Ride (h.s)

8

Jane

I felt bad that I had asked almost the second it slipped out of my mouth. When he replied my stomach dropped and I felt like I had just ripped open an old wound. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry I asked, that's really personal and I shouldn't have asked-"

"It's okay Jane, don't freak out." He held onto my hand and tried to calm me down. "It doesn't hurt my feelings that you asked, you're my friend right?" I nodded not saying anything. "Jane, I'm fucked up, okay. I have trust issues, I hate people, and I've been in fights. When my sister killed herself, I didn't know how to cope with everything. Sometimes I blame myself because I could have stopped her if I was there." He shook his head fighting back tears. "I've never talked about this to anyone."

"Harry, it's okay to talk about it with me, if you want." I sat up on my knees and reached out for him. At first, his arms rested at his side, but he eventually hugged me back. We pulled away and he examined my face almost to see if I was sincere.

"When I was twelve my sister was my best friend. She and I did everything together. When she turned sixteen I was fourteen and she was seeing this guy named Kyle." He said his name with disgust. "Kyle was very popular and my sister was a smart girl. She had the best grades and he was ashamed of her because she wasn't cool. He would get mad and they'd fight on why she couldn't be with him in public. During prom, she was humiliated by him. He stood her up and then took someone else. She cried for hours and she broke up with him, but be refused. He began controlling her, abusing her. He told her that if he couldn't have her no one could. He made her feel stupid and worthless."

"One night, when he was over. She began yelling help. I had told her to leave him and she didn't listen. When I got up to her room he had left through the window, she was hurt. He had raped her."

I gasped and he put his face in his hands. "What did you do?"

He wiped his face looking out into the water again. "I went after him." My palms got sweaty at his dark tone of voice. "I beat the hell out of him. I shattered his jaw, broke his arm in three different places. And I ruined any chance of him playing any sport ever again." His face became serious. "But he got away with it."

"What?! He hurt your sister!" I was angry.

"Yes, but there was no evidence. Only my testimony, but it didn't help that I had just beat the hell out of him and he was in the hospital."

"What about your sister?" He laughed dryly and ran his fingers through his hair in anger.

"She was traumatized, she wouldn't talk." He sighed. "My mum was so angry at me for getting involved and fighting Kyle. I ended up getting arrested and sent to a juvenile prison until I was seventeen."

"Wait, so that means-" I thought about it.

"It happened while I was in prison. She was tormented in school and a week after her seventeenth birthday she ended it."

For what seemed like hours, we sat there on that beach in silence. I couldn't imagine losing my siblings in such a horrible way. "I left home when I turned eighteen. My mum didn't care about anybody except herself so I left. I was depressed for years and I have scars on my body from... That's why i didn't want to take off my shirt." He pulled his shirt off. Under it, he wore nothing but the ink that scattered all over his skin, and the small scars of self-harm on his chest, stomach, and arms.

"Oh, Harry." In most places, it was as if he was clawed at by a wild animal. The scars were healed, most of them were covered by tattoos so you couldn't really see them anymore.

"I've been clean for a year. Haven't had a drink since February, and I went back to school." He said proudly putting his shirt back on. "I'm trying to be a better person, I want to be happy again."