Shot to the Heart

Alternate Ending

"Don't you dare fall down these stairs!" Jayla called. Her voice got whipped around in the crisp winter air. 

"Yes, ma'am! No way I'm going back in there!" Alex jabbed a fnger towards the hospital building behind them. 

It was December, a whole three months after that horrible day in the mall. He remembered bits and pieces, only. He was shot three times. There was a face to face confrontation with the shooter, two of them, actually. He vaguely remembered a whole lot of shouting, nothing more. After that, his next memory came two weeks later, waking up to a lot of pain in the ICU.

Jayla knew differently. She told of a hellish two weeks. Alex had slipped into a coma. The doctors thought there was no chance. For three days straight, Jayla hadn't slept in fear she'd miss the call saying he was gone. But the doctors pulled through: a last ditch revolutionary effort involving the arteries of a cow took, and Alex was saved. Months of therapy and recovery had led to this magical moment of departure.

"Woo, baby, I'm feeling the breeze! Yee-haw!" Alex crowed.

"You're such an idiot." Jayla sighed as she caught up to him. 

"Yeah, but you love me." Alex wrapped an arm around her waist and leaned in for a kiss.

HONK!!

Mrs. Braun was blasting the horn. She waited in the parking lot, pulled up to the curb.

"Let's go!! I want to get home with my son!"

"Yeah, yeah." Jayla ushered Alex into the car, leaned in for one last kiss, and then said goodbye. She walked to her car, feeling giddy. Everything was alright again, for once. Things were looking up. She hopped in and turned the radio on. Bon Jovi was on.

        THE END