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“Weddings are supposed to be the happiest day of your life but not everything is meant to last forever”
Once the explosions stop, I focus on controlling my breathing to maintain control of myself. My wife looks up into my eyes as the world collapses around us and she smiles at me. The commotion in the room has everyone on the run for the nearest exit. Body parts are everywhere, and there are spot fires all over the room. I check over my bride and see the red soaking through the white lace. This cannot be happening. Her custom gown is bulletproof, so there is no way for this to be a serious injury.
Upon closer inspection a piece of shrapnel pierced through the fabric, but it is barely a small surface scratch on her beautiful skin. Claire is already positioned behind an overturned shelf away from the general commotion. Taking my bride’s hand, I lead her to the safety of the overturned bookshelf. Unholstering my backup gun from my ankle, I hand it to her with a quick kiss to the temple.
“I don’t see Rome. We need to find him and get out of here,” I instruct her and look to my sister. She nods in acknowledgement, understanding the need to get everyone out of here safely. We maneuver through the destroyed chapel around the broken pieces of pews and body parts while I scan for any resemblance of my best friend.
Near what’s left of the aisle, I find a crumpled Enzo ash covered and struggling to breathe. Ella rushes to his side to help me roll him onto his back and assess his injuries, but as soon as we turn him I know he is too far gone. There is a six inch piece of wood protruding from his abdomen that is going to be hard to survive. I suck in a hard breath and lock eyes with my wife. She nods in understanding that the apparent wounds that Enzo has sustained are too much for me to triage.
“Enzo, I need your eyes on me,” I instruct through my throat constricting. Squeezing his hand, I take my knuckles and dig them into his sternum.
“Fuck,” He coughs, gasping in a breath. The weight that is sitting on my chest lightens a little bit even if I doubt I’ll be able to save him. At least I can give him the honor of having last words and not dying alone. I may not have always seen eye to eye with Enzo, but he is like an uncle to me. He has taught me everything my father refused to and made sure that I have all the tools to be the husband that Ella deserves.
“Welcome back, Zo,” I respond with a smile on my face. Claire sits back against the overturned pew next to me nearly in shock while Ella is holding his other hand.
“Kid, can you give me a status?” He asks me, eyes darting between each of us. The way he relaxes slightly when his eyes land on Ella is not lost on me.
“You’re the first of ours that we’ve found,” I admit, my shoulders slumping. The weight of disappointing him is heavy on my shoulders. He was always more fatherly to me and onmore than one occasion saved me from myself. Coughing, he clasps our hands tighter. I am not sure how much time he has left with us. While loss is not new to me, this one cuts to the bone. He should not have been close enough to be taken out by the blasts. Something, or someone, changed the placements of the bombs between last night and the ceremony.
“Leo, when you get home, there is a new inhabitant for you. Potato is the best writing buddy and Ella could use the extra loveable support for when you get too bull-headed,” He tells me with tears in his eyes. It’s at this moment that I realize that Enzo knew his time was coming.
“Zo, Potato was Kat's. I know how much he has meant to you since she died. Are you sure about this?” I ask with tears in my eyes and sadness in my heart.
“I am not making it out of here alive kiddo. It’s time for you to take over and build back stronger. I know that I did not say it enough in my life, but I love you Leo like the son I never got to have,” He coughs up blood this time and then goes limp in my arms.
“Leo, we need to keep moving. The fire is starting to get out of control,” Ella says, setting his hand on his chest. I know that we do not have the ability to move him right now, but I hate the thought of leaving him here. I tamper down my emotions. We need to find Rome and get out of here.
Grabbing Claire’s hands, Ella and I move from the body of our fallen family member. We go back to searching the pews, my panic slowly rising that he hasn’t found us yet. I know the joke is that he is Romeo and I am Juliet but I am not ready for a negative outcome. Toward the back of the pews I see the black-on-black suit and the shaggy brown hair I have come to love. My heart stops in utter fear for the lack of movement that I am seeing.
Claire runs over to him with no regard for her own safety and just as I see him wake up, I see the body pop over the pews, gun drawn. My gun is raised and I pull the trigger, taking out the person, but not before the shot gets off. Looking back over to Rome and Claire, his body is in between her and the now disposed-of shooter. The darkening of the jacket brings a whole new fear down to my bones.
His body slumps against her and she props him against the wall with tears in her eyes. Ella and I move to where Rome is with Ella armed and at my back. His pulse is thready but present. The shot hit him in the lower back and is still inside his body. I need to wake him up. Tears openly stream down my face as I dig my knuckles into his sternum.
“My one true love, it’s time for you to wake up,” I beg, looking for any sign of reaction.
“Juliet, did you ask permission to manhandle me?” He sputters out, as his eyes open. The levity of the joke rips my heart out as my best-friend’s blood spills on the floor below us.
“You took a fucking bullet for me, Rome. I can’t live with it if anything happens to you because of me,” Claire cries out as she holds his hand with a death grip. She is holding onto him like he is going to vanish in front of her eyes and by the rapid spread of blood, she might not be far off.
“Listen, I need you to go to the bookshelf and find my copy of Romeo and Juliet. Inside will be everything you need,” He huffs out, clearly exerting more energy than anticipated. I cut the jacket and shirt off my best-friend to get a better idea of his injuries.
“Romaine, it’s not your time to wilt yet. Help is coming and you will be one of the first people escorted to the hospital,” I rebut, hoping that the help is close enough to save my best-friend. The amount of blood that he is losing is a cause forconcern so I yank off my jacket and shove it under him to staunch the wound.
“Lettuce be friends forever, Leo,” He says as he loses his battle with consciousness. Ella’s tears have ruined her make up and I know that I cannot look any better. Claire is catatonic holding onto his hand, to her lifeline that she is not ready to let go of. My bride wraps her arms around me as we all release our tears. A commotion comes from the hallway and both fear and hope rise up in us.
The dust is kicked up as a man enters the room with a radio. He calls for a stretcher and his partner as he places an I.V. in Rome’s arm and the defibrillator is wired to his chest.
“I know you don’t want to let his hand go but if his heart stops, I will have a much faster reaction to attempt to restart it if you are not holding onto him,” the EMT says empathetically to my sister. She looks at me before nodding and releasing his hand. The second EMT shows up and they pack the wound better before loading him onto the stretcher.
“While you clearly care for one another, we need both EMT’s in an effort to keep your friend alive. We are being routed to take traumas to Memorial Hospital and you can follow us there,” The second EMT instructs us as we attempt to take in the information. We follow him out to the ambulance and watch numbly as they load him and take him away.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
LEO
“Nothing lasts forever, but my love for her will never fade.”
The only thing holding me together as we drive away from the scene rushing to the hospital is Ella’s constant touch reminding me that she survived today. Claire sits silently in the back of the car, tears streaming down her cheeks. She may be a part of our world, but today has brought up so much of what she went through with her mom. I drive on auto pilot, barely holding onto hope that everyone who needed to survive today did.
