You're Not Alone

I Am Barely Breathing

*time lapse to two days after returning home from the tour*
(Jen's POV)

I gripped my mechanical pencil as I stared down at my notebook paper, cluttered with solutions to inequalities. It all made sense in my head, but the time floated by so slowly and it seemed as though I'd been doing math for two years straight.

"Why didn't you put a bracket around the infinity sign? Why is it a parentheses? I thought that when it was a 'greater/less than or equal to' problem, it got a bracket." Alan said, glancing at an inequality written in set builder notation.

"Because infinity is just a concept, not an actual number." I tried to explain. He looked at me like I was speaking another language and shook his head.

"Algebra is stupid."

"Agreed."

He messed up my hair a little bit. "Says the one who's apparently pretty damn good at it."

I held my head in my hands and sighed. I only started my correspondence two days ago and it was already killing me. I had an essay to write, algebra to do and African countries to label. I couldn't remember how long it'd been since I was this stressed out.

"Wanna go for a walk? California's beautiful at night." Alan offered. I nodded. I was down for anything that would clear my head.

We grabbed jackets and headed out of Austin's house into the chilly air. It wasn't nearly as cold as I was used to in Chicago growing up, but it wasn't exactly warm either. It was still pleasant.

We wandered around the streets a bit, talking about anything and everything. I ranted about school and how much I missed Mason, he talked about how much he missed his ex girlfriend Maddie. We droned on for what seemed like hours, but in reality, was only 45 minutes.

We turned a corner into a dark alleyway. I didn't like the looks of it, but I trusted Alan's judgement.

I guess he had similar thoughts, because he motioned for us to turn around and head back. Suddenly, he stopped dead in his tracks. I was confused until I looked down and saw the barrel of a gun jabbing at his back. A silencer covered it. My heart stopped.

"Don't say shit. If you scream, both of you die. Hear me?" We both nodded rapidly.

The man began searching Alan's pockets for money. He pulled out Alan's old leather wallet, it's only contents were gum and an old baseball card.

"What the fuck is this?" The man asked. Alan opened his mouth to reply, but the stranger jabbed him in the jaw with the gun. "I didn't ask for an answer." Alan shut up.

I felt the man's hand close around my wrist and yank me around. "She'll do."

__________________________

(Alan's POV)

I finally spoke up. "What the fuck do you mean?" I growled. The man smiled, showing off his yellow and rotting teeth.

"You can't pay with money. You'll pay with her. You leave and no one gets hurt." He glanced down at Jen. "Yet."

I stepped forward, my fists clenched. "Over my dead body."

"I'll dig one hole."

The guy threw Jen and I up against the wall, aiming the gun at me the whole time. "Thanks for making this so easy for me." He pointed the gun once more and I closed my eyes, waiting for the pain following the shot. I opened them once more, and heard the bullet click into place.

This is it.

Instead of the pain of a bullet, I felt a force slam into me from the side and my body soon collided with the concrete. What?

The muffled shot sounded, followed by the stranger swearing and dropping his gun.

I laughed a bit. Maybe he just shot the wall and freaked himself out.

But my smile quickly disappeared as I heard small moans of pain. I glanced over at Jen, laying on the ground, blood streaming from a wound in her neck.

"Fuck."

I fished my phone out of my pocket and dialed 9-1-1 as quickly as I could.

"9-1-1 operator, what is your emergency?" A woman asked.

"My best friend's daughter was shot in the neck. There's so much blood. Oh my god. Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shi-"

"Breathe sir, breathe. Can you give me your name and location?"

"Alan. Alan Ashby." I glanced up at the glowing sign hanging on the brick wall. "In the alley behind Maurice's and Blue Spot Liquor."

"Try to relax. Help is on the way."

I didn't even bother listening to the rest of what she had to say.

"Jen, baby, keep looking at me. Keep your eyes focused on me." I tried to keep pressure on her neck the best I could, but her warm, crimson blood continued to seep through my fingers. "You're gonna be alright. You'll be okay. Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit."

Hate me. I know, I know.

In the side is a picture of me in first grade vs. me now. Puberty is the real MVP.

Chapter song- Hold Me Now by Red

So sorry for the lack of updates! School and rehearsals are so stressful and I have a guard competition almost every weekend.

Once again, I'm sorry. Please forgive me, babes. More updates are coming, I promise.

-Gracie