(Lars' POV)
"Hey Bran." I greeted her with a slightly confused look.
"Looking for these?" She asked raising the cigarettes from her pocket.
"You can have them if you want." My voice cracked and we both laughed. "Come sit." I patted the spot next to me, not that the concrete was exactly inviting.
"You know I didn't expect you to be so inviting." She said putting a cigarette to her mouth. I pulled out my lighter and flipped it open to reveal the flame.
"I've had a long night and a lot to deal with. I talked with Nikkie before she fell asleep. I had no idea about Rav." I whispered thinking back to the story.
"Oh yeah." Brandi said as if confused, I'm not certain she knew the story.
"You know something similar happened to Sam." I told her looking up at his house to see a person in a blue Tahoe pull up. I knew the person wasn't his mother or father, or any cousin I had ever seen. The person got onto their cell phone, at least I think so. Suddenly I heard Sam's phone ringing inside. I knew it by the cKy ringtone playing. His voice was quiet inside and he ran outside quickly, I'm not sure he even saw us sitting here. He ran for his life to that car as if nothing else mattered.
"FRANK!" I heard him yell. Brandi looked at me and I remembered just who he was. He was the one paramedic who had talked to Sam. He looked like Trent.
"Doesn't that guy look like Trent?" Brandi asked watching the man get out of the car.
"Yeah he does. Think we should go over there?" Brandi nodded and we made our way across the grounds to Sam's place.
I heard the man whisper and ask if I was Lars, to Sam. Why did he know that?
"Hey Lars." He yelled.
"Nice to meet you Frank." I replied looking at him.
"I'm Brandi." She told him with a light smile.
"Nice to meet you." He put out his hand and shook hers gently.
"Hey Sammy." I replied resting my hand on his shoulder.
"Well, Sam I just got in, I kind of figured you'd be up, but I guess you weren't even home." Frank smiled gently.
"Yeah I was at Otto's for the night we were having a party." Sam said grinning.
"We're going to go back to the porch." Brandi said grabbing my hand and pulling me away. I had questions to ask Frank, he has dealt with this stuff before and I'd love to get his advice.
"No fun." I replied grabbing Brandi's cigarette from her mouth and smoking it. She grabbed it back and laughed at me.
"That's mine, Mister." She grinned and we sat back down. I lit up another cigarette, this was going to kill me I swear but it felt so good to not be thinking of the depression.
"Your welcome." I said, I had given her those cigarettes, of course. She nodded graciously.
Sitting back against the house we smoked our cigarettes down. Sitting there in silence it felt good. I didn't even care about getting caught now. It was nothing now.
"Your brother started cutting." She said, out of nowhere. I was caught dumbfounded. She had said what now. This wasn't what was supposed to happen.
"W-w-what?" I stammered through my word. I heard her perfectly but the words hit me hard. I grabbed at the necklace again. This was more then I could handle. The cigarette was gone already and I lit up another one.
"I was trying to figure out who was missing from the group and Twist rolled over and I saw three cuts across his wrist. And that's where his necklace went." She obviously noticed the necklace in my hand.
"He can't be doing that. There's no way. Are you sure you're not mistaken?" I asked my world was literally crashing. My fight with Twist and now this. My life was tearing at the seams. I feel sick.
"It was definitely from a razor or very thin bladed knife." She whispered.
"I need a popsicle." I replied getting up and walking in the house. I didn't care what noise I happened to make. I stashed my cigarettes and lighter in my pocket and took off my hoodie. Entering the kitchen I grabbed the six remaining popsicles from the freezer and walked back outside. Tearing each top off I let the contents pour into my throat. There wasn't anything I could do now. I downed the second, third, and fourth before I looked down at Brandi. Well, I ended up looking at her feet because she had stood up. Her arms were wrapped around me in a tight grip. Her presence was comforting and I liked the feeling of knowing someone was there.
Downing the fifth and sixth I looked at her and hugged her back. Somehow we ended up sitting back down again.
"Remember freshman year how we were arguing on how to do that one math problem? And we ended up both being right, just with different methods." I nodded, this had no relevance to Twist, maybe she was trying to get my mind off him.
"Well, you have smoking and apparently popsicles to deal with your problems while Twist uses cutting." She replied looking, ashamed. "There's a lot of people that do it, don't worry too much. I don't think he'll go too far."
"Did you?" I asked, and apparently she understood my question, she nodded easily.
"It's the hardest thing to get over, I swear." I put my arm around her to comfort her.
"Yeah, I know." I replied.
"No, you have absolutely no idea Lars, it's the worst hell to live through especially when no one knows." She replied, I guess she didn't know.
"Actually, Bran I'm pretty sure I know the entirety of the hell." My voice was soft as I eyed the bandage wrapped on my arm.
"I doubt it." She huffed. This girl never got a hint huh. I undid the bandage wrapping my arm and let her see all the cuts and scars.
"I believe I know the hell. These battle scars are three years running now." I whispered. This was not a way to make a conversation, I guess.
"Oh Lars, three years? I lasted two months." She whispered. "How do you last?" She questioned.
"I don't, I've been to the hospital for seven attempts. I'm not sure how I haven't died yet." I rewrapped my wound. This wasn't fun. "Why don't we head in?" I asked looking at the door, it'd be better if we were inside.
"Sure, I guess." We wandered inside and I tossed my hoodie onto the floor.
"People are missing." I whispered to her. Otto, Sam and Corey rested in the same spots I had seen when I left, Nikkie and Catie had moved only slightly.
"Twist and Reg." Her voice whispered to me.
"You don't think…" I whispered, she shrugged her shoulders.
Investigating we walked around the house. First, we had ourselves some tiramisu Reg had made yesterday. Walking around we headed for the basement. There was ratty furniture scattered about and dirty clothes by the washer. It seemed the basement would be the place to go for something like that.
Walking back up the steps we made sure they weren't in the living room once more, and wandered down the hall to the bathroom. Seemed like another logical place. The light was off, but the door was shut. Brandi creaked the door open and reached around until she found the light switch and flipped it on. Well, no such luck finding them in here.
Up the stairs to the second story we went. Otto's room was first, we peered inside but saw no one. Well, we couldn't see too well so Brandi flipped on the switch and I saw a magazine glint under his bed from a shiny cover. Walking over I picked it up and laughed. "Otto needs to hide his rags better." I said opening his Playboy to the extended fold out. It was a sexy babe with blonde hair, sexy black rimmed glasses, curling blonde hair, green eyes, and I will not kid you she looked familiar. Flipping the magazine towards Brandi I knew she'd freak when she saw the picture. "Well it's a way to come into some cash." I replied. Brandi only gaped at the picture. Yeah, it was Nikkie.
"How the hell did she get into a Playboy she's seventeen!" Brandi cried out folding up the picture quickly. "Oh gosh imagine what Otto did staring at this picture of my poor sister." She tossed the magazine back under the bed. Nikkie was probably going to get hell for that later.
"She is sexy though." I said trying to be soothing, but yeah probably not the smartest comment.
"Shut up!" She said as we exited the room. We checked the upstairs bathroom, not there either.
Well there was one final door over here. Reggie's room, to be honest I'm scared to know already. Brandi did it like a bandage, just rip it off, well she knocked that door open.