Thank you for taking an interest in learning more about Lana Willson. Note, there will be spoilers in some questions/answers, so I highly recommend reading the series finish. (Caught by the Bad Boys - Caught, Flawed, Fury then Lights Out Boys)
Amazon: www.amazon.com/Raathi-Chota/e/B07MLJXRSK
COMING SOON TO APPLE BOOKS (JUNE 8TH)
Read the final book (Lights Out Boys) for free here:
Alright, now that’s covered. Let’s get straight into the interview!
“Hi Lana, thank you for joining me today. A lot of the readers are eager to know a few things.” I flipped open my notepad and glanced up at Lana. Across the table, she folded her arms and rolled her eyes.
“Well, I kind of didn’t have a choice, did I? Considering where we are.” She looked around at the isolated room and let out a dry laugh. “And here I thought it was my lawyer saying I’m somehow getting out early.”
Well, someone isn’t in a good mood.
“Let’s start shall, we?” I cleared my throat and looked at the first question. “First off, how is the relationship with your parents going?”
Lana’s gaze dropped to my coffee cup. Her solemn expression almost made me want to offer her some.
“Okay.” Barely whisper. “They visit, but I can still tell they’re… not happy. All this time I thought my dad hated me—that he’s angry, but I realized he’s just… disappointed in himself. That he couldn’t help me.”
“Why is that? Someone pointed out that they didn’t like that your dad didn’t help you during the trial.”
“He couldn’t.” Lana frowned. “As much as he wanted to help, he couldn’t. They all thought he would’ve lied or made up some story to cover my ass. That he wouldn’t tell the truth on stand.”
“Are you ever going to get out of prison?”
“I hope… I’m behaving, hoping, pleading that they’ll reduce my sentence. Otherwise, it’s… what? Less than twenty years to go."
“Many want to know about the gunshot and the stab wound. It’s clear that you didn’t shoot him.”
“Yeah, but I stabbed him first. Unintentionally, of course.” Lana shrugged with a hopeless look in her eye. “I still think about it, and either way… we’d still get charged for all the tampering of evidence.”
“Do you still have nightmares?” I looked at the corner of the room and listened to the chorus of a strenuous day starting in the prison.
“Yeah, I do, but they aren’t as bad as they used to be.” Lana slumped in seat, her glasses falling to the bridge of her nose. “I don’t actually want to get into that, though.”
“Okay, now that we got the stressful questions out of the way, let’s see…” I scanned through my list of questions and chose one at random. “What do you prefer? Contacts or glasses?”
“Err… glasses.”
“Can you recall a situation where you’ve been the most calm that you’ve ever been?”
At this, Lana straightened in her seat and pondered over the question. A small smile reached her lips. The first one of today. “When Levi came to visit me a few days after, Blake left to go home. I had a terrible day cleaning up vomit off the floor and getting sloppy seconds for lunch, but when I got called into the visitation room and seeing him there—”
Lana turned to me and it took me a moment to realize her eyes were glossy behind her glasses. She sniffled. “All the stress and frustration of that day just disappeared. I didn’t tell him what a day I had, I just wanted to know how he’s doing and enjoy our little bubble for that short period of time.”
“That’s nice.” I smiled. “Umm… someone asked that if you’re going out, what do you see yourself doing?”
“Going out?” Lana tilted her head. “As on a date because I’m fine with anything at this point, or as in going out of prison? Because if I were to walk out right now… I’d—I’d”
“Yes?”
“I’d try to find Miranda.” Lana’s jaw twitched, and she nodded to herself. “Yeah… if I were to walk out right now, I’d track her down and ask her what the hell happened? She disappears shortly after Jennifer dies and leaves Ethan high and dry?”
“What do you mean?” I squinted at Lana the longer she continued to fidget. She refused to meet my eye and kept folding and unfolding her arms.
“I know Jennifer and Miranda were a thing… but she had a good friendship with Ethan too.” Lana bit her lip and quickly sniffled. “When he visited me the first few times, I didn’t realize how all this had affected him, of all people. He has no one. Blake and Carter are in other states. Aidan works most of the time so he can save up to see Tiffany and he isn’t close to Levi and the others.
“I didn’t realize how alone Ethan was.” Lana ended in a whisper and glanced up with a forced smile. “Sorry… I didn’t mean to go on a tangent.”
“It’s okay… speaking of Ethan, someone else asked why Ethan has been brother zoned?”
“Brother zoned?” Lana managed a grin. “Ethan is ‘brother zoned’ because he’s always been there for everyone, and I could never see myself with someone so perfect or… highly regarded—I don’t know—plus, I always thought he’d get with Miranda, but…”
“Why Benny? And if you had the chance to get back with him, would you?”
“Well, back then I saw Benny as a safeguard, even though there’s a bit of irony in it. When everything just fell apart the night of Homecoming, I didn’t know who to trust anymore. Sure, it took a while for me to trust Benny again, because it felt like I had to…like there was this weight on my shoulders that everything would come out if I didn’t play along.
“We became so close and cared about each other, like us being together was the only solution. That we could just bury it and keep it between us and move on with our lives, but that blew up in our faces.
“Let me tell you this: when you’ve been betrayed, lied to, hurt by the people you care about the most—so many times, it becomes normal for such things to happen. Their behavior toward you becomes like second nature and you can’t seem to live without it. Without them. No matter how damaging it is to you, when you finally realize it… it’s too late. Also, I wouldn’t get with him again, we’ve moved on.”
By the time Lana stopped, her chest heaved and nostrils flared. I wouldn’t be surprised if her glasses fogged up. I waited until her breaths drew out and no longer punctured the air. Her gaze landed on me, and I cleared my throat.
“Umm… that was, err… deep. Do you want to answer a kiss, marry, kill question to just lighten things up?”
“Really? Are you recording me now?” Lana glanced over her shoulder at the camera in the corner of the room. She turned back with a sigh. “Fine, I’ll answer.”
“Hmm… kiss, marry, kill.” Lana pursed her lips. “Kiss Levi because, ugh… I miss his kisses I took for granted. Marry Ethan so I can fulfill his loneliness and kill Parker Collins.”
“Good answers.” I nodded and looked down at my notepad. “Someone wants to know who you would have chosen if all the guys were your options. Since you had a connection with Blake, went to college with Carter, etc…”
“I’d still choose Levi.” Lana gazed at the wall behind me, but I knew she thought of him. “He’s my first love.”
“Alright, last question. Why haven’t you gotten with Blake?” I asked. “Many people thought there was something going on when he took you with to Minnesota.”
Lana let out a dry laugh and leaned her arms on the table. “I didn’t get with Blake because I saw right through him. He liked the idea of me. He liked what he saw, what he could… imagine of me. He liked this other side of me that made him feel good about himself… but what about me? Look where that me, has gotten me!”
“I’m confused… you’re saying ‘me’ a lot.” I furrowed my brow and Lana sighed.
“I’m just saying I don’t think I’m good for Blake. I have caused him so much pain. He deserves better. He had this certain expectation or version of me I could never meet. I don’t think he ever loved me, too. He might’ve said it, but I don’t think he was in the right mindset to have meant or understood it.
“Besides, he’s happy now with Ursula… she’s great. She can keep him on his toes.”
