Chapter 5 - Pour Qui Sonne le Glas(For Whom the Bell Tolls):
Bower Apartment, 5:23 PM/Friday/April 14th/2011
Lobby, nice marble room with a large staircase leading to the first floor
Down in the lobby, Sarah and Brien are waiting for a moment before entering Kenny's party just a couple stairs up from them. Nervously Sarah looks ar Brien worried to enter the party, knowing she will only know him there.
"Maybe it'd be best if I stayed in your room," she says this while wearing a nice button up shirt and a nice fit pair of jeans, "I really won't know anyone, and it'll-"
With a confident tone, while staring upstairs, Brien responds "you'll be okay, I don't know many people myself. I'll stick wit' you the entire time if that makes you more comfortable."
More inclined to go, Sarah asks "what if the cannons go off while we're here, then what do we do?"
"They won't, it'll be alright," Brien wraps his arm around her and gives her a kiss on the cheek, "I'll make sure you're safe."
Trust is the only thing that shows in the eyes of Sarah as she says "... okay, I'll go cause I love you. You're lucky I'm easily swayed."
Together they both ascend the stairs ready to enter the party, which looks to be in a nice room telling by the clean hall and the shiny clean metal door. While holding hands, Brien knocks on the door and then looks over at Sarah.
"I doubt that many people are even gonna be here," Brien says confidently, "I mean the stuff going on out there really might have thrown a wrench in-."
Noiselessly the door swings open and Kenny appears in the doorway, "look who finally decided to show-up," then he looks to his left at Sarah, "didn't expect you to bring a lady-friend, good for you O'Brien."
Both Brien and Sarah squeeze into the crowded room. A face of sympathy grows on Braden's face as he looks at Sarah with a sense of sorrow. Multiple people flood through the many rooms of Kenny's nicely decorated, more rich apartment. Along with the flooded feeling in the atmosphere it seems empty as if everyone is trying to stay somewhat far from each other. Making their way through the living room in the direction is a sorrowful Brien and an anxious Sarah, who's gripping the Irish boy's hand tightly.
"I'm so sorry for making you come here, t'was a bad idea," Brien says with a really caring tone.
While sweating due to the stress of the crowd, Sarah responds "once we get past this part I'll be better."
"Still sorry. This was a bad thing for me to do," Brien says knowingly.
Borderline surfing through the crowd, Brien and Sarah finally arrive at the kitchen, where Aidan, Max, and Emmanuel, another friend of Brien's, are chatting.
Sneaking up on them Brien, still grasping Sarah's hand, claims "the party has finally arrived."
Emmanuel, a slightly taller Mexican kid with a nice clean haircut wearing a short-sleeve button up, responds "looks like he has," then he stares at a shy Sarah , who's behind Brien, "and he brought a girl with him too."
Shyly, Sarah slowly moves to the front of Brien and puts her hand out for a handshake, she says "my name's Sarah, nice to meet you."
With respect Emmanuel shakes her hand as he says "name's Manny," then he gives Brien a hug, "good to see you, been awhile huh?"
Returning the hug graciously, Brien responds "it has," then he thinks for a second, "what like two months?"
"Feels like it," Manny says.
Holding a cup with fruit punch in it, Aidan walks over to Brien and does a special handshake with him while saying "good seeing' you again bro," then he looks over at Sarah, "glad to see you're okay after yesterday night. None of that Moxious shit got on you."
Defensively with a sense of a kind of urgency, Sarah asks "can we not bring that up right now?"
"Oh yes of course, so sorry dude," Aidan says in a genuinely sorry way, "I'm not great at, like, social interaction sometimes."
Kindly and understandingly, Sarah responds "it's okay I get it."
While she accepts his apology, Max, who just greeted Brien, says "'ello, 'ello, good seein' you 'ere," in his overpowering Australian accent.
"Oh uh, nice to see you too…" Sarah says, trying to remember his name.
With a smirk Max responds "name's Maxmillian, call me Max."
Now knowing the aussie's name, Sarah says "it's nice to fully meet you."
"Alright kids, how about we move it on into the living room," says a kid with jet black hair with highlights and a pair of black framed glasses.
Brien looks over and sees the kid, quickly he walks over and asks "Chris, how long 'as it been?"
Then with a recognizable face Christian Man responds "long enough, now come on everyone's in the living room."
"Before we head over there I 'ave someone for you to meet," Brien says confidently.
Somewhat confused Christian looks around before landing his eyes on Sarah and he says "no fucking way I see Deccy O'Bry with a girl," seeming to be shocked he continues, "how'd he pull someone like you?"
Stumped, Sarah stares, with her deep set emerald eyes, annoyed into the face of Christian as she asks "what exactly does that mean?"
Not expecting the confrontation, Christian replies "just messing, y'know? He's my friend," not unhappy though he looks at Brien, "you gotta' keeper yo'. Wish I had a girl who'd do that for me."
"She is beautiful," Brien says as stares at Sarah with his majestic blue eyes, "wanna go over to the living room?"
Looking to be embarrassed for pressing Christian, Sarah responds "sure, but it's already 6:10 so let's try to get out at eight."
Understandingly, Brien, who's still staring at Sarah, says "of course, I just wanta' say what's up, introduce you to some of my pals, and then we head back up to da' room."
"Sounds good," Sarah says as everyone begins to migrate to the living room through the thinning out crowd.
Decreased, the size of the party continues to shrink revealing more and more of the large room. A large nice set of two couches lies in the messy living room with a large window right in front of them showing flashes in the distance and soldiers rushing through the streets shouting. Some soldiers were in pain on the floor, but from the protection of Kenny's whimsical home nothing could touch them. Though uncertainty shows on the faces of many as they exit the room and others silently fade into the background.
Fear on his face Brien can be visible as he asks "you think everything out there is gonna be fine?"
"Don't worry about it, mate, I'm sure they got it all sorted out," says Max in his Aussie accent.
Right next to Brien, Sarah has the same face as she asks "who are they?"
Two more new people sit across from them on a separate couch watching the outside intently.
Only one of them looks over at her and says "my name is Shawn, my friends call me Bilk though, so if that's what you'd rather go for it. Not like it's gonna matter in a few minutes anyway," then he turns back to the window," if you needed to know that my twin brother Rich."
Both twins look nearly identical with the same brunette hair and grayish blue eyes. Nothing but silence can be found in the room as everyone becomes distracted by the military fighting outside. Gunshots ring out and screams for help echo. Until silence comes over the area, no more yelling, no more death, and no more anything to the point where if a crumb dropped you'd hear it shatter.
"What the hell happened," Manny asks scaredly.
Worried and kinda shocked by the silence, Aidan responds "maybe we… won."
Swiftly Kenny rushes to a different window in his room to see if anything else is happening on that side. Sarah begins to hyperventilate while Brien cradles her with fear written across his pale ghostly face.
"I'm sure it's fine," how about we go back to talking an-," Max gets cut-off by the loud shot of a cannon.
Silence falls into the room as a second cannon is fired and the sound rings out into silence as the third shot is fired. Silence holds for a few more seconds as everyone stares at each other with a fearful expression on their faces as Kenny runs back in. The moment he enters the room the fourth and final cannon shot is fired.