Author's note: Thank you all for your great reviews! Enjoy this chapter! Things are starting to get good!
The wind was cold and harsh as it whipped long blonde strands of hair over Courtney's face as they sped down an unlit road. She had balked at the sight of Jason's motorcycle and had laughed at him when he expected her to go ahead and climb onto it. She had protested fiercely but all he had done was handed her a helmet and told her to hold on tight so she didn't fall off. He had then laughed at the look on her face and told her he was kidding about falling off but he had no objection to her holding on tight. Once the helmet was safely in place she found she couldn't see anything and therefore had no choice but to wrap her arms around him and wait patiently as he drove them out of town and to God knows where. Luckily she didn't have to wait long to find out where they were because it was barely twenty minutes later when Jason brought the bike to a stop and turned the engine off.
"We're here," he said, sliding off of the bike before helping her down.
Courtney removed the helmet from her head and her heart sank. She was happy she hadn't been able to tell where they had been going because she was sure she would have thrown herself off of the motorcycle on the way here. She bit down on her lower lip and turned away from Jason. It was over, she knew that now. He knew. She couldn't believe she had been so stupid as to agree to go somewhere with him without letting anyone else know. She moved forward and kept her eyes on the ground. They were in the exact same spot that she had last seen Bobby alive.
"You should have told me, Courtney." Her eyes slid shut as he spoke, and she heard him step closer to her, kicking sand around as he did.
"Told you what?" she asked, praying to god that if she played dumb he would let her go. The wind picked up again and she wrapped her arms around her waist.
"Stop the games Courtney." She cringed as his voice changed and looked away from him. "It's done, it's all out, no more games."
"No more games?" she echoed in disbelief. "Jason, this whole thing has been a game! You getting me here to the beach was a game!" She turned away but he grabbed her by the arm and forced her to face him again.
"Why didn't you tell me?" He demanded again. "Why couldn't you just tell me?"
"Tell you what?" She tried to remove her arm from his grasp but he held tight.
"You killed Bobby." She pulled back again and in the same moment he let go of her arm, putting her off-balance and she fell to her knees. "Damn it Courtney, you can't talk yourself out of this." He pulled something out of his pocket and tossed it down to her. "Does this look familiar?"
"My cell phone," she whispered, turning the silver phone over in her hands. "I don't understand, it's been missing for months, where did you get this?" She looked up at Jason but didn't move to stand back up.
"Where did I get it? It was on Bobby when they found him. Convenient, don't you think? What lie are you going to tell me now? He stole your phone just before someone else killed him?"
"No," Courtney whispered with a shake of her head.
"You should have told me!" She flinched at his voice and kept her eyes down on the sand. "You're going to tell me now." Jason reached down and pulled her roughly to her feet. "Say it Courtney. Tell me you killed Bobby." He held both of her arms tightly, shaking her as he spoke. "Tell me!"
"It was an accident!" she finally cried out. "I didn't mean to kill him, I didn't want to kill him and I didn't try to kill him! It was an accident! I didn't even know he was dead until you told me!" She yanked herself out of his grasp and turned to run but he caught her before she got far and pulled her back to face him.
"How Courtney?" He demanded. "Explain it to me, please, make me understand." He released his grip on her again and she slid back down to the sand, drawing her knees up against her chest. He knelt down next to her and waited for her to speak. "I'm listening."
"He tried to rape Carly," she said softly. "And she knocked him out and called me. Where I got here, he was still unconscious so I sent Carly for help because it was better than leaving her here." She looked directly at Jason. "He woke up and tried to rape me too." She shook her head. "I wasn't going to let him, I couldn't let him." She sighed. "I found a rock. Jason, he was on top of me and I couldn't fight him. I had no other choice, I had to do something. I had to make him stop." She swallowed. "I didn't think I hit him that hard Jason, I didn't think I had killed him. But I ran, and when we came back here, he was gone." She sighed. "We didn't know what happened. We thought it would be best to just pretend we were never here."
"I knew it, I knew it had to be self defense." Jason said it more to himself than he did to her. "You should have told me," he repeated.
"Sure," she shot back bitterly. "Jason the first time I met you, you told me you were here to kill whoever killed Bobby! What was I supposed to do, hand you the gun and say fire away? Of course I couldn't tell you!"
