Stereotype

Chapter 40 : The Soldiers Son

GRADUATION DAY

4 AM and he clenched his hands around the paper hyperventilating. The nerves of everything rushed in and for the first time in his life he could control it properly. His breathing went back to being regular and the million terrible thoughts that swirled round in his head left immediately. Releasing the paper that had scribbles of everything he wanted to say; just shortened to a paragraph or two, he let the white sheet slip between his fingers into the bin. 

A second paper flew into the bin. Then a; third, forth, fifth. He groaned in annoyance and placed his headphones on his head, loaded up his laptop and listened to some music to help focus. A knock came from his bedroom door ten minutes later and he removed his headphones pausing his music as his mother peeked her head into his room with a smile so bright. "Its really early sweetheart." She whispered pointing to the glowing alarm clock facing him. 

"I know mom." He sighed "I just cant write a speech, this is something that everyone will hear and I dont want it to be like every other senior one...boring."

His mother sighed letting herself in, she sat on his bed and he swivelled his chair away from his desk as she spoke "Jamal my sweet baby boy, you are not boring, so why would your speech be? You got valedictorian along side that really sweet girl who gave you this opportunity." She widened her smile "I know you weren't directly asked by the principal but you were by her. She saw what I saw in you- someone amazing. Someone worth listening to." 

Jamal couldn't hide the happiness in him. His mom was right; he worked too hard for this to go to waste. He opened his mouth to reply when the small steps of his three-year-old sister came into the frame. She reached her arms up and he lifted her onto his lap rolling his eyes at her demand. It was in that moment when he realised what he wanted to write about and kissed his sisters cheek setting her back down on the floor to spin back around and write another speech. one that summoned up everything. Jamal faintly heard his mother carrying his sister out his room, closing the door behind her. He smiled and realised that despite everything, he was grateful to have the best people by his side.

4 AM and she laid staring at the ceiling thinking about last weeks prom. Although Scarlett didn't win prom queen, she was glad that somebody deserving had the chance to experience what it felt like to be queen. The title of 'Queen Bee.' as cringe as it sounded, was labelled to her name and Scarlett wore the crown proudly. She helped clean the hall afterwards then went shopping with Ruby. Scarlett smiled to herself as she remembered Ruby's very shocked reaction to Ashley being pregnant and Jace being the father. Apparently she had been wanting them to be together and was only shocked that they kept it so secretive. Carefully lifting herself from the bed knowing that there was no way she would get any sleep from now on. She glanced at Masons sleeping body and decided on completing her speech for valedictorian. The words she thought instantly scrawled themselves on the paper in such a rush that when she finished, Scarlett realised that she had written in the dark and was shaking. Her eyes read the word that repeated itself over and over on the paper and she quickly scrunched the paper up shoving it into a drawer. 

She walked numbly over to the bathroom not bothering to turn on the light and prepared herself a shower which she took stuck in her dark thoughts- scared that if the light was on, she'd see blood on her hands. On her innocent hands. Scarlett had to shower like this regularly since his death because she couldn't deal with the guilt even though she wasn't the one who killed Milo. Truthfully speaking; she felt guilty about cheating on him. Above all that, it was that he found out.