Page 72 of Breaking Bristol
“Matty.” I groaned when I heard Mikey’s voice. He shoved me in the shoulder, and I opened my eyes. He wasn’t a teenager anymore. His hair was longer, falling on either side of his face, his smile flat and his skin pale. “Gotta wake up, bro. Bristol needs you.” I told him I was coming and tried to push myself up, but my arm gave out.
“Matty.” Mikey slapped my face, and my eyes popped open. He was in his early twenties now. His hair stringy and tucked behind his ears. His face had little scars on it; I could see his cheekbones, and his lips were dry and crusty, his eyes dull and so fucking empty. “Gotta wake up, brother. Bristol needs you.” I told him I was coming and pushed myself up, but something hard pressed against my chest and I screamed for him to help me.
“Matty.” Mikey whispered my name, and I sucked in air that burned from my nose all the way down to my lungs. He looked just as I’d always imagined he’d look like when he got older. Green eyes full of wisdom, salt and pepper goatee, face full and round with the added weight age brought. “Took you long enough.” He smirked and held his hand out to me to help me to my feet. Then reaching under his shirt, he lifted something up. I looked down to see a chain with a flattened silver dollar and my name etched on it. My heart in my throat, I searched for my matching chain and pulled out the flattened silver dollar with his name on it. He grasped my shoulder so tight it was painful, and he searched my eyes. “Leave no brother behind.”
“You left me.”
“I’ll always be here when you need me.” He tucked his chain back under his shirt. “I gotta go now.”
“Take me with you.”
He shook his head and took a step back. “Not ready for you yet.”
“Mikey!”
“See you later.”
“When? Where?” I demanded hoarsely, refusing to let him go. Not again. Not after just getting him back.
“You’ll see when you get here.”
“Mikey, wait!” I screamed. “Mikey!”
“Matty!” Mikey screamed back and shook me until I opened my eyes, but it wasn’t his face inches from mine. It was Bristol’s. Her eye was swollen, and she had a gash on her cheek. “Gotta wake up, Matthew. I need you.”
“I’m coming, sweetheart…” I told her.
She smiled, and blood trickled out of her mouth, down her chin, and into a puddle at her feet. “I knew you would.”
My eyes flew open, and the sun was just beginning to rise, but its brightness caused a debilitating hammering in my skull that made me nauseous. I coughed as my chest heaved rapidly, heavy, harsh breaths singeing as they filled my airway. Bile slunk up my throat and I leaned over as it filled my mouth, and I spit it out. I squinted until my eyes adjusted, and I scanned my surroundings, desperately fighting to get up. But pain radiated down my arm, and the seat belt had sliced through my shirt and embedded itself across my chest. “Fuck.”
I pushed at the buckle until I found the release and peeled the polyester strip off. A chunk of my skin dangled off it, and I gagged at the sight. However, I somehow managed to crawl out from beneath the airbag and drag myself out of my truck with the arm that was still functioning despite a deep gash all the way from my wrist to my elbow. I jumped down and stumbled, dizziness making my back arch as I vomited again. As soon as the world wasn’t spinning and my legs were steady, I ran to the street to find I’d landed about a hundred yards past my aunt and uncle’s property line.
Going to a full-on sprint, I pumped my arms, and when a fiery rod rammed my shoulder, I knew it was dislocated. “Fuck.” I skidded as I turned on the driveway, adrenaline absorbing as much pain as it could, and strength I didn’t know I possessed continuing to push me forward.
It seemed like forever until I reached the gravel bend that split off, and when her cabin came into view, and I saw a white fucking Escalade, I lifted the bottom of my shirt and bunched it between my teeth, then took two seconds to manipulate my shoulder and ram it into a tree to push it back into place. “Ugh,” I grunted a muffled howl and saw stars, but I took one breath and kept moving.
Lights were on inside, but I didn’t hear anything. I crept around back and peeked into the bedroom and bile rose up my throat for a different reason.
Bristol was on the bed. Naked and hogtied with a gag in her mouth. Shane was sitting at the foot of the bed, the barrel of a gun running up and down her body. “Hell fucking no.”
I went straight to the front door and grated my teeth when I saw it busted open. I pushed it slowly, and as soon as it was wide enough for me to fit through, I slid inside.
“I really don’t want to do this the hard way,” his creepy voice said. “I apologized for threatening your mother. You know I would never hurt her. I just want you to be happy, and I upset you so you ran away. I get it. You made your point, but the game’s over now. It’s time for my sweet little princess to come home.”
She struggled to say something, and I took the opportunity to shuffle closer to her. The bedroom door was on the same wall as the front door, so as long as I stayed flush he wouldn’t see me.
“I can’t hear you. I’ll take off your gag if you tell me what I want to hear, but this is the last time I’ll listen to anything but that. I’ve been very patient.”
A beat went by, then I heard her say in a raspy, pissed-off voice, “I would rather die than be anywhere near you, you fucking scumbag!” The unmistakable sound of a slap filled me with fury but also had me inching closer, and I was able to peek in to see him standing now. Gun pointed at her head. “Do it. Shoot me.” Another slap. “That’s all you got? You think that hurt me? You can’t fucking hurt me anymore, and I will never stop telling you how much I hate you. You might as well just get it over with and put a bullet in my brain because if you don’t, the second I get the chance I will murder you.”
“I can’t live without you, princess, you know that.”
“I can’t live without him, and you killed him so just put me out of my fucking misery already.” Her breath hitched, and she started sobbing, and I looked around to figure out my next move.
I couldn’t risk her getting shot, so I had to surprise him.
“Stop crying, princess.” His voice got soft, and then I heard another crack. “Stop crying over another man.”