ambivalent | hes

22

"So, you'll be like in the court room with her?" Bea asked, kicking off her flip flops.

All of us, Bea, Louis, Harry and I were sitting outback at Bea's house, roasting marshmallows and sitting around the campfire in the warm, summer night, just talking.

"Yeah, she gave me a bunch of papers explaining the job, and I'm really excited." I answered.

"I'm so proud of you." Harry said, wrapping his arm around me and kissing my cheek.

I smiled, grabbing the stick with my marshmallow on it and bringing it to my mouth, blowing out the fire.

"Do you guys wanna go on the trampoline?" Bea asked as I ate my marshmallow.

"Sure." Louis said.

We all made our way to the huge trampoline Bea's little brother got for his birthday, and we all got inside.

HARRY'S POV

As we laid down on the trampoline on that starry night, all I could think about was my past. The past I had kept hidden for so long, from everyone, even Lyla.

Someday I would have to tell her, but not now. Not while Bea was around. Louis already knew. He was my best friend. He knew everything.

But there was something I could say now, in front of everyone. Even if it was personal, it felt right.

"When I was litte," I softly spoke,"My father, my sister and I used to lay out back on the cool grass on starry nights like this during the summer, and he would show us the different constellations and stuff. He always knew where the planets were, even from far away he could point them out." I paused, taking a deep breath before continuing. "One night, we were outside. He was telling me about mars and its moons when my sister wandered off. She was younger than me, four at the time, so she didn't know about the way the world works. She was chasing lighting bugs out into the street and she didn't see the car coming. My father and I just heard the screeching of tires and the loud screams of a little girl and we both fell silent. I remember him looking me straight in the eyes, and they held so much sadness. It amazed me how eyes could hold emotion like that." I stopped, looking at Lyla. She had tears in her eyes as she looked at me, and when I turned to her she wrapped her arm around me, resting her head on my chest.

"We weren't able to take her to the hospital in any hope of them saving her. She couldn't be saved. And after that day, my dad and I would just sit on the back porch in silence, staring at the sky. He told me that my sister was up in the night sky, catching stars instead of lighting bugs. And for the longest time I believed it, until I matured and realized that's not how it works. So now, whenever I look up at the sky, I remember that day like it was yesterday. I remember the look on my father's face and the screams of my sister, and for some reason I remember that when it happened he was telling me about pluto, and I still like to think she's up in the night sky. It just calms me." I finished my story.

I hadn't realized I was crying until I was done and I felt the warm tears falling from my eyes. Lyla, Bea and Louis were crying as well. I took a deep, shaky breath as Lyla spoke.

LYLA'S POV

Harry's story was sad. I couldn't imagine losing a sibling, or a child even. His parents must've been devastated. But his story reminded me of something that happened to me, and I thought that maybe it was time to share it with him. To tell him what happened to my father.

"I'm not the only person in my family who had a heart tumor," I started, drawing small circles with my finger on Harry's shirt. "My father had one as well. He was diagnosed when I was young and my mother and I were devastated. But we stayed positive for his sake through everything, check ups and surgeries, but when we got the call that they found him in the middle of the street, dead, it seemed as if all that positivity was gone. No one really knows how it happened, but the doctors believe his heart may have been acting up and he may have been crossing the street at the time, and an oncoming driver hadn't seen him or something and they hit him and left the scene afterwards. They never caught who did it, but my mom said they're still working on the case. I just hope they find whoever did it soon and they get what they deserve."

I stopped there because if I continued it would just anger me. The driver should've at least stopped to help him and call an ambulance. But instead they drove away, leaving him there to suffer to death in the middle of the street at night until someone else found him dead, hours later. If, no, when they find the person who did it, they better hope that my mother takes it easy on them, because she requested specifically that she argue her own case. I don't know if that's legal, but they let her do it.

Harry's POV

I would agree with Lyla. The person who did that to her father deserved what they would get when they were found. I would agree completely. But there was one slight problem.

I was the driver who had hit her father.