Chimes

23

*Jillian's POV*

~~~ Present day, Junior Year, January 8, 2021 ~~~

"What the actual fuck, Josh?" He struggles to form sentences. His mouth was open but nothing came out. I continued to stand in front of him, expecting to hear him out. Nothing.

"Well?" I chose to stay rooted to the grounded to hear whatever he had to say for himself, ignoring that we were still at a party. He couldn't believe I knew.

"Ho- how?" He asks. Zach had seemed to calm down as he took notice of the situation, along with Ben and Jared. I continued to stand there, waiting for a proper response.

"Look, you know what? You know my style, so I'm going to give you two options. I'm gonna count to five, if you still refuse to explain yourself, I'm just going to leave." I state. Josh's expression remained shocked and confused.

"You don't want to talk? Fine." I hastily leave, brushing past numerous on-lookers, who slowly fall back into a trance of the enjoyable get-together. Alexis and I make eye contact, but she doesn't follow me outside. I sit in the stunning cold air while the party goes on. To my chagrin, Josh does not look for me, but to my surprise, someone else does.

"You know, I'm not really good at this whole 'comforting thing', but I'll try my best here. What's wrong?" Zach sits next to me, beer in hand, still trying to enjoy the night despite having to deal with my emotional trauma.

"I don't wanna talk about it" I reply. He looks disappointed as if he was hoping to stir up a conversation.

"Damn. Alright then." He slowly gets up, before some shadows approach us from the ground. Zach and I look up to see the Blue Bolts. Richard Muñoz was standing at eye-level to Zach, with Lucas, Pablo, and Blake behind him. Their usual group also included Liam Jones, who probably couldn't stay out this late at night.

"What the hell do you want, Muñoz?" Zach sighs and asks.

"Vengeance," Richard says one word and pulls out a pocket knife. The tired look on Zach's face switches to a worried one, as he swiftly looks at me, giving me a sign to run, before looking back at Richard. Ben rushes to the scene, kicking Richard's knife out of his hand before punching Pablo in the face. Jared arrives as well, left arm in a cast and all. The tightly-knit group of boys prepares to take on the bolts, not before a voice is heard from afar.

"Po- police!" The voice shouts out. The bolts scurry while Richard scrambles to pick up his knife, leaving it and eventually running away with the rest of his gang.

"Don't let me do you like your buddy, Chambers," Richard runs away. Some party-goers run back inside the warehouse, but some of the house wait to see who the voice belonged to. Fumbling and rummaging are heard as the small-statured figure approached us. In a drunken tone, Ms. Teresa Chambers, Calvin's mother calls out for her son.

"Kids, you, you! Have you seen my son?" She continues to speak, but I still struggled to understand what she was saying. Zach and Jared took tiny steps toward her, unaware of what to do. Ms. Chambers burps and then notices the knife. She leans down and picks it up.

"This. This is what I am saying. Violence is so easily spread around this neighbourhood. Among you kids. It was you! You think it's easy to see my son's body? You all did it! You all killed my son!" She waves around the knife, blaming the community surrounding him as the cause of his death. I couldn't help but shed tears. She grievously shouted at all of us, genuinely breaking down when there was no one to be there for her. Her husband left. Her only son was killed. The police aren't making things any easier for her, going at the same rate of finding Calvin's killer as a bunch of juniors in high school. In the midst of it all, I rushed back into the warehouse to freshen myself up. I had no actual friends and the party and considered just leaving.