Chapter 15: More Pain
During our time out with our friends, I came to realize that Samantha and Sam were getting more talkative with one another. I'm glad. Meanwhile, Amy and Josh, on the other hand, couldn't help but laugh out when they are together. They are the silly couple in this whole group. They play around and do hilarious things with each other. Tanner and I, well, we're not even talking. I don't even want to make any small talk with him. This is strange for me, it used to be me being in a relationship with Tanner while everyone was single, but now, oh how the tables have turned.
I sigh out.
"Are you okay?" Tanner questioned me and I turn to him and nodded my head. "Are we okay?"
"Are you kidding me?" I scoffed. "We will never be okay, Tanner," I said out softly in enough so he could hear.
"Because of the whole Tonia thing? Okay, yeah I cheated on you a whole week, but cant you get over it?" He said out loud. I stopped walking making everyone do the same.
"I will get over it when I want to get over it! I can't believe how naïve I was to believe that you would change! Once a cheater always a cheater!" I let out roughly. I look away from him and kept walking.
"Once a child always a child, huh Paisley," I hear Tanner let out and I froze. "You always hold a grudge on the dumbest things!"
"You know what's was dumb?! Our relationship! It was a waste of time and energy! I'm glad we are over!" I exclaim out. I begin to walk off and I hear footsteps behind me. I expected it to be Amy and Samantha, but when I got turned around I knew I was wrong.
"Enough with this!" Tanner said out before slamming his lips unto mine and I froze. I don't know how to react when he does this to me! Am I supposed to push him away? Or should I enjoy it because deep down I know I still feel something for him? Hell I know I do. I closed my eyes and kissed him back. What am I doing?! I quickly backed away and wiped my lips.
"No, we aren't doing this again," I say shaking my head.
"Why not! We belong together," he said out frustrated. "What don't you understand? I am still in love with you!" I look away from him and look over at my friends watching us.
"It's not right, sure it might feel right, right now, but it won't in the future. We aren't good for one another."
"Then let's cherish how we feel right now, and not think about the future," he tells me as he takes my hands and gave it a light squeeze. He brought his forehead to me and my heart fell. I want to, but I don't want to. I don't want to get hurt again. I know I shouldn't.
"Let's talk about this later," I suggested. "Can we just go home?" I ask out. They nodded their heads. We've been out here for about an hour and a half. Either way, Mike wanted us home by 4:00. As we were heading back to Amy's car, I felt my phone begin to vibrate in my purse, so I take it out and answered without a single thought.
"Hello?" I say out and I look up to find everyone stops in their tracks.
"Hi, is this Paisley Thompson?" The woman from the phone asked me.
"Yes, this is her," I responded maturely.
"We have news about your mother, we have found her body," she tells me and I felt chills run through me. I cover my mouth before I let the sob come out.
"Are you serious?" I say softly. I always did wonder what happened to her. I always wondered what happened to her body, but I know now that it was missing this entire time, all until now.
"Yes," she responded. "Yes, Paisley I'm serious. I will need you to come and identify the body as a confirmation," she tells me. I stay quiet and finally let a tear fall.
"Okay, when?" I say as I felt my lower lip quiver.
"How about tomorrow?" She questioned me.
"Okay," I say before letting a cry out.
"I'm so sorry for your loss," she tells me before hanging up. I felt my body go weak, but I kept myself up.
"What happened?" Samantha asks me as she comes to my side. I shake my head not wanting to say a thing to them. They know nothing about what's been going on in my life, I want to keep it that way.
"Nothing happened, I-I just want to go home," I tell them. We get in the car and I felt Tanner place his hand on mine. I didn't bother looking at him, instead, I kept my eyes out to the window and watched the view. Cheer up Paisley before they question you some more. I take in a deep breath and held in my sadness for later.
By the time we got home and Tanner opened the door for us, we found the house decorated with balloons and birthday decorations. I felt a smile form.
"Mike we're here!" I shout out, but no response. I felt my phone vibrate again and I see that it was a message. I open it and my heart fell. It read I have him, meet me at Shane's Pizzeria, come alone or else. –Your worst nightmare. I look around to my friends and hid my phone in my purse. I got to get out of here.
"Dad?!" I hear Tanner call out next. "Where is he?"
"I don't know, why don't yall go look for him upstairs, while I look down here?"
I suggested and they agreed. I need to escape. I watched as they headed up and disappeared from my view. I hurry to the door and took Mike's car keys. I hurry into his car and began to drive to the pizzeria. Once I arrived, I entered the building and saw someone tied up to a chair. I rushed to the person to find Mike.
"Mike," I say with tears in my eyes. I begin to untie him.
