Open Wounds

“Jake! Wait!” Brandon pleaded.
Jake turned, furiously meeting his friend nose to nose, “You’re a bastard, Brandon! I can’t believe you are even capable of doing that!”
“I’m sorry! I didn’t know!” Brandon explained. Clouds covered the moon, darkening the empty street. The few passing cars offered the only light available. The two men stood on the side of the road squaring their shoulders with each other.
“Are you kidding? You hooked up with her! Not to mention Sara! What about Sara?” Jake exclaimed.
“The ‘hookup’ was a mistake! I was drunk–”
“Bullshit! Don’t blame this on alcohol Brandon.” Jake interrupted. “You were perfectly coherent enough to know who she was and what you were doing.”
“She wants you though–” Brandon began.
“Whatever Brandon,” Jake said crossing the road in a blind rage.
Brandon knew it was worthless to continue this conversation while the two of them were intoxicated so he let Jake go.
Neither had seen the car headlights approaching during the heated conversation. As Brandon watched Jake begin to cross the street he caught the car in his peripheral vision and started moving toward his friend. “Jake!”
Jake spun around after he heard the brakes shriek and raised his hands in front of his face to shield him from the headlights that had engulfed him.

Earlier that Day

He was frustrated. He had been for quite some time now, but didn’t know why. Many would ask him if he was ok, or how he was doing, but he never knew. Only God knew why. And that was a mystery in itself. Maybe it was because his name was Brandon. Or that his last name was Myie. Or maybe it was because he was born into a family of five but was now only a family of four. Whatever it was, Brandon Myie could not figure it out.
It wasn’t usual for Brandon to be upset for a very long time. With a girlfriend on his arm this summer, a lot of his friends were curious as to why his new attitude toward life had turned so far south. He was the usual laid-back person that had a great time no matter what was going on. Especially in the warm months; but for some unusual reason, this summer did not hold the carefree days it would boast in summers prior.
At 9:30AM, Brandon was still fast asleep in his bed. It was Saturday, and Brandon did not have to show up at that god-awful construction site that he hated so much. All he had a thought for at that moment, was sleep.
“Brandon!! It’s 10:00! Mom says you need to get out of bed!”
“Kelsey, what are you talking about? It’s only 9:30!” He managed to murmur from under his pillow. Leave the little sister to be the enforcer of the family.
“Doesn’t matter. Mom called and said that you need to get out of bed. You forgot to take out the garbage and you need to mow the lawn. If you don’t get out of bed, she says that you are grounded.”
“You said 10:00AM. It’s 9:30AM, I have half an hour, come back in half an hour.”
“No. You need to get up now.”
Brandon growled and muttered as he pulled himself out of bed, “Well at least I don’t have to go to work today.”
Brandon started work two weeks ago with a positive attitude. He thought he would learn something new. He thought he would learn something that he could use later on in his life; learn something useful. But no, the job ended up like every other construction job. He either had to clean up the site or dig a trench somewhere. The only difference between the job he had now, and the job he had when he was working for his uncle, was that the head honcho of Steelmen Construction was not a slave driver; his uncle was. By now though, the job was just a get-through-the-day-alive type of job. It paid a toll on how he felt towards his world; it frustrated him even more.
A shower sounded nice, but he seconded guessed it and put on some raggedy “mowing the lawn today” clothes. Brandon rubbed his eyes; he didn’t bother with his contacts, he could just put them in after his shower. Breakfast turned into an after-shower event as well.
“Brandon, Jake called this morning.” Kelsey said from the living room.
“This early? Wow, wonder what he’s up to.” Brandon replied to himself as he stepped into the garage.
Brandon looked sky-ward after pulling the lawn mower out of the garage. Dark clouds threatened with rain. He figured he could get the lawn in front of the house done before the flood gates opened. After that, lawn-mowing would be hell. One pull and the lawn mower kicked to life, driving itself down the first lane of grass with Brandon swiftly in tow.

