Part V: The Next 4 Years Continuing

The conclusion of the first book.

Part V: 4 Years Later: Continued

   

     Sydd walks out of the prison with his personal effects and takes out his phone and turns it on, low battery. He looks through his contacts and calls the first person on his list. “Aaron? Hey it’s Sydd, Leon’s brother. I was wondering if you could pick me up from prison and take me home. You’re first on my list and my battery is about to die.” He checks the time. “He should be at work, no I don’t wanna surprise him at work, I wanna wait till he gets home. Oh, he’ll be glad to hear that, you should tell him tha-. What do you mean you haven’t talked to him in almost two years? What the f**k else happened while I was gone? Look, I bet if you tell him what you just told me, I can guarantee you’ll see him before the day is over. So, see ya soon? Alright, peace.” Meanwhile, Leon goes into work.

“I’m taking a month off, if that’s alright with you, I feel like s**t after doing that case.”

“Well, you have been working hard, Xero. I think a nice break would be deserving. Enjoy.”

“Thank you sir.” So he leaves the station and heads home. When he gets there, he sees Sydd sitting on the couch eating a bag of chips and watching TV. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Released.”

“No f*****g way!”

“Yeah, good behavior. I’m on 6 years parole, I have a crappy part time job, have to go to weekly counseling until I’m technically a functioning member of society, then I will go monthly. What’s for dinner and where’s Charlotte?”

“I-I- you made sense! Damn… I was hoping it would happen but thought it’d never happen, welcome back bro.”

“Good to be back. What did I miss?”

“Well, do you know about Rob and them?”

“Yeah, that was nuts.”

“…Sorry about that, I knew they were your friends, but it’s my job.”

“I know.” He lights a cigarette. “They weren’t my friends at that point so I don’t give a s**t. Besides, Rob beat me in prison, blaming me for what happened.”

 “Did you know that he got hard time because he was Carmella’s boyfriend? Carmella is actually Bursgov’s niece, so they’ll both be in there for a while. She didn’t even know that, that came as a surprise to everyone. I went undercover while you were in the pen, and I felt your pain, so I’m sorry. Because my department is narcotics, I had to infiltrate another drug cartel, and this time, I was the one doing the drugs. I fell heavy into it, and had an unfaithful girlfriend. It was not pleasant. The only reason I got out was because I had arrived to the leader’s house sober before the drugs started, and saw him shoot my partner in the head while I was looking through the window. I booked it out of there and had units placed at the house in minutes. The rest of the time I spent in rehab to cleanse myself for a month, and then went back to work, busted a few people, but I’m so worn out, so I took this next month off, maybe moonlight a little bit. To answer your other question, me and Charlotte split around the time you went to jail. I kind of… cheated on her with Carmella, and she ended it. So, I had this young little hot pocket for a little while, her name was Carly, she was nineteen. She was so demanding and controlling and wanted to party all the time so for a few months she was sleeping around and I didn’t even know until one day she breaks up with me because she wants to ‘live the single life’ for a while, so that was that. Spaghetti.”

“Gotcha. So: Janis and Zakk are dead, Rob and Carmella are still in jail, and Charlotte’s gone. That leaves: me, you, Aaron, John, and I gotta look up Frank.”

“Actually, John moved back to Alabama, I haven’t really kept in touch with Aaron, I dunno where he is, and who’s Frank?”

“Some dude I met in jail, he got out a year before I did, he’s a pretty cool guy, he was the only friend I had in there.”

“Look him up then, the computer’s over there.” So Sydd jumps on the computer and starts searching, he finds him in a matter of minutes.

“I found him, he’s over in the-“

“Holy f**k.” Leon interrupts.

“What’s up?”

“Gabriella’s on her way from Florida. She’s going to be at the airport in an hour.”

“The girl that Charlotte would get jealous over whenever you hung out with her? How do you know?”

“Apparently I haven’t paid attention to Aaron in four years, there’s 798 unread texts from him and I just read the one I just got, so I’ll see ya later, I gotta go see her.”

     “Can’t I come?”

     “Uh, yeah sure. You ready?”

     “Yup. Let’s go.” Leon and Sydd get into the car and Leon drives to Aaron’s last known address. He knocks on the door, and as soon as Aaron opens the door, Leon gives him a hug.

     “I’m sorry I ignored you, man, I just went through s**t.”

