Not A Second Time

Chapter 13, pt. 2

Welcome to the very end of Not A Second time.

It's been so wonderful writing this, and I'd like to thank everyone who's read this. It means so much, you've put up with my laziness, my not updating and my filler chapters.

There will not be a sequel, but I did write an epilouge (is that how you spell it?) at the end. Please, please and PLEASE tell me what you think. Please omg.

This is my last note. I love you all, and enjoy!

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Cleo’s POV:

We got out of the station and I saw Allen standing outside his car, a bouquet of roses in his hands. Not anything protecting him from the thorns. “Cleo,” he said, smiling a bit and raising his head. “Cleo, please take me back. I’m a wreck.” He came closer.

I stepped back. “Allen, I can’t. I love Richard, not you.” I replied, and I smiled at Richard and he took my hand.

He got on his hands and knees. “Cleo, if you don’t take me back, I’ll… I’ll… I don’t know what I would do.”

Richard stepped forward. “The lady said no,” he stated in an asserting tone. Allen stood back up and threw the roses down. This was about to get nasty.

“Who are you to stand up for her feelings Richard? She’s told me all about you, the boy who broke her heart, and the reason she had to move back here. What makes you think you can make her happy?” Allen shot back.

“Do you think ‘m stupid? Cleo is the perfect girl, and when I was 17, I was the stupidest man ever for letting her get away. Do you think ‘m going to make the same mistake twice? I can tell you this Allen, I’m not going to. Not a second time.”

Even though I thought that was the sweetest thing ever, Allen pounced onto Richard. “No!” I screamed. I turned to Tessa. “Get an officer, hurry!” She nodded and ran inside. I looked back at the scene and saw Allen choking Richard.

Allen was a larger man that Richie, so he was choking the daylights out of him. “RICHARD!” I screamed and ran towards them. Calvyn held me back. “Cleo, don’t you could get hurt!”

“Someone has to help him!”

George went to go pull Allen off of him, and Allen didn’t even care. He had gone mad. George managed to get his death grip off his neck, but he continued kicking him until he could get up. Finally, a police officer came out and Allen let go.

What happened next is forever burned in my memory.

Allen pulled out a pistol. The officer went to pull out his, but Allen shot him. I screamed and Allen looked just as shocked as the rest of us were. He looked at the gun with horror and back up again.

He pointed the gun at Richard. “No don’t!” I screamed. “Allen, please don’t!”

He turned to me, pistol still pointed at Richard. “Do you really love him?” he asked.

“I love him more than I ever will another man.” I replied.

“There’s no use for me then,” he said quickly. Almost as soon as he said that, the pistol was in his mouth and I screamed as loudly as possible when he pulled the trigger and fell to the ground.

There was blood everywhere, on Allen’s hands, over the ground, in his hair, on his clothes. It was a terrible sight. I fell to the ground at the sight of all the blood, and everything went black.

---

I woke up in a hospital bed. “She’s waking up!” I heard Richard say. I opened my eyes and saw his face above me, his blue eyes full of worry. “Are you okay? How are you feeling?”

I started to sit up, but there was a major pain in my head. “Take it easy,” he told me, and had me lie down again. I saw that Shyla, Tessa, George and Calvyn were also in the room.

“What happened?” I asked. I forgot everything for a moment, then memories started flooding back.

Allen choking Richard.

The blood he left on his neck.

Allen’s crazy eyes.

The shot officer.

And, to top it off, Allen’s suicide.

I opened my eyes widely as Richard explained. “When you saw all the blood, you fainted at the sight of it. You fell on your face, your nose is broken and your head is wounded, but they treated it.” I nodded.

“What happened to Allen? Is he in the hospital?” I asked.

Richard sighed. “There’s no recovering from a shot through the head. He’s officially pronounced dead. As for the officer he shot, he’ll be alright.”

Tears filled my eyes. “He shot himself because I said I didn’t love him anymore. I killed him. I wasn’t the hand behind the gun, but I might as well have been.”

Richard leaned over the bed and hugged me. “Don’t say that. Allen is a grown man, every decision he made was not your fault. You have nothing to feel bad about.” I hugged him back tightly and an ‘aw’ spread through the room.

“I love you Cleo,” Richard told me.

“I love you Richie.”

---

***EPILOUGE**

Several years later…

“Michelle, Michael, Allen, get back over here!” I yelled at my children. “It’s your dad’s birthday and I want you three to look nice!” The threesome stumbled back over to me and Shyla, who was helping me get them ready.

We got them dressed, and Shyla commented “Did anyone ever tell you, you have beautiful children?”

“You have so many times, and so has Richie.” I said back. She laughed.

“Of course he did! It’s his job as a father!”

The year was 1971, and it was Richard’s birthday. So much has changed, Richard and I married, Shyla and George married and had their first child on the way, Tessa and Calvyn were engaged and everything seemed perfect.

As for my three kids, well, they’re perfect to me. Michelle has her dad’s eyes, our dark brown hair, and it was always straight. She got my nose, and Richard laughed and commented “Her nose is so small!” When she was born. She was our first-born, December 12th, 1965.

Michael was our middle child. He got my brown eyes, underneath his untidy dark hair. As much as you brushed his hair, it was full of curls. His birthday was February 9th, 1967.

Allen (whose name was actually suggested by Richard) is our youngest, born April 29th, 1969. He also had his father’s eyes, dark and straight hair. He also had Richard’s smile, he looked a whole lot like Richard just in general. “You look more like me than I do,” he joked.

Shyla and I finished getting the kids ready and she turned to me and said “Now time to get you ready!” I took a shower, blow-dried my hair and changed into my dress. I then sat in front of Shyla as she did my hair and make-up.

Afterwards, Michelle went up to me and smiled. “Mommy looks so pretty!” She exclaimed. I smiled and picked her up.

“You look better than I do.”

“Nuh-uh, you look better.”

I laughed and rubbed noses with her and set her down.

An hour later, George showed up. Followed by Paul, John, Richard’s parents, my parents, Tessa and Calvyn. “Richard should be back from recording soon,” I told them. I saw a car start coming down the hill. We turned the lights off and hid.

He walked in and I heard him mutter “Something smells good.” He turned on the light. “Cle, I’m home!”

“SURPRISE!” we all hopped out. He smiled and I went up to him and kissed him. “Happy birthday hun!"

He swept me off my feet and kissed me back. “I love you Cleo.”