No Second Chances

By Rachel

AN: Hey guys this is Rachel. I took a short break from my break from writing *sure lasted long didn’t it? Lol* and I just wanted to thank some people. Thanks to Ebs and Sammy for their awesome ideas! And Thanks to Julie, Nattie, Sammy, and Ebs for their continuing support. And last, thanks to you, the one that is reading this story. I hope you enjoy this story. This story is a lot different from what I usually write and I hope you enjoy! Take care and email is always appreciated and keeps me going! Now on to the story!

You couldn’t possibly imagine how cold a jail cell is, unless of course you have been held in one before. I never thought I would be the one to experience what it would be like to be imprisoned in a cell that is barely large enough for one person, much less two. Because of my intense jealousy and rage, I have done something as horrible as kill someone. Did this mean I was a murderer? How could I be a killer, I didn’t do what I did intentionally. Did I?

***

It wasn’t just one event that made me mad enough to kill, it was a combination of several things. As I look back on it now, I realize how ridiculous my reasons to do this were. If it were humanly possible, I would take back everything I had said and done. Now I can only imagine what the future would have held if I only I hadn’t let my anger and desire for revenge take over my self-control and changed my life and the lives of the people around me. If only.

***

“Brian! Where in the hell is the packet of papers I had on the table, Brian?” I yelled while storming through my kitchen where I had laid the mail just minutes earlier. I watched with anger filled eyes as my cousin walked in and scratched his head sleepily.

“How should I know?” he mumbled as he walked to the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of water from inside.

“Why in the hell don’t you help me find it Brian? I know it was here just a few minutes ago. It didn’t grow legs and just walk out the door you know?” I hissed through clenched teeth. Moments later Brian was standing at the other side of the table lifting up the hazardously thrown papers on the table to find the packet. Minutes later we both sighed in defeat after not finding the packet? Where in the world could it be?

“What was the packet about, Kev?” Brian asked.

I sighed as I ran my hand roughly over my unshaven face and mumbled my answer hoping Brian had heard so I wouldn’t have to repeat myself. “Hannah” was my answer.

Brian looked up and said “oh” and got up from the table to throw away his now empty water bottle. Brian seemed to know not to push the subject and waited patiently for me to say something. The moments of silence was suddenly broken when a thought suddenly hit me.

“Hey Brian?” I said turning towards my cousin. “Where is Nick?”

“In the computer room. Why do you think he took the packet?” he said.

“It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if he did, Bri.” I replied.

“He isn’t a thief!” Brian hissed. I sighed and got up from my seat, walking towards the computer room just down the hall. I hadn’t meant it that way. I never said Nick was a thief, I just meant that the boy is curious and still, at almost 22 years old, gets into stuff he isn’t supposed to; just like a child. I hoped that if the papers were in Nick’s clutches, that they would be in excellent condition after all the fighting my lawyers had to do to get a hold of the only other copy of the papers, my only hope to get custody of my 4 month old daughter Hannah. Just a year and a half of being married to my long time girlfriend, Kristin, our marriage had ended on a bad note. And within that time, our daughter Hannah was born and now Kristin had custody of her and I was fighting back. The judge that had handled our case just last month said Kristin would be a more suitable parent than I would, his reasoning being I traveled too much and wouldn’t be able to provide the care a young child needed. HA! Like she could do better. Well, yeah maybe he was right about the traveling part, but I knew if given the chance I would be the best dad in the world.

Hannah was the one thing that kept mine and Kristin’s marriage alive for this long. Shortly after getting married, silly arguments erupted causing strain on our marriage. We argued over the stupidest stuff, anything from who took the trash out to my tour schedule. When we had said “I do” we thought we could handle married life, but what happened between us is still a mystery to everyone, including us; everyone thought Kristin and I would grow old together and have many children even we did, but look what happened. We did have one child together and that was Hannah. When we discovered Kristin was pregnant, we was almost halfway through with the amazingly quick for us divorce process but immediately decided to wait until after the baby was born and not long after she was born, Kristin was no longer my wife and I was fighting for custody of my only child.

“Hey Nick” I heard Brian say into the computer room. The next thing I heard was a “Oh shit” hissed from inside and looked inside the room, the sight causing me to widen my eyes in anger and I looked at the scene before me.

“How could you be so clumsy Nick?” I hissed not noticing him flinch away in fear.

“I’m s..so..sorry” he stuttered while trying to pick up the overturned Pepsi can and trying to soak up the spilled drink with his shirt. “I didn’t mean to” he whimpered when he seen my angered looked when my eyes seen what the spilled Pepsi had spilled on.

