Famous Last Words

Before I know it, the guys are gone – after helping us move in our new stuff, of course – and the house is quiet again. I lay on my new black and white comforter, staring up at the empty ceiling. I imagine filling it with glow-in-the-dark stars, so I have something to fall asleep to every night. The walls are still painfully empty as well, but I have every intention to fill them up as soon as I could get my hand on another magazine or two, or find a place where I can paint, or get a camera.

Preferably get a camera.

When my phone vibrates on my new nightstand, I jump slightly. Upon checking the caller ID, I am surprised to see the text is from Leda. She hadn’t replied to any of my texts from last night, that were my attempt at making sure she was okay; I had been under the impression all day that she was ignoring me, and the whole friendship thing was never going to work out.

However, as nervous as I am, I open the text. I frown as my mind registers what I’m reading – need you to come over asap.

I begin to grow worried, my mind coming up with the worst possible things, ranging all the way from Anthony hitting her, to Hunter raping her – it surprised me that I was able to come up with these things on my own, since I had always been rather wary towards topics like these, but I know that something bad was happening at the O’Connor’s house, and it definitely wasn’t good.

I go downstairs to find Matt. I could hear him and Val talking – arguing? – in the kitchen earlier, so I check there first. Sure enough, the two are standing on either side of the kitchen. I clearly chose a bad time to walk in; Matt is standing on one side of the room, fuming, while Val is sitting on one of the stools, looking as if she’s been crying.

I want to back up so badly, but it’s too late; both have already turned their attention towards me. I am so not getting out of this one.

“What’s up, kiddo?” Matt asks, somehow asking it with a light tone. This causes Val to glare daggers at him, which he professionally ignores.

“Uh… Is this a bad time?” I mentally slap myself in the face at how stupidly obvious of a question that is. I hear Val huff from where she’s sitting; I really think it was a better idea to stay in my room.

But Leda needed me.

“No, now’s not a bad time,” he says promisingly. “What do you need, honey?” I frown, not entirely sure I liked him referring to me as ‘honey’, even though I had been perfectly fine with any of the other guys calling me that so far. I guess maybe because he was supposed to be my father, it made it… strange.

“Um… I was wondering if I can get a ride to Leda’s house again…?” I half expect him to say no, flat-out. But instead, he smiles, pushing off the counter, which he had been leaning on.

“Of course. Let’s go right now.” There’s a hint of desperation in his voice. I look over at Val who looks utterly pissed, and I really wish I could’ve done the whole scene over again.

He quickly ushers me out the front door, where he left the car parked in the driveway after we got home. Wasting no time, he speeds off down the street, trying to get away as quickly as he can.

“Is everything alright between you two?” I ask quietly. I notice him clench his jaw, as he exhales slowly.

“I don’t fucking know,” he mutters after a moment of tense silence. I almost want to cry; I always had this image in my mind that he and Val were the IT couple. Now it seemed that they’re whole relationship was falling apart, all because of Gus and I.

My whole life is a lie.

We finally pull up in front of Leda’s house. I frown, and so does Matt, when I hear the music pumping from the small one-story house. There are people scattered across the lawn, all holding plastic cups in their hands, or smoking.

“Um… I’m not too sure about this…” The look on his face told me something way different; he was definitely not sure about this.

“I swear, Leda didn’t mention anything about a party,” I defend quickly. “Please, just let me go see what she needs.” He stares at the house for a moment, unsure of what to do. “I promise I’ll call you if something happens.”

“If you even so much as touch something you shouldn’t…” I raise my hands defensively.

“I swear, I won’t.” Looking very unsure of himself, he finally gives me a small nod.

“I’ll be calling you every hour to make sure you’re not doing anything you shouldn’t be.” I roll my eyes, but I go along with it. In his defense, he still didn’t know me well enough to know whether or not I would do something like drinking or smoking.

I wouldn’t, but that’s beside the point.

Suddenly, my phone buzzes in my hand. I read the new text from Leda – just come straight in. ignore the partiers. come straight to my room.

“I should go,” I tell him. He sighs.

“Be careful, Autumn,” he calls after me as I step out of the car. I will, I promise silently as I shut the car door behind me.

Like Leda instructed me to, I go straight inside. The door is, unsurprisingly, unlocked. And there are a ton of people just hanging out in the entryway that I have to push through to get by. However, I freeze up when I see Anthony smoking a joint by the hallway, talking to some guy who looks stoned off his ass. He’s wearing a gray beanie, like the one he had been wearing when I first saw him (don’t ask me how I remember that), and he has scruff on his face, like he hasn’t shaved in a couple of days.

His eyes meet mine immediately, and he sends me an amused smirk.

“Come to join the party, huh?” he calls over to me. I stand frozen in my place, unable to move. “What was your name again?”

I feel like I should lie, but for some reason, nothing comes to mind, so I just end up blurting out “Autumn” before I have a chance to think. He smirks again, clearly pleased that he now knew my name.

