Brad wakes me up from a deep sleep. "Ella! Ella! We have to go now!"

"What's going on?" Opening my eyes there's a haze in here.

"Come on!" Brad's pulling my hand, pulling me from my room, through the living room and out of the front door.

"What the fuck Brad?" I ask.

"Our apartments on fire, what does it look like?" He says frantic.

I look up there's fire pouring out the bedroom window. Courtney's bedroom window shatters, glass falling to the sidewalk.

"How did this happen Brad?"

"I came home and saw you were sleeping so I laid on the couch and turned on a movie. I heard a shatter and got up to see what it was. I looked in on and you were still sleeping check my room and saw nothing. As soon I opened the office door smoke poured out into the hallway, which is when I ran to you woke you up and got us out of there."

"Someone had to of started it then. Make sure the firemen know."

Just then police and fire trucks are pulling up. Firemen jump from the truck pulling the hose to start extinguishing the fire. Courtney pulls up and jumps out of her car running to us.

"Oh my god!!! Are you two ok?"

We shake our heads and a firefighter is walking toward us.

"Do you know how the fire started?"

Brad tells him the same thing he told me.

"Are you 2 alright? Anyone else in there?"

I answer this time. "No it was just us in there. We are fine. We got out in time."

Courtney speaks up. "She's pregnant."

"I'm ok Courtney. Brad got me out in plenty of time."

"I don't think we will be able to save any of your apartment. Anyone live upstairs?" Asked the firefighter.

"No the 2 guys just moved out they got into a sorority and moved to the sorority house." I answered.

"Any reason they would have started the fire? Know anyone who would have?" He asks.

Courtney talks now. "A few weeks ago Ella and her boyfriend were brutally attacked. Ivan is still in the hospital in a coma. They were attacked by his crazy ex Amy who is now in jail."

He looks at her questionably. "So if she's in jail what does she have to do with it?"

"Well first I think we need to check if she's still in jail and second she's in association with a Zack Milligan. He started trouble at school earlier. I'm pretty sure he would have hurt Ella if her friend Derek didn't step in. Zack beat on Derek pretty bad. Last I hear he needed stitches on the bridge of his nose because Zack split it wide open."

The firefighter looks at her. "Well that's definitely a start."

Brad looks at the firefighter and smiles. "She's majoring in law."

"I see that." He smiles walking away.

We stood there watching the fire for at least 2 hours. The building is a goner, our belongings are gone, everything just gone. Good thing I left my car keys in the pocket of my hoodie and my purse was left on the floor on the passenger side. I look over and see a beat up brown car pass us yelling out the window "FUCK YOU BITCHES!" A cop is jumping in his car driving after them. 15 minutes later her comes back.

"Lost the bastards."  He says irritated.

Courtney looks at me. "That was Zack wasn't it?"

"Yep in the flesh." I say shaking my head.

Brad's on the phone pacing back and forth. "No they've been fighting it the last 2 hours. I'm claiming everything. We lost everything." Pacing again. "Thank you I appreciate it." He hangs up and walks over to us. "That was the insurance company. I emailed them pictures of the fire. Our claim is started. We need to make a list of our belongings. Clothes, jewelry, furniture, accessories, electronics etc."

*ding ding*

Jeremy: Ella are you ok? I just heard about your apartment!

Me: I'm ok. Brad got me out in time. The apartments gone. Everything is gone.

Jeremy: oh my gosh. I'm sorry Ella. If you need somewhere to stay a while I'll let you stay at the hotel.

Me: that's awesome thanks Jeremy! I'm not sure what's happening yet. There's always Ivan's house too.

Jeremy: well just let me know and if you need anything please tell me.

Me: thank you so much!

Jeremy: you're welcome

"Jeremy offered us a couple rooms at the hotel." I say to Brad and Courtney.

"I was thinking of using Ivan's place. I still have some clothes and stuff there and so does Courtney." Brad says.

"You know what I find funny Courtney?" She looks at me curious. "Before we were going to the restaurant to meet Ivan you had told me that you never met him. How can that be so when you had stuff there and you stayed there?"

"I seriously didn't meet him until that night. Yes I stayed there but on the nights he was working at the bar cooking. By the time I got up in the morning he was gone. He kept to himself." Courtney explained.

"She's right. He only lived in the house for about 2 weeks before I moved to your apartment. How about we just head to his house shower and try to get some sleep?" Brad says.

The firefighters are cleaning up. The fire is out. All that's left is a shell of a building. Everything is ash. Brad's keys were in the apartment so he has to ride with Courtney. We make sure it's ok to go before we head to Ivan's.

I climb into my car and I can't wait to shower. I smell like smoke so bad. I don't know about staying at Ivan's without him though. I turn on the radio trying to calm the thoughts in my head. Sitting at a red light I shoot a quick text to Jeremy letting him know I am going to Ivan's since I do have some clothes there. He texted back saying no worries and to take tomorrow off to sort everything out and as always to let him know if we need anything.

Pulling into the driveway I get a feeling that something is wrong. I can't put my finger on it but just know it's something. We left the lights on so it looked like someone was there. I pull behind Courtney's car and get out.

"Courtney, something doesn't feel right." I say.

"Woooooooo these bitches won't know what hit them when I'm done! They won't have anywhere to go!" Yells a guy and Brad is sneaking quietly toward them, the guy turns around and spots Brad, next thing Brad lays him out.

Zack is now running full force into Brad with crowbar in hand. Courtney crouches down next to her car and calls 911. Brad is holding his own. I didn't know he was so tough. The crowbar gets kicked out of Zack's hands and you hear it bounce off the gravel. There's a thud and it sounded like someone's fist hit someone. The guy Brad knocked out a few minutes prior struggled to get up and stumbled toward Zack and Brad. He was holding something in his hand and couldn't make out what it was since it's so dark out. He raised it up then I noticed it was a gun.

"Brad he has a gun!" I yelled.

Brad dodges toward the guy with a gun. You hear a loud bang and the guy that was holding the gun falls to the ground. I look and see Courtney standing there stunned that she actually shot. Zack lunges toward Brad and Courtney shoots again hitting Zack in the leg. Zack yells out in pain "you bitch!" He falls to the ground grabbing his leg. The other guy laying on the ground finds enough strength to grab the gun and fires a shot at Courtney, hitting her in the arm and she cries out in pain. I hear sirens roaring down the road and cop cars come barreling up the driveway. Brad is now next to Courtney and one cop is arresting Zack and the other cop is arresting the other guy.

"Courtney are you ok?" I ask.

"Yes. Thankfully the bullet grazed my arm so it's just a flesh wound. How are you?"

"I'm ok." I answer and look at Brad."you don't even have one mark on you?"

"I'd say we all got lucky." Brad says.

The police are now leaving and the ambulance pulls away. Brad puts his arm around Courtney pulling her close to him and giving her a kiss and put his other arm around me giving me a squeeze.

"We are all exhausted. I'd say we could all use a shower and a good nights sleep." Brad says leading us into the house.

I head straight upstairs to Ivan's room and take a glance around. I head into the bathroom and draw a bath. Climbing in I lay back and just try to make sense of everything. After my bath I go into Ivan's closet and put on one of his shirts. I climb into bed and I can still smell him on his sheets. I let the warmth consume me and Ivan's scent soothe me. I drift off to sleep a lot easier than I thought I would have.