“The papers!” I shrieked. I realized that the papers were beyond repair and couldn’t’ control the anger raging within me like an erupting volcano. “OUT NOW!” I bellowed, trembling with rage. Nick didn’t think twice as he gave Brian a terrified look and pushed past me, running out the door. I threw down the papers in disgust when I heard the front door slam and slammed my fist down on the desktop. “Why does he always do this stuff?” I asked Brian moments later when my anger at Nick and declined slightly.

“He didn’t mean to Kevin, accidents happen.”

I let out a hoarse laugh and stared into my cousin’s confused eyes. “I will probably never get custody of Hannah now Brian, you know how hard it was for my lawyers to convince the judge to give me those papers to sign and to give me a second chance. That damn judge already believes I’m not fit to be a parent, that was my only chance at getting Hannah back. It may have been a small chance, but at least it was a chance and now Nick ruined it!” I said, my voice ending up in a yell as my voice rose in anger.

“Hey don’t take it out on me, I didn’t do it.” Brian said.

“Sorry Bri.”

“It’s ok, Kev. I guess I had better go now, I know you probably don’t want to see Nick again anytime soon, but remember we have that meeting at his house in a few hours.”

“Why his house?” I whined, even though I knew the answer.

“Cause I’m staying there until the police catch the people who are having a good time breaking into houses in mine and Leigh’s neighborhood and because we decided weeks ago to have this meeting there.”

“Oh great” I mumbled “What you going to do if anyone breaks into your house Brian? Do you think that was wise to leave your house unoccupied while this is going on, what if they take something important?”

I watched as Brian rolled his eyes and I felt my anger erupt inside again. “Well Leigh and I took the important stuff out of the house, the other stuff can be replaced. She took some with her to her parents house and I have some stuff that I’m asking Nick to hold for me until they catch those people.”

I nodded and about yelled out obscenities as a car horn from outside was heard, impatiently ringing out every few seconds. Brian chuckled slightly as he looked out the window seeing Nick sitting impatiently in his Durango.

“Well I have to go now before Nick pisses your neighbors off. Remember it was a accident and don’t stay mad at him. You will get custody of Hannah, don’t worry about it, ok?” Brian said as he walked out of the computer room and down the hall to the front door. I walked out behind my cousin and watched as he ran outside and climbed into Nick’s Durango, amazed at how fast Nick could drive out of my driveway, hoping he didn’t hit anything.

I then looked down at the packet of papers in my hands and my anger flared within me again as I seen the Pepsi stains on the once white paper. “I will get you back Nicky, don’t worry.” I thought with a smirk on my face. “I will get revenge, mark my words. You have caused trouble in my life, and I will be sure to return the favor” with those closing thoughts, I slammed the door shut and locked it behind me, preparing to get ready for the meeting at Nick’s house, the whole time planning my revenge.

***

Hours later I snickered to myself as I grabbed the small prescription bottle off the table. I had spent almost half a hour crushing the pills into a fine powdered form which would be not as easy to detect in someone’s food. I had finally had my plan for revenge planed out. While my band mates were busy preparing for the meeting and the dinner we usually had after we discussed what we needed to, I would slip upstairs into Nick’s office and “take a peek” at what was in his filing cabinet. And then once I found something important, I would just do exactly what he did to my papers, somewhat destroy them or maybe I would just hide them, depending on how much time I thought I would have. Then, I would “help” them prepare dinner and serve it and when no one was looking, I would sprinkle the powder over Nick’s food. No, it wasn’t anything bad. Just something that would make him sick for a few days; a mixture of Zantac and a prescription allergy medication I took during the summer, it shouldn’t do much harm. I took one last look at the clock in my living room and quickly walked out of the house and into my car, ready to put my plan into action.

***

“Hey Nick, I need to you to do me a favor.” Brian said suddenly from his seat beside the TV.

“Yeah?” he heard his friend mumble from inside the kitchen.

“Remind me after the guys leave to get my Medical Alert Bracelet info from those papers I gave you so I can send off the order in the morning for another one.”

“Ok” Nick replied, “But why do you need another one, did you lose your first one?”

“Yeah the clasp on it was messed up and it finally broke a few days ago when Leigh and I were out and I didn’t notice it until after we got home. I just haven’t gotten around to order another one.”

“Oh ok.”

The conversation then died for several minutes, the only sound heard within the house were the low voices coming from the tv and Nick walking around in the kitchen. Suddenly a knock was heard at the door and Brian got up to answer it, knowing that in case it was Kevin, Nick probably didn’t want to answer it. Brian greeted his cousin and allowed him inside, surprised to notice that Kevin didn’t seem to be very angry. Just as he was about to ask his cousin how he was doing, a knock was heard again at the door and Brian opened the door, seeing two very talkative men at the door, Howie and AJ. Nick then came out of the kitchen and joined in on the lively conversation. When Kevin was sure no one was paying attention he crept up the stairs quietly, if anyone asked where he was, he would say the bathroom if anyone asked where he was, deep inside he knew it was the perfect plan for revenge.

