DIFFERENT WORLDS

part 2

     It all began when I was in high school. Emily, James and I were like the 3 musketeers of North high school. We were always together. We did everything together. I would say that we "were" best friends and no body used to mess with us. If you fought one of us, then just know that you had a problem with the other two.
    My town was not the safest place to live. There is violence and gang members hanging all around town. My family was a pretty rich family so we never had to sell or do any drugs for money. Out of the three of us, James struggled with money the most but we always used to help him out. Every month Emily and I would always give him our allowance and we would always buy him food.
   "Guys, you don't have to do this you know", he would always say with a sad expression on his face.
   "It's fine James. You know we got you", me and Emily would always say while patting his back.
     Back then, we always thought that everything was okay and that we would always be together. How naive we were.
    One really hot Saturday, Emily came to my house to hang out.
    "We should text James too." , I said.
   Emily agreed and texted James to come to my house and hang out. For the rest of the day, we waited for James to text back but he never did.
   "Maybe he has chores to do" , we thought and decided not to bother him anymore.
   Days passed and we never heard from James. He never showed up to school and never answered put text messages. Every teacher would ask where James was and we would always say, "He traveled and will come back next week". I
     We were now over it and we decided to go visit his house. As we arrived, we saw James sitting on his front porch with a group of older guys with a blunt in his mouth. Right after he saw us,he came running to us with a surprised look on his face.
   "Yo, what are you guys doing here?!" , he said while trying to catch his breath.
    "James, why were you not in school today? Really James!!" , I said angrily with a mean look on my face.
    " calm down Maya, let him explain. " Emily said in a very soothing voice. I cooled off for a second and have James a chance to explain.
   "Maya, it's not what you think. I'm just surviving." He said.
   I could not believe what he just said.  I got really angry that my voice for a little louder.
  "What happened to all the money we have him? What happened to telling each other everything and not keeping secrets for each other? Huh?!!" I said while slightly punching his chest multiple times.
  "Maya you know that I won't have to rely on the money you always give me. I gotta grow up and start taking care of my mom and my little sister." He said while trying to calm me down.
     I started to cry. I was so sad, and and confused. One thing I hated was having one of my friends go through something like this while knowing I couldn't do anything to help. I cared about James a lot and seeing him go through something like this made me really angry.
   "James you know you can always come and live with your family at my house", I said even tho I knew he wouldn't agree to it.
    "Maya, don't worry about me okay. I'm fine and I will come back to school in a couple of days alright?" He said with sadness in his eyes. At that moment, I knew that James really wanted to do this alone and he didn't want to bother anyone. I respected his decision and we went back home.
   Days passed and James was no where to be seen. I got really worried at the fact that he wasn't even replying to my text messages.
   One night while I was sitting on my front porch thinking of how I could help James , I saw him running towards me yelling my name. I stood up and what seemed to be seconds turned into minutes.
  All I heard was one loud shot across from the streets and then James fell on the floor. I still remember this moment so vividly in my head. I didn't know what happened next because I woke up the next morning on a hospital bed. My parents said that I fainted from the shock and the sound of the gunshot.
   Ever since that day, Every time I stand on that porch, painful memories come flashing across my mind that I begin to sweat continuously and I to start feel dizzy. The same thing happened as I went to visit my parents  that week and they had to drag me inside that house.