7 Minutes ✧ Syndisparklez

Snowflakes

I let my eyes drift shut, the cool sheets surrounding my body. Alice said I could crash in her room while she and Tom were out this morning.

They were grabbing groceries, but that shouldn't take long at all.

Thoughts ran through my head, ideas swimming about.

I should do it this week.

I should take my gun, shoot James and Oliver, and come back as if nothing had happened.

Then we'd all gather around the T.V., the news broadcaster explaining how an anonymous hero shot and killed both the felons.

We'd be safe. The whole community- hell, the whole world would be safe from them.

If only it were that simple.

A soft knock at the door interrupted my thoughts. I hoped it was Jordan, finally rising from his bed. But it wasn't.

"Hey," Alice whispered. "I hope I didn't wake you."

"No, no, I wasn't really asleep. Just resting."

She quietly set some stuff around her room, before sitting on the edge of the bed beside me.

"Ingrid?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't... I have something to tell Tom, but I really don't know how."

"Oh.. I have something to talk to Jordan about, and I'm in the same boat."

"Practice buddies?"

"Yeah... Okay, here it goes-" I sighed. "I think Jordan should see a therapist."

"That'd be good for him-"

"I know it sounds crazy, I'd take him and make sure nothing would go wrong, and- Wait, what?"

"I think that'd be good for Jordan. I've tried therapy before, and I think it really helps. Maybe talk therapy will help him before we have to prescribe anti-depressant drugs, cause those fuck with your head," she laughed darkly. "Hell. Maybe we should all go together. This whole 'murderers on the loose' thing has got all of us paranoid."

"Yeah... So, you think that'd be good to bring up with Tom and Jordan?"

"Of course! We've all been through a lot lately, it'd be nice to get some stuff off our chest."

"Yeah... That would be nice. This could actually work," I mumbled to myself. "So, uh... What was your news?"

"Oh, uhm-" Alice choked up. "I really don't think it's very important, it could wait."

"No, it's fine, what's up?"

"I just-"

"Alice, I'm here for you."

Warm tears gathered in her eyes.

"I'm pregnant."

"That- That's great news!" I exclaimed, wiping a tear off her face. "Why are you upset?"

"My boyfriend doesn't want me to keep it... A-And I've been so caught up with helping Tom and Jordan and you... I don't want to bring a baby into the mix and ruin things, but at the same time..."

"You don't want to get an ab-" I cleared my throat. "You don't want to give the baby up."

"Exactly... My boyfriend said he'd break up with me if I didn't 'get rid of it,' but... I can't do that. I wouldn't be able to live with myself," she sobbed, burying her face in her hands. "I don't know what to do."

"Tell your boyfriend to fuck off."

"Ha, w-hat?"

"If he doesn't want to support you and baby that he took part in creating, then he can fuck right off. It's your body, and your baby, so you have the final decision. Don't let him have control over what you want to do."

"But I don't think I can raise it by myself... I just, I don't want to it to have a shitty life because I was too selfish to live with the pain of having an abortion."

"So? There are other options to have a good life with your baby. Adoption, child care support, hell, Tom, Jordan, and I would babysit for you all the time!"

Alice laughed sadly through her tears.

"I'm not trying to pressure you into keeping it. It's your body, your baby, your decision. I'm just saying, if you want to keep it, you have plenty of options to help you out."

"Thank you, Ingrid."

I wrapped my arms around Alice, hugging her close to my body.

"God damn it!" Muffled arguing ricocheted through the hallway. Alice and I quickly scurried towards the noise.

Jordan was curled into a ball on the ground, clutter from the room scattered about.

"Get the fuck up, Jordan!" Tom screamed.

"Get out, Tom."

"You think I'm the villain here? You seriously think that me trying to get you involved with your own life is a bad thing? Look around you, Jordan! You can either sit in here and mope around all day and let James win, or you could fight back!"

"I'm not moping around."

"What the fuck is this, then?" Tom yelled, kicking Jordan's foot. "I had to literally drag your ass out of bed. You're like a fucking parasite that has taken over my boyfriend, and now I can't get him back!"

"What's going on, Tom?" Alice asked, but never got a reply.

"You don't know what I've been through, Tom! You don't know what it's like!" Jordan screamed back, a vein protruding from his forehead.

"Oh... I don't, huh? You may have been through a lot Jordan, but you haven't had to deal with shit! I thought you were fucking dead! I thought a police officer was going to show up at my doorstep one day and tell me they had found your caracas fucking decaying in a ditch. I stopped eating I was so worried about you; I lost 35 fucking pounds in two months! Two months! I couldn't eat, sleep, I couldn't do anything because here I was worrying about you! And now-" Tom paced around the room, his face growing red from all the screaming. "Now I find out that all of that fighting I had to do to get you back was for nothing, because my own god damn boyfriend is hardly alive anymore! They might as well have brought back a corpse for me, because I can't tell the difference!"

"Why are you doing this to me?" Jordan screamed, tears streaming down his face.

"Because I love you!" Tom screamed, punching the wall with his already damaged hand. Drywall sprinkled down like pure white snowflakes. He finally stopped screaming, sobbing instead.

"Because I fucking love you, and I'm trying to help you because I can't look at you anymore without feeling like it's my fault that your in this position. I want to help you and love you again. I want things to go back to the way they were but I don't know how to fucking get there and it's pissing me off," he sat against the wall he had just punched a hole through, leaning his head back. His eyes drifted shut, as his eyebrows furrowed in thought.

"I'm sorry, Tom. I want to get better too," Jordan whispered.

"I'm sorry."