All This and $10 on 2

Revelations

“FBI! Freeze!”

Ashley Leveque didn’t move. Not that she was paying any attention to the new arrival in the room, she was in shock. She had just shot Brandon. ‘Why did he have to jump in front of her?’ “Why do you always have to be the damn hero?” she demanded of his unconscious form.

Ashley was suddenly transported back to her sophomore year. She was dating the captain of the football team, Mike Larson. He was a senior and the most popular boy in school. He was a juicer, though, and flew into rages constantly. One day, a scrawny boy happened to be unfortunate enough to be standing in his way and Mike, surrounded by three of his teammates began pushing and smacking him around. Just before things got interesting, Brandon jumped in to help the scrawny kid. Ashley had never seen someone take such a vicious beating as Brandon had, but he kept getting back up and eventually knocked Mike Larson out. Ashley dumped Mike Larson on the spot and made sure to keep Brandon on her radar.

She was vaguely aware of being wrestled to the ground and her hands being restrained behind her back. She started coming around when she was lifted roughly off the floor.

“Hey!” She resisted.

“Ashley Leveque, you are under arrest for disorderly conduct, discharging a firearm inside of a domestic residence, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and the attempted murders of Brandon Taylor and Lauren Miller. You have the right to remain silent; anything you say can, and will, be used against you in a court of law…”

Ashley couldn’t focus on what the agents were saying; all Ashley could hear were Lauren’s hysterical sobs. The sound went straight through her brain and grated on her nerves like finger nails on a chalk board. “Will someone shut that bitch up?”

Ashley turned around and was suddenly face-to-face with a severely infuriated Michele. Ashley smiled smugly at her, “Well at least now since we can’t have him, she can’t either.”

Three people suddenly jumped in between the two. Pure, seething rage billowed off of Michele as she smiled vindictively at Ashley. “Brandon is going to be just fine. It seems you only just winged him.” Michele pointed behind Ashley, “See? Here he comes now.”

Ashley turned to look, but only saw the paramedics still working on Brandon and Lauren fighting with an officer who was trying to get her out of the room. She turned back to Michele; smugness renewed, but was met with an uppercut that launched her clean off of her feet.

Michele was suddenly on top of Ashley her soft brown hands were a crushing iron vise on Ashley’s pale white neck. “So help me, if he dies I will kill you myself.” She increased the pressure on Ashley’s neck. “I will hunt you down and I will *thoroughly* enjoy mauling you within an inch of your life and then I will make you look me in the eye as I choke the life out of you.” She squeezed even tighter and then let go.

Lola tried to put a reassuring hand on Michele’s arm as she got off of Ashley, but Michele shrugged it off and growled, “Don’t touch me!” Michele shoved several officers out of her way as she rushed to Lauren’s side. She put a comforting arm around her devastated friend and walked her out of the room and down the stairs. Lola tried to smile encouragingly at Michele, but she never looked back.

Lola watched solemnly as the paramedics wheeled Brandon out on a stretcher. She stopped an officer trailing behind, “How is he?”

“He’s in quite a bit of pain. One grazed him down his left tricep; tore the skin up pretty bad, but the muscles are still intact. The other was through-and-through, but it caught him on the underside of one of his ribs and ricocheted through his guts. He’s got some internal bleeding, but they’re pretty sure they can fix him up okay.”