The rain began to fall shortly before Brandon finished the front half of the lawn. “Great, just in time. I better call Jake back to see what he’s up to.” Brandon parked the lawn mower in the garage next to the full garbage can, and stepped into the house nearly running over his sister Kelsey. “Geez, Kelsey.”
“Brandon, Sara’s on the phone.” Kelsey said in a teasing voice.
Brandon had started dating Sara in the second week of April, two months before graduation. He liked her cause she was different than the girls he dated throughout the year. He had seen her as guarded and aloof to the guys of the school and it drew him to her. In Brandon’s eyes, he saw the guardedness as confidence and the aloofness as indifference toward dating, but instead of being discouraged he chose to take it as a challenge. He would pursue her without thought of his own reputation- sometimes embarrassing himself in public to win her attention. The flirtation and subtle physical touches were part of the game that made the pursuit exciting. There would constantly be concerns and analysis of every word and movement. After their first kiss on Sara’s doorstep after a party the hints became more direct, but Sara chose to continue to drag her feet. This would increase Brandon’s interest and vigor. Brandon eventually won her over, his persistency paid off, and he was able to reap the benefits.
The pleasures, however, were short lived as the glamour of the relationship began to fade. Three months into the relationship, Brandon was becoming tired. The girl he held in his arms with the playful attitude and sarcastic humor did not seem as vibrant as before. He could not put his finger on it, but something had gone wrong. Something was wrong, but he couldn’t bring himself to blame her. It was inside of him, something inside of him was different and it caused conversations to become drawn out, cute pet-names turned into annoying titles. He started to notice other girls in the mall or on the street downtown. He found himself becoming quite good at hiding subtle glances at other girls while at dinner or when the two of them would be out to coffee. Brandon hated himself for it, but found it gave him excitement again. He never thought of himself as a guy who got bored easily and would move on to the next exciting thing. If the thought had crossed his mind, he would refuse to believe or entertain it. He still enjoyed her company.
Brandon pulled the receiver from Kelsey’s hand, “Hello?” He said playfully pushing Kelsey in the head.
“Hey babe, what are you up to today?” Sara asked.
“Hey, I just got done mowing half of the lawn. I’m about to call Jake in a little bit to see what he’s up to; other than that, nothing. Do you want to come over later?” Brandon replied.
“Well, not really Brandon, we always are over at your house. I just met a girl named Carley over the past week and I want to show her a good time, introduce her to some people. She knows a couple of people, she graduated from Jefferson High, but I wanted to introduce her to our friends. It’s hard to do that when she’s at your house, and she’ll just feel like she’s in the spotlight or something.” Sara explained. Jefferson High School was a rival high school of Brandon and Sara’s in the next suburb west of Jackson.
“Jefferson? Oh, great, one of them. Well, we don’t have to keep her in the spotlight or anything.” Brandon was getting annoyed but tried to check himself and sound optimistic. “Is there anything going on tonight?” He wasn’t in the mood to go out at all. At least not now, but tonight was a few hours away; he might be able to come around and enjoy himself at a party or whatever Sara had in mind.
“Yeah. I know, for sure, there’s a party; Isaac was telling me about it yesterday. I think it’d be a great place for Carley to get to know people, or at least meet people.” She changed the subject. “Are you doing ok?” Sara asked.
Brandon winced. Her probing started to get on his nerves. Every conversation seemed to come attached to the question, “Are you ok?” and he was getting tired of it. He just wanted to be left alone at this point and not explain himself to anyone and everyone who asked about how he was. As far as he knew, he wasn’t “ok” but also didn’t know why he was acting that way, so he never had an answer for anyone. He decided to end the conversation and hope for a better evening than morning.
“Yeah, I’m just tired right now. I just got done mowing the lawn and the rain started falling so it was hard to push the mower around. Hey, I need to take a shower and give Jake a call, so I’m gonna get going. But give me a call a little later, after dinner, and we can head to that party, ok?” Brandon answered.
“Ok, that sounds good. As long as you’re ok. I’ll give you a call later Brandon.” Sara said.
“Alright Sara, have a good time with Carley.”
“Thanks, bye.”
“Bye.”
