The Crash Years by Anonymous (the dot read aloud txt) 📖

(present day)
MILOS BARRY – Anzac Park
Milos let out another cloud of breath. His fingers were burning at the tips and his ears were frozen. The only thing that greeted him with kindness this morning was the reaction of his feet hitting the pavement.
This was the best part of running in the early morning. Only ten miles to go, but Milos could still feel how strong his legs were, how they carried him swiftly down the familiar path that he ran every day. No one was awake this early, and it was peaceful just to see the prickly trees rush past him as if they didn’t even matter. But something would matter, and in only a couple of minutes.
As Milos was crossing the street, his theory was definitely wronged. For someone was awake, and not just one person, but his least favorite people in the world. The gang his brother used to belong to.
It was easy to piece together. Broken window at the jewelry store. Alarm blazing. Boys hauling a bag of the stolen gems into their rumbling car. Milos wasn’t dumb enough to think that all of these guys were just bullies. But he didn’t think they would be capable of doing something like this.
“Hey Milos, get out of here!” yelled Garrett. Milos sucked in a surmountable gasp of air. He didn’t mean to, but he didn’t mean to get caught by Garrett either. Without a word and wide eyes, Milos looked at Garrett and then let his feet pound the sidewalk, quickly carrying him up the hill to his house.
DENVER BARRY – near Anzac Park
Nicotine gum sucked. It just wasn’t the same. Denver missed the automatic motion of inhaling a deep breath of smoke and watching his stress disappear. This wasn’t quitting cold-turkey, but it was cold, and for some reason smoking made the weather a little bearable. But then again, so did Alec.
That’s why he gave up, the smoking, and the drinking was just as bad too. It was almost easier to give up smoking than drinking because Alec could always smell the smoke on him, but alcohol was easier to hide. It was like jumping into a swimming pool and not getting your hair wet.
Denver was on his way to Alec’s from the grocery store when he heard his brother’s name in the distance. And as much as he hated Milos, he ran towards the yelling.
Denver barely caught sight of Milos sprinting up towards their house when Garrett turned back around and spotted Denver. Knowing that Denver wouldn’t care about his thievery, Garrett nodded his head toward Denver and continued loading the jewelry into his car.
“Amateurs,” spoke Denver, loud enough so the group could hear. Then he walked casually away, up the hill towards Alec’s house.
ANDIE BARRY @ the Barry residence
A knock was heard on the other side of her bedroom door. Andromeda groaned. She had fallen asleep again, and it was only ten in the morning. This happened often, but still Andromeda cursed to herself of how she wanted her old, energetic self back again.
The knock returned again, followed by a familiar voice.
“Hello?” It was Noah. Andromeda rubbed her eyes and sat upright on her bed. She was too tired to get up to open her door.
“I’m awake. I’m here,” sighed Andie. The door immediately opened to a smiling Noah, dressed in his usual attire. Andie silently complained about her horrid appearance in sweats.
“Hey,” said Noah, his smile widening as he made himself a spot on the bed next to Andie, “how are you feeling?”
Why Noah came to visit her every day was beyond Andie’s imagination. Here she was, lazy as heck with an enormous belly, watching movies and nothing much else besides that. And here was Noah, perfectly capable of doing anything, of going anywhere he wanted with whomever he wanted, and it seemed that all he wanted to do was sit in her room and waste his time doing practically nothing.
“Well,” sighed Andie, “I’m feeling REALLY pregnant. Like seriously, I could hardly walk this morning just to jump in the shower. But the good news is, only one month to go!”
Noah and Andie both laughed a bit before deciding which movie to watch. Noah had brought some movies from his home. As the preview played, Andie hadn’t noticed yet, but Noah would glance and smile at her, stuck in infinite adoration. Too bad Andromeda thought he was just being a good faithful friend. She caught one of his glances, though.
“What?” smiled Andie as she gave a weird look to Noah who seemed to have woken up from – from what? – something.
“Oh, um…,” mumbled Noah as he tried to look somewhere else besides Andromeda’s face. But there was her stomach. It was so huge! He couldn’t help it – his eyes were glued.
Andromeda followed Noah’s stare to her stomach. As an automatic reflex, her hand flew up to it. What did he want?

As if sensing the awkward air, Noah added, “Chase… is he kicking a lot today?”
“Oh, yea,” gushed Andie, “he’s going to be good at something athletic, that’s for sure. I can get up – do you want to feel him?”
Noah blew out a mouthful of air before composing his nervous state, “sure.”
Andromeda slipped off the bed, stepping quietly over to him.
“Go ahead.”
At first Noah didn’t feel anything, but not even a second later did he feel the pressure of a small foot against his hand. He gasped as his eyes widened. He looked up at Andromeda.
“Whoa.”
They both laughed.
