Page 2

Slamming on the brakes, our bodies jerked hard, forcing the seat belt to lock in place. Pulling the car over to the side of the road, my father stared at me, his face pained with worry and confusion.

“What? What is it?” he asked, his eyes huge.

“Oh my God. . .” The words slipped weightlessly out of my mouth as I looked at the liquor store parking lot.

Yuri was sprawled across the front of the hood of a cop car, his brother was in cuffs, sitting on the front step of the store. Red and blue lights flashed frantically as sirens still blared, approaching from the distance.

The cop was holding Yuri's face down, his elbow locked in place as he sifted through his pockets.

“What's going on, Gwen? What are you looking at?” My father tried to lean forward to look past me and out my window. “What's going on over there?”

Hanging my head, I waved my hand. “Nothing, it looks like a couple kids getting into trouble. I thought it was someone I knew, but it's not.”

His body rocked and twisted, trying to get a better look. “That's a lot of cops for a couple kids. They must have done something, move so I can see.”

“Dad, we need to go, I don't want to be late to my own graduation.” Pouting my lip slightly, I arched my brows. “Mom's going to get worried if we don't show up soon.”

I wasn't sure why I didn't just tell him the truth, that it was Yuri and his brother they were arresting, that all those cops were rushing into the parking lot to arrest my boyfriend.

My heart cracked as the tires crunched against the pavement, spitting rocks up into the wheel wells. That wasn't who he was, that wasn't the person I had fallen in love with.

But that's exactly what my eyes were absorbing as I watched the lights splash off the surrounding trees, and the store fade into the distance.

He was suppose to come right to my house after getting off work. He was going to get cleaned up and changed so we could drive to my graduation together. Except he wasn't at work, he wasn't at home. . .

Yuri was getting cold metal slapped around his wrists as a hoard of police swarmed around him.

It didn't make sense to me, none of it fit into the mold of the man I knew.

Maybe he's not the person you thought he was?

I could never have imagined that his actions would force us apart forever.