Chapter Eight #2
“I’m not going anywhere, Baby,” Nora says, her voice breaking and wavering with the fear filling her body as she trembles behind me.
“Keaton’s home for a small break and asked Bridger and I to lunch before she heads back out on the road.
I promise that’s all that’s happening here.
I wasn’t home for two days because Bridger got sick.
Remember, I sent you a message and you told me to take him to the hospital? ”
Dillon doesn’t say anything for a minute. He actually appears to be thinking about my best friend’s words as he starts to drop the hand holding the gun and I release the breath I’ve been holding.
“That’s a damn lie! Bridger isn’t sick,” Dillon finally says, raising his arm once more and pointing the gun at Nora.
Before I can move more in front of her, he pulls the trigger.
The explosion of the gun going off fills the air around us as time seems to slow down to nothing.
I turn my head and watch in horror as the bullet hits Nora’s chest and she starts to collapse to the ground.
Grabbing her, I fall with her and keep her head and chest in my lap as a scream rips from me.
It’s guttural and full of the pain ricocheting through me as my eyes remain locked on my best friend.
“Nora! No! Don’t close your eyes!” I scream as the world around me fades to nothing but my best friend and me.
“You still have so much life to live and a son who needs you to protect him and teach him how to be the best version of himself he can be. Someone kind and gentle who protects those he loves and doesn’t stand down when it seems like the world is against him. Nora!”
“I-I-I l-l-love B-B-Bridger and y-y-you,” Nora stammers as blood runs out of her mouth and her breathing becomes labored. She can barely get a breath in as she tries to look up at me with unfocused eyes. “L-L-Lawyer.”
I watch as Nora’s eyes slowly slide closed and the breath in her chest stops. Tears fall from my eyes as I rock her back and forth, running my fingers through her hair.
“Help! Someone help me!” I scream, not taking my attention from the woman in my arms who’s been my best friend for as long as I can remember. “Help! Nora, don’t you leave us. You stay with us!”
“Miss, I’m calling emergency services right now,” someone says but I can’t see who it is or where they are. “The shooter has left already. I got the license plate of the car.”
I don’t respond as I keep rocking Nora and gently touching her face and hair.
Nothing else matters in this moment except for my best friend as I watch her chest stop rising and falling.
I’ve lost her and she’s not going to come back.
Dillon has robbed me of a life with my best friend because he’s a selfish prick who can’t stand to lose.
Grabbing my phone from my pocket, I manage to send a message to Memphis.
Me: Need you .
Nothing else is written. Memphis knows how important Nora is to me and one of the few she chose to let in her life in any capacity.
Yeah, she has always been the life of the party and always made friends wherever she went in the world.
To be let into her world is something else entirely.
Memphis knew some of her secrets and was allowed to spend time with her when she wasn’t partying or having a good time.
He’s seen her in her pajamas with a face mask on as we watched chick flicks on the bus.
“Miss, there’s a baby locked in the car here.
Can I sit with him? He’s screaming really bad and I’m worried he’s going to get sick,” the person asks me as I finally pull my attention from Nora to see an older woman standing next to us with a phone to her ear.
“The ambulance and police should be here any minute.”
I hear sirens in the distance as I try to focus on what she’s said to me.
Bridger. He’s in my car and upset. I look around for my key fob as the woman sees what I’m doing.
She bends down and lifts it from the pavement near me and presses the unlock button.
I watch as she opens the door and sits down next to Bridger.
His screams shatter the single piece of my heart that was left and I can’t move to get to him.
My eyes go back on Nora as her hand falls to the ground and I know they won’t be able to save her. It’s too late.
My sobs start becoming worse as cars and an ambulance soon surround us. Cops rush up to us and drop to their knees next to where I’m holding my best friend.
“Miss, we’re going to need you to let go of her. The paramedics need room to maneuver and we have some questions for you,” an officer says as I keep my eyes locked on Nora’s limp body. “Miss . . .”
Before I can say or do anything, more people surround us and Nora is taken from my arms. I watch as she’s loaded on a stretcher and the paramedics start to perform CPR on her.
It takes two officers to help me off the ground as I try to focus on what’s happening around me.
On anything but my best friend as she lays lifeless in front of my eyes.
Slowly, everything starts to come back in focus as I turn and rush to get to my car where Bridger is slowly starting to calm down.
The lady holding him hands him over to me as the two cops remain at my side.
“We’ll follow you to the hospital, Miss,” one of them says as they watch me hold the baby boy close to my chest while my tears soak his shirt and hair.
I nod my head in response as the woman gets out of my backseat and I barely hear her start to talk to other cops.
Her words don’t register in my mind as I fasten Bridger back into his car seat.
I find his pacifier and give it to him before backing out of the door and closing it.
The lady hands over my key fob as I watch Nora get loaded up in the ambulance.
“Can you drive?” a female officer asks me as I turn to look at her.
“Y-Y-yes,” I respond, stammering the one word because my sobs are so hard I can barely breathe.
“We’ll follow you as you follow the ambulance.”
Getting in the driver’s seat of my car, I turn on the engine and wait for the ambulance to pull out of the parking lot.
I focus on the road in front of me as we speed through town to the hospital.
There isn’t a single second of the drive I remember as I park and grab Bridger from the back.
This time I leave him in his car seat as I slowly make my way in the waiting room of the emergency department.
The officers are already waiting for me when I walk in and take a seat on one of the hard chairs.
I know they’ll have questions for me, but I don’t want to answer anything.
The only important thing right now is Nora and how she’s doing.
I refuse to hope she’s going to survive when I witnessed her take her last breath.
Getting my hopes up will only shatter what’s left of me when I get horrible news.