The Last Thing (30 page)

“What happened?” I hear the sound of water pouring in from
somewhere, but I still can’t comprehend what is going on. Everything is pitch
black. I wrack my brain for my last memory. Yes, I remember. I was driving Bash
home.  I remember fighting, yelling, and then he grabbed the wheel. I remember
metal crunching as the car flipped. He ran us off the road.  I look over to my
right. Sure enough in the passenger seat, I can see the outline of Bash’s large
body.  I reach out to shake him, but my strength is weak.

“Bash, wake up.” He doesn’t respond so I scream as loud as I
can. I scream until I can’t scream any longer. It’s only been a minute, but
time moves slowly. My mouth hurts and my throat is raw. Afraid that he’s dead,
I struggle with my restraints.   It’s no use, they are stuck.

“Shit, Shit…” I cry out as I move around. There is a sharp
pain near my ribs, and I’m pretty sure something is broken. Whatever it is, it
hurts like hell.  I’m going to die here. My eyes dart back and forth, the water
is filling up faster now. It’s almost at my knees. I reach up to feel for the
car light. When my finger smashes the button, the entire car fills with a dull,
flickering light.

“Quinn?”

I blink back the tears so that I can see clearly. My vision
focuses in on the only other person in the car. I let out a sob and hold my
hand out to Bash.

“Bash, I’m scared.” He squeezes my hand.

“It’s okay, Quinn. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to crash the
car—”

“You can apologize later.”

I shake my head. No, it wasn’t his fault. I shouldn’t have
started the fight.  I shouldn’t have broken up with him while I was driving; I
couldn’t take the drugs and fighting anymore. He was killing himself and me in
the process.

“Can you get out?” he asks me. I struggled against my
seatbelt again before giving up.

“I’m stuck. Bash, I’m scared. Help me.”

“Listen, I need you to pull my pocket knife from my pants
pocket. Cut yourself free. Hurry.”

“I can’t reach.” The truth is I don’t want to move. It hurts
too much. I begin crying all over again.

“Quinn, stay with me! Please listen. I can’t feel my legs. I
can’t move.” He speaks softly as if not to scare me. That is when I notice that
his side of the car is smashed up. His long legs are trapped under the dash and
blood pours from a cut on his head.

“Dammit, hurry. Please Quinn.” The panic in his voice urges
me to move so I slowly reach out to his jeans pocket. My fingers graze his
pocket, but the water is so high I can’t see what I am doing. I fumble until I
feel his familiar pocketknife within my grip. Pulling it out, I lose my grip on
it and it falls into the water.

“Shit!” I scramble around with my fingers, feeling for the
blade. I find it quickly and try to hand it to him.

“No, babe. This is all you.” His voice has a slight chuckle
as if it were hilarious that I would try and save him.

Without thinking, I use the knife to start cutting at my
seatbelt, but it isn’t cutting as fast as I would like. I try and ignore the
water but I can’t focus.

“I can’t,” I cry out in frustration.

“Quinn. You aren’t going to die tonight. Now cut!”

He keeps encouraging me as I saw away at the seat belt, but
it’s hard when I can’t see through the murky water. The water is almost to my shoulders
before I feel the belt release.

“I’m out.” I breathe a sigh of relief and scramble out of the
seat belt. I do my best to ignore the pain as I move in the water towards Bash.

“I’m getting you out.” I tug on his seat belt, but it’s stuck
as well. I waste no time grabbing his belt and moving the blade back and forth
along it.

“Just go, I can’t….” Bash is mumbling now. He’s lost to much
blood.  No I can’t lose him. I love him. He’s been by my side since we were
fifteen.

“I love you, Bash. Don’t leave me.” I put my head against his
face as I continue to cut the seatbelt. With my last remaining strength, I try
and pull him from the seat. It’s no use; he is twice my size and jammed pretty
good in there. I stay by his side until the car is filled, but after a minute, my
lungs are screaming for air.

I won’t leave you

I wake up in the same cold sweat, but this time I know it
wasn’t just a dream. A piece of me died that night in the car with Bash, and
now I had it back. The truth. No matter how horrible it was. I’d tried to save
him, but Bash saved me. Like that, my guilt melted away.

Chase

“You gonna sit out here all day?” I turned around to see
Ginger standing behind me with a coffee cup in her hands.

“I messed up,” I confessed.

“She hasn’t been here in for a while.”

“What?” My head jerked up. “What do you mean? Where is she?”

Ginger shrugged. “She needed time alone to figure some stuff
out. She’s at your new house. That’s where you should be too.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because Quinn is happy with you. You screwed up, but you’re
fighting for her. That should count for something. Every girl deserves a man
who will fight for her.”

“You’re a good friend, Ginger.”

She nods as if she wished she could believe it.

 “Think she will forgive me?”

“Of course, but do you remember when I told you I would cut
your balls off if you hurt her…”

Something about the way she said it, caused my balls to
shrivel up inside my body in fright.

“Yeah…”

“One more chance, now go get her.”

I stood up and gave Ginger a quick hug. Maybe she didn’t hate
me as much as I thought.

I jumped in my car and drove to our house.  It was where I
should have been all along. 

When I got there, I ran up the driveway to the front door. After
unlocking it, I went inside half expecting to see her in the kitchen eating.
The entire house was empty, and I panicked for a moment. Then I saw the stack
of papers on the kitchen table. I walked closer to get a better look. She was
sketching again. That was a good sign.  Looking through the sketches, a smile
lifted on my face.