Brandon, ditching the shower, hung up the receiver and walked into the living room to watch some SportsCenter on TV. Picking up his cell phone off of the coffee table, he dialed Jake’s phone and waited for his answer. “Hello?” Jake said on the other end.
“Yo, Jake, you called earlier?” Brandon said.
“Yeah man, just wanted to see what you’re up to. I’m actually on my way over to your house right now.” Jake said.
“Alright, see you when you get here.” Brandon closed the line and stretched out on the corner cushion of the red “L-shaped” sectional couch. He started flipping through the channels with the remote before stopping on ESPN. At this point, he was wasting his day, and enjoying every minute. He just wanted to sit and vegetate on the sofa while watching sports. He could do this all day. A hockey highlight caught his attention and he sat up straight, turning up the volume to hear the commentators.

Five minutes later, Jake rolled into the driveway, pushed the flag stick into park and hopped out of his Jeep. He walked over to the house and let himself in the front door.
“Damn it!” Brandon yelled from another room.
“You all right, buddy?” Jake called, laughing from the front hall.
“Oh, sorry Jake, I didn’t hear you come in. The Avalanche just traded Milan Hejduk to the Vancouver Canucks. I just don’t believe it. We only got some nameless defenseman and a first and second round draft pick. He scored over 40 goals this past season. Ridiculous.” Brandon exclaimed pointing at the TV and hitting the couch cushions. Brandon sat back with a dejected look on his face. His posture expressed apathy.
“They’re going down the tubes, I swear.” Jake said.
“The new GM sucks. This is making me depressed; you want to play NCAA Football?” Brandon asked.
“Sure thing, nothing beats a Saturday playing PS2 at eleven o’clock in the morning.” Jake said sarcastically.
“Whatever, dude, it’s raining. Just grab the controller,” Brandon commented, “You’re about to be dominated my friend.”
Brandon and Jake had been best friends since about the fourth grade. Both of them lived on the north side of Hendrikson St. in Jackson, Colorado, a mid-sized suburb of Denver, but somehow never attended the same school until about the age of 10. After that, however, they were inseparable. Everything about the two of them was identical with the exception of physical features and Brandon’s father was out of the picture. Under all circumstances, just about the only thing keeping these two from being mistaken for brothers on paper were their last names: Brandon Myie and Jake Blume. Brandon was a bit taller than Jake, at 6’2, had short hair, the color of light brown faded leather, with hazel eyes, but in overall mass and body size, they came as equal as they could get. A defined jaw line and high cheek bones described a man with German in his blood. Jake’s face was rounder, or appeared rounder because of the smaller overall size of his head. Standing at 6’1, he had a dark complexion that created an attractive mysteriousness about him but he never could bring himself to take advantage of that quality. The dark oak colored hair and green eyes easily won the attention of others, but he refused to see it.
Brandon’s self confidence had taken a step above Jake’s, however, after a year-long period of senior year when he became quite popular among members of the opposite sex and stepped into summer with a girlfriend. The two boys were reaching their prime at the age of 18 and were just starting to reap the benefits of attention from the opposite sex. Brandon and Sara both would continually offer names of girls who were actually interested in Jake but none seemed to be, as he said, “his type.”
The two boys sat down on the couch and focused on the TV, no words spoken between them other than the occasional outburst of trash talking after a big play. At about half time, Jake broke the conversational silence, “So how you doing, Brands?”
Brandon exhaled, “I don’t know man. I just don’t know what it is, but I want something different.”
“Different? What do you mean different?” Jake paused the game and turned to his friend.
Brandon tossed his controller onto the cushion next to him. He was frustrated because he wasn’t even sure what the problem was. He vented. “I don’t know. It’s just like, I’m going through this summer and nothing’s working out. I hate my job. I still completely resent my Dad. Sara and I aren’t exactly on the thickest ice, but I think that’s my fault. I need a change of pace. I miss being single man. I think that I just need to make some changes or something. I’m tired of Jackson. This place is the same thing over and over. I can’t wait to get out of here. Like tonight, Sara wants to go to this party that Isaac told her about. It’s always one party after another; I’m sick of it. Oh, she met this new girl named Carley that she wants to introduce you to.”
