Until The End

Chapter One, Jade's P.O.V

The room was lively with everyone sat around the sofas, drinking and laughing. Angelo- he was relaxed as ever...too relaxed. The TV radiated music quietly as everyone chatted amongst themselves whiles putting their feet up in a relaxed way. The atmosphere in this small room was happy and full of enthusiasm even though the past still lay there with them. The door swung open; the brothers entered together which was something that I thought I’d never see.

‘Evening boys!’ Trent boomed. My face lit up as his gaze warmed me. Josh placed the cans of alcohol onto the table and seated himself next to Ty.

‘Hey baby,’ Trent whispered after sitting down, his resilient arms lifted me up of the sofa and onto his lap as I slithered my arms around his neck wanting to just touch his lips with my own. His kiss turned eager.

‘Whoa, whoa!’ Josh shouted tapping my shoulder, ‘he’s underage!’ Trent swore at his brother smirking; he gave him a wink. I jumped of Trent’s lap onto the sofa snuggling my head into his neck.

‘Alright guys listen up.’ Everyone hushed to hear what Trent had to say. ‘What we need to do now is forget whatever happened between us and my brother. But, do not forget what happened between us and his so called friends.’

‘Hey,’ Josh began but was interrupted.

‘Let’s face it Joshua, you owe it to me.’ He said darkly staring at his brother. After what seemed like a long moment he began talking again. I really had no interest in what he was saying so I decided to see what magazines I could find to read. It turned out there wasn’t any so I stuck with the boring newspaper. Flicking through it aimlessly, Trent carried on with his talks. One news headline caught my eye. I stopped on the page and read: ‘Senseless Teen Knife Crime.’ I only stopped because I recognised the picture- the collage.

‘Oh my god!’ Trent stopped talking and looked at me as I sat bolt upright. ‘It’s Tracy! Someone attacked her.’ I said in disbelief. I looked at Trent and saw him sigh. ‘Look! It’s right here in the newspaper.’

‘Honey, put that down and listen.’ I gave him a blank look. My eyes looked down at the newspaper again as I read on out loud to the rest of them: ‘Tracy (19) was violently stabbed on university grounds on Monday evening around 8pm after she decided to leave the premises late.  There are no suspects at the moment as Tracy has not made any statements what so ever-‘, the newspaper was ragged from my grip and thrown to the other end of the room.

‘Didn’t I tell you to listen?’ Trent croaked. His eyes blazing, jaw ridged. Controlled anger. I froze for a second still looking down at nothing now. Trent’s actions startled me as I stared at him.

‘What’s wrong?’ I question

‘What’s wrong is that you’re not listening to me…’ he said, but then oddly tilted his head…grinned.

‘Oh,’ I whispered, ‘sorry.’ I said awkwardly sinking back into the sofa but he wasn’t having that. He pushed my head back into his neck kissing it once. I sat silently and decided to listen but no doubt Tracy’s attack still played tricks on my mind. He took a deep breath to regain himself. I looked at Josh who gave me a nod of reassurance.

‘I want them gone.’ I heard him say then my eyebrows crossed.

‘What do you mean by ‘gone’?’ Josh asked, his brother asked.

‘I mean gone as in…leaving university. Leaving the area, the city, the fucking country. Dying! I don’t fucking care how. I don’t want to see their faces anymore.’

‘They’ll never drop out of their studies? We’re already half way through our second year,’ his brother reasoned.

Ignoring that comment he said, ‘I want to scare them so bad that they think they have no other choice but to leave.’

‘Who?’ I questioned sitting up to face him. He looked at me for a split second then rubbed his face.

‘Crystal, Cassidy, Kyle and Trey. I want them all gone and the good thing is that they are so close that if one of them got hurt, they all would get hurt. So if one of them wanted to leave them they would all leave together. They came here together and they are going to leave together.’ Now I started to feel slightly uncomfortable.

‘But…there’re my friends…out friends…your brother’s friends…why?’ I enquired quietly.

He chuckled like it was obvious. ‘Because I don’t like them sweetie.’

‘You hate them that bad that you want them to…leave?’ He nodded.

‘But-’ I tried to pitch in.

‘So how are we going to do that?’ Ty chipped in interrupting me. Trent then sat forward as if he had to concentrate sloping his elbows on his knees.

‘Attack the weakest.’ He whispered. I felt Josh shuffle next to me.

‘And what do you mean by that?’ Josh asked with a stiff chin.

‘Do I have to spell it out for you guys? I say we get to Cassidy first.’ Ty and Angelo all began to chuckle quietly. Trent took another swig of his can before begging again.

‘But it won’t be easy right? I mean she’s got Kyle, Crystal and Trey with her.’ Angelo said making a point and at the same time lighting a cigarette…at least that’s what I hoped it was but his devil eyes told me I was kidding myself.

By now I didn’t really understand what I was hearing.

‘Exactly,’ Trent said, ‘so I say the five of us take out the two of them- Trey and Kyle. Then, I can’t express this enough; we need to separate Crystal from Cassidy because as long as Crystal is around, Cassidy will always feel safe.’

‘Well then why don’t we just go for Crystal?’ Ty suggested.

‘No, she’s too strong. And anyways, I have the perfect opportunity to give her a little scare tomorrow.’ He winked.

‘Erm…guys? What are you lot talking about? Why do you want to…I mean you can’t hurt…’ I let my sentence trail off. I looked over at Trent for an answer.

‘Honey, don’t you worry about it.’ He said kindly. I averted my gaze.

‘What?’ Trent questioned harshly.

‘Nothing,’ I answered quickly raising my eyes.

‘No, no. Come on tell me! You gave me that stupid look! What?’ I just looked at him. I studied the way his light grey eyes suddenly went fiery and how lips pulled back over his teeth from time to time.

‘Do you like Cassidy? Was she nice to you?’ he questioned mockingly. ‘You don’t want me to hurt your precious little friend’s right?’

‘She…she just…she just seems like a nice person,’ I said softly not looking at his eyes.

‘Yeah…well everyone seems like a nice person once in a while.’ He supposed.

‘I…I just think that maybe you should just…let the past go.’ My stomach started to turn over on itself. He threw his head back and barked out a laugh- it echoed in my ears. I shook my head them said:

‘I’m out of here.’ I got up off the sofa.

‘No you’re not.’ He said getting up to follow me. Suddenly, Josh jumped of his seat and pushed Trent down with mighty strength He landed with a muted thud back onto the sofa staring at his brother with a moment of passionate hate.

‘See you tomorrow Jade.’ Josh said standing over his brother whiles cutting into his eyes. I stalked out of the door way slamming the door behind me. I stood there for a second then pushed my ear to the door. I could hear…just if I held my breath.

‘Who told you to bring a fucking newspaper?’ I heard Trent bellow.