Daffodils

Chapter 18

As soon as the police officer thanked his son with a wicked smile on his face, my face turned towards the gang. They all looked at eachother, and tried to figure out that who snitched. They all were turning, pointing and doubting eachother. Everybody was in chaos, while one person was standing silently at the entrance. I got my answer as to who was the one who snitched about everything, who was the son of that police officer.

"I-I'm so-sorry, Rick." Everybody turned towards Joe as he started speaking. He was crying and his hands were shaking. I was just standing numb there. I had no energy left to question him or react anything.

"Why? J-just why, Joe?" Kim ran towards Joe and shouted at him.

"Why'd you do this? We've already decided that we are not going to tell our parents anything about this, right?" Andrew said.

"I-" Joe tried speaking something.

"And you only told him about this place too, right?" Marks asked. Joe nodded and hung his head low. Tears were running down his face.

"Why'd you do this? Just answer us for the fucks sake, Joe." Kim shouted at him and shook him by his shoulders. Joe looked at him wide eyed.

"H-he's my dad." He said, pointed towards the officer. "He always live far away from me and my dad and t-that's probably the reason that you guys didn't recognise him when you first saw him. Because he never was there since my childhood. And it was the only chance he had to be there with us, to live here with us." He hiccup alot while speaking. He was guilty himself. "He had to find a criminal here, and he'll get promotion out of that. And when finally I had a chance to live with him, I forgot what I was doing. I told him everything about you. A-and when Kim called me, I knew that dad went to your place for investigations, I suddenly called him and gave him our location." He looked at me with his big eyes. But I was already blank that I couldn't process anything. I couldn't even hear him properly.

"Just for the sake of this, you ruined his life, Joe?" Jack asked from behind.

"I-I'm sorry." He joined his hands and moved towards me.

"Son, you don't have to say sorry. You did a great job, you helped us to find a sinner. I'm proud of you." Joe's dad patted his back and ruffled his hair. Then he turned towards me.

"Its time to go, kid." His subordinates came forward and grabbed me. "And also-" He turned towards the gang. "I'm going to call all of your parents. You all were equally involved. You guys hid this matter. You all are going to rot, mark my words." Everybody started saying sorry and tried saving themselves, except for Kim. He was just standing there, didn't react anything. It seems like he had nothing left. His eyes were blank, his face was pale, he himself was soulless body at that time.

They dragged all of us out of that place and filled us in the police van. We all were crying, pleading and tried saving ourselves. But all of that was of no use. They already decided what they wanted to do with us.

We reached police station. As soon as we entered the police station, we saw Lisa, along with her mother, sitting at the benches of the station. She hid her head in her hands and was crying. While her mother was fidgeting with her scarf. The atmosphere was tensed. My eyes couldn't left her. They both stood up as soon as they saw us. We all stood surrounding the table and the officer was in front of all of us. Soon, the parents of the gang filled the room. Officer told the whole story to the parents.

"Are you guys out of your mind?" Jack's dad shouted at us.

"You all were literally trying to save him. And why is that? You all are dumb." Mark's mom shook her head. She was rather more disappointed.

Everybody took their turns in shouting at all of us together. They all gave me disgusted looks. And I couldn't even blame them. For them, I was a sinner.

The officer signalled one of his colleagues, and he came to me. He grabbed my arms and started dragging me towards the prison cell.

"N-no, please. I'm sorry, please, don't do this." I opposed and begged to them. The gang held my other arm and tried holding me back. Lisa too came in to protect me. And all the parents were holding their child. The whole situation was a mess.

"Just. Don't. Do. This." Finally I lost my temper. I shouted at everyone and brushed the officer's hands off of me and stood at a distance from everyone. My eyes were filled with tears and my legs were trembling.

"W-what is your problem? Why are you guys doing this with me? Why, just why can't I love someone in peace?" I asked too many questions to all of them. They all looked at me in disbelief. "Who the fuck even decided that we are obliged to love the person from the same sex of ours. Why the love has so many boundaries, that we can't even love the one whom we actually have feelings for? Love is supposed to give you comfort, give you the happiness you are lacking, but still you people put boundaries in it. What if-" I raised my head and finally looked at them. "What if we all were destined to love someone from different sex, then you all will accept my relationship with Lisa but opposed me and Kim, right? How biased we all are?"

"Rick!" Dad shouted at me.

"No, wait dad. I'm just telling the fucking reality of this society. And maybe that's the reason you are shouting at me. Because, deep inside, you know that I am right. We don't know who set this 'rule of love' but still we are blindly following it. What if they set this rule for opposite sex, then we look a boys couple as a sinner, right? Love itself means tranquility, peace, comfort. And if I'm finding my peace, my last wish with Lisa, then what's the problem? Why can't I just love her? Why we all have to be so biased about such a pure thing called love? Just why?" I had many questions, but all my questions are waste in front of them. All of them were speechless. They all knew that I was right, but still they can't stand with me, or they didn't even want to. They knew that the thing I said was absolute, but they just can't go against the system. Loving Lisa was the last thread I was holding on to. Now I had nothing. My dads were against me, friends didn't like me and I pushed Lisa away too from me. Now I had nothing to think about. I was ready to go to the prison, I wasn't even planning to oppose this time.

My eyes were blood red and breathing was unstable with all those words I poured in front of them. But all my words lost it's importance in front of these people. They all are just system's puppet who blinded themselves with the rules.

"You done, kiddo?" Joe's dad asked. As obvious, he didn't care about anything I said. He smirked and signalled his officer. His officer again held me by arm and dragged. And the other female officer separated Lisa from her mother.

"Wait." Dad suddenly shouted from behind. He and dady went to Joe's dad.

"Listen officer, please don't do this, please. Even after everything, he's our son. And he's just a kid, he didn't know what he was doing or what he is even saying right now. Please, please let this pass. And I'll make sure that he'll never going to do something like this ever again." Dady plead in front of him. He called me a kid. Maybe I was a kid, but I perfectly knew what I was doing, so calling my behaviour childish was so childish of him.

"Please officer, he's Joe's friend. He's like your own son, please don't do this to him." Dad approached. And after dad, the whole gang tried to convince him. But he the smirk on his face was just grew wide. It felt like he is filling with more ego with every pleading he was hearing. And with his face, I understood that he's not going to spare me or Lisa. He was just standing there listening to everybody's requests.

"Dad." We all looked behind and saw Joe standing there with his fist tight and his head hung low. He raised his head and took a glance at me.