“Whoa, hold on, that was like five different things all at once. Let’s do one at a time. First and foremost, you’re not thinking about breaking up with Sara are you? We’re only like a month into the summer. You’re only about three months into your relationship. You, her, and I, have been three very good friends since second semester. She’s like a sister to me man, be careful. And take it from me man, being single isn’t exactly cake and ice cream. What’s going wrong?” Jake counseled. The expression on Jake’s face showed a genuine concern for Brandon’s train of thought. Both knew Sara meant a lot to each of them. But while Brandon had a romantic interest in Sara, that allowed Jake to develop a deep friendship with her.
“Yeah, I know she’s like a sister to you. Don’t think that I don’t care about her as well. I don’t purposely want to hurt her, but how else do things change? I just don’t know, Jake, she’s been bugging me a lot lately. She just asks a lot of questions about where I’m going or how I am. I shouldn’t mind, but I do. I don’t know why. Plus, I don’t see it continuing after summer ends. I mean, we’re going to colleges on opposite ends of the country. Whatever, I’ll figure something out.” Brandon concluded.
Brandon was getting stressed with this conversation. It was good for Brandon to be talking this out but he was happy for any change of subject. Jake mentioned his job, “Do you think that you could just quit your job?”
“No, it’s too late in the summer to find another job. It’s the high part of summer and everyone has already hired for the summer. All the college students get out so much earlier than we do and have the leg up on getting the good jobs.” Brandon said.
“You still get paid $15 an hour.” Jake offered.
“Yeah, that’s like the only thing that is keeping me at that job.” Brandon replied. Wanting to change the subject, he said, “Oh, let me tell you about this girl. I think you could like her.”
“Have you met her?” Jake asked.
“No, but she just moved here. How bad could she be? She hasn’t been tainted by this place yet. And she’s hanging out with Sara, so that has got to be a good thing. She won’t drag you away from me at all, that’s a plus.” Brandon said, grinning.
“What was her name again?” Jake asked.
“Carley,” Brandon replied.
“Ok, sweet.” Jake hesitated, and then asked, “Brandon, have you heard from your Dad at all?”
Brandon’s father, when Brandon was 13, had left the family for an out-of-state job that held the benefits of an attractive secretary. His father had promised in the beginning to write often and visit every other week, but the promise had only lasted until “Dad” had turned his back, walked away to the curb and climbed into the private taxi he had called. Brandon began to get skeptical within the first three weeks with no letter or phone call. He concluded that the promise was just a conscience pleaser his Dad had employed for himself, and that his Dad had no intention of ever coming home.
A painful expression showed in Brandon’s face. “No, I haven’t heard from him. And I don’t plan on hearing from him any time soon; mainly because I haven’t heard from him in five years. I’m over it man. I’m 18 years old and I don’t need a “fatherly figure” anymore. My mom disagrees with me, but whatever, I’m 18 years old and I’m old enough to know not what to do when I get a family. If I even get a family, I just don’t care right now. And that’s the only thing my dad gave me too. I was forced at the age of 13 to be the man of the house. Instead of playing outside or practicing for soccer tryouts freshman year, I had to find a job when I was 15. It has been five years, and at this point, I don’t have a father.”
Brandon was glad that Jake did not ask anymore questions but let the last statement close the conversation. His friend’s questions had gotten him angry and it started him thinking again. He hated to think. Thinking would bring pain. Thinking would bring up the distrust, the betrayal; it would bring up thoughts of his father with another woman, and thoughts of his mother crying herself to sleep at night. He couldn’t stand it. He knew that Jake meant well. Brandon understood where Jake was coming from; he did need to talk about what was going on in his head. That way it wouldn’t stay in his head as a jumbled mess. He appreciated Jake.
