Page 73 of Fake Love

21

Jennifer

I let the hot water cascade down my body, not bothering to make it less scolding.

My whole body will probably be red and covered with welts when I get out of here, but I don’t care. I need to wash everything I experienced today away.

Never did I think that I was going to experience that time of panic in my life. For a good chunk of time, I thought that I wasn’t going to make it home.

People were running all over the place. There were screams coming from every single direction and every single person that I passed had tears in their eyes.

The panic didn’t really hit me until I saw people hiding in doorways and police putting on their bullet proof vest and telling people to take cover.

That’s when I realized the severity of the situation and tried to make sure that me, my friends, and many others made it out of there.

Somewhere in all the commotion, I tripped scratching up my arm and my cheek and dropping my phone in the process. As much as I wanted to go back for it, I didn’t. It’s probably shatter on the street somewhere, if someone didn’t find it and took it.

Once we got to the park, everything got a little crazy. People were looking for their loved ones that they got separated from. There were people who were injured and people crying all around.

There were even different rumors floating around about what happened. Some people were saying that there was a person spraying mace around and people ran to get away from it. Others were saying that they saw someone with a machine gun and they were gunning down everyone that they saw. Everyone had a different story about why the running started, but it was a police officer that finally cleared things up and said it was a drive by.

Two people were targeted and those two people are now dead.

No matter where you are, who you are, things like this can happen and now all I do is hope that it never happens to me again.

Because those were the most terrifying moments of my life and just thinking about what could have been has tears seeping out.

The shower is able to mask the tears but even a few hours later, I’m struggling to relax and not let the panic take over.

I continue to stand under the scorching water until it starts to cool down a bit, telling me that I’ve almost used it all up.

I guess it’s time to get out.

Stepping out of the shower, I grab a towel and wrap it around myself and walk out. I avoid the mirror because if I look in it all I will see is my red eyes and the tears will start up again.

Walking into the bedroom, I see that Maddox put out some clothes for me.

After the paramedics checked me out and we talked to a few more cops about what happened at the festival, we were free to go.

The three of us weren’t really in a good headspace so, Maddox with the team manager and one of his teammates were able to get us in a car and take us home.

Annaleigh and Courtney both said that they were okay to be alone, when I asked if they wanted to come back to my apartment. I was hesitant about it, but I didn’t push them if they wanted to be alone.

I was going to get dropped off next, but Maddox said that he would take me home. So Ben drove to the stadium and dropped Maddox, Aaron and me.

Once Maddox and I were alone in his car, he asked me what I wanted to do.

Did I want to go to my apartment?

Did I want to go to his?

Or did I want to go somewhere else completely different.

All I said was that I didn’t want to be alone, that I didn’t care where he took me.

So he brought me here, to his place.

When he got here, he asked what I wanted to do.

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