Lucas slowly turned around. He found one of his childhood best friends standing there with a small pistol in his grasp. The small black gun was pointed at Lucas. Lucas gulped as he began to shake. He could not believe that Jimmy Edwards stood there with a gun pointed at him.
"You did this Jimmy?"
"Nope, people like you did." Jimmy responded unemotionally.
Confused, Lucas head turned sideways. He had always treated Jimmy with respect. Jimmy was almost like a brother to him. What did he do wrong? How did the way he treated Jimmy lead him to point a gun at him? He had no idea what he did to deserve to have a gun stuck out in front of his face.
Lucas almost asked what Jimmy had meant by the reply, but the heavy weight of locating whoever was hurt hurried him. "Jimmy, I have to find who's hurt."
Jimmy fiddled with the gun in his hands and he contemplated what he should do. He really wanted Lucas to stay with him so he could get his revenge on him. Lucas never really did anything wrong, if anything he was one of the best friends he had ever had. Jimmy needed someone's blood though, to atone for all the pain he had experienced in the agonizing years of high school. Lucas though would be an excellent target for his revenge.
If Jimmy shot Lucas and in the end killed himself as well, people would mourn. Sure, they would mostly grieve over Lucas's death but on the day Jimmy Edwards died, someone out there would cry. It sounded absurd as the idea grew but his hurting heart needed reconciliation. He lifted his arm that held the gun and shakingly pointed it to his once upon a time best friend. He slowly pulled back the trigger.
"Someone has to pay for all the pain I have been through." Jimmy hissed.
Lucas took a deep shaky breath. The world's weight in guilt fell down upon him. How could he just have let Jimmy slip away over the course of the last two years? Why didn't he call him up to go fishing like they use to over the years? If Lucas made it out of this ordeal, he didn't think he could ever forgive himself especially if something happened to Peyton, even Jimmy.
"I am sorry Jim, I should have been there for you. When you were in the hospital…I should have stopped in to check on you." Lucas remembered seeing him, a year ago, laying there half conscious with no one by his side.
He had no idea why Jimmy was there but there were no visitors. The room was dark. He had no flowers, no cards bringing much needed color in the room, nothing to show support. He seriously considering going into the room to check on him but a quick glance at his watch revealed he would be late getting to practice. He left school early so he could to the hospital to get his heart medication refilled before basketball practice. Lucas almost went into the room, but being since months had rolled by without either of them talking to one another, he decided against it.
Now a year later, Lucas hated himself for letting a stupid game get in the way of visiting him. A game that Jimmy had been there every step of the way of his so called career. Lucas figured he deserved to get shot for being a terrible friend. Everyone always bragged about how good he was a friend, but it came easy to him. It came easy to him to be there for people like Haley, Nathan, Peyton, Brooke, Skills, Mouth, and everyone else but Jimmy was difficult to keep up with it. He wanted to but some days the extra effort was too much.
"Jimmy, don't do it." Lucas began to choke.