I didn't see Jeff until the final period of the day. When I did he seemed... off. At first I thought he was just faking the joy so people wouldn't suspect him for the crime that he did. But he really was enjoying himself. It wasn't because he was excited to be at school I could tell that much from him. The smile he wore looked sadistic to me. It was the smile of a madman. The second that bell rang I bolted out those doors as fast as I could. Nobody but me knew what Jeff really was. A freak.
The next day seemed to be passing without incident at first. Then I saw the police car in front of Jeff's house.
"Looks like they got you." I thought.
Nobody could gotten away with something like that (You know, with the neighborhood watch and everything.). But I was wrong with who they arrested. Instead of coming out with Jeff like I expected they would, the police came out with Liu, his brother.
I was barely forming the thought of Jeff framing his brother for the assault when he came out of the house yelling at Liu, "Liu tell them I did it!" (I was able to hear him this time because the front door was open to my house.).
I couldn't hear what Liu said in reply to Jeff's outburst, but it was definitely not what Jeff wanted to hear. A few seconds later, the police drove off with Liu, and Jeff was left outside with his mother. A few minutes later she went inside the house and left Jeff outside. Although I couldn't hear him from across the street, I could tell that he was crying.
But who wouldn't be in that situation.
The next day rumors were spreading like wildfire about Liu. It took so long for the rumors to get started because everyone was afraid to talk about Randy getting his ass handed to him. When it was revealed that he wouldn't be coming back to school for a few days, everyone decided to take advantage of that fact and enjoy it as much as possible, and lots of random bullshit started popping up.
"I heard Liu cut off Keith's arm!"
"Oh yeah? Well I heard that Liu hit Troy so hard in the stomach that he ralphed up blood!"
"That's nothing! I heard that he punched Randy so hard in nose that it came out the back of his head!" and etc, etc, etc.
Personally I didn't want anything to do with Jeff or his brother. But... he just looked so alone and upset that I had to do something. So I wrote him a note telling him that he had a friend in this place and that I was going to testify at Liu's trial about what really happened. I left the note at his desk signed with the letter "J" before class started, then left the room. When I came back Jeff was at his desk and the note was gone.
