Chapter 3

I walk out the door and shut it behind me. I start walking down the street towards the coffee shop. It's about two miles so I should be there right when Brett and Jacob get there. As I'm walking, I start to think about what we are going to talk about. I just hope that they aren't going to ask about my dad because I don't think I am ready to talk about it with both of them yet. Brett was there when it happened so I don't think he will ask, but Jacob was not there and might ask about it. Hopefully he asked Brett sometime this past year, so he knows and won't need to ask me. I know though, that if he asked I would probably tell him. After all, if it wasn't for him none of it would have happened.

I'm halfway there when I think about how I met them in the first place. It's a really funny story actually. I remember wandering the woods to get away from my dad and hearing two guys laughing. When I went to go see what was going on, I saw them and knew that I needed to see where they were going, so I followed them. After some time, I realised that they were getting more and more lost, so I decided to reveal myself so I can help them. But then a big storm came through, so we were forced to set up camp for the night. In the morning, and after long conversations of me defending myself of not being a ninja, we made it to Brett's house and his mom gave me a ride back to my house. His mom turned out to be friends with my dad, so he seemed okay when she dropped me off, but as soon as she left he got really mad at me. But I will always remember that as the time I met my best friends.

I am just 5 minutes from the coffee shop and I find myself once again getting a little nervous. I don't know why this happens to me now, but it is really annoying. I hate this feeling. It goes away once I see them but the time before that, I just can't deal with it. When I walk inside, I see them sitting in the back at a table with one empty chair. I walk towards them and that's when they see me, and both of them smile. I get to the table and I see that they already ordered for me. So I sit down and take a sip. It's still as good as I remember.

"Your order hasn't changed right?" Brett asks

"No, this is perfect." I say. When I get comfortable in my chair, I realise that they are both staring at me. "What?" I say, but they just keep staring at me.

"We just haven't hung out with you in a year, so it is different for you to be here with us." Jacob says. After he said that, I felt a little bit like I was intruding on their new normal routine. I know he didn't mean it that way but I can't help but feel like that. Maybe I should say how I'm feeling, that is what Dr. Greene said I should do. "If you guys like it that way better, then I don't mind leaving, I know I've been gone a while and I don't expect you guys to just include me and have things go back to how they used to be." I said as I started to stand up and leave.

As I am standing each of them grab one of my arms and pull me back down to sit. "Don't be ridiculous Turtle, I didn't mean it like that, and plus if we didn't want you here, we wouldn't have invited you." Jacob says with a big smile on his face, and when I look at Brett, he has the same cheesy smile. I roll my eyes at both of them.

We spent the next three hours catching up and laughing about everything, just like we used to. We talked about school and how none of us really want to go back, but I really missed them and talking like this. I had been more than a year because I stopped hanging out with them when my dad came back with Cayenne, and I pushed them away.

"So can we talk about what happened last year? I know that you may not want to talk about it but we care about you, and we just want to know what happened and make sure you're okay." Jacob says. When he said this I instantly stiffened and probably looked really red in the face. I didn't know if he was going to ask, but it's a good thing I prepared myself for him asking just in case.

"What do you want to know?" I say.

"Well I've heard about what happened when you got to my house, but that was just gossip I think, so could you just say the whole thing. Like what happened before everything at my house and during it."

"If I must." I say. Then I told them what happened starting with my dad trying to do things to Cayenne and then me taking my gun into his room to try and stop him, where I hesitated and he choked me, badly bruising my trachea. After I broke free, I picked up the gun and shot him. Then I took Cayenne in the truck and drove away. I knew that my dad wasn't dead and I thought that he was going to look for me at your house Jacob, so I decided to stay at the end of my driveway and if he came out, I would have shot him. But after waiting for a few hours, he hadn't left yet, so I decided to go to Jacobs house anyway. Once I got there, I realized that I couldn't talk, so I probably looked crazy. I was still worried because I knew my dad would show up anyway, so I was looking for Jacob to get him out of the house. But when I got there his sister was throwing a party and all I saw was Brett. I ran to him and was trying to ask him where Jacob is, and he told me that he wasn't there because he didn't want to be at a party.

I relaxed slightly knowing that Jacob wasn't there, but I still needed all of these people to leave because my dad was coming. I couldn't speak to tell Brett was was going on. All of the people at the party were looking at me like I was crazy, so I figured there was nothing to lose and I wrote the word run on the wall in blood. After that they all screamed and ran out, except for Brett and Cayenne. I pushed her towards him and tried to tell him to take her and leave, but he wouldn't listen and said he wasn't going anywhere. As this is going on, I heard a car pull up and I knew that he was here. I pushed Brett and Cayenne into the other room so they hopefully wouldn't get hurt.

I hid behind a wall so I could sneak up on him and attack him, because I knew he would have a gun and try to kill me and whoever was there. He took a long time to get out of his car and walk up, but I heard him walking on the porch, and I expected him to walk in, but he started shooting at the house, and then came in. This part gets a little blurred but I remember being shot and somehow ending up outside, which is where I ended up killing my father.

When I finished the story, I felt nervous, because besides talking to the police, I hadn't told anyone about the full story. But I trust them with everything, so hopefully they won't think of me differently. I just sit there for a second, catching my breath because that was a lot to say, and I probably talked too fast.

They just stared at me for a second and then Jacob finally says "wow, that is not what people have been saying. It is a lot less dramatic than they all said."

"I tried to tell you, dude these people twisted it, but you didn't listen to me." Brett says. "Well I needed to hear it from her before I believed anything." Jacob said.

"Now that we know what happened, can we please never speak of it again?" I ask. They both nodded their heads at my question. I felt so relieved talking about it, but I definitely don't ever want to do that again. After we talked a little longer, I decided we should probably leave because it was almost getting dark. We all packed up our stuff and started to walk out, and they offered me a ride. Apparently in the last year, Jacob got a car and can drive now so that is really nice. Brett lets me sit in the front, and he goes in the back and puts in his headphones because he hates the music that Jacob plays. He is a little dramatic. It's about a 15 minute drive back to my house. Jacob tells me that we should hang out just me and him tomorrow, and I agree. I say goodbye to them and head into the house.

As soon as I step in I see Anna sitting in the living room, and she looks a little worried. "What's wrong?" I ask.

"It's Cayenne, her aunt and uncle got arrested and she was put into foster care until they figure out where she can go." and with those words, my heart sank.