Chapter Twenty-Two
"Ronnie! What the fuck are you doing here?" I exclaimed zipping up Harry's hoodie so I wouldn't expose myself to my brother... of all bloody people that could've walked in.
"I've fucked it Er, I need your help." He sighed loudly and rubbed his temples. I could sense how stressed he really was but I was confused, why has he travelled all the way down to London.
"Ron... Ronnie, what's happened? You're scaring me now." Harry sat on the edge of the couch looking more confused and awkward than I've ever seen him before, Ronnie paced around the living room back and forth while I bit my fingernails nervously leaning against the doorframe.
It was silent for what seemed like forever, the only noise were Ronnie's heavy footsteps and my nail biting.
"Seriously Ronnie, you're scaring me. What the fuck have you done." I stood still as I continued watching him pacing around, Harry stood up and walked out of the room as he placed his phone to his ear.
"Erin what the fuck do I do, I can't get sent down for this." Sent down? Jail? What the fuck has gone on!
"What do you mean sent down? What have you done Ronnie!" My heart was beating so fast and I was dreading the words that would come out of his mouth next.
"It's Dylan..." My heart sank, I didn't even give him the chance to finish his sentence before I let out a scream. I knew what he was going to say before he even said it and then he did, he clarified it.
"He's dead Erin and It's all my fault." I was hysterically crying, I couldn't even look at Ronnie. I didn't even want to hear whatever he had to say, one of my best friends was dead and the blood was on my brother's hands.
"Erin? What the fuck! What's happened." Layla rushed over to me as I slid down the wall bawling my eyes out. Cal stood beside Harry who was standing in the corner not knowning what to do or say and Ronnie was sitting on the floor at the opposite side of the room crying.
"Dy... Dyl... Dylan's dead." I struggled to get the words out, I refused to believe it and Layla definitely did too.
"No... no he's not. You're joking right? Ronnie tell me she's joking." Layla was just as close to Dylan as I was although I was obviously a lot closer in someways. Like I've told you before we all grew up together and got up to some crazy shit as well.
Harry and Cal came over to Layla and I and attempted to comfort us as best as we could but at this point we were both uncontrollably crying and needed each other, they eventually got the message and instead went over to Ronnie well Harry did seeing as he knew him somewhat better than Cal did.
"Wha... what happened." I managed to say, I didn't dare look Ronnie in the eyes. I simply couldn't. Ronnie didn't speak for a minute, the only noise in the room were mine and Layla's sniffles.
"We got into some business a few months back and I tried Erin, I tried so hard to get us out of it but the Jacksons wouldn't have it."
Ah The Jackson family, the biggest and probably the most dangerous family in Glasgow. They started out with petty crimes, stealing things, assults and then eventually moved onto drugs and I mean all kinds of drugs. Cocaine, weed, speed, ketamine, heroin- pretty much whatever they could get their hands on they sold. Eventually the were roaming the streets of Glasgow and every one avoided them like the plague in case Steven Jackson had another one of his "episodes". Steven was a known maniac, he was violent and well just an extremely aggressive and dangerous man all round. The family consisted of four brothers and a sister but she didn't take anything to do with the "business", their father was the mastermind behind it all and he was a right fucking bastard.
If Gary Jackson wasn't locked away behind bars he was in a court room or sitting on his throne in their storage unit which was primarily used for drugs.
"Ronnie why the fuck have you got involved with the Jacksons! Are you mental!" I was stunned so thankfully Layla took the words right out of my mouth.
"What kind of fucking business Ronnie?" I spoke scared for his next answer.
"Dealing obviously but things got out of hand. We owed them a lot of money and last night me and Dylan were walking home from the pub. They jumped us, all four of them - Steven, Callum, Brodie and Fergie, I got away but they got Dyl and whe... when I looked back Erin he was lying in a pool of blood."
Harry and Cal sat on the couch in utter shock, I wasn't sure if Layla had spoken to Cal about anything or anyone from back home but I definitely hadn't told Harry and I wasn't planning to anytime soon, well that was until this happened. I knew that the second this died down, he'd be asking me so many questions and I'd have to tell him before someone else would. If Katie managed to find out about the abortion I had when I was fifteen then I was about 50% sure she'd be able to find out about the rest of my past... and not the good parts.
