FRIENDS

KHARI (6:56 p.m.)

      Tonight was the night of shit. To shit on the shittest of shit. I had lost my school in the same night as losing my best friend, which sorta ties together. I didn't even stop to think about why she did this, I skipped and went straight to being pissed. I was pissed as hell. No pissed as shit.
       I lost my boyfriend, best friend, and school. And teacher? I couldn't think straight I was drunk and cold. Maybe cold from being drunk? I don't know. I had walked to the store and back with the built up adrenaline Tiffany had given me and bought liquor. I didn't even have to pull an ID out. I guess being old and looking depressed are the same thing. Now I sat here in the parking lot of the school with a half empty bottle in my now frozen hands. This was it. My last minutes of being at S.T.E.M. high as I watched the time tick by on my phone. Soon the dance would be over and I'd be going home to tell mom the great news. "Hey mom, get ready to see a whole lot more of me." "Wassup mom, I got kicked out of school." Or "You know that place? School. Well I can't go there anymore." HA! And the thing is I didn't even do it. But being drunk on school grounds while underage, seems bad too.
       I had just forked over my entire career as an artist and my chance of going to college all in one bite. It was funny. How we can spend years building up and entire and see it come down within a minute. Funny, real fuckin funny. I was really freezing out here. I couldn't tell if it was my vulnerability that exposed me to the cold or what but I didn't like it. The world was as cold as its people.
     My phone beeped. "What fucking now!" I there the bottle and checked my phone. It was a number I didn't recognize.

      Its me, David I'm on the roof of the school, don't ask how I got in just come.

       David? I got off the curb and made my way inside. The loud music in one room and science fair in the other. I had to go through the gym to get upstairs, I knew this because we did a biology experiment up there before with the class. I made my way into the gymnasium packed with dancing girls and boys smothered in cologne. I slid through to get the the stair way that sat nearby the men's locker room. I was almost there when I felt a grasp around my wrist. I turned to see who it was. It was Wes. He looked good in a suit and tie.
      "Hey I didn't know you were here Khari." He said itching his head shyly.

    "Me either." I said not thinking clearly. I turned to walk off but he grabbed my shoulder.

     "Listen Khari I know that it sucks that Mr. B hit you and all but... I wanted to tell you something." He smiled.

      "I think you've done enough to me." I snapped at him. I felt myself pulled back again.

      He looked confused this time. "So you wanted to be hit by him?"

     "It wasn't on purpose why do you care." I looked at the doorway.

     He sniffed the air. Then looked at me. "Oh my god you're...drunk. " he almost whispered it.
 
      "Why do you care?" I was getting agitated.

     He looked at me all disappointed and hurt. "Come on I'm gonna take you to Principal Calvin, he'll fix this." He started dragging me.

     "No, fuck him." I tried freeing myself. "And fuck you too, you stole the man I loved away from me and I'll never see him until now, lemme go." I shook him loose and bolted my way to the staircase. "David?" I called out.

        Life was a mess for me in this moment, but I sure learned a lot from life. I used to grow up thinking that this world was woven from licorice and lollipops and candy canes. So sweet it hurted. But I was right only in the sense that it hurt. And it did hurt just like today. It hurt just like a best friend stabbing you in the back. It hurt like losing the one you love. It hurt like life itself hurts. I used to think that I was the bravest person I know, that if I had to chose villian or hero I'd be an automatic hero. But any man can tie a cape on and call themselves a hero, but it was those who don't realize they were heroes who're the real heroes. People who who strive in the face of pure danger. Here I was in pure danger what was my next move? To get drunk and chase a man who by law I should've never been involved with. But I may not have been brave but I was a hero. I was a hero because I was acting like a human. I was no longer trying to be the hero and someone who has to remain strong I was being human. I was doing what any other human being would do. This made me the most iconic hero. The ones who hang up their cape and find a new way to fly. But as for me, I was already in the air. And if falling was flying I was superman.

      I threw myself against the door to the roof and came face to face with a familiar face, no not Davids. But a face of someone we had seen earlier. He couldn't seem to get away from us. Or we couldn't seem to get away from him I should say. It was the face of a gun.