Blue Rose

The girl with eyes as blue-green as the sea stared out at the horizon. The sun was setting. It was her favorite time of day. It was their time—hers and Christian’s. Or, at least, it had been. This time had always made her feel safe. It had been almost sacred. Nothing had been able to bother them then. It was like Edward Cullen said in Twilight, in a different context of course: “Twilight. It’s the safest time for us,”

It hadn’t been safe enough in Key West. Not for anyone. A hand on her shoulder jerked her out of her reverie.

“What do you want Trey?” Crystal snapped.

“Why are you torturing yourself like this? Remember what the shrink said about keeping yourself busy?” Trey said.

“I am keeping myself busy,” she said.

“Flashbacks are not a way of keeping yourself busy,” he said.

Crystal didn’t reply to that as she resumed her staring. Trey knew that look too well. It meant she was getting lost in her memories again.

------------

A much happier Crystal Rose Varela stood on the boardwalk with her boyfriend, Christian Davis.

“Ah… eyes… burning… too much PDA,” joked Jamison Timber, one of Christian’s best friends. He was referring to the current in-your-face public display of affection by Christian and Crystal.

Christian chuckled against Crystal’s lips.

“Come on Christian. Seriously man… I think my eyes are clouding a little too,” Trey said.

Christian reluctantly broke away from Crystal and looked around at his friends. They had graduated from North Miami Senior High the day before and were all together to talk about driving arrangements for their trip to Key West. They had been planning a trip like this since their freshman year. Now they were just excited to finally get on the road.

“Yeah, yeah… just don’t give me shit when you and Layla hook up,” smirked Christian.

Trey told him to shut up and gave him a smack on the arm. Layla blushed.

“So can we all fit in one car?” asked Jamison.

Christian cast a glance at his navy blue Nissan Altima and counted the seats.

“Yeah. And I’m sure Layla won’t mind being squeezed between you and Trey,” Christian said, a teasing smile appearing at his lips.

Layla flushed an even deeper crimson color and Trey’s face gave the impression of a bank robber who’d just been caught with red dye all over him.

“We gettin’ in these cars or what?” Crystal asked, excited. There were enthusiastic nods of agreement and the five of them piled into the Altima.

Their first night in Key West was filled with watching movies, playing video games, and a midnight game of Truth or Dare.

“Layla, truth or dare?” Crystal asked.

“Truth,” Layla answered in her quiet voice.

“Do you like Trey?”

Layla blushed again.

“Come on Lala…,” Christian encouraged, using her nickname.

“…yeah…,” Layla said. They wouldn’t have heard her if they weren’t so used to her quiet demeanor. All eyes then flashed to Trey.

“So, wanna ask someone or do you pass?” Christian asked.

“Pass,” she said.

“Okay, Trey, truth or dare?” Christian asked, echoing his girlfriend’s mischievous smile.

“Dare,”

Christian grinned.

“I dare you to kiss Layla,” he said.

Jamison, who had been silent the entire time, did not look happy at this turn in events. In fact, he looked pissed. No one noticed this. They were all too busy focusing on Layla’s and Trey’s reactions. Trey looked nervous. Layla, on the other hand, looked like she was going to have an explosive nosebleed like Sunako from The Wallflower had whenever the “creatures of the light” got too close. It was an amusing thing to watch.

“Well, go on,” Christian said.

Trey scooted across the carpet and completed the dare. The eyebrows of the three remaining people shot up, however, as the two got more passionate with their dare.

“Get a room, why don’t you?” Jamison said. He was joking, of course, but his tone said different. There was an angry edge to his voice that was almost impossible to hear unless one was listening really close… and his friends weren’t. The pair broke apart and Trey smiled at Layla. As she smiled back, Jamison’s grimace only deepened. The game continued well into the night. It was three a.m. when they all finally crawled into bed.

Jamison’s mood seemed to have lifted as the group prepared to explore Key West the next night. He was back to making jokes about too much PDA—to both Christian and Trey.

“You’re in a really good mood tonight,” Crystal remarked.

She could have sworn she almost saw him skip.

“Just had fun last night,” Jamison replied.

“Really? You were so quiet last night… I was sure you weren’t having a good time,” Crystal said.

Jamison just shrugged in response. What he was really thinking about was how he and Layla hadn’t been able to sleep last night, so they’d stayed up till sunrise talking. He thrived on good conversations and, surprisingly, his and Layla’s had been. He’d never known she was so passionate about music and movies.

“Should I be jealous?” Trey asked, joking.

He had just approached Jamison and Layla, who were dancing. She laughed and excused herself to go to the bathroom.

“She’s great, huh?” Trey said, looking at Layla with affection.

“She is,” replied Jamison.

Only the most observant would catch Jamison’s mercurial mood as Layla made her way back through the crowd. She kissed Trey on the cheek and then the lips. They were still doing this a few minutes later when Jamison cleared his throat.