"How many times has Dad told you, has Eddie told you, has fucking all of us told you! Do not get involved with them Ronnie and what have you done? You've went and fucking done it! How! Why?" I demanded answers, the sadness I once felt was now fully replaced by anger.
"We were standing on the road after a night out, waiting for a taxi and Brodie Jackson came up to us, all of us. He told us that he had a business proposal and wasn't taking no for an answer, Stevie and the rest of them came out of nowhere and long story short..." I cut Ronnie off half way through his story.
"No I don't want long story fucking short, I want the full story Ronnie!" He sighed and rubbed the back of his head before continuing.
"They took us to the weed grow, our grow. Fuck knows how they knew were it was but they did and they said that if we didn't do what they wanted then they'd come after you, Ella and mum... all of our families. Erin I was scared right! I wanted to say no but I couldn't. I stuck the boys right in it and now Dylan's dead."
"What is it with people knowing our address?" Layla chimed in and I agreed with her, recently we'd had surprise visitors coming out of ears- huh maybe it was finally time to move out of here.
"How much do you owe them?" I asked him, he hung his head and stayed silent.
"Ronnie, how much do you owe them!" I raised my voice slightly after repeating myself for the third time and when I didn't get a reply I snapped.
"RONNIE! HOW MUCH!" Smacking him across the face I finally got a reply and when I did, I fell back in shock.
"FIFTY GRAND! ARE YOU HAPPY NOW!" No I wasn't happy, I was furious and confused and extremely fucking upset.
"What the fuck do you mean fifty grand Ronnie? How have you managed that!" Layla exclaimed, Ronnie ignored her completely and got on his knees in front of me.
"Erin I have a week, a fucking week to pay it and if I don't they're going to kill me, you, Ella, Mum and Dad. They'll kill everyone I know and love. I can't pay it, they took everything from us. The drugs- all of it, we don't have a penny to our names. I hate asking for money, you know me Erin but please. I know you have it, please Erin." He was begging at my feet, the money wasn't an issue. I didn't care about the money but instead I cared about the fact one of my best and longest friends had lost his life because of Ronnie and his inability to say no. I warned him the second I found out about his dealing, I told him that he'd find himself in a hole one day and come running to me and look what's happened- I was fucking right!
Two Days Later
I gave Ronnie the money, I mean realistically did I have a choice? I'd already lost Dylan and I certainly wasn't losing Ronnie on top of that. Ronnie promised me that he'd go straight, he'd pay the Jacksons and wouldn't look back but I didn't believe him. How could I believe him? He was desperate and when someone is desperate they'll say anything.
Ronnie had been sleeping on my couch for the past two nights, we were all pretty cut up about Dylan's death but Ronnie was unpredictable at this point. Dylan had been his best friend, his brother since they'd basically came out of the womb. He was always around when we were growing up and honestly I couldn't imagine life without our Dyl but here we are, carrying on with life after he'd died.
"He's asleep." I sighed closing the bedroom behind me. Harry, Layla and Cal sat in my bedroom waiting on me returning from my previous heart-to-heart with my brother. Layla and I discussed telling Harry and Cal everything about us and we both decided that it was time they knew- they knew the truth.
I took a deep breath and sat on the edge of the bed looking at no one but Layla, I gave her a small nod letting her know that she could tell the boys and she did, well she began to.
"When we were younger we got involved with some really bad people, I mean they weren't half as bad as the Jackson boys are but they were still dodgy guys." She begun telling the story, our story and why we are the people we are now, why we put a smile on our faces everyday so no one knew the truth and why we did what we did back then.
"It's pretty much the same story as Ronnie told us but when you're fourteen, fifteen and sixteen it's worse. We met the Murray's through school, they so nice at first and then a girl we used to hang around with Melissa fell for Darren Murray." Layla looked to me and asked if I could continue the story, she had been fighting back tears the whole time whether I was already crying.
"Mel got too involved with them and she stopped talking to all of us, it was particularly hard on Tommy since he was so in love with her and had been since primary school to be honest. It was late September when she ran up to us in the park, she was covered in blood and screaming for help. We panicked and Layla tried to call an ambulance but Luke Murray grabbed her phone and smashed it before she'd even got the chance." I stopped to breathe before I continued, Layla was hysterically sobbing at this point and I wasn't too far off. Harry put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer to his chest, i looked up at Layla and held her hand in mine as a sign of comfort.
