Harrison Woods is a 17-year-old girl attending Arbor Coast High, a boarding school in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her dark past including her rocky relationship with her parents and her esteemed older brother's suicide are the reasons she landed herself at...
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The latest text from Jason's doctor told us that he would be out of surgery in thirty minutes, and that things were going well. And although Harrison was constantly keeping me updated on the doctors word, it was impossible for me to believe that he would survive. There was a vivid picture in my mind: Jason, laying on the rocky surface of the top of Mount Huron, bleeding out slowly, holding on to the gunshot wound that burst through his stomach due to my own insanity. Followed was the picture of running down the mountain, carrying Jason in my arms while he bled out onto my hands, my shirt, and the ground. Carrying my brother down a mountain in order to save his life immediately after I'd tried to take it.
I shot him. I actually shot Jason, my brother, an innocent, good guy who had recently gone sober to better himself. I had shot him and I knew that even though I didn't have any memory of the episode.
I didn't remember shooting Jason. I didn't even remember going to Mount Huron with Harrison. It was like I went to sleep for a few hours, woke up, and suddenly Jason was on the ground bleeding, and Harrison was terrified of me. It was just like every other time I'd dissociated, waking up days or weeks later in a random location that I didn't remember driving to. But this time when I had woken up, it was way worse.
It was now easy for me to see: I had never been the one taking care of Jason. He was right, it had always been the other way around. I was a monster who needed to be monitored and looked after or else I would turn into a full-fledged psychopath.
I looked over at Harrison who sat directly across from me. She sat with her hands on her head, clearly distressed. Who could blame her? I certainly couldn't. Her normally gorgeous eyes turned bloodshot from crying she did not too long ago. I couldn't stand to see her upset, and knowing that I was the reason for it made things even worse. Guilt was overtaking me like a fatal virus, but I deserved every second of it.
With slight hesitation, I moved over to the seat directly next to Harrison, wrapping my arm around her shoulder and pulling her in closer to me. I could feel her tense body against mine, then slowly relaxing as her head fell on my shoulder and her breathing stilled.
I cared about her, I really did. Could she still care about me?
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