"Paisley?" He says shocked. "What are you doing here? Leave! Now!" I shake my head and I looked closer at his face. He was attacked, his left eye was bruised up and his lip is swollen.
"I'm so sorry this is happening to you," I say letting a tear fall.
"Welcome," I hear and I jump in place. I turn around to find Jesse coming from the kitchen and wiping the blood off of his knife. "Sorry for the wait, the owner of this establishment was not cooperating with me, so I had to let him have it," he says laughing hysterically.
My phone buzzes and Jesse stops laughing.
"Give it to me," he tells me and I did. He throws it onto the floor and stomps on it with his foot. "Now, follow me to the kitchen," he commanded me as he points the knife at me.
I do what I was told. I made my way to him and felt the knife on my back. As we entered the kitchen, I find the dead body of the owner and I look away not bearing to see the pool of blood forming around it.
"Take a good look honey because that's going to be you," he whispered in my ear.
I don't look and he pushes me unto a chair that was placed in the middle. He begins to tie my arms and legs up with a rope before he ducts tape my mouth.
"I noticed Mike was decorating for a party, so I began to wonder who," Jesse began. He knelt down to my height and smiled widely at me. "But then I noticed your name on the cake that he set in the kitchen, and I was beyond shocked to find out that you were still alive." He began to tisk. "Now, you are probably wondering why I would dare come to the Richardson property and watch over them, well Paisley its because I had a feeling something was off. No one was grieving your death, so I went to inspect it myself. But get this," he laughed out. "This time, I won't be the one to lay a finger on you, oh no, it's going to be him," he says as he points his knife to a different direction and I follow it to find Ricky covered in blood. My eyes widened in fear. "Tell her Ricky, tell her about your accomplishment," Jesse smiled away.
"I killed that man Paisley and it felt so great," Ricky stated as he began to make his way to me. He kneels down next to his uncle before placing his hand on my leg. His hands began to trail up and I tried my best to shake it off. Ricky laughed and stood up. He gets closer to me and begins to send kisses down my neck. I begin to yell out, but obviously, it was no use. When he backed away, he and his psychotic uncle begin to laugh.
"Do you want to do the honors?" Jesse asked and Ricky happily nodded his head. He takes the knife away from his uncle and kneels back to down so our eyes could meet.
"I actually thought you were going to love me after you saw the shrine, but I thought wrong about you my love," he sighs out sadly. He points the knife at my arm and cuts me. I scream out in pain and felt a tear fall. "Shut the fuck up!" He spat in my face. I do as I was told even though I couldn't bear this. I look down at my bleeding arm to get my head up so I would look at him. He removes the tape and I grunt out as he places his lips unto mine. When he finished, he re-taped my mouth and surprisingly cut me on my leg. I once again cry out and felt my blood begin to slide down.
"I'll be right back," Jesse told Ricky.
This is my opportunity to change Ricky's mind. I groan out to get his attention and I began to give to him my worried face, but he just smiled.
"What the hell!" We hear Jesse say out before rushing back to us. "He's gone! Mike is gone!" He runs his hands through his hair. "You! You let him go!" He says as he points a gun at me. I nod my head not caring at all what could happen to me. I'm glad he's gone. Jesse comes over to me and slaps me across the face. I felt his gun on my right temple just as police sirens went off.
"Come out where you are!" A police officer says out from a megaphone.
"Get your mask ready Ricky, and escape from the back while I finish her off," Jesse commanded Ricky. Ricky nods his head and blew me a kiss before rushing out from the back. "Time to say goodbye," he says out. I closed my eyes and waited. I hear a gun go off and I froze. I open my eyes to find Jesse down on the floor. One of the officers untapped me and began to undo the rope. I kept my eye on Jesse just in case, and a good thing too because I saw him move his arm up ready to shoot.
"Look out!" I shout out, and another officer shot him again. We hear another gunshot, but this time it was aimed at me. I cry out as the pain running through me attacked me.
"Hang on," the officer tells me as he rushes to the back and begins shooting. I could hear my cries echoing all around me. The other officer came to my side and helped me up. She takes me out of the pizzeria to get help from the paramedics. On the corner of my eye, I could see Mike fighting with an officer to get to me. The paramedics placed me in the ambulance and laid me down.
"How are you feeling?" One asked me.
"Not so good," I tell him as I begin to shake myself awake. "I got cut on my arm and leg, and I got shot," I inform him. Man do I hate guns, I think to myself.
"I'm here," I hear next to me and I see Mike. I gave him a small smile just before the paramedics put a mask on me and I began to fall asleep. The last thing I remember was the pain and Mike.