Creepshow and Jett were helping Sixx cross the street. They were laughing and giggling and she had started limping as a result of her cheap, disco sandals. She had apparently unbuckled both of the straps and they were flapping around her ankles making her walk super slow. Jett told me later that they simply had no time to react.
I screamed as loud as I could. “Sixx! Look out!” But it was too late. Jett grabbed Sixx by the arm and yanked her so hard she actually came out of the stupid shoes. Creep tried to scramble out of the way, too, but he tripped over one of the shoes and fell down right in the path of the car.
All I could hear were tires screeching, and before my head realized it, my heart knew they belonged to a car racing toward Creepshow. In that same second of time, I also understood that there was nothing I could do to change what was about to happen. That car was going to hit my boyfriend and there was no way I could stop it. Even if I was close enough, there wasn’t enough time to get to him, to push him out of the way or even dive into his place. I was powerless. My heart raced almost as fast as the car careening toward my love. And then it happened.
The drunk driver hit Creepshow head-on with the nose of his refurbished Camaro and scooped him up, throwing him at least eighty-five feet onto the other side of the street. I screamed when I heard the sound, solid metal making contact with a soft thud. It was the only noise Creepshow made. He was airborne for what seemed like forever, and then he landed in the fenced garden of a home half a block down the street. It looked like a stop action movie. When I heard him hit the soft grass, like a half-filled bag of trash being tossed out next to the sidewalk, the movie in my head sped up and we scrambled to get to him. I was terrified with what we might find and found it hard to breathe while we ran to his aid.
Jett and Sixx got to him before I did and both were kneeling next to him when I reached them. Behind us, the out-of-control Camaro kept going straight and crashed into a telephone pole. The driver’s life had probably been saved by his airbag deploying. I kept hearing the sound of someone screaming and realized it was me. How could this be happening? How could we have found each other just to lose each other so quickly? Tears stained my face as I made my way to Creepshow’s side.
I dropped to my knees next to him and threw my arms around his neck. “No, no, no, no, no!” I wailed into his neck, tears streaming down my neck. “Creep, talk to me. Creep, can you hear me? Can you hear me?” I sobbed and buried my face in his chest. “Jett, he can’t hear me! What’s wrong? Why isn’t he answering me? Is he breathing?” I pulled back and looked at his face. Blood smeared his forehead and black marks streaked down the side of his cheeks and down both arms. His leg twisted in an unusual way. I knew it was broken. There were nasty cuts down his arm, his jeans were torn, and he had lost one of his shoes. Stupidly, I looked back in the street. Where had his other shoe gone?
Jett tried to pull me off of him. I held fast to Creepshow and screamed at Jett, “Don’t! I can’t feel his breathing if you pull me away from him! I have to feel his breathing!” Jett held on to my arms tighter.
“Juice, I don’t think he is breathing.” Gently again, he tried to pull me away from Creepshow. I could hear Sixx behind me on her cell phone calling 911. Yes, I thought madly. Call them! Call them to take him to a hospital! He needs a doctor! They’ll make him breathe! He needs to breathe! Then I realized I’d been talking out loud.
“He needs to breathe, Jett. He needs to breathe. Why isn’t he breathing?” I sat up and put my hands on Creepshow’s shoulders and shook him. “Breathe!” I yelled in his face. “Breathe, Creepshow!” Suddenly, I heard another voice.
“I can help, Juice.”
“He needs to breathe!” I told the new voice.
“I know, Juice. I can help,” the voice said again. And then I recognized the voice. It was Shane’s. I looked up and Shane stood there with a calm look on his face. He repeated himself in the same serene voice.
“I can help.” And he looked at me with such a tranquil and peaceful expression on his face that I suddenly understood.
“Oh,” I said. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. But you have to be. Are you?”
“No. Yes.” I looked at Shane helplessly. “I love him, Shane.”
“I know. That’s why you have to be sure.”
I closed my eyes and thought about it. I thought about everything Shane had told me. I thought about the way Creepshow made me feel. I thought about every movie we had ever watched and every time I had gone to the beach and watched him and Jett surf and our friendship, and the four of us together. I thought about graduating and going to college together. I remembered concerts and dinners and summers and mostly I thought about the delicious promise behind that kiss on the beach. Then I opened my eyes.
“Yes. I’m sure.”
Shane nodded. “I knew you would be.”
He stepped forward and knelt next to Creepshow where he lay motionless. I moved back from Creep, and Sixx and Jett followed and we moved away from the two of them. Creepshow’s lips were turning blue and he looked almost white as paper. His beautiful tan had all but disappeared, and when my legs turned to water, Sixx and Jett had to hold me up. We watched while Shane stretched out his body the length of Creepshow’s. Then he looked over to where the three of us were standing.
“I’ll miss you guys.” That was all he said. Then he sort of scooted over until his form occupied the same space as Creepshow. While he still sat up, he waved goodbye to us, then gently lowered himself over the top of Creepshow. His body seemed to mold onto Creep’s and the last thing I saw of Shane was when his face melded into Creep’s.
Then Creepshow stirred and I gasped out loud. I almost lost my balance again. Creepshow opened his eyes and for a few seconds they were the brilliant blue of Shane’s. He blinked two more times, the blue color fading with each blink, and by the third one, they were the warm chocolate brown of Creep’s. He moaned and tried to sit up, but it was clear he was in pain. I ran to him and dropped to the ground.
“Creep? Creep? Can you hear me?” Gingerly, I stroked his hair with a hand that trembled. When I pulled my hand away, it was covered with blood from a head wound. I could hear the approaching sirens and prayed it would be an ambulance. I looked into Creep’s familiar brown eyes and couldn’t see even a trace of Shane. I looked up at Sixx and Jett.
“He’s gonna be okay.” I broke down again in a convulsion of tears. Sixx immediately fell to her knees next to me.
“Holy crow, Juice. Did that just happen?” In my life I had never heard that tone in Sixx’s voice. She seemed to be actually impressed by something. I looked at Jett to see how it had affected him. He seemed to have slipped into his Zen surfer mode. Despite all the drama surrounding him, he was cool, calm, and collected. Unbelievable.
“Looks like Shane finally found himself a body.”
“Juice?” I felt Creepshow trying to reach for me with his wounded, bloodstained hand.
“I’m right here, Creep.” I grabbed Creep’s hand and squeezed it reassuringly. “The ambulance is on its way. It’ll be here any minute. You’re gonna be fine, Creep. Shane made sure of that.”
“Did he…” Creep left the question open and looked at me with the unspoken question in his eyes. I looked down and met his gaze. For a fleeting moment, I could have sworn his eyes flickered from brown to blue and back to brown again. I rubbed my eyes and looked again, but by that time they were back to the same warm cocoa color.
I leaned over and gently kissed Creepshow’s cheek. Then I straightened up and said, “Yes, he did. He finally found the right host, Creep. You. He saved your life.”
Creepshow motioned for me to lean down to him. I did and he whispered in my ear. “I know he did. While I was still unconscious, he made me promise him one thing.”
“What?”
“He’d only save my life if I swore I’d spend it with you, Juice. I love you.” Then Creepshow tilted his face toward mine and kissed me.