"Why do you have that?" Adam asks nervously scratching the back of his head. "Where did you even get that?"
"Relax, man. Its Bullfrog's. Yesterday Cece sent me to their room to clean up some boxes in their closet. At the bottom there was this taped up box that said fragile. Obviously I had to open it."
"Eli, it's a freaking gun," Adam whisper-screams, pointing at the shiny metal weapon that his best-friend was holding. "A gun. Why would you bring it to school?"
"Adam, chill out for a sec," Eli says frustrated, running his fingers through his long hair. He hasn't cut it in months and it bother everyone but him. He likes it that way. "I'm not planning to murder you and then bury you in my backyard."
"Ha ha, real funny," Adam says rolling his blue eyes. "I'd just love to spend eternity next to the bones of your old dog."
"Marty is buried in the front yard, thank you very much," Eli mumbles with a laugh, touching the gun carefully with his index fingers.
He doesn't know a thing about guns. No names, not how much damage they can cause to a human body. But he knows how to shoot someone. He's watched tv plenty of times and it's sort of obvious. Easy enough. What he doesn't understand is why Bullfrog even had it in the first place. Sure, his father went hunting sometimes but he never hid his shotgun, so why hide this? It made him wonder about what it was used for, if it was ever used.
He can almost picture himself pointing it at someone.
"Eli? Promise me you won't do anything crazy," Adam begs, his hand over Eli's in a sort of affectionate gesture. "Please. I don't want you to get hurt again."
Eli shakes his head. "It won't happen again, I swear. This time I'm doing things right."
The two start reading their comics, ignoring the weight of the gun on their shoulders. One of the boy's is planning an intricate...experiment. It involves quite some blood and a few bullets, but he'll take the risk. The other boy knows what will happen, but doesn't point anything out. He won't try to stop his friend because it's useless. What happens, happens.
And so night falls upon them and Adam leaves. He gives Eli a quick bro-hug and departs, running down the sidewalk to his house before his mom calls him. His hearts beating out of his chest as she sees Eli in the room holding the gun.
Eli meanwhile, is planning an escape for certain people. He knows they are suffering more than they let the world know so he'll do them a favor. He wants to fix people's problems and the opportunity has arrived. His hands shake as he puts the gun in his backpack, closes the zipper and sets it next to the door of his bedroom. The dim light of the street rains inside, waking him up more than he would like. It's already midnight and he's got school in a few hours. English, first period, number one nightmare.
Because as much as he wants to say, "I'm over her," he can't. Clare Edwards brings him torture every single morning and during lunch. She lures him in with a shy look and innocent smile and he's dead. Figuratively speaking, of course. He's more alive than ever, especially now. His hands shake and he's pacing the room. His feet make no sound on the carpet though, so he doubts anyone's listening to him. His hands shake and he's smiling as he skips over to his laptop. His iPod is plugged in...only it isn't his. It's Adam and he left a song paused. Eli presses 'Play' and stops to listen.
All the other kids, with the pumped up kicks, you'd better run, better run, outrun my gun.
And he smiles because Adam couldn't have possibly done this on purpose. Adam, who is a kid at heart, gives Eli the energy to go through with this. But to complete that task he must have sleep. So he jumps on his bed. In five minutes, he's drooling on his pillow.
"Good morning, baby boy," Cece smiles, handing Eli a plate stacked high with pancakes. "Made you breakfast."
"Thanks but I'm actually not hungry." Eli takes a water bottle from the counter and plays with it in his hands. He notices Cece's face drop and tries to fix his mistake. Cece tries so hard to make Eli happy. After everything he went through, she wants him to be happy. And thus he says, "You know what? I'll take some of these to go. Adam always makes me eat anyways."
This makes Cece grin and she places four pancakes neatly in a plastic container. Eli smiles back at her and kisses her cheek, wrapping her in a warm hug. She's surprise; Eli is never one for showing affection, but nonetheless, she hugs him.
"Have a nice day sweetie!" Cece calls out once her son leaves the house.
Eli walks down the sidewalk, lined with the yellow, orange and fading green of leaves. He kicks a few dry ones and skips by the grass. He's got a smile plastered on his face and wants to laugh out loud at the irony.
Most massacres don't occur in the middle of an sunny October day.
He smiles at a little girl passing by. She looks like a mini-Clare with her light-brown curls and baby blue eyes. She smiles back and skips down the street.
A pregnant woman nods at him and smiles. She's wearing blue pin that says 'It's a Boy!'
"Congratulations, ma'am," Eli says with a smile.
"Thank you," the woman says cheerfully.
He's changed someone's day with that simple compliment. He wants to do more though. He wants to change the course of someone's life. The ideas are playing inside his head, twirling like ribbons in mid air. He wants to act on his plan now!
As he walks to Degrassi he can see Clare in the distance, talking with Bianca DeSousa. That's strange, he didn't know they were even friends. Apparently they are, laughing and smiling. It was a strange combination, but then again Clare got along with people who were nothing like her. Once Eli's close enough, he catches her eyes and smiles. She waves and turns back to Bianca. They're strangers now.
