Deafening Silence

Chapster 8

Author's Note: Alright, so before you start this chapter, I just want everyone to know something. The beginning part, the part about the boy and the bridge, that actually happened. At my sister's college. That part is non-fiction. And idk I did a lot of thinking with the beginning.

In this one, I didn't just make something up and make fake logic.

Just please pray for the boy's family and just keep them in your thoughts.

thanks c:

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Dear Stranger,

Last weekend, I visited my brother in college. He goes to some place in upper New York, and I took a train there. Speaking of trains, I would just like to say that you should pray for a certain boy’s family. I don’t know his age, grade, or even name, neither does Ben, but recently, a boy was killed near Ben’s college.

One night, he was drunk and alone on a railroad bridge over a river that runs through town. Nobody knows why he was on the railroad bridge, when there is a bridge for people to walk on not too far. But anyway, he was drunk and walking. Just walking. Then, a train came. I know what you’re thinking, and no, he didn’t get hit by the train. Instead, to avoid getting hit, he jumped off of the bridge. And drowned in the river. Haunting, isn’t it? When Ben told me about it, I got the shivers.

And as we drove through the town, I could see the flowers on the side of the railroad bridge. And I thought about his family. And if he had any siblings. Or a girlfriend. And if he drank to get away from everything, like I do. Now I’ve been thinking really hard.

Maybe that boy and I hard similar problems. Maybe he was too afraid to talk to anyone about it. Or he simply didn’t care. And right now, a thought just struck me; what if he wanted to die? Maybe he was up there so a train could hit him; to it could all be over. And maybe, at the last second, he realized that he has so much to live for and that his problem is just a bump in the road that is completely fixable. But by then, it was already too late. That’s what’s really bugging me. The fact that maybe he had power and strength, but it all got shattered. It puts it a really weird feeling in the pit of my stomach.

But, that happens every time I come here because it was Roo’s old school. He’d be a junior this year. It’s kind of complicated, how his schooling worked out, because he left for college a year early. So as a senior in high school, he was actually a freshman in college. He’s really smart, so he got to leave early. He wanted to be a software engineer. Ben and he wanted to work together.

Anyway, I feel really bad for this school. It has had two major losses in the past two years. I can barely (it at all) handle Roo being gone, but now there’s another person is stuck in my head.

But I have to admit, I had a lot of fun the weekend I just visited. My school had a three-day weekend, so I left on Friday right after school, stayed the night on Saturday and Sunday night, then left Monday. I stayed in Ben’s dorm, which he shares with two other people; Ryan and Zach.

Ryan has been my really good friend since Roo was his roommate for two years. He’s just about the cutest person ever. He’s 20, but he acts 12. He has dark hair, a great smile, and he’s super slim. Zach is quite funny. He has flowing blond hair that shags into his eyes a lot. They’re both very tall compared to me.

The first night I got there, six or seven of us got a pizza at a small Italian restaurant with fantastic food. Afterwards, we headed back to their dorms. At about 10:30, we went to a party, and I was so glad that I got to drink again. Most of the time, I sat with Ryan and talked about life. We got into the topic of Roo. And how we both miss him dearly. And we just kept drinking and we kept reminiscing. And after the 4th or 5th drink, Ryan and I felt great. On top of the world. And that’s when we go into a routine.