Always Be Forever

Chapter 19: Ben

2087, BCE, September

I had entered the band room after I had seen Jack with Nadia out in the hallway. "I'll see you later!" I had heard him exclaim to her. "You too!" She exclaimed back. "Hey Ben. Is Jason in today?" Nadia had asked when she had come up to me. "I don't know. I didn't see him earlier," I had told her while I was grabbing my trumpet. We headed into the band room and saw Mr. Jazler waiting for us; we were the last ones in. "You guys are late," he had told us before I had sat down in my spot and Nadia had headed back to the percussion. After playing through our first piece, Mr. Jazler had distributed rooms for each one of us to practice in, but we never got to it.

"Excuse me, but can I borrow Ben for five minutes?" I hear someone say from outside of the band room. The person sounded female, and not with a pleasant tone. She wasn't a teacher, so I knew I wasn't in trouble, but could I be? Some days you just never know. "Yeah sure, go ahead. I was just about to go use the bathroom anyway," I hear Mr. Jazler exclaim. Once he had headed out, I went to the person who was waiting for me. "You're Snow," I tell her. "What's going on? Am I in trouble or something?" I ask her. "It's Cashmere," she tells me. What has Cashmere gone and done now? And why am I the one she's coming to? "What's going on?" I asked her again. "I'm really worried about her," she tells me. "So?" I ask, because I don't need to know everything going on in Cashmere's life. Well, except for the fact that she told me what Jack had done to another friend of hers and towards Cashmere. I forget the name. "You've told her that suicide isn't the option to go with, correct?" She asks me. Oh boy, what was Cashmere going to do now? "Yes, I've clearly told her that it's not the answer," I tell her. "Well clearly she feels really scared around Jack, and can't be in the same room with him," she started. I could tell she wasn't finished. "She had told me of how last night she was crying herself to sleep hoping that there was a conflict between band and dance so she could pick band over dance," she continued. I wasn't going to interrupt her until she was finished. "So now she's been really scared about Jack, because she keeps preparing herself for an assault to happen every day. Today, well at lunch she told me that she should just leave so that he doesn't get to her," she tells me.

"Hold on, what do you mean by "leave"?" I ask her, because I know I would recognize that kind of language anywhere, but I just couldn't find the word for it. "She's thinking of suicide," she finishes off. "Okay, that was a lot. Why didn't you just go to the Constable instead of me?" I ask her. "The reason why I went to you is because you are the only other person here at this school that knows about the situation about Cashmere," she tells me. That actually makes sense. "Do you know where she is?" I ask her, hoping that I can find her before she goes and kills herself. "She's headed home," Snow tells me. Soon, I felt something fall out of my eyes. It was wet, and coming out one by one. Putting my hand on my face, I realized that I was crying. Crying about Cashmere or for Cashmere? I really don't know. All I know is that she deserves to be here in this world no matter what anyone says or thinks, and that's what is important. Realizing that now, I had put my hands over my face trying to cover up the tears from Snow. Problem I had? She lowered my hands and I went in for a hug. Holding onto her, the tears were falling, and they were falling hard. They were going through Snow's shirt. She held me in a gentle hug, and I had let out a muffled, "This whole thing is fucked up."

I didn't want to go back to band class, I wanted to find Cashmere and stop her, but I didn't want to know if I was too late. So I headed back to band class, and waited for tonight, cause I knew I was going to see her at All City. That night, at the break, I was alone and wasn't with anyone. I preferred to be alone anyway. It was then that I had heard it: Bang! A gun had gone off, and I headed down right away, cause Cashmere was the first person I thought of. I headed down to see Cashmere, lying still on the floor, and with a bullet through her chest. Alex was holding onto her and Finn had run to see what the commotion was about. The entire class was surrounding her. "Give her some space!" Mr. Hudson had told the class, and they had left for the band room. "Who did this?" Alex had asked. That was when I remembered Cashmere mentioning something about Jack one time. Looking at Mr. Hudson, I told them, "Jack Strapple. He's still here. Get her to the hospital, I'll deal with him," I had told them before bolting off. Running after him, I was able to run up the stairs with a trip or two here and there, but I was able to catch up. "Jack Strapple! Stop where you are!" I had yelled out at him before he could get out of the entrance. He had turned around, with the gun in hand. "I'm not afraid to shoot," he had told me. That doesn't stop me. He killed Cashmere, and so if I have to go down with her I will. I ran towards him, and tackled him to the ground, with the gun being dropped from his grip and it landed a few feet away. Keeping Jack on the ground, I heard footsteps coming towards us. Looking around, I noticed that it was Jason. He ran towards the gun, picked it up, and aimed it at Jack. "You really thought you could get away with it. Well now you're not!" Jason had screamed in Jack's face. I had held Jack up with his arms behind his back, but a good enough distance for the bullet to just hit Jack and not me. "This is for Tiffany!" Jason had started, pulling the trigger back and firing it at Jack, releasing the bullet. "This is for Cashmere!" Jason had yelled out at Jack, firing it at Jack, releasing another bullet. "You really think that's all you got?" Jack had asked, still being able to walk with the bullets in. "How come you're not fucking dead???" Jason had screamed out in horror. Jack had released his hands and punched me in the nose. He then went after Jason, punching him in the dick and the nose that Jason had to fix his glasses. "You won't get away with this!" Jason had yelled out at Jack as Jack had walked away with me holding Jason back.