Jake had always been the one with the clear head on his shoulders. He would think clearly but would lose his cool at times being overly-protective of the people close to him. Brandon could tell that Jake worried about him and it made Brandon feel good, it made him feel loved. But Brandon didn’t want Jake to have to worry and would do his best to play it cool, but at times, Jake would have a way of breaking down Brandon’s barriers and find out what was really wrong. Their friendship usually consisted of Brandon confiding in Jake and in return offering advice regarding women. At this point, however, Brandon’s advice was slim and of little consequence given his present circumstances. All he could tell Jake at this point was to learn by his example but a lot of his circumstances were out of his control. The two boys sat silent and tense on the couch, unsure of what next to say or how to act. Their eyes were glued to the TV screen while methodically pressing the different buttons on the controllers.
Brandon spoke up first, “Jake,” he paused, “thanks.”
“Yeah man, of course.” Jake said and smiled.

At about 2:30PM, Brandon and Jake had moved outside into the backyard, as the rain decreased to a drizzle, to pass the soccer ball around. The cordless phone, sitting on the arm of a lawn chair on the deck, began to ring. Brandon ran over to the phone and picked it up. Sara had met with Carley to discuss when they would go to dinner with the boys that night.
“Yeah, we were thinking we would come over at about 5:30 or 6:00 and then go out to dinner together in one car, so that we can all just go straight to the party together. Carley went home and is getting ready. We’ll come over at about 5:30, ok? Our reservation is at Bagioli’s, the nice Italian place.” Sara explained.
“Sounds good, see you at 5:30 then,” Brandon said.
“Ok, bye hun,” Sara said laughing. For Brandon, pet-names had never been something without a lot of awkwardness involved.
“Bye dear,” Brandon said sarcastically, and hung up the phone. He stood on the deck for a minute looking at the phone. Sara was becoming too much. It was a simple conversation on the phone, but even with the simple conversation he felt irritated. He decided that he would have to talk to her tonight. At least say something. At the party he would be able to steal away with her into a room and talk some things out. He just hoped that Jake would not be too offended with his decision, but he just wanted out, he saw no remedy.
“Jake.” Brandon called into the yard. “The girls are coming over at about 5:30.”
“Alright dude, that sounds good. What’s going on?” Jake replied without looking up, he was focusing on keeping the ball off the ground with only his feet.
“We’re going out to dinner with them and then going to the party together.” Brandon explained.
“Ok, so it’s about 2:45 right now. I’ll head home in about an hour or so to get ready and then come back.”
“Alright, so then before you go, you and me, one more time, playing NCAA. Your last win was a fluke.” Brandon challenged.
“Oh, bring it on. And yeah, after this I’ll go, and then be back at 5:00.” Jake said.
“Ok, sounds good.”

At 4:45PM, the rain had completely stopped but there was still an overcast covering the sun. Jake showed up at Brandon’s house, parking is Jeep in the driveway behind Brandon’s 4Runner. He was wearing a white polo shirt and blue jeans with his white Colorado Avalanche cap sitting backwards on his head, hiding his dark brown hair. Brandon met him at the door wearing a green buttoned shirt and a pair of loose khaki cargo shorts. The two boys entered the house to watch TV and wait for the girls to arrive.
The girls showed up an hour later, parking Sara’s two-door Honda Civic in the road next to the driveway. Hearing the car from inside, Brandon and Jake came to meet them on the front porch, watching them walk up the driveway toward the house. Sara was wearing a green and white floral print string tied halter-top with a pair of blue jeans and Reef flip flops. Her brown curly hair fell just past her shoulders with strands pulled behind her ear on the right side. Carley walking on her Rainbow flip flops wore a blue jean skirt that stopped a couple inches above her knees and a yellow tank-top that was partially covered by a white sweatshirt zipped half way up. Her blonde hair was tied back in a simple pony tail with the ends hanging over her shoulder. Sara trained her eyes on Brandon all the way up the driveway, Carley, unaware of which boy was Brandon and which was Jake, focused her blue eyes keenly on the one wearing the green buttoned shirt. Jake divided his attention between the two girls as they walked his direction. Brandon acknowledged Sara when she waved while getting out of the car and then kept his hazel eyes on the new friend Sara had brought along with her. Every negative thought about girls from Jefferson High left him. It wasn’t until Sara spoke that Brandon brought his eyes back to her.
