THE REST OF MY FOREVER

epilogue v

~

30 November 2019.

Mbano's outdone himself. The hall has transfigured into some kind of fancy conference room. The event is a black theme, making it generally dark around the room until the candles are lot. There are 6 of them in total, each with a man printed on it. Just about the whole town has made an appearance, judging by the way parked cars overflow the premises down the street.
The only family I don't see are the Zuberis.

Brenda looks gorgeous tonight and she knows it too. She tries to get me to hold hands, albeit I can't help but recoil. Her face is quickly etched with irritation as she forces our fingers to intertwine. Then, smirking devilishly, Brenda Ziezey leads me away from the throng.

The moment we step outside, I retract my arm again. She gives up on trying.

The two of us keep walking and stop behind the brick building.

"You're suit is really nice," she says.
"How many times at you gonna tell me that?"
"I-" Brenda begins to defend herself, but decides to leave it alone. "Okay. Sorry. You're right."

It takes to genius yo figure things have been tense ever since she came along to Leon's house.

"Why are we out here," I ask, "It might rain."
"We're going inside soon. Shh!" she giggles, placing a finger to my lips. I don't attempt to reciprocate the same energy. Brenda realises this in an instant and sobers up.
"Okay. Well, Charlie, I want to apologise to you."
"For what?" I groan, shoving my hands in the pocket of my pants.
"For not listening to you. With everything that's happened the past couple months I realise you were looking out for me. I got mad at you for trying to keepme away from Leon, thinking you were being oppressive... You knew something was off, right? Which means you meant to protect me from him. So I'm sorry for resisting but also thank you."
"Alright," I replied, only because I couldn't come up with anything better to say. It had stopped feeling like a good thing weeks ago. If I hadn't abandoned Leon he would never have spiralled out of control. None of this would have happened. I wish there was a way of letting everybody know he wasn't the villain the media made him out to be.

"I'll be honest," Brenda went on, "There was a time I thought I might have feelings for him. Stupid."

She laughed nervously, beginning to pace to and fro.

"I'm your boyfriend. Why would you tell me that?"

I gripped onto the cool object in my pocket.

"Don't worry, Chase. It was a long time ago. And my friends use to make fun of me for it."

"So why didn't you... express that? At the time,"  I questioned, fighting to keep my tone insouciant.

"Are you kidding me? Charlie. I was embarassed. Me: Brenda Ziezey, with somebody like him? No. That's... that would have been social suicide."

A fire lit in my chest.

"What was so wrong with him, huh?"
"The clothes. The social awkwardness. His grades..."
My jaw clenched as I made the nest inquiry:
"But he loved you."
"Correction, Charlie, he was obsessed. Super creepy."
"He wasn't always that way, you know."
"Stil. He was a monster, turns out. And whose side are you on?"

I drew the Swiss Army knife from my pocket, extending the blade out of sight.

"Don't call him that."
"Those are the facts," she shrugged.

This made me angrier than any article could have. The way she'd withdrawn herself from association. The way she had referred to him like so unfamilair psycho with no feelings. She had defended him before that. She ha refused to listen. Now, all of a sudden, he was a monster?

For weeks I'd blamed him for hurting us, and myself for allowing that to happen. But why the hell was nobody blaming the girl who could have defused this bomb months ago  just by confessing how she felt; the girl who had come between us two and destroyed any chance of me helping Leon.

"You made him that way."
"Excuse me?"

Before I could reply, the glint of the four inch blade caught her attention, eyes going dark with fear.

"Chase, what are you doing?"

There was a lot of noise in the hall. It appeared nobody else was outside. If she screamed no one would hear. The night was dark. Not a soul would be able to see.
Maybe I wasn't thinking straight, but it was obvious she had to pay for how she had caused my best friend to suffer.

Brenda Zizey did not move, doubtlessly paralysed with fear. 
I had her.
And just like the blade, her fate was in my hands.

THE END

or is it?...