The One I Knew Before

The Injustice Gets His Justice.

As I sit in court, fiddling with my fingers, I hear my brother quietly sobbing. I hear my mother reassuring him. When she found out about what I had done she wasn't mad, nor sad. She was proud and that might make her seem like a psycho but she knew I had a good reason to do what I did. My dad however was mad that I ruined my career and that I stole his gun. He didn't care that I did it for Iris who thought no one cared for her. I looked over to him just for him to shake his head at me in disappointment. I stared down impatiently waiting for this court case to start. Then I hear it. The gavel hit the hard wood making me jump in my seat.

"Why did you kill Matthew?"
"He killed my girlfriend just to get closer to me"
"Anything else?"
"He made her best friend do sexual things she didn't want to and would hurt her when she didn't follow through, he also tried to run her over because she showed me what he did to my girlfriend"

"Did your dad know you took his gun?"
"No ma'am"

"Did anyone know you were planning this?"
"My mom knew I was going to get him arrested by the police but she didn't know I was going to shoot him"

"Who is Iris's best friend?"
"Avery Hill"

"I pronounce the defendant, not guilty"

My smile grew. Matthew's dad screamed and cried.
"My boy! My sweet boy!" He yelled.
Yeah he was so sweet. Not. I kind of felt bad for his dad but at the same time I didn't care.
"Thank you ma'am"
"That's not all, you are being sent to therapy to make sure this doesn't become long term and you'll have to do 100 hours of community service just to be fair with a punishment" The judge says.
"Thank you so much ma'am, this means so much to me" Tears spring into my eyes.
My mom and brother run over to me hugging and crying.
"I'm so proud of you Ace" Says my mom.
My dad slowly walks over from his seat.
"I'm sorry I got so mad son, I didn't understand how horrible this guy was, I'm so proud of how brave you are, I'm glad you're my son" He smiles at me.
I pull away from my mom's hug and look over at him, making eye contact. We stay silent for a while.
"Thanks dad" I say smiling at him.
He puts his arms out for a hug and I run into his arms like a child.
"I love you Ace" He whispers into my ear.
"I love you too dad" I whisper back.
He lightly sobs into my shoulder and I feel my mom and brother hug us as well. We hug for a long while. Soaking the moment in. I just avoided jail despite doing a horrible crime. I'm so relieved know that Matthew is finally dead. I can sleep peacefully. Iris would be so proud of me. I feel myself growing more sad thinking about her but I'm also happy. I avenged her. I had so many good memories with her. She was there for me so I was there for her, even if she isn't nescisarlrly here to witness it. I know she is watching from above.
"Iris would be so happy" I hear Aiden say.
I start crying now. I don't care who hears. I don't care who sees. I don't care about anyone making fun of me. I don't care. Iris meant so much to me. I couldn't imagine life without her. She lit up my world. She was taken way way to soon. I had so many memories to make with her. I feel my phone vibrate. I pull away from the group hug and wipe my tears on my sleeve. I pull my phone out of my pocket and read a text I had gotten. It was from Caleb.

[Hey I heard what happened and I'd like to apologize. I didn't know how to react when I heard the news. I didn't know Iris that well but it still hurt so much when she died. Let's hang out some time this week and reconnect.]

(Sure)

I stared at my phone for a while. A little in shock from what happened but a piece of me is super happy. My mom puts an arm around me and walks me and my brother out of the courtroom. I'm glad all of this is over. It's been super hard for me. Tons of people reached out to me to help, tons of people showed that they cared. I thought Caleb and I were never going to be friends again but here we are planning a hangout. I really missed him. We've been best friends since kindergarten, I can't believe we haven't talked and helped each other through this. We would've done this in any other situation. I guess things just got overwhelming for us both. He did have a crush on Iris and yes I'll admit that was an asshole move on his part but she had a special place in his heart and when she died it broke him. When I see him this week I'll be sure to comfort him and try to get our minds off of all this. Iris would've done that. She does that so she isn't all sad. She told me that you can't waste life being sad, live in the moment, try to make something good come out of it. I never understood till now. I can now understand everything she's told me.

I love you Iris.