     “Know what bro, I was pissed off, I’m not gonna lie, but, I knew that text would get you off your a*s, now come on, there’s only 45 minutes until her plane lands.” So he gets in the back seat. “To the airport!”

“How do you know she’s on her way?”

“I don’t mean to brag, but me and her started talking and I think she likes me.”

“Oh…” Leon says, crestfallen.

“Yeah, I’m surprised she hasn’t contacted you.”

“…Me too…” so they arrive at the airport and wait for the plane to land. “Wow, I’m so excited I’m shaking.” So as they sit in the lobby, Leon explains why he hasn’t been in contact with Aaron.

“Wow, that’s deep, man.”

“Yeah, I thought-“

“Aaron! You made it! Leon?” a voice behind them calls.

“Gabriella!” Leon says.

“I tried calling you, texting you, but I never got an answer back.” Gabriella tells Leon. Leon looks through his phone.

“I don’t have your number.”

“Ugh, I gave you my number before we got to the airport.”

“Charlotte probably deleted it, I’m so sorry.”

“Where is your girlfriend? I thought she’d be with you…”

“Gabby, we have a lot to talk about, c’mon, the car’s outside.” So on the car ride, the three catch Gabriella up on everything that happened with everyone in the last 4 years.

“I just- I’m ashamed and proud of you guys at the same, it’s weird, I’m not…  I don’t know how that makes me feel…”

“So why are you back?”

“Oh, I got my teaching degree so I figured because this state pays more than Florida, I could be back home and teach at the same time.”

“That’s so awesome!” Leon says.

“I’m sorry to hear about Charlotte.”

“Know what? Life goes on, it was four years ago.”

“Well then, it’s great to see you, I’m living with Vanessa now, so that’s where you should drop me off.”

“Vanessa? She was a couple years ahead of us, wasn’t she?” Leon asks.

“Yeah, she was a year behind your brother.” Gabriella explains.

“Yeah, Charlotte had problems with her too. Didn’t like me hanging out with her, or you, or any girl for that matter. Yeah, she was kind of a b***h, but, I fucked up, so you can’t really blame her-“

“Stop blaming yourself, Leon.”

“I told you, I cheated on her!”

“Really? Do you know who she’s with now?”

“No, I stopped talking to, well, everyone in the past 4 years.”

“Let’s pay her a visit.”

“I don’t even know where she is.” So Gabriella takes out her phone, searches for a little while, and finally finds her information.

“There. Let’s go.” So they follow the directions to Charlotte’s house via the internet. They get there and they all pile out of the car. Leon knocks on the door and Brian opens the door.

“Who are you?” he asks. Sydd stares at him.

“I’m Leon, this is Sydd, Gabriella, and Aaron. I’m here to see Charlotte.”

“Why?”

“I swear, I just wanna talk to her-“

“What the f**k is your problem? Why the f**k are you staring at me a*****e?” he says to Sydd.

“I’ve seen you before.” Sydd says.

“Nah, I doubt it, man. My wife’s in the kitchen, as she should be-“

“Daddy, who are you talking to?” a kid comes up and tugs on his pant leg.

“Just some friends of mommy’s, Jason, get back inside.”

“Oh! Mommy! Someone’s here for you!”

“Got it!.” Sydd says.

“Uh, what?”

“Call me. We have a lot to discuss.” He gives him his number.

“What the f**k-“

“Brian, who is it?” Charlotte asks.

“Uh Charlotte, your ex is here along with some girl, some dude, and some guy who thinks he knows me.” Brian says.

“You? What do you want, Leon? Gabriella? You’re dating Gabriella now?”

“Actually, I just picked her up from the airport.”

“What did you not understand four years ago? I’m married with kids now, so get the f**k out of my life already!”

“How old is your son?”

“He’s four. Why?”

“Oh, tell him I said happy birthday.”

“His birthday was a month and a half ago.”

“That’s not right… we broke up 4 years and a month ago-“

“I mean a month ago.”

“Tell me, what actually happened?”

“Ok, so I cheated on you first, big deal, you still cheated on me.”

“No. You weren’t planning on getting back with me, were you?”

“Uh…”

“I’m waiting…”

“Ok, so, no.”

“And?”

“I just wanted to have a clear conscience when it happened.”

“Wow, you really are a b***h.”

“Don’t call my wife a b***h you piece of s**t!” Brian interjects.

“You f****r! This is all your fault!” Leon says. Brian punches Leon in the face and Leon punches him back. The fight escalates with Leon beating up on Brian. Brian’s head is bleeding profusely and Leon is not stopping.