There were sketches of costumes, funny -looking creatures and
one of a bridge. I ran my fingers along the edge of the bridge. Was this the
place where it had all happened? It was an old cement bridge surrounded by a
woody area.  If she was drawing, maybe she was painting as well. I took the
stairs two at a time to the baby’s room. The windows were open and the sunlight
lit it up. Sure enough, covering the wall was a huge naked white tree with
branches that expanded along the other walls.  I put my hand out to the paint;
the details in the bark made it look so lifelike. Out of the corner of my eye,
I noticed something blue.  I gasped as I took in the scene.  I craned my neck
back. She made a mural of clouds, stars, and a moon that swirled in different
shades of blue, gray, and black across the ceiling. A feeling of pride engulfed
me. She had found herself again.

“Chase?” a soft voice said from behind me.

Spinning around, Quinn stood there with her brown hair
sticking up all along her head.  She had on one of my old white shirts.

“You did all this? This is beautiful, Quinn. I knew you could
do it.”

She fiddled with the hem of her t-shirt for a moment before
looking up at me.

“What are you doing here?” she whispered. Her voice was
hoarse as if she had been screaming.

“Looking for you.” I reluctantly took a step closer but she
put her hands out to stop me. Tears rimmed her eyes and she shook her head.  I
could feel everything spinning. She wasn’t going to forgive me for what I did. She
wasn’t going to listen.

“Why? You’ve been gone for days. I waited here for you, but
you never came.”

“I was confused. I was wrong. I should have trusted in us and
put you before my career.” I searched her eyes for compassion, for something
that told me she could forgive me.

“Wait, Chase. I have to tell you something. I need to say it
before I lose my nerve. I love you; I can handle whatever problems come our
way. Whatever scandal Chloe tries to drum up, I can stand by your side. Just
let me try. Please don’t push me away. I can handle this.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. My voice wavered with uncertainty.
Was she saying what I thought she was saying?

 She nodded. “I was scared before, but now I’m certain I can
handle anything. Just look around.” She held her hands out to the side and spun
around a few times.

“I have my inspiration back and it’s because of you. You’ve
helped me learn to open up again. A piece of me died that night in the water,
but you brought me back to life. I can let my emotions flow through my art again.
All because of you…” She stepped closer and put a hand out to my heart. It
pounded against her palm. I enclosed my own hands over hers and leaned forward
so that our bodies were up against one another.

“I’m sorry that I left you to handle this alone. I’m always
making you cry, and it kills me. I was afraid of losing my career. A part of me
pretended that this was all about protecting you, but deep inside, I was being
selfish. I’m so sorry.”

“Shh,” she said. She caught my eye and moved her hand up to my
face. “People always left, but they never came back, not until you. Do you hear
me?”

“I love you, Quinn. I was scared, but that won’t happen
again.”

“I love you, too.”

I pulled her to me, pressing my lips firmly against her
mouth. She relaxed against me; letting me plant kisses against her cheeks and
face. A year ago, a relationship would have been unthinkable, but now I
couldn’t imagine my life without her.

“People are going to talk about us, but I don’t care what
they think, as long as you’re by my side.”

Epilogue

People screamed Chase’s name and asked him to pose for
photos, all while lights flashed in our eyes. Chase held his hands out to me,
his brown eyes sparkling with excitement.

He had to use two hands to pull me out of the limo since my
stomach had grown to a tremendous size. As I stood up, I gasped at the size of
the crowd. Hundreds of people had shown up for the premiere and they were all
here to see my boyfriend, my wonderfully talented boyfriend. I could feel their
eyes on my stomach. Chase’s mom got out behind me and squeezed my hand to
comfort me.

“You will be okay, hija.”

She gave us both a kiss on the cheek.

“Go with Randall, mami. He will make sure you get seated
safely.” 

She patted Chase softly on the cheek before walking off with
his bodyguard. Meeting her had been nerve-wracking, but I’d grown to love her
motherly care. I understood why Chase was such a mama’s boy.

This was the first time I’d appeared in public with Chase
since the scandal. The same scandal that Chloe had begrudgingly retracted only
days later. People hounded him for a few weeks, but eventually the stories died
down and they found better things to do.

Rhea hadn’t been too happy about Chase’s decision to stay
with me, but when Chase threatened to fire her, she quickly got her act
together and helped him clean up the mess. A few stories ran about my screwed
up past, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. This time I wasn’t alone. I
had Ginger and Chase by my side the entire time.

I was here to support Chase on his big day, and nothing could
have kept me away. I’d spent all day fixing my hair and makeup flawlessly;
Chase even had a gown custom made to fit me. Ginger had shown up separately,
and stood for pictures nearby. I gave her an excited smile as she strutted over
with Barrett on her arm.

“Isn’t this exciting? Chase’s big day.” Ginger gushed.

“Congrats, man.” Barrett gave Chase a hardy slap on the back.

“Thanks.”

“Word is you’re up for possible Oscar nominations,” Ginger
said.

Chase shrugged. “I don’t wanna jinx it, but it would be
awesome.”

Barrett put a hand out on my stomach, almost making Chase
lash out.

“You’re getting big, Quinn. Any day now.” He winked at me
with a knowing grin.

“We still have another month.”

Ginger grabbed Barrett’s arm. “You’re so lucky. I can’t wait
to have kids.”

Barrett scoffed. “Ginger, we aren’t ever having kids together.”

Ginger only rolled her eyes. “Come on; let’s get through this
press line.”

After they walked off, Chase squeezed my hand for
reassurance. He waved at a few other co-stars who showed up for moral support.
Tucker came with some random girl, and Harlow showed up with her father.

“You’re the most stunning woman here,” he whispered into my
ear. We walked hand in hand up the red carpet. It was amazing how all my
anxiety had disappeared. I used to feel so trapped in large crowds, but today I
felt normal. I was normal.