STRANGERS

TWENTY-FOUR

you killed my son.

crystal speaks: I know this story makes absolutely no sense, but let's pretend it does for the sake of this story!<33

"I don't deserve anything, sir. They do, they-"

"Your father, do you love him?" It sometimes scared Harper of how calm the teacher was. It was as if he could actually be panicking, but his voice was so soft-spoken, he often wondered how he did it so that he could do it too.

"I love him, yeah, but what does this have to do-"

"Your sister, how about her? You love her?"

"I love them both."

"How do you think your sister would react if she saw her older brother thrown in jail? If she grew up thinking her brother was a murderer?"

"I don't care what she thinks-"

"You do."

"I don't."

"Your father, how do you think he'd react when he finds out his only son is in jail?"

"He would forget about it in a few months. He'd move somewhere else, make my sister forget me, he'd move on."

The teacher shakes his head; "Now, I don't think you believe that yourself."

Harper breathed in shakily, he had to remember to keep himself calm. His anger was rising for some strange reason, he wasn't angry at the teacher. At anyone really, but he was angry at himself because he let the seven go this long when he could've said it was him since the beginning. He threw them into this mess, and the only way he figured he could stop ruining their lives is by making the attention go to him. As selfish as it sounds, Harper didn't want anyone to go through what he is going through, he wishes he could take away all the bad things that had happened to them, but he can't. The only thing now that he could do is change it, change the way the future will look for them. His plan was that he'd go to jail and they'd live their lives normally, and he was happy with that.

"What about what you want?"

"I don't want anything but for them to be happy."

"What about your own happiness?"

"I don't care for it."

"You need to stop putting other people's emotions and feelings before yours, Harper."

An officer was heard in the hallway; "His father is coming, we told him Harper might be getting sent to jail, which is highly positive. We just need to gather more proof, but a group of kids who were listening came up and told us everything. That they saw him at a party Atlas was in, rich kids, they were. All of the students that were with the officer, their parents already came to pick them up. They wanted to see their friend, but we're not letting them."

Harper ignored the rest of what he said, he wiped his tears aggressively, getting up and walking away. "Harper, you can't run from your problems forever."

"I'm doing it right now."

At the entrance of the school, he's greeted by his younger sister who ran up to him and gave him a hug as he crouched down to her height. "Hey, kid." She silently responds and looks up at him. "Why are you crying?"

"I'm not."

"There's no reason to be sad, I'm here."

He smiles, holding her tighter as more tears get brought to his eyes at what his father now thinks of him, but before he got to do that an angry lady walks towards him with another man. He gently, but quickly pushes Celeste out of the way, getting up as the woman pushed him muttering sentences like,

'you killed him.'

'you deserve bad things.'

'how could you.'

The woman cried as Harper let her hit him, shove him until his father got in between them and her, most likely husband, moved her away. "You killed him! You-"

"Ma'am." Harper's father tried to speak, but the lady just kept yelling at his son, now gaining the attention of many students who were now filming them. Celeste kept watching them, not understanding the commotion, she just saw how her brother would take deep breaths and close his eyes and she wanted to hug him, but she was afraid.

And he was even more afraid when he opened his eyes and saw the group of kids who were with Atlas that night. The two boys in that group that told him to take the blame.

They were all smiling as they made eye contact with him.