Faking It

20:Faking It:20

Aiden

"And local authorities say that a man named Terrance Porlietter was the masked gunman who entered Springfield High School."

Alina collapses all of a sudden and River grows pale; super pale, like he's seen a ghost.

"Ah...should I change the channel?" I ask, reaching for the remote. The only perk that being stuck in a hospital gives you is unlimited use of the television.

"Porter!" River gasps. "Porter!"

"Porter?" Tyler questions. "Where have I heard-"

Walsh heaves in a large breath. "The guy who shot at Alina when she was bleeding to death in that alleyway! Jared's right hand man, right?"

River nods, pacing back and forth, while I turn off the television. "But River," I say, "this guy's name is Terrance Porlietter. Where do you get Porter from?"

"First three letters of his last name plus the first three letters of his first name. Por-ter," River quickly explains. "It's slightly confusing, and also a ridiculous way of making up a name, but it's what Porter did for a living. He did everything in a completely ridiculous and confusing way."

"Well," Jeremy cuts in, clearing his throat, "at least now we know that Jason really is behind all of this. The shooting too."

Although there were four or five shots heard, I was the only one to get even remotely injured.

Therefore, I have no idea what Porter was even shooting at.

"We've come to the conclusion that Porter was after Alina," Sorita quietly says, while she's crouching down on the ground, rubbing a soothing hand on Alina's back while she seems to be hyperventilating.

"How've you come to that conclusion?" Jeremy asks, eyeing her nervously.

"Hunter said that Porter was banging on the door, saying something about 'giving him the girl and everyone else would be free,' and then decides to aim the gun right at Alina," Sorita explains. "It only makes sense. He didn't go after River at all. He was after Alina-question is, why?"

Alina lifts her shoulders up, looking pretty much like a child, as she indicates that she doesn't know why. River, however, keeps pacing around the room. "That doesn't make any sense, though! I'm the one that they're after. Me. Not Alina. She didn't do anything."

"Or," I mindlessly add in to the discussion, "Jason is all about this eye for an eye thing and decided to kill Alina off since you basically tore apart Jared from Jason."

River's mouth falls while he stares at me in shock. "He's...he's right."

"Hold up," Ferrell butts in. "Who the hell is this Jason? I thought we were talking about a Jared."

It then occurs to me that we've never found the time to fill in anyone outside the small group of people who live in my house and Jeremy. So I sit idly and twiddle my thumbs while Sorita and Jeremy work on filling everyone in.

Only problem is that we don't exactly have a solid, foolproof, based plan for this whole thing. All we want is for this whole situation to blow over as quickly and as painlessly as possible.

While Porter may be locked up, Jason is still in the all clear.

To get to Jason, we need him to get to Alina.

For him to get to Alina, Alina needs to be vulnerable and alone. And that's a recipe for disaster.

...

The sound of small crunching noises is what I'm awoken to at twelve thirty in the night.

The lights are all off, so I have to blink a few times to get a good outline of who's making the noise.