“Oh… sorry Jamison,” Layla apologized, embarrassed.

“It’s fine. See you later,” said Jamison curtly.

“Jame… what’s wrong?” asked Layla.

But Jamison had already disappeared into the writhing mass of bodies contained in the club. Yes, the good mood from the Sunset Festival had definitely evaporated.

They ended up leaving the club at about one a.m. Layla approached Jamison about his behavior in the club, but he acted like it had never happened. He sure has been acting strange lately… Layla thought. She shook off the ominous feeling that had suddenly settled on her shoulders and kept walking.

A loud bang shook everyonein the little cottage from a tranquil sleep.

“What the…?” Crystal said.

“It was supposed to storm tonight… did anyone lock the back door?” Christian said.

“You’re thinking about this now? And no, I don’t think anyone locked it, why?” Crystal asked.

“I dunno… I just have a bad feeling,” Christian said. That’s when they heard the first gunshot.

“Okay, now what the hell was THAT?” Crystal said, wide-eyed.

“Hide in the closet,” Christian instructed, wide-awake now.

“In the back of it,” he continued.

“You’re not going in there,” Crystal said, fixing him with an incredulous stare.

“What if they’re still asleep?” he said.

“Come back,” she said. Alive, she added in her head.

“Holy shit!” were the first words out of Christian’s mouth. What he saw was beyond comprehension. His best friend for as long as he could remember, Jamison Timber, was aiming a Western-style Colt .45 revolver at the wall in Trey’s room.

“Where did you get that gun?” Christian stammered.

“Oh, my dad was a big Gunsmoke fan,” replied Jamison.

“Where are Trey and Layla?” Christian asked.

“Hiding in the closet, thinking I don’t know they’re there,” said Jamison.

Christian instinctively placed himself in front of the white closet door and Jamison pointed the revolver at him.

“Move. You don’t have… much to do with this,” Jamison said.

“Do with what? What are you talking about?” Christian asked, trying to keep his voice steady.

“Trey and Crystal,” he replied.

“What?” Christian said.

Christian was holding his head as if he was keeping it in place. He tried to put the pieces in place, but they just wouldn’t fall into a logical pattern.

“Jame, can you put the gun down? I mean all this is unnecessary anyway, right? Can you do that for me?” Christian said.

“You know what? Enough talking. Move or I will shoot you. Trey has to die,” Jamison said.

“Why? Why does he have to die?” Christian was pleading with Jamison now. He was ready to do anything to talk Jamison out of shooting that gun.

“Didn’t I say to shut up?!” Jamison yelled.

Christian, naively believing he could reason with the crazy gunman, tried to get him to put down the gun again.

“Please. It’s not worth it,” Christian was teary-eyed.

“Goddammit Christian! Why couldn’t you have shut the fuck up this one time!” exclaimed Jamison.

Without another word, there was a second loud bang as the .45 caliber bullet sliced through the air and into Christian’s skull. His body slid down against the door, the shocked eyes unseeing as his body continued its bloody path to the floor. There was a groan from inside the closet. The bullet had traveled out of Christian’s skull and grazed Layla’s temple. She had insisted on covering Trey since she knew Jamison would never hurt her, at least. Light flooded their haven just then and Jamison saw that Layla was hurt instead of Trey. He swore.

“Layla, dammit… move. You weren’t supposed to get hurt—”

“Oh and Christian was?” she snapped.

“You’re not hurting Trey, so unless you want to kill me, you’re not getting him,” she continued.

A pained look crossed Jamison’s face. He turned the gun on himself and put a bullet into his own brain. His body hit the dresser and lay, spread-eagled, across the white carpet. The gun lay inches from his right hand.

“Someone has to tell Crystal about…” Layla broke off, gesturing to Christian’s dead body.

“I’ll tell her… before the cops do. I’m sure she called them already,” Trey said.

Layla could only nod as her gaze landed, and fixed, on the two dead bodies in the room.

---------

Crystal had convulsed into tears by this time, just as she had the night Trey told her Christian was dead.

“Shh… shh…” Trey murmured as he rocked her back and forth.

“Don’t let me do this next year, okay?” Crystal sobbed.

Today was the one year anniversary of Christian’s murder and Jamison’s suicide.

“Sure,” he said, still rocking her.

After her crying had quieted some, he stopped, but he didn’t let go of her. Layla came out about an hour later and took the seat beside Trey. Crystal’s head jerked up at the presence.

“You know, I’ve never been able to figure out why. Why you, Trey? And why would he shoot his best friend?” Layla said.

“All he said before he shot Christian was that it was about us. It was just… scary. To see someone you know so well… or thought you knew, turn into—”

“—a psychopath,” Crystal finished for him, bitterness in her voice.

There was nothing left to say. The three of them just stared out into the ocean as if it held the answers to all their questions.