He lifted the gun. He took aim. His finger twitched on the trigger. My eyes closed.

I wanted to shout and cry and fight and run and fly. Instead, I lurched sideways, pushing into Jake. A gunshot rang out. I fell through the air, landing with a devastatingly sharp pain radiating out through my body. I blinked, I breathed, I was sure I was dead.

But my heart still beat. The sharp pain had come from landing on my bruised ribs against Jake’s chair, now broken and in splinters across the living room floor.

Among the splinters was a gun. Robby’s gun. It had fallen from his hands, sliding to the center of the room. I crawled for it, grabbing it, looking to the left and seeing him crumpled on the floor, a hand pressed against his bleeding shoulder. He cried out a random string of expletives, and only when I heard the door open did the situation start to make sense.

Eric walked in, gun in hand. The window next to the door had been shattered from the gunshot. Behind him was Tristan, already on the phone with the police.

My best friends, my brothers, they were the ones who had saved the day.

“Noah, Jake, fuck, are you two okay?” Eric was towering over a still-whimpering Robby as Tristan helped me and Jake up onto our feet.

“We’re okay, thanks to you guys. Holy shit. Thank you.” I embraced Tristan in a weak side hug before I went to Jake, kissing him on the lips and telling him how much I loved him, how scared I was.

“How’d you guys get here?” I asked, shock still filtering through my system, mixing with relief.

“When you didn’t answer my text about finding out Robby was headed to the mountains, I knew something was up. I called a couple of times, and still nothing, but by then, we were already halfway here. All the lights being on let us see everything. I just needed a clear shot to take.”

“Thank you, both of you,” Jake said, leaning on me as he held his bruised chest. “And thank you, Noah.”

“It’s over,” I said as the police sirens grew louder, drowning out Robby’s grunts and curses. “That’s all that matters. It’s all over. We don’t have to be scared anymore.”

We could finally wake up from this nightmare and embrace the dream that our love had foreshadowed. We were together, we were whole, and we were both ready to put this behind us so we could move toward our happy ever after, shining just over the horizon.

EPILOGUE

Jake Perez