Silence to the Surface

Aftermath

There are certain moments when I feel like reversing the clock. Have you ever felt like that? You say something stupid, you say something hurtful, you do something hurtful, maybe embarrass yourself. Little moments like that in life are when I wish I had a time machine. To forget, relive, take back. But life isn't like that, you can't reverse time, you can't undo anything and you can't fix your mistakes that way. The best you can do is make up for what you have done and keep going forward.

Well... at least most of the time. There are some things that are unforgivable and unforgettable.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

My heart was beating out of my chest, I could feel a panic attack coming but I couldn't show Jaden how much I was freaking out. He was pacing around in front of his car, back and forth. His hands on his head, his breathing heavy, muttering to himself.

"I'm too high for this shit!" he whispered.

The dark street lamp was flickering above me. Lucky for us, this part of town was abandoned. Well not really, just no one lived out here practically. It was just outside town enough where there was no one around, but that did not mean we could linger.

"What do we do?" Jaden said, breaking the silence.

I couldn't take my eyes off of Mr. Rosenburgh's face, the look of pure terror and shock was frozen on it. Blood was pouring out of his head and his legs, arms, and neck were broken. He was all twisted, like a slinky that was played with too much.

"E-Ena..." He stuttered. I turned back to him, unknowing of what to say.

"W-we have to do something, we can't just leave him here."

I turned away again, my eyes filling with tears and panic creeped to my chest.

Pull yourself together, Ena, pull yourself together.

"Maybe we should call someone, the cops or-or, my dad? I don't know, maybe he can help us."

Breathe

The cops. What would the cops do? Place us under arrest for murder: involuntary manslaughter, take away our freedom to get justice for Mr. Rosenbergh a man who abuses and takes advantage of teenage girls, strip away our futures and potentially stop us from ever getting hired anywhere. Absolutely not.

"No." Sometimes you have to do the wrong thing for the right reasons.

"What do you mean "no"?" He seemed genuinely surprised by my response. 

"We can't call the cops." I turned back to him. "I'm sorry but we can't."

He shook his head aggressively, "We have to! We committed a crime, we just murdered him!"

"Jaden, listen to me, do you know what will happen to us if we call the cops? Us especially."

"Of course I know! You think my dad doesn't tell me this shit every fucking day!"

He wasn't listening, I was nervous he was about to ignore my request, pull out his phone and call the cops. He was frantically turning around every few seconds and looking around in places people wouldn't even be hiding. 

"We have to tell someone!" He started to pull out his phone and dial.

Shit.

"Jaden, no! Don't do that, just listen to me, I know you're scared but you have to trust me-"

"No! I am going to do the right thing, Ena. We just murdered someone and I am going to tell my dad we need help!"

"You mean you!" I hated myself, but he wasn't listening to me. We were losing time. I blurted out the first thing I knew would get his attention and scare him.