He Promise

He Promised

The coldness of the handcuffs pierce through my skin as a police officer walks me through the shadows of the night to the police car. I can hear my heart racing with anger, it's all his fault, I hate him! I'll never forgive him for blaming me for his crime that he committed. He promised.                                      
~         
                  It all starts in Cleveland, Ohio, August 16th, 2002, the very day I was I met my best friend, or so I thought to be. It was my first day of preschool at Lakewood daycare, I knew no one until at lunch a young boy came up to me and introduced himself as Ezekiel Rosario. He was 4 and I was 3 at the time, but now we fast forward 10 years and we're seniors at Lakewood high school. Zeke and I are still best friends, though Zeke's your "popular fantasy boy" and I'm a quiet, non binary, and pansexual, artist aka a "background character" at my school. Now you see my name is River but that's not my birth name. When I was born on November 13th, 1999, my parents gave me the name, Valentína Francís Martínez. As you can see my new name is not one bit close to that but I like it that way.                                                                        
~          
I woke up at 5:45 to get ready for school. I don't want to go but I have to, at least I have Zeke there with me. As I walk into school and up to my locker Ezekiel greets me there. "Morning River!" he says with a smile.  "Good morning to you too, Ezekiel." I replied. Zeke hates being called by his full name, so I call him that just to be the amazing friend I am and be annoying."Whatever...anyway are we still hanging out later tonight?" Zeke asked, "At our spot?" "Heck ya we are!" I said not knowing at all what would happen. The bell's loud cry interrupts our talk, so we say our goodbyes then we split our paths. I head to my first period, which is my favorite class of the day, art. Art is my favorite because I get to express myself. My teacher greets me at the door by saying, "Good morning River! You can go in, grab your supplies, and start on your wonderful painting." And that I do, I go in, grab  my supplies and get to work on my replica painting of the famous "Water Lillies and Japanese Bridge" painting by Claude Monet. It really is a beautiful work of art. About an hour later the bell gives its loud cry and I pack up my things, then head to my next class.                                                         
~
The day is going by so fast! It's lunch time already, and as I'm walking out at lunch, I see out of the corner of my eye, Zeke is in a fight with one other idiot, Axel Williams. This isn't his first fight and I'm sure it won't be his last but I know I have to stop it from continuing. I go and pull him out of it, he's got sweat and blood dripping from his forehead. I can see it in his face that he had a reason for this. Though Zeke was popular, yet wasn't an absolute jerk, or so I thought, like the other popular kids. He also has a lot of childhood trauma and grew up being told if anyone says anything bad about him or offends him in any way they need to be taught a lesson. As I pull him out of the fight I also try to calm him. "Hey, Zeke, I'm right here. Calm down, it's okay!" I say calmingly, but he doesn't listen to me, he just rages. "YOU LITTLE BITCH! YOU'LL REGRET THIS LATER!" He screamed at Axel. I spin him around and say "Ezekiel! Look at me right now. Look me in the eye and promise me you won't hurt anyone else. Please?" I said that as tears started boiling up in my eyes, it hurt me to see him act like this, since we've known each other for forever and I've known him as kind and sweet basically my whole life. "I promise, River." He replied back. I could tell he meant it when I gazed into his starry eyes. "I promise."
~
Later that night we went to what we call "our spot." Which is basically just a small spot off Lake Erie. It's small but it's perfect for two people just hanging out.  It was around 2:00 A.M. when three strangers, two boys, one girl, came up to us while we were talking and started acting really suspicious. We both stood up in case we had to run. The three stood there in the street light and started making fun of me, saying how different and weird I was for being who I wanted to be. Zeke stepped up and punched the one boy in the face, it was Axel. The other two ran away because they could tell trouble was near and so could I. After Zeke had given his first punch, he couldn't control himself any more. Axel tried defending himself but just couldn't.
I kept yelling for Zeke to stop, but he wouldn't listen until Axel dropped dead on the ground. Axel...was...dead. Zeke looked down at the dead corpse in disbelief and I could see the panic rush through him. In the distance we could hear the shriek of police sirens startling the dead silence of the night. Someone had heard screams of terror and called the police. Zeke grabbed my hand and said the very last thing he'd say to me...ever, "I'm so sorry" or so I thought it would be the very last thing. Then he kissed me on the lips and disappeared into the shadows of the night. When the police arrived, all they saw was innocent me standing over Axel Finn Williams's dead corpse looking guilty with the blood that Zeke smeared on my hands and lips when he held my hands and kissed my lips. They immediately took me away. My hands went numb as the coldness of the handcuffs pierced through my skin as a police officer walked me through the shadows of the night to the police car. I can hear my heart racing with anger, it's all his fault, I hate him! I'll never forgive him for blaming me for his crime that he committed. "HE PROMISED!" I screamed into the void of the night, but yet I got not a sound in return.