Chapter 7

Alex is staring at Jenna, surprised at the question she asked.

Finally, he stammers out, "Wh-what?"

Jenna, in a stern voice, asks, "Why did Steele call you friend?"

Alex scratches the back of his head. "Well…I…uh…because he was my friend. Heh…"

Jenna flew into a rage. "What?! You mean you were friends with the asshole who terrorized Balto and made everyone's lives a living hell?! Geez Alex, we told you what he was doing…we told you! And did you blow them off or did you decide to believe what Steele said? You can be such a moron!"

Alex threw up his hands in defeat. "Jenna, I'm…"

Jenna turned her back on him. "Just…leave, Alex."

Alex sulks off towards his truck and as he's getting in, he sees Paul walking towards him. Alex gets out of his truck and Paul approaches him.

Paul smiles and says, "So...I'm sorry about that. Maybe…maybe that was a bad time."

Alex shakes his head. "No…no you're fine. Perhaps I should have caught on to what Steele was doing a long time ago. Now it's only me who gets in trouble."

Paul frowns at him. "Why would you even say that? They're still your friends; they're just…just…just upset at the moment. That's all."

Alex, with anger building up, shouts out, "Well if they didn't give two fucks about being fucking lenient on Steele calling me friend, why should I fucking be lenient on those pieces of shit! After all this time of me bailing out Balto and Kaltag, me taking the blunt of their jokes, me getting pushed into bar fights, me getting stabbed in an alley after Balto and Kaltag left, and me getting shot and losing my fiancé, why should I be fucking lenient to them!"

Suddenly, Alex catches Jenna out of the corner of his left eye and he turns his head towards her and sees tears falling from her eyes.

She wipes one of her eyes and asks, with a hint of sorrow in her voice, "Did…did all those things actually happen to you? Alex…I'm so-"

This time, Alex flew into a rage and yelled, "Oh now you give two fucks about me! Yeah…all those things did happen to me, but I doubt any of you fucking care! Not once have you asked why I was sad or why I looked like I cried! You all just ordered me a beer and thought that would solve everything! Well Jenna, tell Balto good bye. I'm going home. Like any of you care where that is."

Alex twisted around and got into his truck and closed the door. He reversed it and hit the gas so hard that the truck flew out of the parking space and took off, leaving behind tread marks. Jenna turned her attention towards Balto, who had just arrived a couple of minutes after Alex yelled at Jenna.

He frowns and asks, "Jenna, why does it matter who he's friends with? It's his life; why should we get completely involved with it?"

Jenna shakes her head. "Balto, that's what he wants. He wants someone to get involved with his life. He lost his fiancé and has been emotionally destroyed ever since!"

Balto shrugs his shoulders. "Well whoever she was, she must have been pretty stupid to leave him."

Jenna sighs in frustration. "No Balto…she died."

Balto's eyes become wide with grief. "You mean that…that…that she's dead?! Oh my God!"

Jenna grabbed Balto's hand and says, "Maybe we should pay him a visit. One of the soldiers might know where he lives."

Balto nods his head and they get into his car and they both head off towards JBLM, hoping to find out where Alex lives.

Meanwhile, in Olympia, Alex is sitting on the couch, with a bottle of vodka, hoping to get drunk. He hated himself for yelling at Jenna, but it was this anger, this unnatural anger, built up within him that suddenly, he just snapped. It wasn't Paul's presence or anything; it was just the way that Jenna reacted.

"Why should she give a fuck about who my friends are? She never did before."

He sighs and gets off the couch and chucks the bottle at the wall. He hears it smash against the wall and shards of glass rain onto the floor. He grabs his gun, the one that is jammed and has been unusable, and throws it out the window. The window shatters and he hears the gun hit the ground. All the sudden, a gunshot is heard and he feels a pain in his abdomen. He puts his hand where the pain is and upon lifting his hand, sees that there's blood all over it. He looks back to his gun case and sees the jammed one is still in there.

"Oh shit."

He leans against the wall and slides down towards the floor. He feels a warm liquid in his mouth and feels it slowly go down his chin. It hits his pant leg, his military pants, and sees that there's blood dripping from his mouth. If he didn't live in this part of Olympia, the ghetto part, someone would have called the police. But gunshots are common in this area so people stopped caring for the sound.

'Hopefully help arrives soon. I don't think I can last any longer. Wait…how come I had a loaded gun in the…never mind.'

Outside of Alex's house, Paul is walking down the sidewalk, not knowing that he was right in front of the dog that he had saved from getting the shit beat out of him, suddenly heard a gunshot. He twists around and looks at the house.

He sees a gun lying in the grass and a bullet hole in the wall. He runs to the door and kicks it in, hoping that the person was still alive. He walks into the living room, a completely destroyed living room, and he sees Alex leaning against a wall, blood dripping from his mouth and his abdomen was bleeding profusely.

Paul sees that Alex is unconscious and hustles over to him and pulls him to his feet and drags Alex out. He puts him in Alex's truck and searches Alex for the keys. He finds them in his side pocket and gets in. He starts the truck and drives to the hospital.

A/N: Well that's going to put some stress between Alex and Balto. Hopefully they can make amends or this could get really bad really fast. R&R