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Chapter 15
3:15pm
"I don't get it. Were is she?" Brian had been repeating the same question
for a half an hour.
"Chill Rok." A.J. looked over at his friend. "It's obviously something important,
just give them time…she's got to come back sooner or later." He tried
to reassure Brian, but was barley convincing himself. He had no clue why
Sierra wasn't here.
Brian sat with his arms folded over his legs, staring at the ocean and thinking.
He hadn't even heard A.J.
"Hey! There they come! Finally!" Nick jumped to his feet and pointed to a
jeep that was getting closer and closer and finally pulled into Sierra's
driveway.
Brian was up and halfway to the car before Nick could finish his sentence.
The other four guys excitedly un-packed all the food that they had been waiting
to eat; and spread it out on the blanket.
Brian reached the jeep to see a girl walking up to the front door. She was
rather stubby and had short hair, from what he could tell. Defiantly not
Sierra. He looked around but saw no one else, so he curiously walked closer
to the girl.
She stood on the doorstep, fumbling with something in the bag she was carrying.
"Excuse me." Brian took another step in the girl's direction.
At the sound of his voice, she jumped and jerked her head around, revealing
her face. She had small cuts on her checks and her eyes were red and swollen
from crying. She was obviously startled by him but quickly rubbed the remaining
tears from her face. She simply looked at him, her eyes saying so much pain.
"God, are you okay?" Brian moved closer to her, but she backed away. "What
happened to you, can I help?!" He spoke again. Brian did not know this stranger,
but could not stand seeing her in so much pain.
The girl dropped the bag she was holding, and brought her hands to her face
as she began to cry yet again. She collapsed onto the ground and wept
uncontrollably, her body shaking. Brian was immediately at her side trying
to comfort her; unknowing of why she was even crying.
"Please let me help you." His voice was soft and caring and the girl looked
up at him. She didn't say anything at first, didn't look capable of it.
"Oh…god…it's not--it's not me-it's not my fault-," She broke back
into crying.
"What's not your fault?" Brian stroked her brown hair and soothed her. "You
can tell me." He watched her for a response, unknowing that A.J. was walking
up to them from the beach.
"I should have been watching-I should have been." She inhaled deeply and
glanced at the strangers deep blue eyes, through her own blurry ones. She
could trust him she thought. She had to talk to someone. "We were coming
back from the airport-," She continued to looked up at him but stopped talking
when she saw his warm blue eyes now cold with fear.
His heart started to pound. All Brian could feel was this awful sense of
emptiness, and a sudden sense of loss. It couldn't be, he thought to himself.
No, no, please no. He imagined the worst and looked back at the girl wide-eyed.
He swallowed the lump in his throat.
"The airport?" His words were choked out.
"Yeah." She whispered back at him. The man looked like he had just seen a
ghost. "Um...we were coming b-back from the-the airport…" She continued,
but tried hard not to cry as she recalled the events. "…And this car
had stopped up ahead of us…it was too close." The girl took a deep breath,
attempting to hold back the pain that was now pulling on her heart.
"Sierra." Brian's mouth lipped out the name so automatically. His voice was
barley audible.
"Sierra?"--the girl stared up at Brian through crying eyes. "But--but…how
did you know?"
He had opened his mouth to answer, but then closed it again. A part of him
feared hearing what had happened to Sierra, the girl he barley even knew.
Yet there was another part, a part that was aching inside of him, telling
him to find her.
"Did you know her?" The girl's urgent voice rang in his ears.
"Know her?!" He couldn't seem to breathe.
"Brian?!" came a frightened voice from behind. A.J. stood a few feet from
the two that were sitting on the ground. His eyes were on Brian; huddled
like a child, he was ghostly pale and visibly shaking.
Brian still stared at the girl. "She's not-," his voice was raspy and cold.
"-What are you saying?"
He seemed to frighten her; she was hesitant to answer him. "How do you know
Sierra?" She managed to whisper.
Giving into trances of panic, he glanced away from her eyes, then back to
them, hoping to make some sense of the situation. His words came out with
no warning. "Please tell me she's okay."
He swallowed.
The girl studied his face warily. She had noticed the man standing behind
him, but was to consumed by the one sitting in front of her. How did he
know Sierra? Why wouldn't he answer her question?
"We were in an accident. Sierra's in the hospital." She watched him.
He swallowed again, feeling sick to his stomach. He wasn't able to think.
Didn't want to. Didn't want to believe any of it.
In a scratchy voice he asked, "Is she okay?" His heart pounded, waiting for
an answer.
The girl looked back at Brian and started to cry.
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