“Leon! Stop it! STOP IT! You’re killing my husband!” But Leon just keeps on hitting him even though he’s unconscious. Sydd and Aaron pull Leon off of him.

“Come on, let’s go.” Sydd says. They head towards the car with Charlotte sobbing and dragging her bleeding husband into the house.

“Dude, that was nuts.” Aaron tells Sydd.

“They had it coming. I’m hungry, who else is?” Leon says. So they go to the nearest restaurant and settle in and eat. Afterward, they take Gabriella home. Vanessa answers the door, looking stern.

“What took you guys so long?” Vanessa asks.

“Sorry, we had to deal with some s**t before we got here.” Gabriella tells her. “I’ll see you guys later” she says as they drop off her bags and get into the car.

“How do you know him?” Leon asks.

“He’s an old friend of mine.” Sydd says. They pull up to the house. “I’m gonna go say hi to Frank, it’s been awhile.”

“Ok, peace out bro.” Leon says.  So Sydd walks over to where Frank lives and knocks on the door.

“Who are you?” He looks closer. “Sydd! What’s up buddy?”

“Nothin, got out this morning.”

“Well, damn, man, come in, have a bowl.” He walks in. “This is my girlfriend Laura.

“Hi Laura.”

“Hi, you must be Sydd. Frank told me a lot about you.”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Well, if you don’t mind, I’m gonna keep an eye on you for a little while.”

“That’s fine, I understand, but I’m on medication now.”

“Don’t care. I’m still gonna be watching.”

“Ugh, fine.” So they just hang out and catch up. A few hours later, Sydd checks his watch. “Oh, s**t, I got work in like an hour. Got anything to eat so I can bring myself down?” Frank hands him a bag of chips and Sydd chows down. “I gotta go, peace.”

“Peace.” And Sydd leaves and goes home and takes a shower to bring his high down more and get the smell off. He gets out and gets dressed and heads to work. When he gets there his boss is waiting for him.

“You’re late.” Sydd checks his watch.

“By a minute.”

“Yeah, that’s a minute you could’ve been working.”

“Alright, sorry, jeez.”

“F*****g criminal” she says under her breath. “You’ll be a bagger today.”

“Ok sure.”

“Don’t f**k up, I’m doing you a favor by hiring you.”

“Alright, alright.” Meanwhile, Aaron is hanging out with Leon at Leon’s house.

“So, what have you been up to bro?”

“Well, nothing actually.”

“Wanna smoke up?”

“Yeah sure. Listen, I wanna say I’m sorry for being such an a*****e and f*****g up the shows.”

“Know what man, it’s alright. Not like we were going very far with it.”

“Still, I fucked everything up.”

“Shut up and hit this already.”

“Alright.” A few hours later, Sydd finishes work and goes home.

“Hey bro. What’s up Aaron?”

“Yo bro.”

“What’s up Sydd?”

“Got any left for me?”

“Sorry, we finished it a few hours ago.”

“Oh… well, that’s ok I guess.”

“Sorry man. Yo Leon, I gotta split, I got a chickey comin’ over my house in like, half an hour.”

“Alright man, see ya.” Leon says, and Aaron leaves. “So, Sydd, how was work?”

“It sucked. My boss treats me like s**t because I just got out of the pen.”

“Eh, that’s the world for ya I guess.”

“Well, I’m turning in. I got group therapy in the morning.”

“Alright, night bro.”

“Night.” The next morning, Sydd gets up and goes to therapy.

“Hello, you must be Sydd.” The doctor says as Sydd joins the group.

“Yeah, yeah I am.”

“Well, how about we all introduce ourselves?”

“My name is George, and I’ve been keeping myself under control for about three years. The source of my anger is my bi polar disorder, and I’m on the right medication, but because of my recent breakup, I’ve come back for some help so I don’t lose my cool.”

“My name is Ralph and I’ve been keeping myself under control for a couple of months. The source of my anger is just that I have a short fuse. I came to talk today because I got into a fight with my boss. I punched him in the face and got fired, so I’m hoping to get some help today to help me to get back on the right track.”

 “My name is Vera and I’m still an angry person, I have multi personality disorder, and when I’m the other person, I can’t say her name or I’ll become her, and she’s trying to get rid of me with medication, so I have to get rid of her first. I used to use drugs so I would always be calm, but after going to rehab, I was put on the right medication, but I still find myself blacking out only to wake up several days later, yelling at someone, and then I’ll be back to normal for an undetermined amount of time before something excites me, or someone calls me the other name and I change again before I wake up again, yelling.”

