The Stolen Heart

If you kill yourself then I kill myself.

The pic on the side is of Emma.

A sickening cracking noise reaches my ears just after Bradley punches Tyler.

Tyler looks stunned, and then he swings. Bradley grabs his arm and twists. It cracks, too. Everyone is watching in shock.

Bradley is always the sweet guy. He's giant, so nobody ever picks fights with him.

Tyler is the only idiot who would.

Tyler punches Bradley in the jaw, and then Bradley punches him in the stomach.

When Tyler is weakened, having the wind knocked out of him, Bradley starts punching him left and right.

"Bradley!" I yell, shoving his shoulder. "Stop! Stop!"

He's not listening to me.

I try to get him to stop. Teachers try, the principal tries too, but he's just not going to.

"Move." I say.

Everyone moves out of my way. I back up fifteen feet.

Tyler is unconscious now.

I break into a run and crash full force into Bradley. He and I go flying five feet in the other direction, and then we stop.

"What the hell! Look what you did!" I point at Tyler, and then hold up his hands.

They're bloody, only it's not Bradley's blood on them.

I get off him and grab him by the shirt and yank him to his feet.

The campus police, Deputy Colsen, takes Bradley away.

An ambulance comes for Tyler.

The janitor cleans up the blood, and then I walk outside.

Madison follows me.

"I wish my best friend was like Bradley." She says.

"Are you crazy?" I reply.

"He could've killed Tyler!"

"So? He was going to hit you. Bradley was just trying to protect you, he just got a bit out of hand."

****

Noah: r u joking rn?

Me: what?

Noah: BRADLEY IS IN JAIL!

Me: are you serious?

Noah: yes

"NOAH!" I yell from my room.

"WHAT?" he yells from his room, which is right next to mine.

"COME HERE!"

I hear his door open and close, and then he walks into my room.

"How do you know Bradley is in jail? Please tell me this is just a sick joke."

"It's not." He says. "It's on the news that a kid named Bradley Scone beat the hell out of some kid at school. The kid he beat is in a coma." He shuts my door and plops down on my bed. I pause Revenge on Netflix. I'm in a white tank top and black spandex. It's six thirty at night. I already took my shower for school and Dad is downstairs filling out my paperwork.

Of course Bradley is in jail. He's eighteen and Tyler got held back in fifth grade and he's only sixteen. So they think Bradley beat up a kid.

"Do you know anything about this?" my brother asks me.

"Today, Tyler and I broke up," I begin. "We were arguing at lunch. Tyler raised his hand to hit me...Bradley, he-"

"Did the same thing I would've done. He beat that bag of shit's face."

"And now he's in jail." I say.

"You're mad at him." He says. "Why?"

"I'm mad because I can take care of myself. I'm not being friends with him anymore. He's bad news."

It's true. I decided earlier. He beat the hell out of Tyler. That's the kind of people I avoid.

Also the kind of people I call assholes.

"So if I did the same thing, which I would, would you never talk to me again."

"Yes." I say.

He rolls his eyes. "This won't last a week."

With that, he walks out of my room.

Sighing, I pop a dorito in my mouth and press play on the wii.

Dammit, Netflix is life.

****

I successfully avoided Bradley all day.

It's after school and I'm at my desk, finishing up a stupid essay about me for my English 4 class.

A memory of earlier flashes in my mind.

"You can't run from me forever." Bradley says.

I look at him and sigh.

"My parents said we can't be friends anymore." I lie. "Because you are a juvenile delinquent..."

"You're lying." He says.

"No I'm not. Look."

I pull out my phone and show him a text conversation from me and Dad this morning.

Dad: You better stay away from Bradley

Dad: I mean it

I've never seen Bradley look so...so hurt, destroyed, shattered...

"I'm sorry." I whisper.

I don't even want to not be friends with him.

Tears slip out of the corners of my eyes.

"Just one more hug?" he whispers. His eyes are brimmed with tears.

Nodding, I hug him tightly, burying my head in his chest.

I don't think he ever wants to let go. He hides his face in my shoulder, sniffling.

"We can run away together and be idiots without parental consent." He smiles a watery smile.

"I'm not old enough." I sniffle. "Besides, they'll probably find us."

He nods and looks away from me.

"Bye." I whisper.

I can still see the hurt look in his eyes as I walked away.

No doubt, he went home and sobbed his eyes out, just like I did.

I put a period on the last sentence of my essay. At the top, I write, Emma Lane, 8/19/14, Peroid: 4.

I crawl into my bed and power on the TV and the Wii.

I scroll to Netflix and click on it.

Just as I move to click on Revenge, my phone beeps with a text.

Bradley: I don't think not being friends with you is possible.

Bradley: id rather die

I answer him.

Me: if you kill yourself then I kill myself.

Bradley: im not going to kill myself, I just feel like ill go down a dark path

Me: like what?

Bradley: drugs...alcohol...

Me: why

Bradley: because I don't want to live without you. I need something to drown my sorrows in.

I'm a terrible person.