"But I don't get it." Leala put her hair into a ponytail. "How could a male African American teenager with no weapons be a threat to a police officer who's armed?"
----
Harmony's older brother was found dead, and the cop who killed him wasn't charge...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
⚜
A white guy with a big stomach got out of the car with a megaphone. "This is a disturbance to traffic. We will need you to disperse now!"
I gulped. All these people gathered here waiting to make a change, so there's no going back now. I took the megaphone out of Leala's hand and spoke into it, "What do we want?"
"Justice for Khalil," the crowd roared.
"When do we want it?"
"Now!"
"This is a disturbance of—" He was cut off by the sound of glass shattering.
Holy shit.
I didn't even want to see what was thrown, but I knew it was at a police car. This was exactly what I wanted to avoid. Things could not, would not, turn violent when I was organizing it.
I turned on the megaphone, "People, we do not need—"
More glass was shattering as policemen got out of their cars with bats and shields.
No, no, no, no!
Leala looked at me with fear in her eyes. "We gotta get the hell outta here."
"No, I'm not leaving." I wasn't gonna bail on these people who came and supported me. Most importantly, I wasn't gonna bail on my mom, dad, Khalil, and Calo.
"Harmony—"
There were people screaming and I noticed some of the policemen beating on the people in the crowd. I got down off of the truck. If this was how the protest was going to be, I might as well join in.
"Harmony, don't do anything stupid," Leala warned while chasing after me.
I grabbed a rock off of the ground with a smirk. "Oh, I won't." I threw it directly into a police car and hearing the glass shatter caused chills down my spine. My adrenaline started pumping through my veins. There was no one that was gonna stop me now. I heard people screaming as a liquid came through the air.
Tear gas.
"Fuck!" I tried to run, but whenever I went faster than a walk, I felt extreme pain. Where were the pain medications when you need them? I looked around for Leala, but I could barely see through my burning eyes. I grabbed a blurry rock and tried to throw it at a cop. I heard someone screaming out in pain as I tried to escape.
Mom was right, I never should've started this. I shouldn't have joined in this violence. Peaceful protest was always my motto, so why did I venture from it?
I heard a gun shot and more people screaming. At this point I was getting knocked around so much that I fell. I scrambled around to try and crawl or grab someone's pant leg, but failed. I called out for Leala, but she was nowhere to be found.
I spotted a blurry police badge squat in front of me. "Not so fun when you're the one sufferin', huh lil' nigga?"
"I don't know who the fuck you're calling a nigga, but it ain't me." Even if I was struggling to see and was in pain, I was not about to let this man disrespect me.
I heard a gun cock and a cold metal touching my forehead. "Watch what you say, girl."
I scoffed. "Like a gun could scare me."
His laugh sent shivers through my body. "You must be that Harmony Smith girl."
"I'm honored that you know my name."
"I would just put you in a cell, but what fun would it be to not be able to watch the light leave your eyes as well as this whole stupid ass movement?"
I gulped, but I was not about to let this officer know he frightened me. "As if you could pull the trigger. I heard killing people comes with a heavy weight of guilt."
"Please, I've killed plenty of people. Who do you think killed your goddamn brother?" He laughed as tears welled into my stinging eyes. "That pussy couldn't run in zigzags to save his fucking life." I heard his finger move on the trigger. "Seems like his sister didn't do no better."
The last thing I heard was his wicked laugh filling my eardrums.
⚜
Thanks for reading!!
Don't forget to like and comment if you enjoyed it :)