“My name is Sydd and my rage stems from my schizophrenia. I also used drugs to calm myself, but it only made the symptoms worse most of the time rather than calming me down. It got so bad that I actually spent the last four years in jail for the double homicide of my pregnant ex-girlfriend. I’m currently on parole and I hope I can start over.”

“My name is Gabriella and my anger also stems from schizophrenia. I’ve kept it under control with medication but there are times when I get violent, including one time when I broke my boyfriend’s arms in a rage. Long story short, he broke up with me after that so I joined this group so I can have people I can talk to about it.” Meanwhile, Leon is knocking on Vanessa’s door.

“What?” she asks.

“Is Gabby home?”

“No, she went out.”

“Oh, well, when she gets home could you tell her I was looking for her?”

“Tell her yourself, you have a phone.” She closes the door. So Leon goes home. Meanwhile, Sydd’s meeting is over.

“Gabby, I-I didn’t know…” Sydd says.

“Don’t tell your brother please.”

“I won’t, you will.”

“But why? Not many people know about it.”

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of, trust me, he cares about you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, yesterday you were all he could talk about on the way to the airport.”

“Really?”

“Yes! Trust me on this one. My brains aren’t that scrambled.”

“Need a ride?”

“Yeah, sure.” So Gabriella drops Sydd off at his house. “C’mon in, I’m sure Leon would love to see you.”

“No, not right-“

“C’mon. Let’s go.” So she shuts off the car and follows him in.

“Gabby! I was looking for you, I sent you texts and everything. What are you doing with my brother?”

“Sorry, my phone was off. I was in group.”

“Group? For what?”

Gabriella takes a deep breath and says, “Me and your brother have a little thing in common…”

“Oh, s**t, what?”

“I’m schizophrenic too, I recently broke both of my ex-boyfriend’s arms during an attack.”

“Oh, that’s it?”

“Yeah, which is why I totally understand if you don’t wanna hang out with me anymore.”

“Oh, quite the opposite, I’ve been looking for you so I could ask you out.”

“And now you changed your mind, right? I totally understand, I’ll be leaving now-“

“No. Stay. I can deal with it, I-I love you Gabby, I just couldn’t do anything about it because Charlotte was a total b***h, who wouldn’t let me leave until it was convenient for her. And then you were in another state, but now you’re back, we can finally do it!”

“But what about-“

“We’ll get through it, I’m used to it cause of my brother. Trust me, I love you Gabby.”

“I love you too Leon.”

“Hey.”

“What?”

“Wanna be my girlfriend?”

“Sure.” A week later, Sydd is leaving group once again.

“Gabby?”

“Yeah?”

“Could you hold on a second there’s someone I wanna talk to.”

“Sure.” So Sydd approaches Vera.

“Hi Vera.”

“Oh, hi Sydd.” She says.

“Um, I was wondering if you were doing anything Friday. Here’s my number.”

“Um, I don’t know, Sydd.”

“What do you mean? Do you have a boyfriend or something?”

“No, it’s not that, it’s just… your history. I don’t wanna end up like your last girlfriend.”

“Oh… that…”

“…Yeah…that.”

“I swear, I’m a different person now, I’m on medication now, I’m not on drugs…”

“It doesn’t matter. You could still have a blackout, and where would that leave me? Dead, and you’d be back in jail. I wouldn’t feel safe around you.”

“Look, I-“

“The answer is still no Sydd, maybe if I get to know you better, maybe if you stay true to your word, then maybe. Maybe I’ll think about it. See you next week.” So Sydd walks back to Gabriella.

“How’d it go Sydd?” she asks.

“Let’s just go home. I need a bowl.”

“That bad?”

“Yup.” So they go back home. Sydd walks in and sees Leon sitting on the couch watching TV.

“Hey guys, how was group?”

“Fine.” They both answer.

“Oh, Gabby, for some reason, Aaron was looking for you. I didn’t tell him where you were, so I sent him to your house.”

“Why would you do that?”

“I figured I didn’t lie, and he’d think it was circumstantial.”

“I hope you know what you were doing.”

“I got this.” Then there is a knock on the door. Leon answers it and sees Aaron and Vanessa at the door. “What’s up guys?”

“You were right hun, Gabby was here.” Aaron says.