"It turns out that Melissa was not only consuming the drugs from them but she was stealing them and selling them to anyone who'd buy them. She'd been supplying Ronnie and the boys with weed for months and we had no clue, we didn't ask questions because he'd told us not to bother. When Darren had caught her stealing them from wherever it was, he attacked her with a baseball bat."
"Mel died that night, in the park and in front of us all, we were screaming for help but no one came. the three boys beat her to death and then they ran away just before she took her last breath."
I can still hear the screams and the sounds of the ambulance. It's been eight years since I watched one of my friends die right before my very eyes, I never done anything to stop it and I've regretted it every day since.
We'd never spoken about the things we heard or witnessed that night, the only people I'd spoken to about it was my therapist and police who'd brung us in for questioning. I didn't go to school for months after that night, none of us did. We couldn't face walking around that school, those halls without Melissa by our side begging one of us for the homework answers or telling us about an argument she'd had with a teacher.
When we eventually returned back to school, everyone of us had changed. Ronnie was getting into fights constantly and then getting suspended, Alistair walked behind us silently with Tommy and Jake was still the same old Jake. Layla and I tried to break up the fights with Ronnie but then we'd end in the middle of it fighting with the girls who tried stopping it themselves.
After high school had ended Layla and I made a pact to stay together forever so we made the decision to move down to London, we never thought we'd get into university considering the fact our exam results were terrible but somehow we'd managed it. We both studied the same and eventually graduated soon after, we both began working at the same job and well the you know the rest.
There isn't a day that I don't think about Melissa and every year on the anniversary of her murder, Layla and I visit her grave to pay our respects. I wish I had done something, anything to stop it from happening but I didn't and there was nothing I could do now.
Harry and Call were stunned to find out about that dark place in our pasts. Cal took Layla out of the room and into her bedroom to talk to her I guess whilst Harry and I stayed put. I was crying silently on his shoulder, "It's gonna be okay Erin, you'll be okay." He spoke softly, Harry never knew what to do in this kind of situations especially when it was this bad.
"Two people have died now, both of them were our closest friends at one point and now they're nothing. They don't even exist anymore all because of fucking drugs and gangs, it's stupid! It's fucking ridiculous, how many more people have to die before they realise that it's not fucking worth it! Go get a job, make some real money and do what me and Layla did- get the fuck away from it all."
Harry and I didn't sleep much that night, all we did was stare at the ceiling and talk. We talked about pretty much everything, since I'd told him about Melissa and that night I made the decision to tell him about the rest of my life. I fully opened up about my past relationships with Dylan and Aaron, he knew all about my family and friends and the area I grew up in.
He told me everything that I didn't already know about him and he finally told me the real reason as to why he broke up with Katie... the first time. I expected it to be the fact that he had caught her in bed with another man but it wasn't, the truth was that hemd began to fall out of love with her six months prior to her cheating. He just stayed around waiting to find that spark again but for six months it never came, he'd made the decision to end things three days before he caught her.
Now I knew this I didn't understand why he got back with her after we'd met and became whatever we were at that point, I wasn't angry when he told me that she'd turned up at his house one night... just after I'd left might I add. Anyway she'd turned up at his house one night and to cut the story short they slept together.
"It was like we were back to normal again, like it was before all the arguments and before we'd fallen out of love."
He told me and I get that because I'd been there before with Dylan. When Aaron and I first broke up Dylan was over at my parents house like he usually was, he comforted me and one thing led to another, for that night it felt like we were something again- like we were in love but it was nothing like that. We loved each other yes and we always would... well I'd always love him but Dylan and I would never be anything more than friends anymore because he was gone.
I checked the time on my phone, 4:08 am. I could feel my eyes beginning to close as I finished yawning, Harry pulled the duvet over our bodies and held me tighter in his arms.
"Are you tired?" I asked him hoping he'd say yes but all I got back was a murmur indicating that he was practically sleeping. I closed my eyes seconds later and within a few minutes I was fast asleep.