Of course Brett never thought about any of this, nor would he have cared if someone pointed it out to him. In fact, all he cared about at the moment was making Jimmy pay for elbowing him in the gut earlier and now that he had his bike he was pretty sure that outcome would arrive soon. What he wasn’t counting on was it happening so quickly, or that his older brother Brian would side with the two fuck heads.
It all started the moment Brett pulled into the driveway, parked and started to get the bike out from the backseat — the piece of shit had actually scratched his car while the three had been getting it in, which pissed him off even more.
Brian was sitting on the front porch when Brett pulled up drinking a soda, relaxing after a day spent getting in shape for the military, a career he would be starting in June after having talked to a recruiter in Haddonfield a month earlier — all because the construction company he had been working for ever since he graduated in 2004 had gone bankrupt.
“Where’d you get the bike?” Brian asked once he saw Brett struggling to get it out of the backseat.
“I found it,” Brett said.
“Really?” Brian’s voice was skeptical. “Who did you ‘find it’ from?”
“What do you care?” Brett asked. The bike popped free, the tires bouncing on the ground.
“I really don’t, unless it was ‘found’ from someone who didn’t know they had lost it and might want it back.”
Brett shook his head and started walking the bike toward the house. A second later a car pulled up to the house. Shouts followed.
Brett turned and saw Jimmy and his little brother coming up the driveway, the brother shouting at him to give the bike back.
“Make me!” Brett shouted back at the stupid sophomore.
“Oh we’ll make you you motherfucker,” the brother said, his pace quickening, fist clenched.
Brett wasn’t sure if he could actually take the two of them by himself and quickly started running with the bike toward the backyard. Once back there he would grab the shovel he knew was lying by the rear of the garage. Brian stopped him before he even made it to the fence gate.
Jimmy and his brother were soon there as well.
“This is your bike?” Brian asked while looking at Jimmy’s brother.
“No, it’s his.” He nodded toward Jimmy.
“The fuck it is, I found the bike in the woods,” Brett said and tried to jerk the bike away from Brian.
Brian’s grip was too strong and the bike stayed within it.
“After you saw me lean it against the tree to take a piss,” Jimmy said.
“Bullshit. You were nowhere near it, unless you were hiding in the woods because you know you can’t take me in a real fight.”
“I’ll take you right now,” Jimmy said.
“Whoa,” Brian snapped. “No one is taking anyone.” He turned to Brett. “If the bike is his give it back to him.”
“But—” Brett started.
“I said give it back to him.”
“What’s going on out there?” Brett’s mother echoed from the porch.
“Nothing, Mom,” Brian said. “Just a little high school misunderstanding that is being worked out.” He turned back to Brett. “Right?”
“Fine!” Brett snapped. “I’ll give it back.”
Brian let go of the bike. The moment he did that Brett rammed it into Jimmy’s shins and then tried to jump on him, but tripped over the bike.
“Fucker!” someone shouted and the next thing he knew someone — probably the little brother — was on top of him pressing his face into the grass with both hands.
“Hey, get off him,” Brian snapped.
Brett felt the weight removed from his back. A second later he felt himself being pulled to his feet and yanked away from Jimmy and his little brother. “Stupid idiot, let me go!” Brett snapped.
Brian didn’t and said, “Take your bike and get out of here.” He then pushed Brett to the ground and said, “Don’t you realize you could be arrested for taking his bike like that? What were you thinking?”
Brett didn’t answer him, but not out of defiance. Instead all he could think about was Jimmy and how badly the shithead was going to suffer for this. He was going to get him for embarrassing him in front of his brother. He would make him pay.
Megan got in an argument with her father during dinner about the Samantha King situation and eventually stormed out of the room. How could he not realize it? Samantha King had been kidnapped. Anyone could see it.
Unfortunately, most in town had not seen it. Megan had realized this at school and that had been part of the reason why she was so pissed off. Everyone just agreed that a kidnapping couldn’t happen in Ashland Creek and that Samantha King had run away. But it simply wasn’t true. She would not have run away.
In the backyard Megan sat on the porch swing and looked out at the surrounding forest wondering if Samantha was out there somewhere? Hadn’t she once heard that most kidnap victims were kept within a few miles of their home?
Most kidnap victims are killed in forty-eight hours.
This thought didn’t settle well in her head. Samantha was her best friend and the thought of her being killed by someone was too much to bear. Not to mention the fact that other terrible things were probably happening as well.
If only her father would do something about it. Then, if Samantha were close by they would find her. What if she was out in the woods at that very moment, tied to a tree or something? Why couldn’t her father just get together a search party and explore a little?
Why couldn’t her father act like a real police officer? Why couldn’t he just investigate a little?
“Megan?” her father called.
“What?” she asked without turning toward him.
Her voice changed his mind and he went back inside. That was fine by Megan. There was no way for her to convince him of what she knew so what was the point in even talking?
Slowly the sun began to set. Megan watched it for twenty minutes before getting up and going inside. Her butt and back hurt where the wooden slats had been pressing into her. She rubbed the indentations away and went up to her room where she grabbed her car keys and then headed out to the driveway. It wasn’t unusual for her to just go for a drive through town without telling anyone, so her parents weren’t too concerned when, for the next hour, they didn’t know where she was. No one thought anything terrible had happened. Terrible things didn’t happen in Ashland Creek. Small towns were perfect.
Jimmy’s right shin had a nasty gash in it, yet didn’t hurt all that much once the pain of the blow to the bone went away, that was, until he poured peroxide all over it in the bathroom at home. That hurt like a son of a bitch, but then was over as abruptly as it started. Finished with that he and Alan played some Goldeneye battles, all of which Alan dominated.