“Hey guys, you ready to go?” She asked.
The boys nodded. Sara then turned and introduced her friend, “This is Carley. Carley, this is Jake, and this is Brandon.” She said, finishing the introductions by motioning to each boy with each respective name. Carley and the boys exchanged greetings and shook hands. Brandon turned to Sara, “Do you mind if you drive? I’m boxed in.”
“Oh, sure, no problem. Let’s go then, our reservation is at 6:15.”
They started walking toward Sara’s car, “Where are we going?” Jake asked.
Brandon chimed in, “We’re going to Bagioli’s.”
“Nice.” Jake said.
“Is it a nice place?” Carley asked.
Brandon approached the passenger side door while Sara opened the driver’s side. Pushing the seats forward to allow Carley and Jake in the back, Brandon answered, “Yeah, it’s a pretty nice place. It’s a bit of a drive to get too, but a favorite for a lot of people around here. It’s not ritzy or anything but it has good food. Not too costly either, but you don’t have to worry about that.” He smiled.
Carley smiled in return.
Dinner went smoothly without mishap. Jake tried to flirt with Carley and get to know here a little better while Brandon and Sara stayed entertained watching the two converse. With every joke that Jake told, he would laugh and look at Sara. Carley would laugh and turn to look at Sara and Brandon, who were also laughing, but would then hold her smile, and her gaze with Brandon, until Jake began speaking again. Brandon wasn’t quite sure what to do with the smiles and glances, but found himself enjoying the attention. Sara was enjoying herself at the restaurant, unaware of the subtle flirtation between Brandon and Carley.
They arrived at the party at about 9:00PM and a lot of people were already populating the inside of the house. The house was outside of town, east a little ways down Hwy 6, with no neighbors for about a mile. The single road that would take them back toward their respective houses had no streetlights or street signs. It was an older area of town. They could hear the music playing from outside the house as they moved together up the walkway to the front door. It was a large, single-family, two story house that boasted signs of parents who were well off. Parents who worked downtown in large high rises.
Immediately, Brandon squeezed Sara’s hand to let her know he was still there with her, left Jake and the two girls standing in the doorway, and went to say hi to a group of his hockey teammates. Sara called after him but her voice was drowned out in the music. One of Brandon’s teammates handed him a beer, “Dude, welcome to the party. Here’s my welcoming gift: you have to shotgun that beer.” Another teammate handed him a pen they had been using, he stabbed a hole near the bottom of the can and then covered it with his thumb. He then positioned the hole in front of his mouth, opened the can with the tab on top, and chugged the beer.

Brandon had been enjoying himself drinking beer and trying to dance. He wasn’t into the party but the beer aided him in forgetting his thoughts for the moment and allowed him to move around the house not really paying any attention to anything around him. He wanted a change, and remembered he had wanted to talk to Sara. He started scanning the masses of people, looking for her. Carley found him first. She had seen him from across the room and was making her way toward him. When they were standing face to face, she said, “Hey Brandon.”
“Oh, hey Carley!” Brandon yelled. “How much have you had to drink?” He offered her one of the beers he was carrying and all thoughts of Sara left his mind.
She took the beer from his hand, opened it and drank ¼ of the can. “’Atta girl!” Brandon cheered.
“This will be the fifth beer I’ve had tonight!” Carley yelled over the music.
“All right! Sweet action! Are you having a good time?” Brandon asked as they started moving away from the dance floor in the living room.
“Yeah, but I could be having a better time.” Carley replied, smiling and looking at Brandon out of the corner of her eye. “Come with me, let’s talk for a while.”
Brandon followed her into the first room they saw. Without turning on the lights, she closed the door behind both of them and pressed herself against him. He held her close to him, looked down and moved his face toward hers. She kissed him. She then kissed his cheek, his neck, his chin. She started kissing him all over, and then returned to his lips. His eyes started to adjust to the darkness and they moved away from the door to a desk close by. He picked her up and sat her down on top of the desk and kissed her again pressing himself close to her.

