Rich Boy Problems

Chapter 17 The Road Ahead

I attempt to sleep on the flight home, but I have a hard time in the position I'm in. Plus every time I close my eyes I see the man, dead, and covered in blood.

Ryder easily fell asleep next to me. He has got to be exhausted. Plus he's probably use to seeing that kind of thing. I'm not. I've only seen stuff on T.V. I've been sheltered my whole life from that kind of stuff.

Jaxson looks over at me. "Ready?" he asks. I nod my head. When we get home, we get out and I stand in between Ryder and Ashton.

"All of you go to Ashton's room. You can shower, but only two of you at a time." Jaxson says. We're still being careful I see.

We head inside and are greeted by Mom. "My babies." She says hugging us.

"Mom." We both say at the same time. She lets go of us, but keeps a hand on our shoulder.

"I want to you two to go upstairs to Ashton's room, and stay there unless you're showering. Please do shower, I'm sorry, but you both smell, and Jess dear, you have, well you have blood all over you."

We head upstairs to Ashton's room and see Cole on his bed playing video games. He looks at us and jumps up. "You're home." He says.

I nod my head and smile while Jake answers. "Yeah, we're finally home."

"I'm going to shower." I say quietly. Jake looks at me shocked.

"Okay." Cole says, not noticing Jake's shock.

I go to my room and lock the door. I go to my dresser and pull out sweatpants, a t-shirt, and an oversized sweatshirt. Something to be comfortable in.

I go into my bathroom, and lock the door. Safety. I want to be safe.

~#~

I get out and get dressed. I brush through my hair and my teeth. It's been a few days.

I go back to Ashton's room. Cole and Ashton are playing video games, and Ryder is sitting backwards in a chair facing me. His hair is wet, so I'm assuming he's showered. There's a man looking at his back, a doctor. Jake isn't in here, so I assume he's showering.

I look at Ashton and Cole. I use to play with them. I still want to. I get up an Ashton's bed, and sit against the wall, that the bed's up against.

Cole turns around and looks at me. "Do you want to play?" He asks. I nod my head. He hands me a controller and I join in. When Jake comes in, he also joins us.

Jake and Cole start to argue and Ashton gets tired of it real fast. "Do you want to play? I can kick one of these two off." Ashton tells Ryder.

Ryder looks up at us. "No thanks." He says putting his head down again.

"Are you sure?" Ashton asks.

"Yeah." He says without lifting his head up.

~#~

Some more time passes when the door opens. A woman, Ella, I think comes in. She has a gun in her hand, and comes towards the bed. She grabs Jake and pulls him off the bed. "You are just so lucky aren't you? It seems you can make it through anything. First a lung transplant, and then a kidnapping that you weren't suppose to make it through. You know how to avoid death don't you?" she says directing it at Jake. "Get in the hallway, all of you." She says to the rest of us.

We all go out into the hall. Ryder, taking a few seconds more, gets pushed out with Jake. "Downstairs, now, all of you."

Jake's P.O.V.

We all head downstairs. I walk next to Ryder. Apparently Ella, the lady, helped locate Jess and I. The way she got in my face was not what I was expecting. Then again, this whole kidnapping this is kind of surreal to be honest.

She has all of us go into the dining room, including the doctor. "Take a seat, all of you." They all sit down and she pushes me into a chair, tying my hands behind my back.

"Jake?" Jess whispers.

She's behind me so I can't see her, but Ella goes behind me. "I suggest you keep that pretty little mouth of yours shut, or I shut it for you." She says. I hear her hit Jess' head, and Jess whimper.

I watch as Ella comes in front of me. "Call for your parents." She says.

"Mom... Dad..." I call.

They come in the doorway from the kitchen. "W-what's going on?" Mom asks.

"I," Ella says, "am getting revenge."

"Revenge?" Dad asks.

"Revenge for what?" Mom asks.

"It's your fault that my son is dead. The reason that your son is alive, up and healthy is the reason that mine is dead. Just because you're wealthy doesn't mean that you should be able to cheat the system."

"What are you talking about?" Dad asks.

"My baby is dead because you! Since you have money, your son went to the top of the list, and my son went down. Had my son not gone down on that list he could still be alive, and we wouldn't be here today. Even though they said that he still had a chance, he died of complications later, but he would be here if you hadn't cheated."

"You don't know-"

Ella cuts him off. "Yes I do!" she yells shoving the gun under my chin.

"We don't deny that we did that." Dad says putting his hands up. "Because we did, I did. You know how it feels when your child is sick. Don't deny it, if you could have cheated the system you would have done it."

"That doesn't matter, but it's time for you to feel the pain of losing a child. You were suppose to anyway. Your daughter wasn't suppose to leave, but you weren't suppose to get your son back."

I heard a gunshot but I'm fine. I look down to see her body on the ground. "Ella... how could you?" Mr. Noland asks.

Jaxson comes over and unties me, and mom pulls me into a hug. After the hug I turn to look at Jess. She suddenly jumps up and runs upstairs. "Oh dear." Mom says. Dad just looks lost.

"We'll do everything we can to help her, but for now let's be thankful that we're all together." He tells us.

We have a long road ahead of us that's for sure.