| "Shit.." Tay and Ike muttered at the same time and went running after Zac. Brit followed them back in, telling the bouncers to stay out of it and what Danny had done to Emma. By the time she was all the way in the building. Zac had Danny by the throat and was pounding the hell out of him, giving him as many shots to the belly as he could, until he could tell that Danny was NOT breathing well. Zac made two more painful connections with Danny's jaw before his brothers grabbed him and pulled him away. Taylor and Isaac dragged Zac back, trying to make their way out of the building as danny yelled about pressing charges, suing and the whole nine yards. After the third comment, Taylor couldn't stand it any more. He grabbed Danny by the throat and shoved him against the wall. "Go ahead asshole. I got your little package, today." he said through gritted teeth. "So let's see... you can be charged with blackmail, attempted RAPE, EXTORTION, because I know you took more from sugar than she needed to give you...oh and IF you DO decide to get cute and file charges or lawsuits? I will have VICE on your ass so fast you won't know what hit you. Candie is never late to the parking lot when she's turnin' a trick.." he said and stared her down. "Oh-ho..and from the look on her face, she ain't cuttin' you in..." he grinned maliciously, "Or maybe holding out juuuust a little, huh Candie girl?" he smiled coldly at her as her face froze in guilt. Taylor shoved Danny against the wall one more time, making his head rock back and hit the wall with a loud thud before her let go. Danny slid down the wall into a crouch, holding his neck and glaring at Candie. The three brothers left, listening to Candie try to cover herself with Danny. Once out in the parking lot, Tay and Zac realized that they should be looking for Emma, if she hadn't already smashed her car into a tree, or off the steep drop that ran along the shore on PCH 1. Zac knew she'd head for a beach, it was just a matter of which one. He jumped in his truck, taking Emma's purse and other things with him. Tay and Ike went home, dropped off their parent's car and took off together, to look for Emma. |
| Emma had trouble focusing as she sped off into the darkness, not knowing where she was headed. Her head was swimming and tears poured down her face, making her eyes sting. She mentally berated herself, over and over, for not listening to Taylor, not telling Zac the whole truth from the beginning. She hoped that once she was gone, Taylor and Zac could get past the whole thing and stay best friends, she knew they loved each other more than they let on. She also felt even worse knowing that it was HER and her selfish stupidity that was coming between them, which caused the tears that had almost stopped enough for her to see better, to begin flowing like a river again. She shivered slightly, and only then did she realize that she was speeding along in nothing but her underwear. 'Fuck it..' she muttered under her breath and swiped at her eyes again so she could see to drive. She reached in the back seat and grabbed the blanket that Zac had washed for her, then tucked it around her lap. She figured she'd better stop somewhere soon and put some clothes on, then find a place to crash until the nausea from the drugs, and what her life had become in the last 24 hours, subsided. It was then that she realized she was headed for the beach that she and Zac always hung out on, and silently berated herself again. A wave of nausea overtook her, one that she could not control, and she swerved to the shoulder of the highway, slammed on her brakes and got the door open before she threw up inside the car. Once that episode was over, she closed the door, wiped the sweat from her forehead and started driving again. She pulled the cash that was still stuffed in her bra out and threw it on the seat next to her, taking a quick mental count to determine how much she had to hold her, until she decided what she was going to do next. "Son of a BITCH.." she hollered at herself, when she figured out that her driver's license was still in her tiny bag at the bar, along with her set of keys and clothes she had been wearing. She swerved to the side of the road again, emptied the contents of her stomach onto the dirt, wiped her mouth and her forehead and continued north. She watched her speed carefully then, not wanting to get pulled over in THIS condition and land in jail. A sudden thought popped into her mind, and she yanked open the glove box and dug through quickly. She breathed a sigh of relief when she found what she was looking for, the wad of cash she had taken from her dresser drawer when she left her parents' place the night before. She knew she had enough on her to last a while, especially if she camped on the beaches that permitted it. That was when where she was going hit her. She would go as far north as La Jolla. No one, not even Jen, would think to look for her there and she needed a few days to get her shit together and decide what she was going to do, where she was going to go. Zac wouldn't think to look for her there either, she thought, remembering how she'd explained that alot of the beaches between LA and Santa Barbara were too rocky to surf, although if you were REALLY good, you could surf them and not wind up as hamburger on the jetty. But only morons did that. La Jolla. That was the place, too rocky to surf the public beach and the paying campground didn't allow it, and if anyone came looking for her, she could bolt into the hills on the other side of the highway. She had to pull off the road and let her stomach do it's thing a few more times before she finally reached her destination. She stopped at a gas station on the hillside of the highway, used the facilities, threw up again, then put on some clothes, muttering about how she hoped she'd damaged Danny beyond recognition 'down there'. |
She almost entertained the idea of going back to finish the job, if she discovered she hadn't, because whatever he'd slipped her, he'd given her too much. She wouldn't be puking her guts out from only two pulls, granted they were large ones, and she wondered if she'd still be alive if she'd finished the whole pint. She washed her hands ran them through her hair and went back to her car. Emma grabbed some cash from the front seat, went into the gas station and bought a six pack of bottled water and a box of crackers, then hopped back in her car and drove over to the campground. She pulled in and stopped at the attendant's booth and looked for the amount of money she'd need for a spot. "You're here awfully early, babe.." the annoying attendant told her. He looked to be about twenty and he had shaggy blonde hair, telling Emma he was a hard core surfer and only did this job so he'd be near the beaches at dawn, when the surf was up. "You know I can't let you surf here." he continued. "DO YOU SEE A FUCKING SURFBOARD?" she snapped, in no mood to put up with shit from anyone. Her head was pounding now, she still felt queasy and she was exhausted. All she wanted to do was park her car and crash before she hurled again. "Easy babe.." he stepped back and blew out his breath, raising his eyebrows. "Damn.." he muttered as he gave her her change. "Sorry man.." seh relented a little, the guy was just doing his job. "I just really need to crash. I don't even have my board, okay?" "Righteous...hey if you wanna later, surf's awesome over at the strand." he told her. "I'll let you know, dude.." she grinned and took the parking pass from him and slid it on the dash where it could easily be seen. "Later.." he said as she pulled away to find her spot. "Yeah..much.." she murmured to herself and pulled into the space number he'd given her. She thought about sleeping in her car, but decided that she'd probably roast when the sun came up and she already felt shitty. She pulled the beach blankets out and laid them on the beach, in front of her camping space, locked her money in the glove box and then locked the car and shoved the key into her shorts pocket. She sat on the blanket and wrapped up with the other one and watched the waves crash against the rock jetty as more tears spilled down her cheeks. When she'd finally cried until she thought her tear ducts had dried up, she laid on her side, pulled the blanket over her shoulder and slipped willingly into a deep, black sleep. |