Chapter 31

Chris Redfield

Prom's tonight... I wasn't really planning on going until Jill convinced me otherwise. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity, but Jill would get to go next year if she wanted to... Oh well, I'm going with Jill. It's a Friday night and afterward the football team was going to have an afterparty at Marco's house, I was planning on bringing Jill to that too since she was a part of the team, and because she was my date. Piers would meet us there, since he couldn't go to the prom because he wasn't dating a senior. I wasn't sure if he was bringing Claire, maybe he'd bring Helena instead. I don't know, and I don't really care. Well, I care if he decides to bring Claire. I can't believe its already June, graduation is in a week. Damn, I'll be gone in a week... I'd still be here for the summer at least, well until July 13th. That's the day I leave Raccoon City, the day I'm officially an Air Force Cadet. It's scary, but I know I can do it. I'll be a pilot, and my life will be great. With Jill by my side, it'll be perfect.

Jill was excited for the prom, going all out with her hair and dress. At least that's what Piers had told me. She wouldn't let me see any of it because it will ruin the surprise. Its going to be like the homecoming dress I'm sure, nothing too fancy but probably sexy. But soon, everything's changing. I can't stop thinking about it. Everything is changing, new school, home, lifestyle. I'll be alone too. No one will be there that I know, and I won't have time to actually make friends. Jeez... But I know Jill's here. And if she says what I think she'll say, she'll always be with me.

Jill Valentine

So, Chris wanted the full prom feeling. So instead of us walking to his car, he's over at Piers' house and at 7 he's going to ring the bell and have me walk with him to the car. He really doesn't need to go through this trouble but he insists. So, he'll be here in about ten minutes, on the dot I'm sure because he's stupid like that. I'm ready to go. I'm in my long light blue dress with a small slit that showed off some leg. I think Chris will like it. So he rings the bell and I walk out. "Ready to go," he asks. "Yes Chris." I shake my head and laugh. He hands me a corsage and puts it around my wrist. Pretty classy for him, I'm liking it so far. He leads me to the car and we're off to the prom. Damn, am I suppose to be nervous? It's just a dance. But it's important I don't make a fool out of myself. The whole senior class will be there, and I'm a junior so I already don't fit in. And I'm on the football team. Damn, I'm weird.

We pull up in front of where the prom was being held and wait! "Is this the same place Piers had his party last year?!" "Yeah actually it is." "Why the fuck would the school do it here?" "I don't know Jill, why don't we just enjoy it." I hear the hint of sarcasm in your voice Chris, and I'll remember this later. We get out of the car and head into the club, damn this brings back some memories. I'm sure Piers' party was better than this is going to be. I enter and I'm kind of lost. I don't know half the people here. I mean, there's Chris, we see Forest and some of the other members of the football team. Oh wait, Richard's here and Rebecca's here so I can talk to them. "What's up guys? We're sitting over here," Forest greets us, pointing to the table Rebecca and Richard were sitting at. "Cool," I shrug and the three of us take seats at the table. Music is playing but it's slow and no one is dancing. I hope it picks up, but we are kind of on time meaning we're early.

We started by talking and the party did pick up, thank god! Everyone is pretty much on the floor, except for Rebecca. I stayed with her, trying to convince her to go up. "Come on Becky! You've danced at parties before!" "Yeah, but that was with Juniors or people who don't know me. These are seniors... They could make fun of me." "Rebecca, they'll be out of the school in a week." "Oh right..." I smile and she looks over at me. Wait, she's looking behind me. Chris' goofy smile is staring right back at me. He doesn't say anything, so I raise an eyebrow. "Do you want to dance?" I laugh, "Sure." I nod to Rebecca and she gets up to find Richard I guess. I take Chris' hand and he pulls me onto the dance floor. It's a fast song, I'm not sure which one. I'd completely given up on listening to the radio so this could be a popular song for all I know. Everyone's basically grinding on each other so why wouldn't Chris and I do the same? The song ends really quickly, we must've gotten up late into it, but it changes to a slow song. Something I prefer tonight. I don't know. I feel very rushed and scatterbrained, a nice slow dance could calm me down.

Chris takes one of my hands, and I place my other behind his back. He decides to place his other on my ass. I raise an eyebrow but smile, receiving a tooth smile back from him. We continue swaying and slowly spinning. I rest my head on his chest, and he wraps his other hand around my waist. Mine are just kind of resting on his chest with my head. I'm surprised how comfortable his chest is, well it surprises me each time I do this. It's always the same, comfortable but they look sexy as hell underneath his shirt. I look up at him and he smiles down. Our eyes lock and he just makes me smile, damn Chris. You're just the goofiest fucking person I've ever met and I love you. I say that last part, the 'I love you'. And he continues smiling and replies with the same.