“Well, Autumn,” he says, “why don’t you join us?” I cringe, knowing that is the exact opposite of what I should – and want to – do. I shake my head, and he feigns disappointment. “Awe, c’mon; live a little. Have you ever smoked pot?”

“Uh…” Before I can form words, I feel a familiar grip on my arm.

“She’s not interested, Anthony,” Leda growls. He raises an eyebrow at her, but shrugs in surrender.

“Fine. Whatever. But you’re missing out,” he says to me, and I shudder at the creepy look he gives me.

Leda tugs desperately on my arm, pulling me towards the direction of her bedroom. My brain finally seems to register what I need to be doing, and I stumble down the hallway after her. Once we’re inside, she slams the door behind her, jamming a chair she must have grabbed from her dining room under the door knob.

“What’s going on?” I ask breathlessly, as Leda flops down onto her pitch-black comforter. She looks like she’s about to start crying, but she takes a deep breath before making room for me beside her.

Taking a deep breath, she sits up, hugging her knees to her chest. “My brother is already throwing these drug parties.”

“Drug parties?”

“Basically a ton of loud music, and people on every drug you can think of,” she explains and I cringe.

“How…?”

“I don’t know,” she says. “It’s always been this way, even before our parents died.”

“And they never did anything about it?” I ask quietly, mirroring her knee-hugging position.

“They couldn’t,” she whispers. “He basically controlled them. He knew how to scare them – how to blackmail them. He did everything he wanted because they couldn’t do anything to stop him.” I inhale sharply.

“That’s insane,” I tell her and she nods. “Didn’t you or your brother go to the police?” She shakes her head.

“We can’t. He controls us, too.”

“How?” She lets out a small whimper as a look of pain flashes across her eyes.

“I don’t want to talk about it…”

I throw my arms around Leda. Even though what she had told me was scaring me too, I knew she needed this.

“We’ll figure something out,” I mutter. She begins to sob.

“I’m so sorry, Autumn,” she says between each shaky sob. “I brought you into this; he’s never going to let you out.” I go rigid, and I can tell Leda has felt this. She pulls away, looking me in the eyes. “I know I shouldn’t have asked you to come over, but I’m so sick of being alone. Now we’re going to have to trust each other – can you do that?” I force a nod.

Suddenly, there’s a loud banging at the door. I jump so violently, I hit my head on the wall next to the bed; I can only be thankful that there was no space between her bed and the wall, or else I would’ve fallen off.

“Leda? Let me in!” I hear an unfamiliar voice shout frantically. Leda scrambles to her feet, removing the chair and opening the door just wide enough for the mysterious stranger to slip through.

As soon as Hunter sees me, his eyes narrow; the ice-cold gray orbs cut into my soul like they did the other day, and I have to keep myself from burying myself under Leda’s covers.

“What is she doing here?” he demands as his sister replaces the wooden chair to where it was before.

“I asked her to come over,” she replies quietly, clearly just as intimidated by him as I was. He glares at her and she lets out another whimper before sitting back down beside me.

“So you’re just making her another one of Anthony’s… victims?”

“He’s not going to hurt her; I won’t let him!” she yells back angrily.

“And since when have you been able to prevent Anthony from doing something he shouldn’t?” He clutches his hair in both hands out of exasperation. “Jesus Christ, Leda; were you even thinking?” She looks down at her hands, tears dropping onto her hands.

“I know I was being selfish,” she says, her voice breaking. “But I couldn’t help it. I can’t be alone in this anymore.”

“You have me –”

“Oh, what good are you?” she screams, looking back up at him angrily. “You’ve never done anything to prove that you’d be there for me. We’ve always been in this together, and only when I bring someone else into this, you finally acknowledge it.” I look up at Hunter, who looks like he’s about to hit someone. He looks over at me, and I cower away from him.

“Look at her, Leda,” he says, his tone instantly calmer than before. “Does she look like someone who has a place in our fucked up life? She’s like a deer caught in headlights – she’s not prepared for what’s coming.” I feel my face heat up at his stupid analogy, but I keep my mouth shut.

“Like I said,” she growls, “I’m not going to let him touch her.”

“And how the hell do you intend to do that?”

“Anything he wants to do to her, he can just as easily do to me.” Hunter’s face pales.

“Leda…”

“I brought her into this, Hunter; it’s the least I can do.” He shakes her head.

“What were you thinking…?” He turns back to the door. “Well, since you two seem to have each other, I’m going back to my own room.” He slams the door behind him, so it shakes the whole room.

Once he’s gone, Leda sighs, looking over at me.

“Autumn…”

“It’s okay,” I tell her before she can say anything. “I… I’m not quite sure what’s going on, but like you said – we’re in this together.” She gives me a relaxed smile.

“Right. We’re in this together.”

Notes