"You better run, better run," Eli says in a sing-song voice, walking over to the entrance of the school.
Simpson got the police officers removed. The students were still forced to wear the hideous uniforms but it was nice to not have weekly locker checks. He walks over to Adam's locker and smiles. "Guess what, my dear friend?"
"You're high?" Adam blurts out. "I knew that wasn't oregano in your room."
"No," Eli said shaking his head slowly. "We're going on a roadtrip. Ditching. Adventure. Whatever you want to call it. Today's our hanging out day. Meet me at my mom's Toyota in twenty minutes, all right? I've got to do something real quick.. But anyways there's gonna be a note with, uh, instructions on how to turn on the car 'cause sometimes the ignition won't turn on. I'll text you when you have to turn on the car, okay?"
"Woah, Eli...are you high?" Adam asks with the hint of a smirk playing on his lips. "Seriously, dude, I can't ditch today."
"P-Please," Eli begs, using a voice you hardly ever hear. It's the voice of desperation. "I can't be hear today and neither can you. Please, you're my best friend, my amigo, my buddy."
"Yes I know your love for me is unconditional, but does it have to be today?" Adam says, taking out his Algebra book from his locker. "I have a test in English, and a quiz in French. I seriously can't miss today."
"Fine," Eli snaps, his hands shaking as he opens up his locker. "Just don't blame me for whatever happens. You brought this down on yourself."
And with that he walked away in the direction of the boys bathroom. He had to think alone, with out the silly interruption of people who said they cared for him. He might chicken out of this if someone said the right words. He can't chicken out. Things like this take major planning; that's why he hardly slept last night. He can't back out. Another chance like this he might not get. Who knows then. His feet are firmly placed on the tiled floor, but his knees are jello. His mouth is dry as parchment and he wishes he hadn't eaten Cece's pancakes. He's starting to feel sick. To his stomach.
Not now, Goldsworthy. You know that if you throw up, you'll feel all dizzy and won't go through with this. Is that what you want? Do you want to ruin this opportunity? Ruin the chance to make them all pay? No. You have to feel better. Now be a man and leave this stupid bathroom. The bell's about to ring.
He walks out of the bathroom and washes his face in the sink. KC Guthrie comes in and nods at him, walking over to the urinals. Eli doesn't say anything, only looks at his reflection. He's fucked up. Bags under what would be gorgeous green eyes if he had any sleep. Pasty colored skin and a bony structure. He's the walking dead.
Eli walks out of the bathroom and reaches into his bookbag, the shiny metal cool on his skin. He knows Simpson's out of town for a week, so technically there's no principal. Mrs. Torres offered to take his place but everyone agreed it'd be better if she didn't; the woman was always too overcontrolling.
He walks outside and it's a bright sunny day. Ironic. He sees Clare nearby but knows she must be his last victim. He walks up to someone who hurt him. He hurt Eli by not being his friend. By not being the best friend he was supposed to be. Adam Torres. And although his death isn't necessary, it must be done. Almost as if waiting for the time, Adam turns around and nods.
"I know what you're going to do, Eli," Adam calls out. "I know what you have with you. I'm not going to stop you though. But if you do...what you're going to do...to me...don't hurt anyone else. I'll die for everyone else if I have to. Don't hurt Clare."
"You can't change my mind," Eli whispers mostly to himself.
He points the gun in Adam direction.
Adam who's only ten feet away.
And no one else notices when Eli pulls the trigger.
And the bullet spirals toward the blue eyed boy and rips through his flesh, digging itself into his body.
Eli doesn't stick around to see the results of the shot. He walks away and heads for Clare. By this time, she'd heard the gunshot and there's a panicked look in her eye. She tries to run, she tries to scream but she's frozen in place. Eli walks up to her and smirks.
"Dear Clare, I love you. Sincerely, your old lover."
And without a single drop of guilt he points the gun at her heart. He secretly hopes it won't miss the pumping organ and that she'll die instantly. He smiles sadly and pulls the trigger. The bullet shoots out and cuts through Clare's porcelain skin, burning into her and etching her body with inexplicable pain. She drops to the floor, her blood staining her red polo. Eli's heart breaks at the sight but at the same time...he's relieved. He went through with his plan.
Imogen is nearby, the poor girl. She can't avoid walking over to Eli. Her heart is aching at the sight of her dear friend in this state. He's a heartless zombie.
"What did you do?" she accuses, looking over at Clare's beautiful corpse.
"I'm ending it," he mumbles, placing the gun so that the point (1) faces his temple. He takes one last good look at the world and smile. "It was nice meeting you, Imo."
He pulls the trigger and everything goes black.
I'm so messed up.
Seriously. Who the heck writes about this before going to school? D: no I'm not planning to shoot over 4,000 students at my school. It's just...depressing? Yea that's the word. Thank you for reading my messed up ideas. Listen to Pumped Up Kicks, Foster The People. You won't be disappointed :)
(1) I don't know the name of the place where bullets come out from. So yea lol.
...review? :DD