Harrison Woods is a 17-year-old girl attending Arbor Coast High, a boarding school in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her dark past including her rocky relationship with her parents and her esteemed older brother's suicide are the reasons she landed herself at...
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3 weeks had passed since the incident in the safe house, but the memory of what happened was still cemented in my mind.
I had gone to the house as soon as West called me on the landline, telling me that Harrison had left to go visit Otto at the Arbor County Jail. The patrol officers even let me stay well over the 2-hour limit, but I was pretty sure the only reason they did that was because they felt bad for me. How could you not feel bad for me?
When I had arrived at the house, West was crying at the kitchen table. He could barely pull himself together enough to greet me. Seeing him in pain broke every little piece of my heart because of how much I loved him. So I just sat there with him for hours on end, holding his hand and telling him that everything would be okay. I remembered the details:
Harrison arrived back at the house around 40 minutes ago. She walked right through the house and straight to the bathroom, and when she came out she shut herself in her bedroom. Clearly, she was ignoring us, and I understood why. She was on bad terms with West, and as of today, she wasn't necessarily on good terms with me either.
West and I were sitting at the kitchen table. He stopped crying not too long ago, but he was still staring straight at the wall, unable to say a word to me.
When he told me about how Harrison spoke to him earlier regarding her going to visit Otto, he broke down. He couldn't stand the fact that she agreed to see him without even putting up a fight. But from what I knew about Harrison and Otto's relationship, she wouldn't have wanted to put up a fight, anyway. Despite all the shit that happened with Otto, there was no way she had gotten over him so quickly. She had to have still loved him. It must have made going to see him that much easier. And I understood that because even I can admit to at least thinking about visiting Otto. He was still my brother regardless of what had happened, although I couldn't pull myself together enough to actually ask to see him.
I looked up at West who was still staring blankly at the wall. "West," I said, placing my hand over his. His watery eyes jolted up to meet mine. "What are you thinking?"
West looked down at our hands, then grabbed mine tighter and squeezed. When he spoke, he spoke in a hushed voice. "When Harrison moved to Ann Arbor, I accidentally ran into her in the parking lot. She was carrying boxes to her room, and she dropped one that was filled with school supplies. I mean, it was filled to the brim. I don't think anyone would ever need as many school supplies as she had with her that day," West laughed a little. "When she dropped it, she yelled at me. She completely cussed me out for running into her, and I just apologized. Then she apologized for cussing me out, and I offered to help her carry her stuff up to her room. I asked her why she was here, and it took her awhile to open up to me about everything that happened to her back in Maryland, but we became friends so fast. We were just always there for each other."
He took a deep breath. "I know that she went through a lot back home. Her parents loved her brother more than her, and when he died, she lost herself. She became depressed, and her parents made her come to Ann Arbor. They sent her away because they couldn't handle her depression. They were complete cowards," West shook his head, tightening his grip on my hand, and I let him.