***

When I reached the top of the stairs I looked downstairs over the railing to make sure no one had noticed my disappearance, and I was pleased to see that all four of my younger band mates were still talking 100 miles a minute. I smiled as I turned around and seen the door to Nick’s office ajar and stepped inside. The file cabinet was right behind the door so I shut the door, leaving it open a few inches; just the way I had found it and opened the drawer to the cabinet. I gazed over the titles of the file written in Nick’s sloppy handwriting, losing interest until I seen the folder labeled “Nick’s Medical” and smiled to myself. I picked the folder up and quickly flipped through the pages not really paying attention to the content of the papers within. I quickly shoved the folder in the trash when I heard Brian’s voice calling my name from downstairs and got up from the floor but not before shoving a bunch of obviously used papers on top of it, so it wouldn’t be found to easily, not realizing what important information the file held.

***

After Brian and the guys questioned me about where I had been and accepted my answer, we started the meeting which only lasted about 30 minutes. After the meeting I took a few deep breaths to calm myself for I knew that I would be putting the last part of my plan into action. I reached down my side to make sure the bottle was in my pocket, once I made sure it was I got up from the couch and entered the kitchen taking deep breaths along the way. Did I really want to do this? Hadn’t I done enough? I urged myself to go on with my plan since I had already completed the first step and started helping Nick and Brian place the food on the plates before I could back out of what I was doing. Once Brian and Nick had left to take Howie and AJ their plates and drinks, Kevin slipped the small bottle out of his pocket and with a quick look over his shoulder he sprinkled a healthy dose of the powdered medications over the slice of homemade pizza that was on Nick’s plate and then walked to the refrigerator to get a can of shredded Parmesan cheese, remembering that Nick (or was it Brian?) had liked it on his pizza and sprinkled it on top, pleased at how well the cheese blended in with the medications. I then walked into the living room and handed Nick and Brian their plates and walked back into the kitchen to get the drinks they all had requested. A few minutes I smiled in glee as Nick walked in the kitchen with 2 empty plates and grabbed some more pizza off of the pan on the stove and grinned sheepishly when I gave him a look.

“What?” he said “Me and Bri were hungry”

I just shook my head and took the drinks into the living room, waiting for the medications to affect.

***

20 minutes had passed, then 30, and then over a hour had passed and nothing was happening to Nick. He sat happily on the floor in floor in front of his big screen TV playing Nintendo with AJ as the rest of us watched. I barely paid attention as Brian leaned over and whispered something in Nick’s ear and walked upstairs. If I had paid attention I would have noticed my cousin was having difficulty breathing from the chest pains that shot through his body and that he was covered in sweat. Moments later, a loud thud was heard from upstairs and we all rushed upstairs, what greeted me was something that changed my life forever.

***

My youngest cousin died in my arms that night. After collapsing upstairs, Brian slowly lost consciousness and went into cardiac arrest. I held him in my arms as I cried and held him close to me while I smoothed his hair away from his sweaty forehead. Just about 3 minutes before the paramedics arrived, Brian’s heart stopped for the last time. When the paramedics came and tried all they could to revive him I felt a part of me die right along with him. As the paramedics loaded his lifeless body onto a stretcher to transport to the hospital as they continued in their efforts to bring him back to us, I lay my head gently on his chest, knowing that his already weak heart would never beat again and it was all my fault.

The doctors at the hospital concluded that Brian took some medication he was allergic to and it cause a severe reaction that claimed his life. How was I to know that he was allergic to those meds and that he and Nick would trade plates, giving Brian the pizza with the tampered toppings? A few hours after saying our final goodbye to Brian at the hospital, we all gathered at Nick’s house to give each other support. I snuck upstairs and dug through the trash can in Nick’s office and found the folder I had thrown away earlier. I then took the time to go through the contents, shocked to see that including Nick’s medical papers, were Leighanne and Brian’s and I then remember what Brian had told me earlier that day, that Nick was keeping important papers for him. It wasn’t till the next day that I confessed my crime. You see, Nick blamed himself and tried to relieve his pain by taking a few more painkillers that he was prescribed to take. Luckily, Howie had caught him in time and he was rushed to the hospital and he was going to be ok but held a few days for observation. Before I confessed my crimes, I had asked my friends to please forgive me and then I told them what happened. They all were shocked and AJ had notified the hospital security, who in turn contacted the police. So now I wait in this cold, dark cell for my trial to begin. Hoping that I am given a second chance, but knowing second chances are few. Because of my anger and jealousy, I lost someone very precious in my life, who had a full life in front of them and now didn’t have a chance to live it. Let this be a lesson to not let anger and jealous control you because the same results may befall you.

The End

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