Piers Nivans

Damn I'm stuck at home while Chris and Jill go to the prom. I wanna go to prom! Well, at least I was invited to the afterparty thing. I'm with Claire now, we're watching Frozen because you know, it's pretty great! We're on the couch, Claire's laying down with her head in my lap while I sit and watch. I look at my watch and see that it's already ten, we'd have to go soon. "You ready for the afterparty," I ask. She looks up at me, "I'm not going." "What? Why not?" "I... We can't do this anymore." "What do you mean?!" "We have to break up... Its not because I don't love you!" "Then why the hell else are you breaking up with me?" "My parents... They're taking me out of the state." "For vacation, you told me that. That's no reason to break up." "It's not for the summer anymore. It's permanent!" "Why?!" "Chris is graduating, he'll be an adult and legally won't need a guardian so my parents are going to leave without him. They don't want him to know where we're going, and they don't want me to see him anymore. They think he'll corrupt me... If anything they're corrupting me. They're fucking evil, but it's not like I can do anything about it." "But why do we have to break up?! I love you, I don't care how far away you are Claire!" "I know, but that's the problem. You need someone who can make you happy-" "You make me happy!" "You need someone who can make you happy all the time. We'll be in different timezones, they aren't planning to leave the city. They're planning for Florida, so Chris can't find us! I don't want to leave him... or you... he's my real family but they are legally and I can't fight that! I wish I could. You need someone else Piers... I won't forget you and I hope you don't forget me but... I have to go!" Her voice cracked before she stood up and ran to the door. "Claire?" She was gone and she wasn't coming back, she made that clear.

Why me? Why is it always the people that I love that get taken away? It's not fair! None of it! I know 'life isn't suppose to be fair' but I just want it to be in my favor for once! Jill's perfectly happy and she has everything she could want, but I'm here sad every fucking day. And now Chris is leaving, the one constant I've had other than Jill. But I guess we're together in that, both of us would be missing a close friend. But I just lost Claire. God damnit. This happens too often! Dave, Claire. Fucking shit! Two down in one year, good going Piers! I guess I'll go to the party, I mean I have nothing else to do and it'll get the break up out of my head hopefully. Helena walks in, "Claire left?" "Yeah... You wanna come to Marco's party with me?" "Sure." She smiles. "Let me get dressed." I just realized she was walking around in a white bathrobe. What if Claire was still here? She comes down at about 10:25. We'll be late, but I won't say anything. I won't tell her about Claire because I just want to forget it for now. I was upset, but I'm a little glad she told me, maybe she was right about a long distance relationship. Maybe it was better that we ended it. I guess only time can tell.

So we walk over to where the prom was being held, I hadn't realized it was the place I had my party until I got there. People were all filing out, Helena and I were trying to find Jill and Chris but we couldn't see over the crowd. So Helena, being the strong and independent idiot she is, decides to jump onto my shoulders without warning to see over the crowd. I almost fell and almost killed this bitch, but luckily I kept my balance and she sees them. Jill comes running over, holding up her dress so she wouldn't trip, and I throw Helena off of my shoulders. "Ready to go," Chris catches up to us. "Yeah, off to your car," I yell. We drive to Marco's house, I'd already asked my dad if I could stay over at Jill's night since I planned to get drunk as fuck and he'd agreed so tonight would be fun. I wouldn't have to worry about coming home and hiding this from my dad.

So we pull up and Chris pulls the keys from the ignition. "Chris." He stops and looks at me with his eyebrow raised. "Can we talk for a minute... Alone." I look back to Jill. She understands and takes Helena with her into the house. "Piers...? Are you okay?" "It's Claire... We uh... We broke up." "What! Why?" He sounds like he's angry at me. "Because your fucking parents are leaving the state to get away from you!" "What are you talking about?" "They're going to Florida after the graduation to get away from you, and they're taking Claire with them!" "Like hell they are!" He puts the key back in and puts the car in drive. "Chris, we can't stop them." "Fuck that! They aren't taking my sister!" "Then what the hell are we going to do? She can't stay with you at the Academy!" "Well then I won't go to the Academy!" "Chris, you can't not go." "I can't let them take her either!" He pressed down on the pedal and we speed to Claire's house, Chris' old home.

