A couple of days passed after that and no one saw Jared. He didn't show up at school or football practice and Nick said he hadn't seen him in a while either. It made me worry and Carlos saw it which made him worry. I tried calling Jared's house but when his parents answered they said they hadn't seen him either. Needless to say, that didn't help me to stop worrying. When I mentioned this to Carlos and Emmett they seemed too nonchalant about it.
“Jessie, you know how Jared is,” Emmett said. “If he wants to be alone and not found, then he will be. No amount of worrying is going to make him appear.”
“Emmett has a point,” Carlos said. “You shouldn't stress yourself over someone who doesn't care about himself.”
I just stared at them in disbelief. “Are you saying if it were me, that you wouldn't look for me?” I asked. “You would just leave me alone because you thought I didn't care about myself?”
“Of course not,” Carlos answered defensively. “But that's different.”
“How?” I challenged. Carlos clenched his jaw tightly as I waited for a response and then Emmett sighed before answering.
“Because we actually like and care about you,” he said. “Jared was my friend too, but after everything he's done I can't exactly say he deserves kindness.”
“Are you kidding me?” I asked. “His brother just died!”
“Yeah we know,” Carlos replied. “But that doesn't erase everything he's done in the past year. He deliberately hurt you or tried to hurt you multiple times. He's threatened me multiple times, not to mention he got me hurt so that he could be in my place during the first game. In what way does any of that deserve kindness?”
I knew they had a point but I didn't feel right not trying. Losing Dylan had seriously damaged Jared and anyone could see it. But Jared had also went about dealing with it wrong and made a lot of mistakes that I couldn't and honestly shouldn't try to cover for him. I just couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen soon if he didn't get help.
YOU ARE READING
Brown Eyed Boy
Teen FictionWhen your life seems to go nowhere but a downward spiral, who can you really trust besides yourself? How can you be expected to live with the hope that one day you might get the fairy tale ending you always wanted? For Jessie, holding out on a fairy...
