Chapter 14
Tony
turned around to see where she was.
“Stop for a
moment,” he said and I did just that. I turned around to see where she
was. All we could see was smoke coming out of the hood of her car.
“I think we killed
her!” I said and we both got out of the car. I went around to look at my
back bumper.
“It doesn’t
look that bad,” said Tony as he came over and put his arm around my
shoulder. The sound of police cars and an ambulance were becoming louder and
louder.
“Oh my God, Tony.
What if I really did kill her?”
He sighed and put both of his arms around me.
“It wouldn’t
be your fault. We could just say that she was speeding and that she didn’t
see the parked cars ahead,” he said as he ran his fingers through my hair.
The police and ambulance came and they questioned us on the spot. Luckily
we got away with it, but then I had to hear from my family about it.
“You could have
been killed! What were you doing? What is Tony doing here? Do you realize what
you’ve done to that poor woman?”
They just didn’t understand what’s been going on. When I explained
to my aunts and uncles the whole story about Nannette and Tony, they FINALLY
understood and apologized for everything. My aunt said that if Tony was the kind
of man to overcome one of his worst fears just to be with the one he loved, then
he was worth keeping and fighting for. They had finally seen the light.
We were told that Nannette was still alive and was staying at the Valley
Presbyterian Church in Van Nuys. Tony and I decided to make a trip up to see
her.
“Are you sure you
want to do this, Jen?” Tony asked as we got into the elevator.
“Yes, I’m
sure. Maybe we can finally settle this once and for all.”
We went into her room and found her sleeping. She had a cast on her left arm,
stitches on her right cheek and a bruise on her forehead. I’m assuming
that was from hitting the steering wheel. There were all sorts of tubes hooked
up to this machine and going in and out of her to help her breath. Like I said
before, I didn’t know how to act like a complete bitch to anybody, but if
somebody annoyed me enough, they would go on my hate list. Of course now
Nannette was at the very top.
“Well, well. Look
at you. I’d like to see you try to jump on Tony now.”
“Jennifer!”
Okay I tried. Evil was just not in my nature. Even though I felt a strong
dislike in her, I couldn’t do anything, even though she was just lying
there so vulnerable.
“Hey let’s
play a game. How about ‘Pranks you shouldn’t do to somebody on their
deathbed.’” Did that sound evil enough?
“Jennifer, she can
probably hear you.”
“Good. I want her
to know that she made me move back here to make my life miserable. If she never
had told anybody, we’d still be in Scotland right now. Aren’t you
mad at her?”
“Yes, I am. And she
was making my life hell too when you went away.”
“Well this is the
only way I can get my anger out. Not unless I beat her to death.”
Tony came up behind me and put his arms
around my waist.
“Well don’t
you have a confession to make?” I asked Tony.
“I do,
actually.”
He let me go and walked up to Nannette’s bed.
“I was very
flattered in the beginning that you adored me. But then you just kept coming
back for more, and it got old and annoying. Your obsession with me has gone
quite out of hand in the past few months you have caused me so much pain by
exposing my relationship to Jennifer to the University. You knew how much it
would kill me to see Jen go away, but you thought it would make everything
better. Maybe only for you, but I’ve gone through enough pain in my life
already and then you came along to make everything worse. Then today you had to
chase us down all along the road. I mean, what the hell were you trying to prove
there? You ruined a part of Jen’s car and you almost lost your life
because of it!”
I went up behind Tony and put my hand on his shoulder. I looked at him and he
was grinding his teeth and clenching his fists.
“Oh God what the
hell were you thinking? You nearly killed me by making Jennifer leave me and
then now you try to kill the both of us in that fucking car chase and then
yourself just to get to me and I just don’t—“
Tony jumped up, waved his arms in the air as if he was about to hit Nannette. As
I was trying to grab Tony’s arms to make him stop, we struggled around and
he knocked over the respirator and the tubes came out of Nannette’s nose
and mouth. We both stood there staring at her as the machines started to make
beeping sounds.
“Tony! What have we
done now?!”
“I dunno! But
let’s just say that she started convulsing and things got awry as we tried
to calm her down and then all the tubes just flew out of her!”
It sounded crazy, but it might just work. Two nurses ran in the room to see what
had happened. Tony explained to them what he just told me. They seemed to
believe it and we both gave each other a relieved look.
Minutes later, Tony and I were in a waiting room near Nannette’s room and
a doctor came out and told us that Nannette was in a coma. Was this the closest
to revenge that we could get? Even though it was only an accident, there was
still a good feeling about it.
“Are you
okay?” asked Tony as we both stood up from the couch.
“Yeah. I mean, we
got our revenge, in a non-intentional sort of way. So there’s gotta be
some part of you that’s relieved.”
He stretched his arms above his head. “Yeah, a little. Don’t have to
worry about her anymore,” he said as he put his arm around my shoulder and
we walked out of the room.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
It was now Christmas Eve and most of my family was at my house having a party.
Tony and I agreed not to be so affectionate to each other with my family around.
They all said they were fine with the two of us being together, but still, I
could see them staring at us and giving us weird looks.
“Hey it’s
almost midnight! Get ready!” I announced to everybody in the house. It was
always my custom to stay up until midnight on Christmas Eve to open the
presents. The time was 11:59.
“Attention
everybody! I am going to give Jennifer her present first,” Tony announced.
“But Tony,
there’s only one minute left.”
“It’s okay.
By the time I’m done, the minute would have already
passed.”
I was sitting on the couch and Tony was standing in front of me as
everybody’s eyes were fixed on us.
“We’ve only
known each other for a short period of time, but ever since I first saw you,
something just clicked inside me. You seemed different from everybody else and I
had a very strong feeling that there would be something special between the two
of us. I knew that you felt it too. Ever since you came into my life, I’ve
had happier days, and found somebody that I could hold, and just be with.
Recently, as the times have proved, nothing was going to come in between us.
Whether it was our age difference, or the law, or even a person, I wasn’t
going to allow anything to interfere. I love you, Jennifer, so very much and I
want to prove to you and to everybody just how much you mean to
me.”
He slowly got down on one knee and took out a ring from his pocket. Oh my God! I
gasped and covered my mouth with both of my hands. Everybody else in the room
seemed to gasp along with me! Tony was going to ask me to marry him! He took my
left hand into his…
“Jennifer, will you
marry me?”
I looked deep into those brown eyes of his and felt that mine were about to be
washed up in tears. There was no doubt about what my response was going to
be…
“Yes, Tony. I will
marry you!”
Everybody in the room cheered and made all sorts of loud noises. Tony put the
ring on my left hand and gave it a kiss. We both stood up and hugged each other
tightly.
“I love you!”
I yelled out loud. He held me tight, picked me up and spun me around.
“I love you too,
dahling!”
He put me back down on the ground and the next thing I knew I closed my eyes and
we engaged in a long and passionate kiss. As we stood there in each
other’s arms, the rest of the family continued in their celebration.