A Different Me

Chapter 5

Sterling asked me "do you just want to skip school today? I don't feel like dealing with cops and everything today." "Yeah let's just go to the pond house ." I answered. So we drove to the pond house. Sterling unlocked the door and held the door open for me. I walked inside and sat on the sofa. I looked around for the remote to the TV and I didn't see it anywhere. "Looking for this?" Sterling asked holding the remote above his head. "Yes." I admitted. "You gotta get it." He said in his cute little country accent. "You know that's not fair." I said. I stood up on the couch and jumped off hoping to get the remote. I didn't get it but Sterling said "since you tried so hard." He kissed me then gave me the remote. I turned the TV on and the news was on. It was the high school I went to. Sterling and I both looked at the TV in concern. The news said there was a shooting at the school. We watched in horror as we see that Crystal a girl that was in my chemistry class had shot herself and another girl by the name of Brittany. "Witnesses say Crystal was going to commit suicide and Brittany tried to talk her out of it by telling her that it wasn't her time to go and that Jesus loved her. But Crystals last words were I can't take it anymore I am so sorry. Then she shot Brittany then herself right in the head." The news reporter said. "I've known Crystal since we were four I can not believe it. This can't be." Sterling said with a crack in his voice. He sat on the couch and a tear drop fell. This was the first time I had ever seen him cry. They must have been super close. I sat beside him and I hugged him and wiped his tears from his face. He then hugged me. His phone started ringing and everyone was texting him telling him how sorry they were that Crystal had done that. Sterling got up and pulled out an old photo album from the bookshelf. He pulled out a picture of Crystal and him when they were about six playing in the water at the river. Then he pulled out a bunch of other pictures of him and Crystal together. "These are all the pictures we have had together. We were best friends up until about a year ago." He said. There were about 75 photos that he had pulled out and put in a stack. He looked at the photos and cried so hard. I just watched scared of what he would do to himself. He grabbed the photo album and threw it. It hit the cabinet and he cried even harder. I walked over to where he was sitting on the floor and I sat in his lap with my legs around him and I hugged him as hard as I could. I felt the tears soak my back and I started crying. I don't even know why I was crying but I cried with him because I knew he was in pain. We cried together for about two hours. I stood up and went to get a wet warm wash cloth. I came back to where Sterling was just sitting on the ground paralyzed by his pain. I wiped his face then kissed him. "I love you." I said. "I love you too." He answered and he stood up and sat on the couch. I fixed us some turkey sandwiches and we ate them together. We only ate a little bit though because our appetites were gone from crying so much. We went to the back bedroom and laid under the blanket and took a nap. We slept until 5:18pm then we woke up to dogs barking. It was brandon and Taylor. They knocked on the door and I got up and let them in. "We couldn't find you guys anywhere and neither of you were answering your phones. So we figured you guys were out here and we came to see how Sterling was doing." Brandon said. "We have been asleep since like 10:30am and he's not taking it well. He's been crying ever since we saw what happened on the news." I said. "It's a shame such a pretty girl went down the wrong path." Taylor said. "What happened?" I asked. Taylor and Brandon sat down on the couch and I sat in the recliner. "Well about a year ago Crystal was kidnapped and raped. They never found the man. But anyway she was pregnant and lost the baby. Then her parents became way over protective and they stopped letting her do anything. So she was stuck in her room all day. She became depressed and started wearing all black and soon after she began self harming. Sterling tried to help her but she only brought him down. She broke off their 14 year friendship and Sterling was still always there for her but she didn't want anything to do with anyone. So she stayed alone and I guess the loneliness got to her this morning and she committed suicide." Brandon explained. All of a sudden I heard sniffling and crying and Sterling ran out of the pond house and let the screen door slam behind him. Brandon Taylor and I ran after him he went down to the dock and sat down and he was crying. Not like softly crying though it was like boo hoo crying. It was bad. He was rocking back and forth and he was severely upset. Brandon tried to calm him down and so did Taylor and I but it didn't work. We all sat on the dock and watched the sunset. Taylor Brandon and I stayed the night at the pond house refusing to leave Sterling and Sterling refused to leave the pond house.