Chapter 4 one shot, two shot, dead

Haley walked into Jamie's room; the walls were plastered with posters and pictures of him and Angie. Haley looked down to see a picture which had fallen on the floor. Kneeling down to pick it up Haley's heart almost skipped a beat. Jamie had his arm around Angie; Luke's grey body shop hoodie covered his hair and Haley's mind raced as she tried to remember which Christmas Luke had given it to him.

Tears fell from her face as Haley realised how little she participated in her son's life. The picture reminded her so much of her and Luke, they were sitting on the river court bench and Haley suddenly had a longing for her best friend. Slowly getting back up Haley placed the picture amongst the rest of the collage and turned to leave but was abruptly stopped by a figure in the doorway.

"Oh God sorry…..I was…..Jesus, I wasn't spying…I….shit…" Angie tried to get out "I'm really sorry, I was hoping to introduce myself better, not that I need to, I know I work for you and…so really you already know me. I just wanted to introduce myself as Jamie's girlfriend, though we have been together since we were sixteen…so really you know and I sound like a freak. Right, so this is entirely embarrassing."

"Not at all, you're just rambling a bit." Haley laughed "You remind me of myself, I ramble when I'm nervous. It's a habit."

"Please don't mention this to Jamie; he always makes fun of me being scared of you. Not that I am, shit! I do this a lot."

"You're scared of me?" Haley asked still highly amused.

"No, well yeah, well kind of, you are my boss and my Mom's boss too so you sort of have power and well your famous and really fucking rich and well Jamie always talked about you like….Shit scratch that, its just I got the impression that you didn't like me, or want us together. Well I know you don't want us together, I just…I…." Angie looked down in complete embarrassment "Yeah, I guess I am scared of you."

Haley processed all of this information, Jamie clearly didn't talk highly of her and to top it off it seemed like she was the bitch of the house. Great. "What makes you think I don't want you two together?"

"Um well you told me, well no you didn't, Rick did….and Donny. But its ok I just want to prove to you I love your son and…." But Haley cut her off.

"They said what?" Haley's voice had gotten serious all of a sudden and Angie realised she had said too much. "It doesn't matter."

"Yes it does."

"Um ok, right well its just they don't really like me, well I'm a bad influence on Jamie, well not that they like Jamie either. But I'm not…a bad influence, I swear. Well I guess we stole his car, sorry. That was before you started dating him and well we hate him." Angie stopped and quickly corrected herself "Hated! Past tense, shit sorry. I forgot you were married to him, this is way too much information, I know you don't really live in this world and so you don't know the dynamics, I'm sorry I shouldn't of told you all this."

Haley wanted to tell her that she did live in this world, but the truth was Angie was right, she had no clue what the dynamics were in her own house. "So you and Jamie hate my husband and step-son, they hate you and you all hide this from me?"

"Yes, well no, Jamie doesn't hide it from you; you are just busy singing…which is totally fair I mean it's your job….can I leave?" Angie ranted.

"Yeah sure, have you seen Jamie?" Haley asked in a daze.

"Yep, just got back from seeing him." Angie smiled feeling slightly more confidant.

"Did he tell you what happened? It's just he wouldn't tell me and well I know Jamie, he's not a murderer. Well at least I did know him." Haley looked down "How the hell have things got so bad?"

"Um yeah, he did tell me, but it's just…..he doesn't think you will believe him."

Haley's head shot up "Of course I will believe him, he's my son."

"Ok well maybe you should ask him…." Angie slowly moved towards the door, she clearly didn't want to be there. "No, please." Haley shot at Angie who had abruptly stopped, calming down Haley whispered "I need to know, otherwise I can't help him." Angie contemplated this, Jamie would kill her for telling his Mom but Haley could afford the best lawyers and that gave him a better shot of protecting Jamie, plus she didn't want Donny to get to her first.

"Ok, do you know what he's charged with?" Angie questioned.

"Yes murder." Haley replied bluntly.

"No, I mean who."

"Oh, um yes those kids, but Jamie wouldn't….." Haley couldn't finish, she had no idea if he would or not anymore. "Well Donny and Jamie have never got on and with you two getting married….Jamie wanted to do something, something for you….he wanted to seem better. I know looking back he shouldn't have been so naïve it's just….he wanted to prove to you he could be better. So he proposed to make amends with Donny. Of course Donny found it hilarious and that was the end of it. Until Donny thought it would be a good idea too, except he didn't, he wanted to scare Jamie I guess. So Donny asked Jamie to go camping and he brought some beers and….well he brought a gun. I think the plan was to threaten Jamie, just scare him and see how he reacts, then he'd play good boy and go crying to his Dad, I don't really know but it was normally something like that. But Donny was really drunk and when some other campers were there….Jamie said that Donny threatened them, told them to leave or he'd shoot them, they didn't think he was serious and Donny got pissed. He wanted to seem hard, so he shot them. Donny shot the kids, Jamie hates Donny but even he said he didn't seem evil, just scared I guess. So he ran, got an alibi and now Jamie's in prison for murder." Angie laughed "God Donny's a dick."

Haley just processed the information; she had nothing to say, not really. She needed to tell Rick, but he wouldn't believe her, why would he? As Angie said Donny's the star kid and Jamie…isn't.