The door to the study, the room hiding Brandon and Carley, suddenly swung open. Light filled the room and Jake stood in the door way, dumbfounded. Carley sat on the desk with her top in a pile next to her and Brandon was kissing the far side of her neck when the light the pouring in around Jake’s silhouette distracted him. Brandon looked over at Jake in shock. Carley immediately grabbed her shirt, covering herself. Jake could not even move. Brandon backed away from Carley, looked at Jake, and then back at Carley, now fully aware of what had just happened. In an effort to explain the situation, “Jake–” Brandon started.
“You asshole!” Jake yelled, and he turned and moved quickly toward the front door.
“Jake, wait!” Brandon yelled, buttoning his shirt. He turned to Carley, “What the hell just happened?”
“I don’t know.” She said.
Brandon rushed out of the room, buttoning his shirt as he left. He tried to weave through the people who had congregated around the hallway to find out what the commotion was all about. He followed Jake out the front door and into the street. They were about 100 yards down the road until Brandon finally caught up to him and begged him to stop.
“Jake! Wait!” Brandon pleaded.
Jake turned, furiously meeting his friend nose to nose, “You’re a bastard, Brandon! I can’t believe you are even capable of doing that!”
“I’m sorry! I didn’t know!” Brandon explained. Clouds covered the moon, darkening the empty street. The few passing cars offered the only light available. The two men stood on the side of the road squaring their shoulders with each other.
“Are you kidding? You hooked up with her! Not to mention Sara! What about Sara?” Jake exclaimed.
“The ‘hookup’ was a mistake! I was drunk–”
“Bullshit! Don’t blame this on alcohol Brandon.” Jake interrupted. “You were perfectly coherent enough to know who she was and what you were doing.”
“She wants you though–” Brandon began.
“Whatever Brandon,” Jake said crossing the road in a blind rage.
Brandon knew it was worthless to continue this conversation while the two of them were intoxicated so he let Jake go.
Neither Brandon nor Jake had seen the car headlights approaching during the heated conversation. As Brandon watched Jake begin to cross the street he caught the car in his peripheral vision and started moving toward his friend. “Jake!”

Jake spun around hearing the brakes shriek and raised his hands in front of his face to shield him from the headlights that had engulfed him. Brandon ran into the street and shoved Jake out of the way letting the small car hit him, sending him sprawling across the pavement.
“No! Brandon!” Jake screamed, getting to his feet.
The car stopped just off the side of the road and the motorist exited. “Oh my God! Damn it! You walked right in front of me!” The man shouted at Jake
Ignoring the man, Jake ran to Brandon and kneeled down by his head, cradling it in his lap. “Brandon? Brandon!” Jake yelled.
The man approached Jake’s side frustrated and confused, “I’m sorry, I didn’t see either of you; you walked right in front of me. What the hell are you doing out here? Shit, I must’ve been going 50mph! I better call 911!”
The man jogged back to his car to make the call on his cell phone. He dialed 911, waited for the dispatcher, and announced the emergency before returning to Jake and Brandon.
“Ok, the ambulance is on its way. How is he doing?” The man asked, examining Brandon from over Jake’s shoulder.
Brandon was dying. His world was spinning. He was barely conscious and didn’t feel a lot of pain from the shock. He could hear faint shouts from somewhere close by. Brandon tried to open his eyes, and succeeded, but his vision was hazy. He felt his head lift from the ground and again come to rest. Looking up, he recognized Jake’s face.
Brandon muttered an inaudible phrase amidst coughing and gargling blood that had accumulated in the back of his throat.
Jake’s response was distant and barely audible. Words faded in and out. “What did you…No, Brandon…..Hold on….” Jake looked up for a moment and said something else to the man standing nearby and then turned back to Brandon. He had started to cry. “Just don’t...Brandon…An ambulance is…hold on!”
Brandon choked and coughed, struggling for breath. He heard shouts again, closer this time. He closed his eyes and exhaled, no longer moving, while the rain of Jake’s tears fell, mixing with the blood on his friend’s forehead.