Forgotten

Regrouping

     After the incident I didn't know how to handle my emotions. It was rough for me out there. Now I had to try and go back to school. I was still thinking about Mike and Juarez. Angelo dropped me off at school since I wasn't in the right mind to drive that day. I prayed to God I'd be fine coming back, since I'd been skipping a lot of days since joining that gang. I then thought about Alison, and Trent. Only people I had left in my mind, since Mike was dead, and Juarez is still in the hospital probably. I walked in and everyone was surprised to see me come in.

     The teachers had heard about what happened so they didn't question my absence. They simply excused me for it. Except for this one shitbag of a teacher. Mr. Davidson. He had quite the attitude towards kids. No matter their circumstances. He had no sympathy for my situation. He told me all this homework I had to do. It was an abundance. I had questioned his actions.

"Do you understand why I was gone? I could have fucking PTSD right now."

"Yeah, I know why you were gone. Just to be an ignorant 'gang member' with your also ignorant friends. Abandoning school work simply to be with the cool crowd! Now go back to your desk!"

"Excuse me? Did you see your own friend and others die in front of your eyes?"

"Don't taunt me, Austin Keller!"

"You taunted me too!"

     We were making a scene in front of the whole class and he told me to go to the principals office. I said otherwise, told him to fuck off. Then he kept verbally battling me until I gave up. I had wasted a quarter of the class time. Some of the kids whispered a few thank-yous to me for doing so.

     As I walked down the long, boring hallways I had noticed Trent was at his locker and said "Hey man..." to him as I walked by, he murmured something and I stopped in my tracks to come up behind him as he was getting his textbooks.

"Sup man?"

"Don't talk to me."

"What? Why?"

"You are dangerous man."

"No I'm not! C'mon man."

"Well, Alison thinks the same as I do."

"Um, excuse me? What the hell does that fucking mean?"

"She's afraid of you, and so is everyone else."

"What did I do wrong?"

"You know exactly what everyone is afraid of."

"So what? I'm not a killer, all I did was defend myself against that fucking murderer who could've domed me!"

"See? The way you speak even shows the gang shit rubbed off on you."

"No it didn't... you don't know what it was like in that cul de sac man. I saw people, who took about fifteen to seventeen years to develop, that died in only a gunshot or two. All that wasted time..."

"Yeah, but you shouldn't have been in that gang in the first place!"

     His counter-argument had troubled me, since he was such a sheltered kid, he knew nothing about what the outside world was like. So he couldn't talk smack like that!

"You don't know anything Trent, nerd. Go outside for once! Then you'll get a taste of my life. How it's like to be pushed around, and disrespected."