Waste My Time by Kelsey Clayton

I runout of the house as fast as I can, collapsing onto the front yard when my well of adrenaline runs dry. My hands grip at the grass to tell me that I'm free. After being tied to a chair and stuck in that room all day, I'm actually free and still alive.

Officers rush over as I try to catch my breath through my sobs, but the main voice that gets my attention is Amelia's. She screams my name as she ducks under the caution tape and runs over to me, not letting a single person stop her.

“Oh my God,” she cries. “Are you okay? Where's Easton?”

The last question makes the hair on my arms stand straight up. “What do you mean? He was right behind me.”

I turn around, hoping to see him, but there's no one there but an officer looking at me strangely. There's no sight of him.

“Where is he?” I ask, starting to panic once again.

Amelia wraps her arms around me. “He never came out of the house.”

All the fear that left my body as I got through the front door comes back tenfold. The reason Alec never killed me when he had the chance was because he loves me. But Easton? He hates him with a burning passion. There is nothing that would stop him from pulling that trigger.

“Easton!” I push myself from Amelia's hold and try to get back inside, but an officer grabs me before I can even make it up the porch steps.

“You can't go in there,” he tells me.

I elbow him, swinging my arms to try to break free, but he holds strong. “Let me go! I need to get Easton!”

Another officer comes to help him hold me in place while one more stands in front of me. “Ma'am, I'm Lieutenant Frazier. I promise you my men are working to get your boyfriend out of there safely, but to do that, we need you to stay out here.”

Everything in me starts to break. “He needs to be okay. I can't lose him.”

The Lieutenant nods. “I understand that. Let's take you over to the ambulance and get you cleaned up. I even have an OB here to check out the baby. Can we do that?”

Knowing there's no other option, I nod and let them lead me over to the back of an ambulance. Amelia follows behind me, and they finally let everyone else on the other side of the caution tape to be with me. They're all trying to stay strong for my benefit, but I can tell by the way Zayn keeps looking back at the house that he's worried. And he has a right to be. I saw firsthand how unhinged Alec is.

The EMT cleans the cut on my lip, and the OB that came to the scene uses a fetal Doppler on my stomach. Hearing the baby's steady heartbeat should be a relief, and in a way it is, but my attention is on the house. On the window of the room I know Easton is in with Alec.

“Am I done here?” I ask frantically as they put away the first aid kit.

The second they nod, I hop off the back of the ambulance and start making my way back to the door. Every part of me knows if I don't get back in there, something terrible is going to happen. My friends follow behind me, trying to get me to stop, but I won't even hear it.

“Whoa, whoa,” Lieutenant Frazier says as he stops me. “Ma'am, you need to stay out here.”

I try to push past him but he puts his hand out and gently holds me back. “No. I need to get Easton.”

“I understand, and believe me, getting him out safely is our number one priority,” he calmly explains. “But like I told your boyfriend before he went all super hero on us, there are ways we need to do this to ensure no one gets hurt.”

“You aren't listening to me!” I shout. “Alec doesn't give a shit about Easton. He's going to—”

The sound of a loud bang echoes out of the house and my body goes ice cold. My heart sinks inside my chest, shattering into a million pieces as dread fills even the officer's face. I let out a scream as I try rushing to the door, but Tessa grabs both my arms to hold me back. It barely even registers that Zayn is holding Amelia back as well as we both break down. Keeping me outside is a fight as I watch the SWAT team storm into the house. Tessa swings me around to try to gain some leverage, and I crumble to the ground.

“This can't be happening,” I sob. “This can't be the way I bring our son into this world. He needs to know his dad.”

“I know,” Tessa says, crying along with me. “I know.”

Zayn holds Amelia tightly as she sobs hysterically. The pain in my chest is so intense, I can barely breathe. It’s too much.

I need him.

I fucking need him.

I can’t do this alone.

Dropping my head against the grass, I give into the pain and let it wash over me—unrelenting and without forgiveness.

“K-Kennedy,” Amelia gasps.

