whole through my face.

“Hi Grandma,” I said as she reached out to give me a fake hug. “How are you?”

“Fine.” She said looking over my shoulder at Chris. She pulled away from me and her whole face lit up. Chris smiled.

“Hi baby,” She pulled him into a tight hug—a real one. “You look so nice, how are you?”

“I’m fine, Grandma.” He said pulling away to give her a kiss on the cheek. “You look nice too.”

“C’mon, let’s go see your dad.” She said pulling him into the living room.

I took a deep breath to stop myself from smacking the old broad across the face. She was always working my nerves! She couldn’t stand me or my mother, but I could tell that she hated me more. At least she hugged my mother properly.

Lewis Harold and his wife Tara walked up to me with huge grins. Now, these two I actually like. Honestly, I like them the most out of the entire party guest because they have the best sense of humor and they don’t pretend to like anyone, they actually get along with most people so there’s no need.

“Shayla!” Tara said as she gave me a huge hug and then pulled back to kiss both my cheeks. “This dress is fabulous, girl.”

“Shayla, you look beautiful as always.” Lewis said.

I smiled and said “Thanks.”

About fifteen minutes later everyone was eating dinner and my father and some of his co-workers were talking about “the numbers going up” this season.

The salmon dinner was amazing, but my phone was vibrating in my purse like crazy and I could no longer ignore it. “May I be excused?”

Before getting an official answer—which wouldn’t have mattered, anyway—I got up from the table and headed to the bathroom.

There were six new text messages and nine missed calls. What the hell? I called my voice mail to listen to my messages, first.

“Shayla! Oh my God, Shayla! Listen to me… you have to get out of your house… Travis is crazy! He said you had pissed him off or something and he said he was on his way to your house. He called me and he sounded really messed up. You KNOW how he is… something didn’t sound right. Please call me. I wanna make sure you’re okay, girl. Bye.”

My eyes were getting bigger and bigger as I listened to Courtney’s message. I even replayed it to see if I could detect any humor in her voice—there was none.

CRASH!

“Oh My God!” I heard my grandmother scream.

“Where is she?!” I heard the deep voice and I froze—Travis.

Oh my God…

“Travis what are you doing…?” My mother asked calmly.

“I will shoot everyone in here… Where is she?!”

“WHO?!”

“Your little slut of a daughter!”

“Look… I don’t know what kind of stunt you’re trying to pull with this little gun but before you do anything stupid, I’m going to ask you to get out of my house.” My father was calm, but even from the bathroom I could tell his eyes were blazing.

I was contemplating opening the door, but I was too scared to do it. He has a gun shayla… he came here for you—don’t open it!

“How about this…” Travis said. “I’ll shoot you, and maybe we’ll find her afterwards.”

Oh god…

I threw the door back and ran into the dining room—the gun was pointed at my mother.

“Travis! What are you doing?” I screamed.

“Shayla… don’t.” My father said.

“Travis… I’m sorry I hurt you, okay? You don’t have to shoot anyone. I’m sorry!”

Travis smirked. From the corner of my eye I saw my grandmother scowling—my mother was crying silently with a gun aimed at her chest. Chris looked mad—he looked pissed. Everyone else… they were frozen.

“Sorry?” He asked as if he were confused. “You have no reason to be sorry baby… you were right.”

My eyebrows raised—I was the one confused now.

Travis clenched his teeth and then pointed the gun at me. “I’m tired of you always acting like you run something! I’m tired of you period.”

I felt my eyes stinging with tears threatening to fall. “Travis don’t… you’ll regret it.”

He tightened his grip on the trigger. “You know how much I’ve been through… you don’t seem to care.”

He was wrong. I did care. “You’re wrong.” I said aloud.

“Too late for that.” He replied. His eyes turned into tight slits. “I loved you.”

I backed away from his gun and felt the tears on my cheeks.

“There’s only one bullet in this gun shayla…” He pulled out a small bottle of clear liquid and kept the gun on me as he drank it. “The bullet’s for you.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. “NO!”

I was pushed back as a loud “POP” sound filled the air. I felt a surge of pain shoot through my whole body and the screams and hushed whispers filled the air. I felt the warm liquid all over my mid-section and I wanted to cry… I knew this was it. This was my time.

“Oh my God! Shayla! Raymond!” My mother’s hysterical voice shot through my mind… I was hearing her clearly. Was that supposed to happen? “He’s not moving! Call 911!”

He?

I opened my eyes and saw my step-father’s body on top of mine. It was his blood that was dripping onto my body, not mine flowing out. The bullet pierced his skin; the pain I felt was me falling to the ground. It was his body that wasn’t moving… mine was a little soar, but not harmed. He was the one who was dead.

I looked over at Travis lying on the floor… what ever he had drunk had killed him. He took the wrong life, and now he wasn’t even here to pay for what he had done.

“Dad! Open your eyes! Please, please speak to me!” I screamed as I sat up and began doing CPR. “Please say something… look at me! It’s me! It’s Shayla!”

I continued doing CPR and Chris ran over to help. The tears were falling from my eyes again. “Say something, Dammit! You cant die on us!”

Chris shook his head and grabbed my hands. “Shay… he’s… I think—”

“—Don’t you say it! Don’t you say that!”

“Shay—”

“He’s not! He’s fine!”

The blood flowed from his body and onto the once perfect and stainless white carpet. I knew he was gone. But, I also knew it was my fault.

It was supposed to be me… it should’ve been.