AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Umm,that was a big fat no!
Honestly, I didn’t really get close to men or too many people in general. Scared to death that my cancer would come back, I didn’t want to take the chance of someone leaving me again because I was sick, or too much trouble. Just like my birth mother did. I’m not sure I could take being discarded as though I meant nothing, a second time around, from someone I thought was supposed to love me. The fear of that kept me always holding back.
Yet I yearned to have a family of my own. The husband, children, dog, and the whole white picket fence dream, was always recurring. I just wasn’t sure it was something I could allow. Even if I met someone who wanted all that and stood by me if cancer reared its ugly head again, would it be fair to them? What would happen when I couldn’t care for them or left them too soon? Then on top of that, there was the fact that after the cancer treatments, there was a good chance I wouldn’t be able to have children of my own. Who’d want to be with me knowing that? It hadn’t mattered that much, because there’d been nobody that I’d met who’d made me question all these things I feared.
A little voice in the back of my head whispered, “Until tonight.”
Suddenly, I was pulled from my thoughts by loud popping noises and screaming coming from the bar, as a new sensation flooded my veins. Fear. And still, without thinking, I yanked open the bathroom door, with only the thought of finding my closest friends, and ran in their direction.
Hauling ass down the hallway from the ladies’ room, I slowed my steps and peeked around the corner. My body completely froze. What I saw may haunt me forever. People were ducking under tables and laying on the floor. Some were screaming or crying, and others were just silent from pure terror. That’s when I noticed Summer and Alley were right there in the middle of it all. My eyes focused on the man standing by the bar, gun in hand, eyes crazed and spittle flying from his mouth as he let loose a string of sentences that were only half intelligible. It was clear even from a distance that he was on something, what I didn’t know, but there was nothing rational about his behavior.
The man was just a few feet from where my best friends were huddled, and the thought of losing them had my heart in my throat.
My eyes zeroed in on Braxton who was down next to the girls shielding them; it looked as though he was saying something to the guy with the gun. I’m not sure the man heard him at all, because all his attention seemed to be focused on another guy and a lady sitting just beside him on the dark wooden floor. The woman on the ground was holding something against the man’s side that was next to her, and that’s when I noticed the blood soaking through the cloth.
Oh no, no, no...
Remembering my phone was in my pocket, I moved away from the corner and backed down the hall a little way so I couldn’t be overheard. Dialing 911, I started reciting everything I knew in a stage whisper and prayed that help would get here in time and everyone would be okay. The 911 operator told me to stay on the phone. She said that someone from outside called it in already and the police were on the way, but since I was on the inside maybe I could help. I wasn’t sure how much help I could be when I was scared out of my freaking mind and the man was armed. There’d been so many shootings around the world lately where innocent people had lost their lives. I prayed that wasn’t the case tonight.
All I could think about was that Braxton and his buddy were probably good guys to have around right now, and hopefully could help defuse the situation before it got any worse, or anyone else got hurt.
I heard the 911 lady through the phone. “Jurnee, are you still there?” I didn’t even remember giving her my name, but somehow she knew it. I must have really been losing it.
“Yes, I am still here.”
“What’s going on now, are you able to translate anything that’s being said?”
“Hold on.” I crept back toward the corner that rounded into the bar. I peeked around the wall again to see the man pointing the gun at the guy that had been shot, and the girl next to him was holding onto him as she pleaded with the guy, who was obviously upset with this specific couple. I relayed what I could and then I saw movement and my body went stone cold.
Please please please,are the only words that played over and over through my head. Just as I was trying to explain to the lady on the phone what was going on, I saw Braxton stand to his full height, which was damn impressive. He held his hands up in a peaceful gesture and I could tell he was talking, but I couldn’t fully hear what was being said.
As he was doing this, I saw Landon scooch over a little to cover the girls and Gyth moved his wheelchair so he was shielding all three of them, placing himself in front of where they were laying. This had the guy spinning in their direction and waving the gun around as he shouted. His voice got louder and this time I could hear exactly what was being said. Terror took hold of every cell in my body.
Talking a bit louder than I should’ve, I frantically told the 911 operator that the man had his gun pointed toward my friends, waving it around, and had threatened to shoot one of them if Braxton didn’t get back down on the floor. He was trying to de-escalate a situation that seemed to be spiraling out of control fast; by placing himself right in the line of fire. The gun then steadied and was pointed right at Braxton’s chest.
“Noooooo!”
Everything that happened next felt like it was going in slow motion but really took place in just a matter of seconds. The man holding the gun whirled around, the phone fell from my hand with a thump to the floor and my feet were moving before my mind was really thinking straight. I ran out from around the wall, toward Braxton and my friends.
I saw Braxton fly through the air to tackle the guy and my eyes went wide just as the gun went off.
I hit the ground and everything went black.
Chapter Three
Braxton
All hell breakingloose was an understatement.
One minute I was laughing and teasing my little sister like we were kids again, next a gunshot rang out over all the noise in the bar and everyone went into panic mode. People were running over one another, women were screeching, men were yelling and I looked over from my spot on the floor where I dropped, to see someone had been shot. With a hundred or more people stampeding out the front door like a herd of animals running with a predator on their asses, I would think at least one of them would have called the police.
Instinct kicked in when I heard the gun go off. I hit the floor and grabbed my sister and Summer on the way down, shielding them with my body. Landon was right next to us, but Gyth assumed his position in his chair. The guy was one big badass motherfucker and I doubted he would throw himself out of his wheels for anyone, let alone some weasel high as a kite. It was obvious the guy with the gun had some serious drugs pumping through his veins.
Even with everything going on I was thinking about Jurnee and praying she would stay in the bathroom where she might be safe. I didn’t want anything to happen to her, my sister, or Summer, and right then I was trying to protect the two girls I was basically laying on top of. Squishing them may have been an issue, but it was a hell of a lot better than the alternative.
It was obvious the shooter was getting more and more agitated and he had already shot another man. The guy was trying to hold his side but was bleeding rather profusely as the woman with him cried uncontrollably. Slurred yelling continued to come from the gunman, making it hard to understand, but I was still aware of the threat he posed. Someone needed to take the attention off the couple, so others could take him down.
Looking over at Landon, I motioned very carefully for him to cover the girls when I moved off them. Then glancing at Gyth, I gave him a look and he returned one in understanding. Trying to call out to the man with the gun didn’t work because he was too caught up in yelling profanities at the couple as he carelessly waved the gun around.