"I could have helped you!" Jason shouted as he jumped back up to this feet. "I could have come up with something, there could have been another way." He grabbed her by the arm again and pulled her back up.
"What are you doing?" she asked, trying to free herself again. His grip was tight and she knew she'd bruise, if she managed to make it out of this alive. "Jason, you're hurting me!" He released her arm upon hearing her tone and his arms fell loosely at his sides.
"I'm sorry Courtney, I'm so sorry." Just like in her dream, she watched in horror as he pulled a gun out from inside his jacket.
"Oh my God, you're really going to kill me?" Her voice was incredulous, despite its cracking. "How? I just told you it was an accident! You said you could help me."
"I could have if you had told me earlier," he clarified. "But Courtney, everybody knows now, the whole family. Adella knows and there's nothing anyone can do anymore to save you."
"So that's it?" The storm overhead finally broke with one clap of thunder and the rain began to pour. "There's nothing I can do, you're just going to shoot me right here and call someone to get rid of the body?"
"Damn it!" The gun dropped to the sand as both of his hands grabbed her face and pulled her to him, his lips slamming down onto hers as the rain soaked them through. Again, it was just like her dream and she had to hang on to him stay standing. She did more than hang on to him though, she clung to him, putting everything she could into this kiss in hopes that he would change his mind and let her go.
He pushed her away then, just as abruptly as he had pulled her in only this time she had nothing to hold onto and she stumbled and fell back, wincing as she twisted her ankle. Yes, she was definitely going to be sore in the morning if there was a morning in her future. She pressed a hand to her lips, still feeling his on them, and by the look in his eyes, she knew he could feel it too.
"You can't do it, can you?" she asked before she could stop herself. Way to go, Courtney, she scolded herself. Way to taunt the man with the gun.
"I have to," he said stonily. "You don't understand Courtney, there's no way out of this." He closed his eyes. "You have to believe that I'm more sorry than you could ever know though."
She laughed then. It was cold and bitter and she was surprised at herself for even being able to laugh. "Sure, you're sorry but does that really matter Jason? I'm still going to end up dead so I'm sorry but I don't accept your apology." She stood back up and brushed away the hair that was now plastered to her face. "So what are you waiting for now?" she asked. "You got what you wanted, I told you I killed Bobby, so come on! Kill me!" She bent down to retrieve the gun and shoved it at him. "I dare you." He wouldn't take the gun and she forced it into his hand. "I mean it," she said. "I'm so tired of this, I'd rather be dead. I'm tired of lying to everyone, I'm tired of pretending nothing happened and that everything is fine, I'm tired of wondering every morning if it's going to be my last, so please Jason, end it all now, because I don't care! Dying has to be better than the life I've lived for the last 3 months."
He shook his head at her and she found herself more scared of his eyes than she had been before. She swallowed hard and stared at him defiantly. "Go ahead," she said, her voice weaker than she wanted. "Quit wasting both our time already."
He sighed and looked at the gun in his hands. She could literally see his thoughts as he tried to decide what to do and her heart sank when his eyes grew colder and his jaw clenched. He grabbed her arm again and tried to turn her away from him. "Turn around," he said harshly.
Courtney shook her head, her tears now mixing with the rain. "No," she said defiantly. "No, if you're going to kill me I want you to look me in the eyes when you do it," she spat out. "Don't be a coward." She instantly regretted her last sentence as she felt the cold metal of the barrel against her temple. She couldn't stop the strangled sob that escaped from her throat as her eyes closed and her thoughts all went to her family and to Carly and AJ who were probably as good as dead as she was now. She held her breath, waiting for the click of the hammer and she hated that she didn't hear one. If he was going to do it, she wished he would hurry up. She released her breath only to hold it again as he pulled the hammer back finally. She kept her eyes closed and silently mouthed a prayer as she waited.
The gun was loud as it fell heavily to the sand once more and she opened her eyes in surprise as she saw Jason just standing in front of her again. She started to say something but he interrupted her by kissing her again.
Unlike their first kiss, Courtney recoiled at this one but Jason held her where she was until he broke away. She was sure she looked just as confused as she felt and she didn't trust herself to speak so she waited for him to.
"I'm sorry," he muttered again as he reached down to pick up the gun, only to put it back in his back pocket. "I'm sorry." He grasped her wrist and pulled her back in the direction of his motorcycle, ignoring all of her protests and questions along the way.