I whip around to find Easton being led out of the house by police, hands behind his back, very much alive.

Nothing in the world can keep me in place as I scramble to my feet and run into him. My body hits his with a thud, and as I hear his heart still beating inside his chest, it’s a relief I've never known. He rests his head on mine and exhales, but when I realize his arms aren't wrapped around me, I pull away.

It's then that I notice the state of him. My brows furrow as I take it all in, but nothing is making sense.

“Why are you handcuffed?” I ask, then notice the deep red liquid that soaks his shirt. “Oh my God, you're bleeding.”

Panic rushes through me as I think he's hurt, lifting his shirt to find the source but all I'm faced with is his perfectly toned abs—completely unharmed. People scream to let them through and I turn around to see Alec being carried out on a stretcher, an EMT performing CPR the whole way. My eyes widen as they meet Easton's, but he shows no emotion as he stares back at me.

“It's not my blood,” he says stoically. An officer starts to pull him away, and Easton looks at Zayn. “Get them home and I'll meet you guys there.”

Z nods and gently wraps an arm around me as I watch them take Easton and put him into the back of a patrol car. My whole body is shaking, still trying to recover from everything that just happened. As Zayn starts leading us away, the same officer from earlier stops us.

“Miss Lehigh,” he says to me. “We're going to need you to give a statement on what happened here.”

“Is that necessary right now?” Zayn questions for me. “She's been through a lot. You can't give her the night and come get one tomorrow?”

He smiles sadly. “I'm afraid not, son. We need to get it while everything is still fresh in her head.”

I nod and wrap my arms around myself. “Okay.”

“Right this way.”

I PACE BACK AND forth across the living room, unable to sit still. There is no calm. No relaxation. No anything when I don't know what's going on with Easton. By the tenth time I look out the window, Tye sighs.

“Kennedy, you need to try to relax,” she tells me. “Stress isn't good for the baby.”

“Not having a father isn't good for the baby!” I snap back.

She presses her lips into a line, realizing that nothing she can say will make this better. There will be no relaxing until Easton is home safely.

“Why was he in handcuffs? Is he going to be charged with murder? Will he be around to help raise our kid or is that all on me now? How the fuck did this all go wrong?”

Tessa gets up and stands in front of me, putting her hands on my arms to keep me still. “I get it, okay? Maybe not firsthand, but I get it. I watched Delaney go through the same thing with Knox, and I won't lie, it was hard. But freaking out about it isn't going to help anything, and the last thing you want is to hurt this baby. Am I right?”

I nod, my whole body still shaking.

“Okay,” she says. “Why don't you go grab one of his sweatshirts? That might help you feel a little better.”

“Yeah,” I breathe. “Yeah, it might.”

I make my way up the stairs and into Easton's room, grabbing the sweatshirt off the back of his chair instead of one from the closet because it's been recently worn. As I'm walking out, however, the light on in the guest room catches my attention. The door is only open a crack, but as I get to it and push it open, my breath hitches.

The room in front of me is a perfectly put together nursery. The walls are painted the light turquoise Easton knows is my favorite color and accented by the wall décor we picked out together. The gray crib sits on one side of the room, perfectly made with teal bedding, while the matching changing table and dresser are on the other side. Everything is exactly how I pictured it, even down to the mobile that spins and plays music as I turn it on.

I could have the baby tomorrow and know that everything is in order.

Everything except whether Easton will be there.

“He really does love you, little man,” I say softly through my tears, my hand cradling my belly.

A rush of emotions flood through me as I lose my emotional balance again. With my eyes closed, I let myself feel every ounce of it. I embrace it, because it means I care. And for the first time since I left that house, I let myself feel fear.

The events of today have left their mark. And maybe that means Alec wins, in a way, because he made me feel something, but I refuse to let him take anything else from me. So, as much as it may scare me to be alone, I stay in this room, and I cry.

When my tears nearly run dry, I feel two arms wrap around me.

“It's going to be okay,” Amelia whispers. “It has to be.”

And God, I hope she's right.