DENVER BARRY and ALEC HARRISON @ the Harrison residence
The supposedly interesting television show was nothing more than background noise as Denver pressed Alec’s back against the couch, meeting his lips with Alec’s. Suddenly a ringing alarm was going off.
Denver pulled himself from Alec and stood up, checking his phone. It was a reminder – something important.
“I have that job interview today, I totally forgot!” gasped Denver as he straightened out his hair. Alec remained on the couch, supposedly searching for something.
“Shoot, I lost my band-aid,” grumbled Alec as he was trying to hide his injured finger.
Denver turned his eyes toward Alec, “band-aid? Let me see.”
Alec reluctantly held up his index finger, the underside of the nail filled with dried blood. He looked up at Denver, eyes wide as he bit his lip. Denver’s brows furrowed.
“Alec, what happened? Who did this?” Alec looked down.
“The guys. Those-the ones you said you used to hang out with a long time ago. They really don’t like me, Denver.” Denver looked at Alec with pity.
“Alec, I had NO idea they were still doing this to you! This won’t happen again. I’ll be back, hmm?”
A small endearing smile grew on Alec’s face, “good luck at your interview, love.”
Denver gave a warm smile back to Alec before turning to walk towards town.
MILOS BARRY @ Fairfield Park
Though it was warm outside, Milos was thankful that the weather hadn’t decided to let down its fury of heat just yet. Right now he was waiting at Fairfield Park across the street from the movie theater where Wase was working, and would be off from work in about five minutes.
This was always a pleasant park to be in. Children ran around carefree as grandparents played chess with one another and as fathers were fishing with their friends. Mother laid out picnic baskets and musical teens would softly play guitar, keeping up with the vibe. It was a good place to be.
Out of the corner of Milos’ eye, he spotted something sparkling in the sun. Three boys were making a deal with an acquaintance underneath a tree, a bag of jewels versus a bag of cash. It was the gang.
Why three teenage boys would deal with a more adult figure seemed a little abnormal to Milos. What did they need the money for? Why did they trust a more experienced figure as far as robbery goes? The whole plot seemed tricky to Milos, but he didn’t want anything to do with it. Perhaps the boys really did need the money. He felt a pair of eyes on him.
Garrett gave Milos a death stare as the rest of his gang stood talking to the dealer. Milos just gave Garrett a casual glance before returning his gaze to the ground, a safe place to look. Wase couldn’t have come soon enough.
“Milos! You waited,” Wase smiled, “you ready?”
Milos plastered on a smile similar to Wase’s before replying optimistically, “um, yea.”
The two kissed each other before walking towards Wase’s house.
DENVER BARRY @ Nelson Supermarket
Denver had decided that his favorite sentence of the day was hearing, “awesome. You got the job!” It was like a weight had lifted off of his chest.
Perhaps starting to change wasn’t going to be that bad of a thing. He could certainly quit his smoking and drinking easier now that he shaped up and finally got a job. Things were definitely starting to look up. Oh, how he loved the fact that he had met Alec in the first place.
As Denver was walking back towards Alec’s house however, something putrid had already begun to fill his mind. For across the street he had spotted Garrett and the boys, dealing their stolen jewels to a stranger in Fairfield Park. Thoughts of Alec’s injury angered him even further. He started to walk towards them.
However, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. As Denver was about to walk up and single-handedly fight what used to be his gang, a police officer stood no more than three feet away from him. Time to see how much he could pretend to perfect, like Milos. He tapped the officer on the shoulder.
“Um, officer, I couldn’t help but notice those boys over there, under that tree. Now I know this is generally a safe park, but I have this odd feeling that what they’re doing could be illegal. I mean, why would someone be hiding jewelry in a bag?” Denver made sure his expression looked genuinely concerned.
The officer looked over to the boys and was about to sprint off when he turned back to Denver saying, “Shoot. Yea. Thanks a lot, kid.”
As the officer ran off, Denver gave a smirk to the boys who hadn’t noticed that he was there. Then he walked back to his original direction, back to Alec’s house knowing that the boys were finally going to get what they deserved. No one was going to injure Alec anymore.
ANDROMEDA BARRY and NOAH EARNHART @ the Barry residence
Noah was putting away yet another movie that he and Andromeda had watched earlier that day. Andromeda was stretching her legs, wary that she needed to get out and do something. All of the resting and watching movies was making her legs feel as if they were strings of spaghetti. She looked up at Noah.
“Hey Noah, would you mind going on a walk with me?” Noah spun around.
“You want to… go outside? I thought staying inside and watching movies all the time was your ‘thing,’” laughed Noah as he walked over to Andromeda, who was getting up from her bed.
“Ugh, I just need to get out of this house and get some air,” sighed Andie as she started to waddle to her closet for a choice of “normal” clothes. Then she glanced at her belly, as if almost forgetting that it was there. She had forgotten something, though.
“Oh, shoot I’m so sorry. Noah you don’t have to go if you