Love Has Second Chances

I sped the black 4Runner to our hiding spot. In about an hour the train heading out of town would have us in it, and we'd leave L.A. For now. But when we'd come back? I don't know.

"How long of a drive, Jay?"

"'Bout thirty minutes by way we're going," I responded to George.

"Why'd you choose a Toyota? There was a Lincoln in the parking lot."

"Too obvious. You gotta think smart about these things, George."

"Right."

We drove the Toyota the rest of the way in silence. It wasn't akward silence, just intense.

We reached a bush big enough to hide the 4Runner. We parked it facing away from the some what gravel road. We got out, and I was glad to be wearing gloves. I realized to late that the steering wheel had something sticky on it. I could only imagine... Ewwwwwwww.

I discarded the gloves in a mud pit under a broken train track. George and me raced to one of the sections of the train, the one that was gonna leave in twenty minutes. We had fifteen minutes to get ready, and to hide ourselves from the train conductees. They would check all twelve sections, then we'd be off. Simple as that. If we didn't get caught.

"This one?" I heard George whisper.

"Yeah, the eleventh one," I whispered back. We got to the opening of the second-to-last section, then gently and quietly hoped on.

"Easier done then said apparently," George stated in a very hushed tone.

"I know right? Now," I said, looking around. "Let's hide our stuff in the shadows."

Cleaning

"George, put anything that might make loud noise or break in a soft pile. Put everything else next to it, and make sure to tuck it all into the corners." I pointed to a pile on the right side of the carrier section.

"Got cha," George responded. I worked on the left side, he worked on the right, and we worked in comfortable working silence.

Talk

When we were done, I heard the whistle.

"George, shadows!" I instructed. He quickly nodded in response, and hid in the corner.

A few seconds later, I heard footsteps. Then I saw the glow of the flashlight. A head poked in, and I held my breath.

"... all clear in this one!" The man shouted. I saw him grasp the sliding door, and soon me and George were alone in the train section, with barely any light.

"Phew. God, that fucking scary..." George said, with sleep tugging at the hem of his words.

"Yeah. If we cleaned house any slower we'd be dead. Or in jail," I mused. I heard George dig something out of his pack, and when the light came on I realized it was a flashlight.

"I'm going to tell you a scaaaaaaary stoooooooory!" George stated as he put the flashlight under his chin.

"Ohhhhh, I'm shivin' in my Converse!" I laughed.

"You know- FUCK!" I shrieked as I fell on my ass when the train jerked to life.

"Ow. Tin sections hurt..." I stated as I rubbed my ass.

"No fucking kidding..." George said, doing the same motion. I realized we were actually moving, and even though we weren't out of it, I already missed L.A.

"Jay, where are we going? You still haven't told me."

"If my calculations are correct..." I started smartly. I tried to remember. "Were heading to a train station in Arizona, then to Texas, to North Carolina, then to Maine. We'll stay there until the heat clears."

"If it ever clears."

"It will clear, Mr. Emo Depressing Pants."

"For the last goddamn time, I am NOT emo."

"Sure, Mr. Emo. Sure." I laughed as he threw a fabric at me. I realized it was my missing underwear.

"Thanks dude, I needing these!" I laughed again as George gave me a frown of all frowns.

"ANYway, what's in Maine?" George asaked randomly.

"Nothing. That's just it. No family, no friends, no nothing."

"Ah, I see. Just the two of us."

"Pretty fucking much."

"Ever thought about going gay?"

"What!?"

"You heard me."

"Hell no, and certainly not with you, Mr. Emo!"

"Are you sure? It might be a VERY long while until you can have sex with a member of the opposite sex."

"Let me think about your offer."

"Don't worry, we have a LOT of time."

"True."

"How fast do trains go? Will we be in Arizona in the morning?"

"Probably." I decided to lay down. George joined me. I began to look at into space for the millionth time.

We were silent for what seemed like ages. I tried to take a nap. George did as well, but I soon realized he tossed and turned. After a while, we both settled down, and I fell into a deep sleep.

Flashback

"Jay! Jay! Jay! Help! Jay, please help me! Jay! PLEASE!" I heard the girl screaming my name. I began racing to the sound of her voice, like a beacon. I recognized that voice. Wait, I'm not supposed to be here. Where am I?

"Jay, he's hurting me!" The girl screamed again. Wait, that voice... VERONICA!

"I'm coming baby, hold on!" I ran like I was in a marathon. Veronica was in trouble, and I know who's hurting her.

Aron. That bastard is gonna pay for raping my girlfriend! GAHH! BASTARD MOTHERFUCKER! I continued to run, while shouting profanities at him in my mind. I kept turning corners, wishing the hall was smaller.

"Ja-ay-ay-ay-ay! Please... help... me... he's... hurting...me..." Veronica was sobbing louder, but I wasn't any close to finding her. I was pissed at myself for not running faster. I have to find her-

I stumbled upon a door. I fought with the door knob, but finally the door opened. I saw the last thing I wanted to see.

Aron. Inside my girlfriend. Raping her. Bastard! FAGGOT-ASS BASTARD!

I pounced on him, wrestling him to the ground. I began throwing punching him, hard, to the face, trying to knock his teeth out.

"Stop, Jay!" He called.

"You were raping my girlfriend. I never wanna hear you speak again. I... HOPE... YOU... FRY! BURN IN FUCKING HELL, MAN-WHORE!" I revved my hand back, and I stabbed Aron with a knife I didn't know I had. And I kept stabbing him. It was only when I stopped that I realized I killed him. And his blood was on my hands.

