The Miami Diaries Book 1

Chapter 1

T/W: Mentions death, a dead body and suicide.

***
Lex

Everything was perfect. At least it was in the beginning. Tim Speedle, Aka Speed, who worked for the CSI Miami Dade crime lab and the love of my life, had proposed to me. Everything was perfect.  Until it all came tumbling down around me.

***

I don't think I'll ever forget the phone call from Eric Delko, one of Speed's coworkers and good friends. I remember thinking: "This isn't happening. Speed isn't dead. He can't be."

Yet he was.

I recalled racing down to the morgue and screaming to be let in. No one listened to me until the Devil Himself, Horatio Caine,  showed up and let me in. I remember seeing...Speed lying there, cold and motionless and I stupidly thought: "I'll just kiss him and he'll wake up. "

I kissed him and....nothing happened. I broke down, throwing myself down on his stiff, cold body and sobbed. I felt someone grasp my arm, gently pulling me away. I fought like anything, especially since it was...Horatio.

"Don't touch me!" I spat out, pushing away and rushing out, into the sweltering heat, running blindly, nowhere in mind.

****

Steve

My cell is ringing.  I groan, rousing myself from a deep sleep. I'd been up half the night, struggling to finish a website for a new client. I roll off the bed, reaching out to grab for my cell, flipping it open.

Hello?" It's my mom and I can't understand a word she's saying. Mostly because she's....crying. Shit. Did something happen to my dad?

"Mom, Mom," I say. I can't understand you. What's wrong?"

"Oh, Stevie! It's terrible, so...terrible!" She breaks down again.

"Mom! Just tell me!"

"It's...it's...Tim. He...he...was...killed during some...altercation!" I swear, my heart stops beating.

"What?" I whisper. No, no, no.

"Your brother was killed. Oh, Stevie!" I've become a stone lump. I can't seem to move.

"Oh, Mom," is all I can say.

"You need to come home, Steve. As soon as you can," Mom is saying.

"Y-Yeah," I manage. "I'll be there." I clap my phone shut, putting a hand to my forehead. The tears begin. No, no, no.

I can't believe my big brother is...gone.

****
Lex

I'm lying on the sandy beach, fully clothed. I'm also wet because the waves of the ocean have been lapping at me. I don't think I've stopped crying since I left the morgue.

I hear footsteps coming. Several people have tried speaking with me already.  I just ignored them.

"Lex?" It's my uncle Grant. He touches my back and I flinch. He sits down beside me. "Eric called me," Uncle Grant says, his voice soft.

"He's..gone," I croak out.

"I know." Uncle Grant keeps his hand on my back as sobs silently shake my entire body. Uncle Grant pats my back as I slowly shift my body upward. I'm completely soaked by now, clumps of wet sand clinging to parts of my body. I just want to walk into the ocean, letting the water fill my nose and mouth until I drown.

"Come on, baby," Uncle Grant says, putting his arm around my shoulders.  I want to fight, but I lack the energy and strength. Uncle Grant gets me to my feet, fully supporting me as we make our way back to Uncle Grant's truck.

He helps me into the cab of the truck and closes the door before walking around to the driver's side door.

"My car's still at the morgue," I hear myself saying.

"I'll go get Jay and we'll drive it back to your place later, okay?" I make my head nod. As if that really matters.

****

Steve

It's been absolute torture being at my parents.' Mom won't stop crying and Dad just keeps pretending everything is fine. I keep trying to comfort Mom, but jeez, what the hell am I supposed to say?

"Have any arrangements been made?" I ask Dad when Mom has finally decided to go lie down for a bit.

"Jeez, Steve!" Dad looks at me like I'm the dumbest person alive. "He just died, for Pete's sake!"

"I guess that's a 'no,'" I mutter, getting up from the couch to wander into the kitchen and head out to the back deck. I softly close the sliding glass door and step over to the railing, just staring.

I haven't been home in years. Tim and I kinda had a falling out and we hadn't spoken much until about six or seven months ago. I try to remember if he'd mentioned anything...important. I can't think of much. It was just run-of-the-mill crap.

I lean against the railing. Wait. I do remember something now. There was a..girl. I think the exact words Tim said were: "I've been seriously seeing someone. I'm thinking about proposing."

I stare out into the backyard. I suppose if Tim was seriously dating that girl, she'll be at the..funeral. Shit. What will I say to her? Better yet, what will she say to...me? I sigh. Nothing can be done about that. It'll be what it'll be.

***

Lex

I haven't moved from the couch since Uncle brought me here. Well. First Uncle Grant had wanted me to get straight into a hot shower. I wasn't interested that, but Uncle Grant insisted.

"You don't need to be catching pneumonia," he'd said in that no nonsense tone I remembered from when I was a kid. So I'd jumped into the shower, trying not to think of the times that Speed was in there with me.

I'd hurried through my shower, throwing on a pair of sweats and an old t-shirt before parking my butt on the couch. Uncle Grant has been on the phone, calling Mom and who knows else.

I know my mother will be here at any moment. I'm not sure I want her here, to be honest. I don't really want my uncle here, either. He's treating me like I'm five years old or something. There's a knock on my front door and Uncle Grant goes to answer it

Mom bursts into the room, hurrying over to me. She's down beside me, enveloping me into a big hug. I fight against her briefly before relenting into her comforting and familiar embrace.

"Oh, Lex," Mom murmurs, stroking my hair as I sob against her shoulder.

"He's gone, Mom," I choke out. "Speeds-gone."

"I know, baby," Mom soothes. "I know."