THIS SCENE IS FROM AN ALTERNATE ENDING TO THE TRUTH ABOUT US. IN THIS VERSION THINGS TURNED OUT MUCH DIFFERENTLY FOR FLYNN AND JESS… STARTING AT THE BONFIRE PARTY THE TWO ATTEND…

“You’re sure you guys want to go? I mean. Don’t leave because of me,” I say to Keith. “We’ll find something to do,” Keith says and Penny smacks him on the arm. I blush, wishing with all my heart that Flynn was here with me. Keith dumps his beer on the ground and sticks the empty bottle back in the case. There’s a sudden loud shriek from close to the fire. A roar of shouts raises up in a wave and crashes into the air. People start scrambling away from the fire, and there’s more screaming. Bodies push past. Penny grabs for my hand as people charge around us. The panic is tangible. Keith throws an arm protectively in front of Penny and me. Penny’s hand is pulled from mine. “He’s got a gun,” someone yells. There’s a loud crack. I’ve never heard a gun go off before, but recognize it immediately. Chaos hums in my ears. Someone knocks me to the ground and bodies stampede past but I force myself to get up. Penny calls my name but I scan people in front of me, searching for Nance. I have a horrible feeling she’s somehow in the middle of all of this. I start moving towards the people rushing past. The fire lights up a circle of space. And then my eyes almost bulge out of my head. Flynn. He’s standing by the fire. There’s a boy beside him on the ground. My eyes go back to Flynn. There’s something in his hand. He’s holding it in the air. He’s holding a gun.

1

The look of fear on his face stomps out my breath. “Flynn?” I yell. How did he get here? Why does he have a gun? It makes no sense. He’s supposed to be at home babysitting Kyle. It feels like I’m watching a movie scene in slow motion. Flynn is holding the gun high up in the air by the handle, as if it’s a smelly sock. His face is a mix of terror and shock. “Flynn,” I yell again and my foot wraps around someone else’s and I stumble and land on the ground. I scramble up. Flynn is kneeling. The gun is on the ground. There’s a boy laying down in the dirt, his hand on his stomach. His fingers are covered in red. His face is ashen. “Flynn?” I reach for him, trying to get him to stand up. Run. I don’t know what I’m doing. “Jess, stop pulling me,” Flynn says. His voice sounds calm. “Who is this guy?” he asks. I shiver looking at the boy’s stomach. Blood seeps from a wound and Flynn rips off his hoodie and presses it down against the boy’s stomach. Flynn looks at me, the question burning in his eyes. “Steve,” I pant. “Steve Blender.” “I was shot?” Steve asks Flynn, confused. His pupils are huge. “Someone call 9-11!” I yell at a boy hanging around behind the logs. “Someone already called. An ambulance is coming. Shit. This is bad.” Another boy I recognize but can’t name, kneels down beside Flynn and Steve. I stare at Flynn. “What’s going on?” I plead. I can’t shake the feeling I’m in dreaming. “What are you doing here? Why’d you have a gun?” “It’s not mine,” he says, looking at me. The grey hoodie he’s holding on the boy on the ground is quickly turning red. “It’s not mine,” he repeats. “Shit, Jess,” he says. “This isn’t good.”

2

“What happened?” I’m confused. I don’t understand what’s going on. “I came,” Flynn says. He shakes his head, choking up. There’s tears in his eyes. “To. See. You.” He shakes his head again. His mouth closes. I glance up and realize Penny and Keith are standing beside me, matching worried looks on their faces. Despite the chaos, relief floods through me. We’re not alone. It’s not Flynn and I against the world. The crowd of kids is gone, thinned away to almost nothing only a few walking around amongst ditched lawn chairs and bottles and beer cups. Not many stuck around for the imminent arrival of the police. Steve opens his eyes “You’re going to be all right, man,” Flynn says to him. Flynn keeps talking, mumbling reassurances. I bend down, put my arm around Flynn. He’s stiff. It has to be shock. I’m shocked. There’s noise as a car squeals up on the gravel, almost driving right into the fire. It shuts off and a door slams and then Allie is running towards us, Doug a few feet behind her. “What happened?” she yells. “What’s going on?” The sound of sirens gets louder in the mostly silent field. The fire crackles and blazes as an ambulance speed towards us. Flynn looks up at my sister. “He had a gun. He was waving it around. He was drunk and stupid, so I grabbed it from him.” He stares down at Steve. “I was trying to stop him from hurting anyone.” Flynn runs a hand through his hair. “It went off. I don’t know how.” “Oh my God, Flynn. You could have been hurt,” Allie says I start crying. “You don’t even know him,” I say. “How do you know Flynn’s name?”

3

She’s kneeling beside me now, her hand on my arm. “We drove him here, Jess,” she tells me. “He came to the house to talk to Mom and Dad and we brought him to the party to find you.” “What? Why?” I stare at her, not understanding any of it. “He came here to surprise you,” Allie says. “Doug and I were with him but Doug forgot the beer so we dropped Flynn off and told him we’d be back.” An ambulance screeches up beside Doug’s car, the lights flashing the siren off. Two paramedics scramble out of the emergency vehicle straight for Steve. Flynn, Allie and I stand up move away. Two police cars race up behind it, sirens on. “What happened?” snaps one of the paramedics as he kneels down and takes Flynn’s hoodie off Steve’s stomach. “He’s been shot,” Steve’s friend says, finally coming forward from the night shadows he’s been lucking in. The paramedic pulls away the hoodie and examines the wound. “What’s his name? Son. Can you talk? What’s your name?’ Steve doesn’t respond. “Whose gun is this?” a police officer is out of the car and stepping towards the gun lying on the ground. Steve’s friend looks at Flynn. Nods his head. “No,” Flynn says holding both hands in the air. “Not mine.” I shake my head along with him. A woman cop is talking to Steve’s friend.

4

“You sure about that?” there’s two policemen beside us now. The paramedics are strapping down Steve and hoisting his body on a gurney up into the back of the ambulance. “Hands behind your back,” the woman police officer says to Flynn. “No,” I say. “It wasn’t his gun.” “Step away Miss. Right now,” the officer says. “It was NOT his gun,” Allie says. “My dad is a lawyer.” Doug puts his hand on her shoulder and moves her back. “Allie. Not now,” he says softly. “We’ll talk to them later. Let them do what they need right now.” Flynn’s face has gone paler and his eyes even wider. The police officer puts handcuffs on him and pushes him towards a police car. “No,” I say. “No.” The policewoman is reading Flynn his rights. My mouth is open and I’m shaking my head. Another police woman is talking to Steve’s friend. “Whatever he says is a lie,” I shout and look around not sure where to go or what to do, I run towards Flynn in the police car but Allie grabs me. Allie has her arm around me. “It’s okay, Jess. We’ll get this straightened out.” “I can’t let him go off alone like that,” I tell her and try to make a run for the car but Penny and Keith each grab an arm and they hold me back. “Jess?” Penny’s face swims in front of my eyes, blurring and stinging from tears. “It wasn’t him,” I plead to her. The police car with Flynn inside is pulling away. “Penny, Keith,” I say. “I know him. I know Flynn. He wouldn’t do anything like this.”

5