In the morning, after we took showers and got dressed, we (being Jane, Nick, and me) sat in the living room and discussed the plans. Turns out Jane said I could stay as long as I wanted to before they drove me crazy, and I followed the household rules. The rules weren’t much. I just had to do my fair share of the chores like the rest of the Carter children, no phone or TV until all homework was done, and curfew was 1:30 AM.
When she got done telling me the right act, Nick and I headed back to my house to get the rest of the stuff Jane wasn’t able to get. The back window had been busted and there was glass all over the kitchen floor. There was police tape everywhere. There was still some blood, but no where as much as last night. The police had cleaned up most of it. I got all our family photo albums from my parents’ room along with all their framed pictures. The TV in their room was gone, so was the VCR. The big screen in the living room was long gone, along with the 300 disk CD player.
I climbed the stairs to my room. I passed my brother’s old room, which had been empty for years. All my rings and necklaces that I wasn’t wearing that night was gone, our computer that we kept in my room was gone, along with all my CDs, my Sega, and all the games. My VCR was amazingly still there. I guess he didn’t have time to jack that, or he would have. Hell, I thought. If they were gonna kill my parents they go ahead and get all they could.
"So, what are we gonna do with this place?" Nick asked, glass crunching over his feet.
"The police are gonna clean it up and the Realtor is going to sell it, that is if Mom and Dad didn’t give it away in their will. But I know they didn’t give it to me. I don’t want this house, it’s too big to be in alone. Besides, I don’t think it’s paid off and I have no way to pay it off. Speaking off…" I walked over to the spot where I hid my money. All eight hundred dollars were still there. "Well, at least I got this." I grabbed the last few things out of my closet that Jane wasn’t about to get. After I stuffed all my clothes into my Tommy Hilfigure bag we headed back out to the Durango, but we only made it a few steps out of the door before reporters stopped us.
"Excuse me! Miss!" a man yelled. "Can you answer a few questions?"
He shoved the microphone in my face. "Um, sure I guess," I shrugged.
The cameraman turned on the camera and shoved that in my face too. "Do you know the poor family that lived here?" he asked.
"Um, yeah, that was my mom and my dad!"
"Can you tell us what happened?"
"I don’t exactly know, I wasn’t here when Ryan Walker broke into my house."
"Where were you?"
I looked around for a second before answering. "I was on a date…what does this have to do with anything?"
"Did you have any idea that this was going to happen?"
"No sir."
"Can you explain to us what you saw?"
"OKAY! You’ve gotten all you needed, she’s not answering anymore questions, that’ll be all for now. Thank you." Nick said, shoving his hand in front of the camera lens and pushing it away. We literally jumped into the Durango and locked the doors, and pulled out of the driveway. We were off to Erin’s house to tell her before she heard on the news and got worried.
Apparently, her mom had already heard, because when I got there she engulfed me in a hug and told me how sorry I was, then send me to Erin’s room. "Hey!" she smiled. "What’s up you guys?"
"Um, Erin… I have kinda have to tell you something," I answered.
"Hold on, wait, let me guess! You two hooked up!?"
"Um, yeah, but that’s not it. Listen for a sec!"
She knew the only time I got on her case there was something wrong, so she quickly calmed down.
"Last night, me and Nick went out and when we came home Mom and Dad had been shot. Some guy broke in, shot ‘em, and robbed the house. Practically everything’s gone. I just wanted to tell you before you heard it on the news. I know how close you were to my parents."
"Oh…I’m sorry," she said quietly. "I don’t know what to say."
"I definitely can relate," I assured her. "Don’t worry about it, okay?"
She nodded. "Do you need a place to stay?"
"We’ve got her," Nick answered for me with a smile.
"Yeah, but thanks E. We better get going before those idiotic reports find out where we are and come bother you guys. I don’t wanna cause y’all any trouble."
"Alright, well, call me," she said, walking both Nick and I to the door.
I said bye to her mom and dad, and we headed back out to the Durango.
"So, whatcha wanna do?" he asked. "You wanna do something or just chill at the house?"
"It doesn’t matter, really. I’m so messed up right now it wouldn’t make a difference."
"Let’s go back to the house. If you wanna do something later we can."
"Sounds good," I replied. "Do you have um, rehearsal tonight?"
"Yeah. You’re more than welcome to come. Want to?"
"Yeah."
We went back to the Carter house and he showed me the dock. It was gorgeous. It was pretty long, about 150 feet and the end split into two sections. The right side had the speedboat tied to it, along with a hammock. The left side had the Jet Ski tied to it and one of those ladders that everybody had. "This…this is where I go to think," he said.
"Oh you mean you think?" I said, only teasing him.
"Well YEAH!"
"Sorry," I sighed. "I’m just trying to lighten things up a little. I don’t like things like this, so I always try to avoid them. It’s not that I don’t care, because I do. Really, I do. Situations like these just scare me." "I know you care, believe me, and I can totally see how things like this freak you out. I’m just a little uptight now."
I nodded. "I’m sorry for being such a pain in the a**."
"Who said that? You’re not. Bedsides, I enjoy having you here. I can put up with you as long as you can put up with me," he smiled.
I smiled back. He was so cute. Everything he said made me laugh. I loved the way he was nearly a foot taller than I was, I loved his eyes lit up when he got worried, and I love the way he always seemed to find a way to tell anybody how much he cared.
We stood there on the dock for a minute in silence, just staring out at the horizon. I knew he was standing behind me because I smell Gravity. I grabbed his hand. "Thanks for everything. You know, putting up with me, and all. I know it’s not an easy task."
"Oh, my pleasure," he said, wrapping his arms around me. "I respect the fact that you’re not shut up in the room moping about everything. Most girls would, and it’s pretty cool that you’re not."
I laughed. "I’m not like other girls, if you haven’t noticed."
"Yeah, you’re a loser!" he joked, kissing my cheek.
"Yep! That would be me!"
"You’re a pretty cool loser though."
I laughed.
"Enough with the make out session!" BJ laughed. "Mom wants to know if you’re still going to rehearsal, because if you are, you’ve gotta drop me and Leslie off at the mall."
"I’m going, but I’m not dropping y’all off!
"Nick!" I snapped, elbowing him in the stomach. "Be nice!"
"Fine. Y’all be ready at 7:30 or I’m leaving you."
"Will do, thanks!" She smiled, then ran back to the house.
"Now...where were we?" he asked.
"Right about here!" I grinning, kissing him.
"Ooh yeah, it’s all coming back to me now!"