CHIKLIT/ROMANCE
"BULL! You still love that useless prick!"
"Harley!" I cry, "It's not him that I want! I lo-"
He punches the wall, forcing my favorite memory to shatter across the floor, "I'm going to kill him!"
Haunted by her memories, Liana...
I looked around. I found myself laying flat on the floor. I also found someone else besides me covered in warm dripping blood,
Earl.
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Everything happened so quickly. One minute I was fighting for my life, the next -I was laid beside a pool of blood in the fetus position-half in shock and half thankful it wasn't me that had suffered the fate of the single lethal bullet.
As I laid upon the floor staring at Earl's empty eyes, I remember thinking Mr. Rolland may have appeared to be an old frail man, but he was stronger than anyone I had crossed my entire life; his skin, his posture, his age -none of it was real. It was a mirage to the true young man living beneath the surface.
I remember seeing a shadow cast over my body. I knew it was another human, but I couldn't seem to tear away from Earl's face to see who the body was connected to.
Earl's mouth was hanging wide open with a small stream of velvet -red blood dripping from the corner and his jaw bone was stiffening by the second. The color almost appeared pale-yellow with a tent of ashen-grey. A set of long fingers reached over my body and began to gently hold my shoulder.
It was, Mr. Rolland.
His bony fingers seemed to once again tremble, "Are you okay dear?"
I couldn't say a word. I was afraid. Not so much of Mr. Rolland, but I was more afraid that Earl was going to wake up and begin breathing again. I feared he was going to take me with him to a place I didn't plan to visit for many years to come.
He said softly, "Please child, you need to get up. Staring at that fool is going to give you nightmares. Nothing ever comes good at staring at the dead too long."
I still couldn't say a word. I kept hearing the haunting sounds of Earl's voice echoing over and over, "You are nothing but a mistake! You will regret ever walking into this town! Do you hear me?"
Was I a mistake? Is that what my Mama and Harley already knew? Maybe, that is why the neither of them ever fought for me or cared enough to hang around. Maybe, the few minutes Earl knew me, he saw something in me I should have come to terms with many years ago. The depressing thought of it forced a single tear to travel down my cheek and onto the dirty gas station floor.