“Hun?” Gabby asks.

“Oh, yeah, I almost forgot, me and Vanessa are going out!”

“Well that’s pretty awesome, me and Gabby and you and Vanessa.”

“You and Gabby?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, that’s awesome dude.”

“Well, I’ll let you happy couples be, have fun.” Sydd says as he goes upstairs.

“What’s wrong with him?” Leon asks.

“He was rejected from a girl he asked out at group today.” Gabriella says.

“Oh, that’s a bummer.” Leon says. “I’m gonna go check on him, make sure he’s not doing anything stupid.” So Leon goes upstairs to Sydd’s room. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

“Whatcha smokin’?”

“Weed. Ya want some?”

“Sure. Listen, bro, it’s not the end of the world if one girl rejects you.”

“Yeah, I know. I’ve been through it many times.”

“So what makes this time different?”

“Because now I know I can never have a girlfriend again.”

“Oh, come on, now you know that’s not true.”

“This time it is. If any future girlfriend I have would become my wife, they’d have to know my past, and no girl would feel safe with someone who killed his pregnant ex-girlfriend.”

“Wow, I uh, didn’t realize the severity of the situation.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty fucked.”

“Don’t give up hope yet, just show her the Sydd I grew up with, not the Sydd that everyone hates. You’re a nice guy, you just made some crappy decisions and what happened with Janis wasn’t really your fault, you couldn’t control yourself.”

“Maybe you’re right.”

“I’m pretty sure I’m right.”

“Can you keep a secret?”

“Yeah.”

“No, seriously, this is huge, and nothing to be alarmed about cause it’ll never happen again.”

“Go ahead.”

“The day I killed Janis, and the overdose…”

“…Yeah…?”

“I woke up after the truck hit her. When I realized what I had done, I tried killing myself by overdosing.”

“Dude!”

“I know, I know, it was stupid, but now I realize that it was dumb and I shouldn’t have done it, but at the time, I felt like my life was over.”

“And now…?”

“And now I feel like even though it’s four years later, my options are still locked.”

“Like I said, go back to where you were before Rob fucked your life up, be that person again, the nice guy with a kind heart, I’m sure you’ll have a new girlfriend before you know it, and she won’t care what you’ve done, who you were, but who you are now, and if she loves you no matter what you’ve done, and accepts you for who you are, that’s all that matters.”

“Thanks bro.”

“Anytime.” Leon gets up and heads towards the door.

“Hey.”

“What?”

“Frank’s having a party on Friday if you and Aaron are interested.”

“I’ll talk to him about it.” That Friday, Aaron shows up in his car to pick up Leon and Sydd. They arrive at Frank’s house for the party.

“Hey guys, thanks for coming.” So they all go in the house. “Psst. Sydd.” Frank nods in Sydd’s direction. Sydd follows Frank into his room. “Want some horse?”

“What? Oh, no, I’m on parole.”

“C’mon, man, you’re smokin’ weed, besides it’s a party.”

“What if I relapse?”

“One little line won’t be enough to relapse, trust me.”

“Alright. Just one.” So Sydd snorts the line of heroin. He leaves Frank’s room and grabs a beer. The rest of the party goes on fine, everyone smokes a couple of joints and has a few beers, the only one not drinking was Aaron cause he’s the designated driver. After the party is over, Aaron, Leon and Sydd leave. They get into the car and start driving.

“F**k. Are my taillights working?” Aaron asks. He taps the brakes and Leon checks out his window.

“Nah.” Leon says.

“S**t. I hope I don’t get pulled over.” He checks his rearview and groans, “Is that a cop behind me?” Leon turns and looks out the back windshield as he is in the backseat.

“Yup.” Just then the sirens flash and Aaron pulls over. The state trooper walks towards the car and Aaron rolls down his window. The cop smells it instantly.

“Where is it?”

“Where’s what?” Aaron asks.

“The weed. Don’t f**k around, give me the weed.”

“Uh-“ Aaron starts.

“Can I have you all step out of the car please?” So the three of them get out of the car. The cop calls his partner over and the three of them are searched. The cop searching Sydd finds 2 grams of weed in his pocket. “This yours?”

“Yes sir.” The cop turns to Leon.

“You’re a cop, aren’t you?”

“Yes sir.”

“Way to f**k your career.” Just then, Sydd and Leon are handcuffed to each other and Aaron is given his own set of cuffs as they all sit in the back of the cop car and head toward the station.