Trapped by my choices

Chapter 17

The cold night once again bit at my nose and cheeks as I walked down the sidewalk that seemed all too familiar. Dim lights on the side of the road were the only light that I got. Sometimes there wouldn't be any and I would trip on rocks or roots, sometimes my own feet.

The anticipation grew as I got closer to the park, where the gang and I always met. This time, I knew for sure, would be the worst task they had told me to do.

When I was about 200 feet away, I saw the dark figures with their hoods up so no one could see their faces. I got a sudden pain that filled my stomach and chest, breathing became a harder task, my heart pounded a million miles per second.

"Okay! I'm here! What do I have to do?" This was the last thing, nothing else, I kept telling myself that just to get me through it.

I hadn't expected the task to be so gruesome, so cruel, so scary. It made me notice how real this really was, that this kind of pressure and abuse had to stop. People were people, no matter whether they were white or black, atheist or Christian, male or female. When he pulled it out of his coat pocket, I didn't know what to do.

You see it in the movies, I've seen it and when I did, I always thought that it was so cool when a person did. Now... now whenever I see a gun on TV I cringe and I feel my heart rate rising, my throat drying out.

When the black figure of a gun was pulled out of Jake's pocket, I didn't know what to do. Part of me was scared to death and part of me was intrigued, "What...what's that?"

Jake grinned and laughed a little, "You know perfectly well what this is. Take it and go shoot up Mr. Marlins house."

Just the thought of it made me want to hide forever. Jake had just given me my last task, the hardest task, the worst task. He had told me to shoot up a teachers house.

"No one will even know it was you!" Jake held out the gun, his eyes were looking into mine.

I thought for a moment, moving my eyes from the gun to Jake's eyes. I knew I didn't have a ton of time, I knew that I only had minutes to make my decision. Jake was growing impatient, this whole time he had been setting me up for this moment, the moment when I would hold a gun for the first time, and he was tired of setting it all up and wanted to see what would happen.

Without saying a word, I grabbed the gun out of his hand and examined it, trying to figure out how to use it.

Jake's large hands moved over to mine, he adjusted it so it fit in my hand correctly. Then he walked behind me and put his hand over mine, "All you do is pull the trigger, then you're all good. Once you can't shoot anymore run away." He moved away and stared at me with a stern look.

I nodded and shoved the gun into my jacket pocket. As I walked away I could feel the sets of eyes staring at my back, pleased with what they had accomplished, pleased that they were destroying someone, many people actually, pleased that the lives of innocent people would be shaken by this new event. It was hard to believe that all it took was a loaded gun and a finger to create a disaster. All it took was a girl and a gang.... and a stupid teenage boy.