Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
As long as anybody could remember, Dylan Jennings was the happiest girl on Earth. She was sunshine in human form. Always smiling. Always talking. Laughing. Dancing. She was a warm person. Rarely ever got mad at anyone or anything. She was always positive. She was a gem. A pearl. The color yellow. The sun shining in the sky.
But now it was like she couldn't speak. Like her voice had been taken from her. Her heart lodged itself into her throat, preventing her from saying anything. Her body hurt. Her heart was broken. She was terrified. Tired. Her arms wrapped around Pope's neck as he sat in the driver's seat of the boat. Her head rested on her shoulder, her face against his neck. His hat covered his head. They sat there in silence. Comfort was all they needed. Their comfort was found in each other.
Dylan didn't ever think the day would come when she'd be the victim of a hate crime. She was mixed. Her mother was black and her father was white. She got the talk when she was nine years old. Braxton got the talk just a few years ago. Ainsley talked to them about things in the news. About things that went on in the world to this day. Racism was something Dylan understood fully. Living on an island with rich white people was pretty much a given when it came to judgement about her skin color.
The world tried to make racism subtle. The whispering behind their backs, the judgmental eyes, and the questions they would ask. But Dylan noticed it. It was everywhere. She would never understand why people judged the color of others when they all bleed the same color red. Dylan was still a person. She was a kind soul. The world didn't have many kind souls and they still wanted to tear her apart.
She tightened her arms around Pope neck when she felt tears form in her eyes. He squeezed her arm. He didn't speak but he didn't have to. They were best friends. They only needed to be in each other's space.
JJ came running down back to the boat. "Pope! DJ!You are never going to believe what just happened to me! Whoo! That was the best 100 bucks I've ever made! When I say count me in on all these grocery delivers, Pope, I mean it."
When he got onto the boat, he smirked when he saw the position Dylan and Pope were in. "Hey, you two. Did you have fun together?" He teased. But his teasing died down when he saw the serious expression on Pope's face. "What's up with you? Bro, you good?" Seeing the side of Pope's face, his expression fell. "Yo, what happened to your face dude?"
When he lifted Pope's hat, Pope slapped his hand away but JJ already saw the damage. "Jesus!" He immediately looked at Dylan. "DJ?"
He heard her sniffle.
"Hey, Dylan," JJ said and grabbed her arm. When her grip tightened on Pope, he grabbed her shoulders and pried her off. "DJ—"
Dylan looked at the boy tears in her brown eyes. The gash on the side of her face stopped bleeding so much but it was still bright red with blood. The bruises were now fully formed into red, splotching her eye and her cheek. Her lip was busted with dried blood.
