Chapter Thirty-Four - Mints, Anyone?
So what the hell was he going to do now? Had Aron called and he missed it or something? He checked his phone. No calls. Okay, he needed to see Aron.
Wait, he needed to take a shower first. They were seriously going to have sex. If what the girl had said was true ...
Of course it's true. Now we remember everything.
I'm so amazed how quickly you take credit. You said you had nothing but blank space in that part.
But now we know.
Yes, he knew. The news was everywhere now. The entertainment channel clearly had a slow day, and it was just repeating it every half an hour. Although he needed to take that shower, he chose to sit on the couch and watch the news again.
The ponytail girl seemed undaunted by the cameras and microphones pushed in front of her.
"Yeah, I do have the video," she said. "But the police need to take a look at it first. It's pretty dope," she added with conviction.
"So did you catch everything on your smartphone?" one of the reporters asked.
The girl nodded and smiled, seemingly quite pleased with herself.
"Can you tell us everything, from the top?"
This time, the girl looked at the police officer to her right, and the man nodded shortly.
"Well, I was, like, walking to catch the bus, and all of a sudden, I see Alex Ruskin," she started, her eyes all shiny now.
Of course, the guy was gay, but chicks still digged him. Who was he kidding? Every gal and guy, gay or straight, digged the fucker. Ah, well, Carter shrugged and continued to watch.
"So I take out my phone, and I start recording, but, you know, so that he doesn't see me or anything," the girl said. "He's looking behind him for like a couple of seconds, I don't know why, and then he just turns and stares ahead, chin up high, and looking fabulous."
"Did he notice you?" another reported asked.
"No, he was just looking ahead and he started crossing the street. Frankly, I didn't notice the fire truck, either. I guess I was too taken with Alex," the girl half-giggled. "He's just so cool," she added dreamily.
"What happened next?" someone interrupted the girl's wide-eyed dream.
"Well, I hear someone yelling, and I think like, what the heck, and there's this guy coming from behind, and bang! He practically pushes Alex away from the front of the freaking truck!" the girl said, now clearly excited. "And I'm like in total shock and Alex is basically rolling on the ground, but he doesn't look that badly hurt, and bang again! The fire truck practically hits this other guy full frontal, like I can still hear that sound! It was horrible!"
"So why didn't you help them or stay to call an ambulance, and tell the police what happened?"
The girl stole a look to her right again, and this time some of her excitement vanished. The police officer was frowning, but again, he nodded.
"Well, I saw the fire truck driver getting down and hurrying toward the victims, and I said to myself, what the heck, he's more qualified than me, anyway, and also it was like, his fault. And I had to catch the bus, because otherwise, I wasn't going to catch the plane, and then ..."
"But the police tweeted about the accident, didn't you see anything?"
"What can I tell you, man? I was off-grid, I was with a group of friends, we all decided to live like Mother Nature intended, for the whole summer, you know, no electricity, no nothing. I had to, like, take half of the house with me," the girl said again. "As soon as someone came looking for me, I was all down with saying everything I knew."
The police officer finally grabbed the microphone, and the girl took a step back.
"I want to tell all the young people who are watching this how important it is to take the right type of action when something like this happens," the man began.
Carter tuned out the police officer's lecture that followed. It was still un-freaking-believable, but now he did remember everything. He sighed in contentment. Okay, he hadn't pushed that obnoxious scumbag in front of the fire truck. Actually, he had saved the asshole's life.
And he knew very well why. Yeah, he needed that shower, and maybe he had to comb his hair, too. Making himself pretty and all that, ready to see Aron.
He was barely out of the shower, and his hair was practically sticking in all directions, after rubbing it with the towel, when he heard keys turning in the door lock. Ah, Aron was here already and probably didn't want to wake him up so he was using his keys. He hurried for the door and grabbed the handle, barely reigning in his excitement.
"Hey," he said with a smile, opening the door wide.
His smile quickly vanished, though, as Aron pushed him inside, making him take hurried steps back until he hit a wall. Aron looked damn serious. And he was looking into Carter's eyes, like he wanted to extract some truth out of them.
"Can you please tell me what the hell is this?" Aron asked, using one hand to keep Carter glued to the wall, and the other to bring forward his phone.
Just for a second, he freed his victim to press play on the video displayed on his phone. Carter watched in horrid fascination. The angle was not the best, and it was clear that the one who had taken it was more bothered with catching Alex on camera, but it was all there. So Aron had the video, unlike the scumbags at the entertainment channel. That meant that the operation private eye had been a major success.
"So the detective found the girl?" he asked. "Great guy, that guy. I mean, I know. I saw it on the news."
"Shut up," Aron growled, and almost pressed his phone against Carter's nose.
"Well, that's the accident," Carter said matter-of-factly. "I do remember everything now. Isn't it really strange?"
"Carter," Aron breathed out, "listen."
Aron brought the volume to the maximum and replayed the video.
Oh, great, now he could hear himself yelling something like 'I just want Aron to be happy!' while pushing Alex away from the fire truck. Okay, that was pretty awkward if he were to think about it.
"Well," he frowned and started scratching his head.
"Hmm," Aron interjected, after tossing his phone on the couch without even looking if it landed safely. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
Okay, so Aron was mad. Why was he mad?
Why is he mad?
How the hell should I know? It must be that you did something stupid.
Well, it wasn't like I had that much of a choice. If Alex had died, Aron would have been very unhappy.
Aron almost shook him.
"Carter, please, stop losing yourself in your head for a second and tell me, okay? You jumped in front of a freaking car!"
"Fire truck," Carter raised one finger.
Aron groaned and this time really shook him.
Sensing the distress in the small apartment, Taz got up from his place and started barking at the intruder.
"Don't worry, Taz," Aron spoke to the dog, easing his grip on Carter for a fraction, "I'm not going to kick your dad's ass. Not yet at least."
Okay, he needed to choose his next words carefully. But he was kind of blank.
"Why are you so mad?" he eventually asked.
