Narrative Short Story
“Skyyler? Hello, Earth to Skyler,”. My friend’s head popped into view. “Whatcha thinking about?”
“Oh nothing, sorry” my eyes focused, and I shook my head a little to clear it. “Just tired”.
“You need to be at your best today, you know that,” she nudged me. “C’mon, walk home with me.”
“Ok,” I replied and jumped off the mossy stonewall we had been sitting on, feeling the impact as my feet hit the black pavement.
We walked a little until we spotted the park. We dropped onto one bench and my backpack slumped to the ground. I leaned back looking up through the leaves on the low branches that hung over my head as Nikki closed her eyes and relaxed beside me. I heard a “clang” that woke me from my daze and then laughing so I sat up and looked around. Lucas, the principles overprotected son, and his 2 goons, Levi and Leo, the twins. They were throwing rocks at passing cars and laughing whenever one hit, but they didn’t seem to have seen us.
“Nikki, Nikki,” I said shaking her arm as she woke. I motioned to the boys, and she silently picked up her stuff and joined me in walking away. Then Levi turned around and pointed at us, and Leo and Lucas turned to look. They started running toward us and we scrambled up the side of the tall rock climbing tower. By the time we had gotten to the top, the boys had made it halfway up and were still coming. They were yelling curses and taunts as they cleared the top, but just then Lucas slipped and fell screaming down the side of the wall.
“Lucas?” I shook his shoulder, but he didn’t respond. “Lucas!”
“Huh?” He shook his head to clear it and tried to sit up. “Ow!”
His face turned white and his wrist collapsed inwards.
“You broke my wrist!” he stuttered and pointed at me.
I shouted at him, enraged to be blamed with this crime. “No, I didn’t, you were chasing us and you fell off the wall!”
“No!” He shook his head, grimacing as he did so, “You pushed me, right, boys?”
Both Leo and Levi nodded just as Nikki got off the phone with the medics.
“They’ll be here in 10 minutes,” she looked at me, “you’ve better convince them before then or you must suffer the consequences, you know that his parents will get to pick the punishment, and I don’t want to have been or be involved in it.” With that my best friend turned and promptly forgot I existed. I watched her exit the park and then turned back to the smirking boys.
“I didn’t break it and you know it, you were all chasing us…” the blaring sound of a siren interrupted us and that.
“Finally!” Lucas said, his face white as a ghost from the pain.
Just as the medics began to come to us, Lucas’s parents arrived. Apparently, Nikki had called them too.
His parents reached us just as the medics started to wrap his wrist and ice it. They immediately surrounded him and started whispering in low voices. Then Lucas pointed at me and his parents descended on me like vultures.
“What did you do to our son!”
They were glaring at me as if I had killed him, but I managed to mutter out “I didn’t, he was chasing me and my fr..” I stopped, remembering that Nikki didn’t want to be involved.
“Spit it out, child!” His mother was indignant and incredibly impatient. “We don’t have all day!”
“I didn’t do anything he was chasing me and he fell off the wall as he was climbing up,” I insisted
“Well, what did you think he was going to do when he..” she made quotations in the air “caught you?”
“I..I..”
“Well, do you know or don’t you?” his mother insisted.
“No, I don’t know” I muttered. His mother grinned like just that fact convicted me.
“Well then, I don’t see how this is his fault, do you?” His mother smirked.
“But..”
“Shush child, you can tell your story,” she again made quotation marks in the air, “in court!”
With that she and her husband left, driving off in a trail of smoke, following in the wake of the ambulance.
I walked home by myself feeling the void my best friend had left, and the sadness and fear that the day had brung. The street was dark, the only light being from tvs and my front porch. There was a cop car parked outside my house and i knew they had come for me.I walked nto the house, expecting hugs and ,where have you been’s from my parents, but instead i walked into a silent living room, except for the sound of pens scratching on paper.
“Mom, Dad?” they both simply looked at me sadly but didn’t say anything so i looked at the papers, the papers that would let the officer take me.
I was panicking now, as i watched them inital, it was ike watching a dream, someone else’s dream.
“We love you” said my mom “we will always love you wether we are with you or not” I nodded
Then my dad spoke up “just stay safe, okay?” I looked up to tears in his eyes, and I tried to smile but I couldnt, so instead I buried my face in his arm and cried, knowing full well I might never return to them. As I drove away, I took one last glimpse, only to realize they were already gone, and my fear began to twist at my stomach even more than it already had.
I spent the next few days in a holding cell, questioned day and night, though I felt bad for them because they got the same story every time they asked, and were not getting anything out of me. Every morning I got a bowl of oatmeal and a piece of white bread, and similar meals for lunch and dinner. My “free time” was spent writing letters to my family that I knew would never reach them. I became silent, just stopped answering their questions biding my time until I would speak again, the day of my hearing. I would have no lawyer, just me. I knew full well that they had passed a death penalty a year before, and I knew that that would be my wanted fate.
The court would not allow no lawyer so they assigned me with a new one, Thomas Oliver. We reviewed my story, and once I was done he asked a few simple questions.
“Are you telling the truth”
I decided I needed to cut my not talking short so I could win this case so I responded “Yes”, scoffing at such an obvious question
“Do you have any personal bias against Mr. lucas”
“Yep, I’ve hated him for years.”
I gave so many painfully truthful statements that he looked startled at my answers and once we finished reviewing; he told me my best chance was to just tell the truth. I agreed, it wasn’t like I had any other choice.
On the day of the hearing i stood outside the dark carved oak doors that led to the courtroom, asking myself why i had gone to the park, and readying myself for any punishment they proposed. Suddenly Thomas appeared beside me.
“You ready, kid?”
“Nope” I replied
“Me neither” he said as the doors opened and guards led us into the courtroom.
They want me killed. I am, and I quote “a menace to society,” and i “cannot be trusted to make better decisions,” and I might “hurt or kill someone,” because of my “dangerous nature”.
“I didn’t like her from the start, even when I saw her in the park she looked untrustworthy,” His mother says “She is dishonest and should be terminated so unfortunate accidents like this never happen again”.
My lawyer pointed out that according to a witness, Nikki- who glared at me as soon as they escorted her in- his story was false. Then her laywer said that she had 2 witnesses, Levi and Leo, but i pointed out that it biases all witnesses because they are all friends taking the side of their friends. The last decision was up to the judge. He literally had my fate in his hands, except this time it was in the form of execution papers.
The judge had decided that I was right. Apparently there were security cameras in the park, and they had seen just as I had said, and the opposite of what Lucas had said. I had the choice of his punishment, but I had him serve community service, to spare him from that unbearable, fearful, stomach twisting fate, that he had almost handed out to me.
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