Mr.Vanoss

Ch.22 The Three Lines of Doom

"Jonathan you're so grown. Thank you for coming." Luke leaned over table with his elbows, getting closer to the boys. All of them laughed, being the loudest in there. It felt like hours, everyone get to know everyone again. He wasn't rude nor out of the trends. He acted and spoke like all of them. Jonathan couldn't wait for him to get out.

"Guys can Jon and I have a moment alone?" He gave a small smile to his other companions. Without another word said they obliged, walking to the waiting area where the fluorescent lights buzzed.

"I'm happy to see you Luke. You're huge. I'm kind of intimidated." Jonathan played with hands. Looking up at his friend. Luke's face was stern.

"I want you to know why I didn't contact you. I need you to know why I let myself get locked up. You were only a kid, I shouldn't of let you think the way that I thought."

Jonathan was confused. The red blood stains on the stairs and the hallway came to mind, his father's award in his hand, in vision.

"You were too young to realize, I was with your sister. You loved me so much and I saw you as a little brother. I didn't know how much you two fought. I especially didn't know it was over me. You were just a kid. I thought nothing of it. She told me one night when I snuck into the house that you had a shrine of me and I thought it was pretty funny but she told everyone about it and some dumb kid in your grade told all your little classmates. They bullied you. Do you remember that?"

Jonathan nodded his head. It was Tyler who had everyone pulling his pants down and calling him slurs at a young age. What made it worse was that he had a speech impediment growing up. They teased him even more because of his pronunciations. Building up anger in a very emotionally unstable little boy.

"I took you to the forest and told you how you were gonna be richer than them, better than them. We swam and you hugged me. I was happy to be the one you felt safest with. What I didn't know was how possesive you were of me. Now you were a kid, it sounds crazy saying it but you didn't want anyone to touch me. I was yours. That night. I came over and you caught me and your sister in bed."

Jonathan felt sick, his face went white as if he saw his siblings' ghost. His hands twitched, the night that was buried in the back of his head came to play.

He opened her door to yell at her for locking him outside. His hand was bloody from breaking the window, his knees scraped from climbing into the house. She laid there with his best friend. Luke got up, a pillow covering him from being fully exposed.

"You were so young but you knew what you felt. You acted on it. I taught you that. I taught you to fight back. I taught you to be aggressive. I left to get some food for us. I didn't think what happened next was even possible."

Jonathan remembered how much he pain he felt. He stared off into the gray distance, his mouth agape, and tears streaming down his face. Small whimpers coming out his mouth.

"You cried for me to help you. How terrible you felt. I couldn't say anything back. When they questioned us. I just couldn't make any words come out. Then they put me on the stand and I saw how happy you were to see me. You held my mother's doll in your hand. You looked so innocent. Besides there was nothing left for me in that place."

Luke's mother died when he was four, his father was also incarcerated. Leaving him to live with an Aunt with dementia. He got into trouble, didn't get a great reputation with the locals. Being with Jonathan's sister made things worse. She wasn't the sweetest berry on the bush.

"You killed your sister and I thought that you didn't mean to. I believed I had to protect you. I knew how she was. Now, I regret it. Knowing how much is out there for me, knowing I might've missed out on it. That's why I didn't write back. You were a sick kid. I don't know how you are know but I have an idea to a certain extent."

Jonathan's hurt broke, the pieces falling into his lungs, making him struggle to breathe. Snot ran down his nose. Hearing this hurt him to the core. "I can still help you."

"No Jon. I'm getting out next month. I already have plans with some girl I write to. I saved your life. Now leave me alone."

It was like his tongue fell out of his mouth and wiggled in blood on the table. It came out like throw up, stuck in his throat, stinging his nose. Jonathan choked on his tears, wiping his snot on the hem of his shirt.

I'm pregnant. Those words echoed almost. Luke looked up at him in slow motion. Jonathan's breath hitched. He stared directly at his friend, his face went blank. Luke's eyes drooped and his eyes knitted together.

"Kill it."

The guard yelled with a frown on his wrinkled face, "Visiting hours are over now."

Seeing Luke go back in line, laughing with the prisoners made a knot form in Jonathan's stomach. Luke was right and he was justibly harsh. Jonathan walked away from murder. He lived his life in peace, knowing a friend took the fall for him. It still didn't make sense from his point of view. How can Luke be so blindly selfless? How could he throw his life away for a dumb kid who had a obsessive crush on him? Jonathan smiled at the fact that Luke called him his. he shook his head in disgust immediately after. What's wrong with me

"We need to go if we want to make it to the party.'' Marcel said as Jon walked out into the waiting room. They walked out the prison, Jonathan wiping his eyes as he nodded his head in agreement.

"Did you hear everything you wanted to hear?" Marcel said as he put his seatbelt on.

"Yeah, I did." Jonathan lied. The knot in his stomach grew tighter. His guilt from his childhood hanging on his back like a leech.

"Ohm decided to cancel the party from two weeks ago and make a new one.'' Craig opened the car door for Jonathan as he told him the brand news. Marcel started the car and raised his eyebrow at his friend, "A party for Bryce McQuaid.''