I tried wipping them on my jacket, but that only made it worse. I threw the knife, and turned toward Veronica. That was when I realized she killed herself. I saw the image, again and again, of her stabbing herself. I couldn't take it: I began to fucking cry.

I felt someone stab me from behind.

Awake

I rose from my dream, screaming in painful agony. I felt my back: nothing. I felt my whole body: nothing. Phew, for a minute there I thought I was dead.

"You alright Jay?" George asked tenderly.

"Yeah. Bad dream. Just go back to sleep," I said, my voice full of lies. I layed back down, facing away from George.

"............you wanna talk about it?" George asked, soft like silk, in a none-gay way.

"No."

"It won't help if you keep it all bottled up, Jorel. You're going to emplode if you keep old emotions cooped up inside. Look at my eruption at the Grammys." He laughed.

"I know your right, but you never heard it from me."

"Fair. Now talk... please."

I sighed a loud sigh. "I... I had a dream about Veronica getting raped. And then me getting stabbed in the back. Literally."

"Okay. Bad dream big time. Why did you have this dream again?"

"I haven't gotten over it entirely, I guess... No, I know I haven't gotten over it," I answered honestly.

"Tell me the whole story."

That made me turn over. "What?"

"Tell me what happened. When you found out to now." George said it with such pizazz, making hand gestures and everthing.

"Are you sure?" I asked tentivly.

"Yeah-THEN we'll get own to business and talk about location in the morning. 'Kay?"

"Sounds 'good' to me."

George just stared. "So begin."

"It started... about three and a half months ago, when I noticed my girlfriend acting strange. She talked to me differently, she hugged me differently, and she kissed me differently."

"Always the worst when the kiss is different."

"So I did a little digging. I followed her to a 'secret' location, and there I saw her meet with Aron. She looked okay... then she came out of the warehouse. She looked awful. I went home, and waited for her. When she came in the door, I asked her why she met with Aron. She got mad. She said it's none of my business. I did leave it alone after that, but my curiousity go the better of me. I followed her again, to a different location. I followed her in. But I walked back out."

"Why?"

"I trusted her."

"Ah."

"I later found out from her that he had some of our material. He threatened to trash our studios and and leak the material, remixed of course, if she didn't have sex with him. I was pissed, and I went on a murderous rampage. I trashed his two studios, his house, and a few of his friends houses. I wrote TRAITOR on there walls, and I wrote MAN-WHORE on his. Then one day, I saw him leaving some shop. I got in my car, and followed him. Darkwas approaching fast, so when midnight came, I pulled out of the bushes and ran him over."

"Damn."

"I got out of the car, knife in hand, and I started stabbing him. A lot. And I killed him. Then I realized what I did. I had to hide the body. So I did. But, when tourists found him, they thought a terrorist did it. I covered my tracks so well that the entire state of California thought that terrorists had made a claim against it. Weird, huh? But when I told Veronica, she flipped. She said she never wanted to see me again, and that I was a murderer. I didn't see her for a few days. Then I found a suicide note, stating that she was pregnant, and that it wasn't mine. The note said she was gonna jump off something. Then the note said something I didn't expect:

Jorel, I love you. Don't ever think I haven't. You were the best thing to ever happen to me. But I can't bare baring a child that's not yours, and from one of your preious 'friends'. I can't take it. I'm going to kill myself. Please, don't stop me. I can't see the look on your face when the baby is born. I... I'm not gonna put you through that kind of hell. You're alrady so full of hell sometimes. It's better this way. I do love you. From the bottom of my heart. Forever. Love, Veronica."

"I'm so sorry, Jay. That must have been... hell."

"No need to be sorry, you didn't do anything. After they found her body, I decided I needed to hide. That day I said I was leaving the band. It's because I didn't want you guys labeled as terrorists because of me. So I left. Then you guys found Jasmine." I noticed George winced at her name. "All that shit went down, we crashed the Grammys, and... here we are."

"Damn. I now saying sorry isn't going to change the past, but that's the only thing I can think to say."

"It's fine. I do feel better now that I talked aout it, actually."

"Told you so."

"Yeah, whatever. What about you? I told you something deep. Now it's your turn."

"What do you what to know?" George said with no hestation to his words.

"I wanna know about Jasmine," I said with confindence.

George sighed a lonely sigh. "I spilled it all on stage. What more is there to say?"

"Do you really love her? Like, would you marry her? If you ever had the chance, I mean?"

He thought for a bit. "Yeah. I really love her. And yes, if I ever had the chance, I would marry her. If she'll have me..." He added quietly.

"That's all I really wanted to know. Now, about Arizona..."

"What about it?"

"When the carrier train stops, we'll hurry and get off. Then we'll head for the nearst train station. We'll buy two tickets and head to Texas. We'll do the same thing there, and buy tickets to North Carolina. Then we'll head to Maine. And what happens, happens."

"Okay. But how do expect us to buy tickets? We don't have any money."

I knew he'd ask that. I grabbed my bag and unzipped the conpartment that held my two thousand in hard cash. I flashed George with it.

"You bastard... YOU'VE BEEN HOLDEN OUT ON ME!"

"No, I haven't. This money is for tickets and provisions, ONLY. No alcohol, girls, or anything else unesscary."

"Okay."

"No complaints?"

"Well, I don't need girls, and I'm off alcohol."

"True, true."

"So what are we gonna do when we get to Maine?" George asked curiously.

I thought about what we might have to do when we get there. I wasn't to sure. But there was one thing, above all else.

"Live to see our friends again."