"Chris, this is your fault." "What?!" "They're leaving to get away from you! They think you're corrupting her and they never want you to see her again! You're the reason they're taking her away from me!" "Piers, are you nuts!? They're psychotic! If anything, they'll fucking hurt her and I can't let that happen!" He's right, I can't be pointing fingers at him. It's not his fault. They fucking beat him. He was their 'problem child' even though Chris is the greatest person I've ever met. We pull up and Chris rushes to the door and knocks. It's a hard and loud knock. "Open this fucking door!" It opens and who I assume is his mother stands at the door. "What the fuck do you want?" "How the fuck can you take her away from me!?" "She's not your fucking property!" "And she's yours!?" "What the hell is going on here?" His dad comes to the door. "Oh you again! I thought we saw the last of you!" "You did until you decided to fucking ditch me and take Claire away!" "Well, she's not your concern." "Not my fucking concern! You two are fucking psychopaths! You can't raise a child by yourself, we'd be dead if we didn't have each other. I'm calling CPS!" "Like fuck you are!" His dad punches him square in the face. "Go with your faggot friend and get the fuck out of here!" I don't know what the fuck I'm thinking, maybe I'm not, but I launch myself at him and return his punch.

Chris stands up and tackles his father as he's trying to regain his posture. I see her in the distance, Claire was watching and she watches with horror evident in her eyes. Chris is beating the shit out of him, and I couldn't let him continue. I grab Chris' waist and pull him off of the man. "Come on Chris, we have to go!" He stands up and looks at what he'd done with a pride I haven't seen before. As we walk back I hear him whisper, "That felt good." We walk back to the car and suddenly there's a loud crack. I look over to Chris to see him fall to the ground. I look behind me and see his mother with a bat, ready to swing at me. "No!" Claire yells and jumps on her mother's back. "Piers! Get him out of here!" I grab Chris quickly and manage to put him in the back and get in the driver's seat myself. I quickly look out the window to see Claire run into the house. I want to go help her, but then I look back at Chris who's bleeding from his nose and mouth. "Fuck! Shit! Fuck!"

I decide the hospital is the best place to go. I call Jill as I'm driving. "Piers? Where are you guys?" "Jill, Chris is hurt. Bad. I'm taking him to Raccoon Hospital." "Oh my god, what happened?!" "I have to go! Meet me there!" I hang up and drive frantically to the hospital. I pull up and struggle to carry him to the front door. A nurse runs to meet me when they realize I'm having trouble. "What's wrong with him," he asks. "We were jumped, some random kids with a bat! They hit him in the head, he's bleeding! I don't know what to do!" "Calm down. Take a breath. Wait here and I'll take him in." I nod and swallow, taking a deep breath like he'd suggested. I sit down in one of the chairs in the waiting room, my head is in my hands as I panic a little. I can't believe that happened! Especially on prom night! Why the hell is it that we end up in the hospital on days of important dances?

Jill comes rushing in with Helena. "Piers," she runs into me, "What the hell happened!?" "We went to see his parents... They're taking Claire away. Running to Florida so Chris can't find her. We went there to confront them and Chris threatened to call CPS and they attacked us. They hit Chris in the head with a bat. He was bleeding, they haven't said anything yet." "Did you tell them it was his parents," Jill asks. "No. I told them we were jumped by some random kids." "Okay. Fuck!" I hold Jill in a hug. "He'll be okay. I'm sure." She nods into my shoulder. The same nurse as before comes to find me. "Your friend was hurt pretty bad, but we were able to fix him. He'll be out for a few hours but there's no permanent damage." "Thank you." I smile to him. "Can we go see him?" "You can all wait in his room?" "Thanks." He disappears and the three of us head to his room. He's sleeping in the hospital bed, his head's wrapped in bandages. "Oh my god," Jill runs over and wraps her arms around him. Helena and I watch. She smiles, probably happy its nothing permanent.

We're there for a few hours, its probably four a.m. by now. Jill is cuddling against him in the bed and Helena's asleep on my shoulder. I'm the only one awake. I hear coughing and sit up to see Chris having a coughing fit, but he's awake. He stops soon after and looks confused down at the girl in his arms. "Jill? What are you doing here?" She wipes the tired from her eyes before realizing he was awake. "Chris!" She hugs him. "Did she really use a bat on me?" He suddenly asks me. "Uh, yeah, but Claire stopped her before she could hit me. You were pretty badly hurt." "Yeah, well I can feel that." He rubs the back of his head. "Well at least you're awake. I was worried." He smiles at me, then looks to Jill. "How was Marco's?" "We weren't there that long, we had to make our way over here maybe ten minutes into the party." "Oops." Chris shrugs. She laughs. "Well, at least we're all together." Helena smiles. We all laugh and Chris let out an 'ouch' before we laugh again.