Finding Beauty

Chapter 34

~The Hunter~

I sit at the curb across the street from my block watching the cars zoom by. People are going on with their own lives while I stay here, motionless, caught up in someone else's.

Belle.

The song that haunts my world. It once brought me joy and now it brings a pain that I can't relieve. No one can.

It's Thursday, I should've went to school. But I didn't. I was suspended for getting into numerous fights with classmates and numerous arguments with teachers. My parents say I'm lucky that they considered it as an issue of my mental health and didn't expel me from school. They told me to take this time to work things out. That I can't keep acting up like this.

Nobody praises me anymore, no one even likes me all that much anymore. After the fights and things they saw that I wasn't a hero. They stare at me weird, they stare at me like they stared at Belle. Like I'm crazy.

I've heard them talking. Saying, 'Grayson's gone off the edge' or 'Grayson is so hung up on that girl he's lost his mind', followed by the 'What a shame, he was a nice kid". It use to make me mad but soon that anger turned into sadness and then numbness because I didn't have the energy to feel anything anymore.

I pull my coat closer to my body and let out a shaky sigh. My breath shows in the fog around me. It's 6:30 pm but the sky is dark as it would be at night. As to not worry my mom, I better start heading home. I walk in to find my mother and father in the kitchen arguing about something. When I come closer they immediately stop talking and give each other a look.

"What's going on?" I ask, feeling suspicious.

"Sit down," my father says, his eyes dead serious. I sit down at the table, my hands in my lap. "We talked to your therapist today to try and figure out some more ways to help you."

Again, they give each other a look that scares me. Something's wrong- it must be. Why else would they hesitate like that? "What? What is it?"

My father sighs before continuing. "She suggested some medication."

Medication? I know about medication. I talked to another patient that was in the waiting room of the clinic. He said that the medication only dulled the pain. That it was still there. He said it's just the therapist's way of making more money.

I scoff at his words. "Medication? How is that suppose to fix anything?" As I further evaluate their faces I realize they are actually considering it. They want to put me on meds like I'm some whack job.

"Now Grayson, I know there is a lot of bad stigma attached to taking medication but please just hear us out," my mother pleads.

"I can't believe you guys!" I shout, wanting to knock something over. "You want to tranquilize me like I'm an animal! And do you not remember that drugs is what got this whole mess started?!"

My mother reaches for my arm but I jerk back. "I know. And I also know that you're very mad at Belle's mother. She told us about that phone call you gave her."

My father stands putting his hands in his pockets. "The medication is just going to help balance your hormones so that instead of focusing on all that anger you can focus on healing and coping-"

"Shut up!" I run my hands through my hair and rub my eyes. "I can't do this. I can't do this right now." The front door swings open and I run out and into the night. I don't stop running. Where I'm running to? I don't know. I just need to get away.

Soon, I come across a street and charge right through it, not even bothering to check for cars. At this point, it doesn't matter if I get hit or not.