36

Fall in love with your

Problems, maybe they will

Leave you too.

Happily, I'm chatting with Kim at the chips when Britte steps up to us. "Hey Lily, can I talk to you for a second?" she asks. I nod yes and say goodbye to Kim. I follow Britte walking down to the basement. "Why are we going to the basement?" I ask confused. "I don't want anyone to hear us.' She explains. I look back, hoping I see someone, as I follow Britte down.

The cellar is lit by a small light that only illuminates the middle of the room and leaves the outside in the dark. "What is it?" I ask after a few minutes when I realize that Britte isn't going to say anything. I see she's taking a big step forward so I can see her face. The girl standing in front of me is not my friend. The girl standing in front of me is not the Britte I know.

"You stole him" she shouts angrily at me as she swings a big knife in her hand. I don't know where she got the knife from. "Who did I steal from you? Britte, what are you talking about?' I ask her calmly. "Alex," she screams as she walks forward with the knife. I can step aside just in time. "You're the one who's sending me threats," I say out of breath. I hear my heart beating as my head gets foggy for a moment.

'I had hoped that that would be enough to keep you away from Alex, but no, Lily isn't listening again,' she says harassingly. I look at her with my mouth open. "Why? I thought we were friends.' She starts laughing so hysterically at this, that I don't recognize her at all. The person standing in front of me is crazy. "I was your girlfriend. I loved being your girlfriend. But once you and Alex became a "thing" I hated you" she snarls in my face. She takes off again but this time I just can't run away fast enough and the knife cuts my upper arm.

The adrenaline running through my body makes me barely feel the pain but I know it is a deep cut because of the amount of blood I feel dripping away from my fingers. "He was mine" she screams. I turn around and take the first few steps to the door when her voice stops me again. "I wouldn't do that. I've locked the door' she laughs disparagingly as she swings the key back and forth. I look around hoping to find something to defend myself, but I don't see anything.

'He was my first time and I was his. We belong together but then you show up and I'm just Brit, Lily's girlfriend' she chats on while the blood on the knife she's waving back and forth all the time, drips on the ground. 'I didn't know you liked him, if you'd said something about it I'd never go with him' I tell her while looking around for a wapon.

Britte starts laughing hysterically again. "I've given so many tips, so many, but apparently you were too stupid to understand them, so I had to take other measures.' I look at her asking, "What tips?' Her smile disappeared from her face. 'The football jersey I wanted to put on, the whole situation at Alex's holiday home, but it wasn't enough, it was never enough' she screams when she walks forward again and swings back and forth with the knife. I feel how the knife cuts my skin a few times but I don't have time to look at it.

"So I decided to leave threats behind, but even then you didn't do anything.' I see how her patience is slowly running out and look around me in panic for something that can help me. 'I gave your brother Justin the idea of sending you back to Belgium, but he loves you too much to take you away from your friends,' she says angrily, 'so I only have one choice to get rid of you and then Alex will be mine.'

In the corner of my eye I see a brush and the moment Britte jumps to me again, I run to the brush. With the brush in my hands, I turn around as fast as I can so that the tip of the brush hits her ribs. Britte bends forward for a moment because of the pain but then stands up again with more anger. "You shouldn't have done that, bitch.'

I walk away from her again, my brush readyfor devence, when I hear someone knocking on the door. "Lily?" calls Alex. "Alex!" I call back as I hear other voices also talking now. Because my attention has been focused on the door for too long, I hadn't noticed that Britte has come to stand next to me. I feel a stabbing pain in my leg when Britte pulls out the knife. She pushes me and through my bleeding leg, I fall on my back on the ground.

I think I yelled because that's when Alex starts yelling things at Britte. Britte ignores him and stands in front of me. I quickly crawl back and push myself straight. I lean on my good leg when Britte comes walking back to me, the knife ready to stab me again. I want to jump away but am just too late and the knife slides into my belly. At the same moment, the door opens, and policemen walk into the room. One of the policemen saw the knife, but shot too late.

The knife had already been stabbed in my belly when a shot was fired and Britte fell to the ground. Alex walked up to me. "Lily," he says with a sigh but I can't say anything and just look at him. "Lily?" he asks panic-strickenly as he steps closer. His gaze follows my hands pressing against my belly around the knife, hoping to stop the bleeding. His eyes grow big when he sees the knife and he quickly looks into my eyes again.

I open my mouth to say something but I feel something draining away through the corner of my mouth, something that tastes like iron. I fall through my knees but luckily Alex is able to grab hold of me just in time. I see him shouting something but don't hear anything. Alex wipes a tuft of hair away while saying things to me that I can't understand. Tears slide down his cheeks when I see Jax and Owen walking towards me with a doctor next to them. Jax falls down on his knees next to Alex while Owen turns around and empties his stomach.

I see the doctor say something to Alex and Alex shakes his head. After a few seconds, Alex lays me down completely and grabs my hand. Jax sits next to him crying as well and I feel a tear slipping away from the corner of my eye. I don't feel what the doctor is doing or hear what he is saying. After a few seconds, my eyes get heavier and it takes longer and longer before I open them again. I see Alex above me shouting things at me while his tears fall faster.

I look at Jax and Owen, who is now sitting next to Jax, and see them both looking at me with so much sadness that my heart breaks even more. The three boys, who are so strong and brave, are sitting on the floor crying. I look at Alex again and open my mouth to say how much I love him, when no sound comes out. I put all my energy in my hand to squeeze his one more time when my eyes close