1987 [BoyxBoy]

Chapter 23 - Killing Him Is Not An Option

Billy quickly turned to his friends when he realized the call was from Denise. They all made their way to the phone and waited for Billy to tell them what was going on.

"Jesus, Denise. You know me. I would never make you feel like that. Please, come back."

Sarah and Peter were sporting the same confused expression, while Bradley was just biting his fingernails, anxiously.

"Okay, I'll see you soon," he said, then hung the phone back on the receiver.

"Where the hell is she?" Sarah asked.

"The bus station. She was going to leave town."

All four friends were sharing the same look of despair.

"And she just wasn't going to say goodbye or anything?" Sarah asked, her sadness starting to become anger.

"She said something happened that scared her, but she realized she was making a mistake. She's coming over right now and said she has something to tell me."

"Probably about Chandler. She's going to be so mad at me," Bradley sighed.

Billy placed his hand on Bradley's shoulder. "That'll be the least of her concerns now that we know who killed Brenda."

"What if it's not that?" Peter chimed in, receiving confused looks from his friends. "Dominic said he saw Denise outside of Brenda's house the night he killed her. Maybe she's going to tell us why?"

Sarah, stress ridden, pushed her hair back. "Maybe. We won't know until she gets here. Until she does, we need to figure out what to do about Dominic."

"I still think our best option is to kill him," Billy suggested, again.

"Billy, no. We already decided against that. We aren't going to stoop to his level. If we kill him, we become just as bad as him," Peter explained.

"No we don't. He killed someone innocent, we'd be killing someone guilty."

"We aren't god. We don't get to decide who lives and who dies. Killing him is not an option."

Billy scoffed. "This lunatic just came into my house, pointed a gun at me, and then confessed, in detail, to killing my girlfriend. Why does he get mercy? Brenda didn't." Billy's tears were falling like a waterfall and his voice began to raise. "Why does he get to keep living his life like nothing happened? He killed her! He killed her! Brenda did a lot wrong in her life, some even to me, but nothing—NOTHING—justifies what he did to her."

Sarah walked over to her friend in an attempt to console him. "Billy we get it, but-"

"When I saw him, just sitting there telling us why he did it, I wanted to strangle him. I wanted to take my bare hands and kill him. He didn't even seem remorseful. Like, killing Brenda was just another night for him."

Sarah hugged him tightly, tears falling for her eyes too. She felt everything he felt. She understood his pain. She truly did. "Billy," she began, wiping the tears off his face. "I understand all of it. I loved her, too. But killing Dominic won't bring her back. It won't change anything. It'll just be letting him win. He wants to break us. He wants to see us lose ourselves over this. We can't let him win. For Brenda."

Billy sniffled. He couldn't stop crying. He had to begin focusing on his breath before he got lightheaded. "For Brenda."

Sarah smiled, and grabbed Billy's hand. She lay her head on his shoulder. "I love you, Billy."

"I love you, too."

Peter and Bradley joined them on opposite ends of the couch, Bradley next to Sarah and Peter next to Billy. Billy grabbed Peter's hand and smiled at him and Peter reciprocated.