epilogue - thomas carter: okay (unedited)

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2 days after death

Everyone is looking at me like they gave a damn about Ashton. Like they felt a knife was stabbing them repeatedly in their hearts. I know they didn't feel it because they don't know shit about Ashton.

People are talking.

People are whispering.

They think I can't hear them when my back is turned when my hood is up and my eyes cast down.

I hear it everywhere I go.

5 months after death

It's over now. They laid Ashton in his grave and everyone paid their respects and got over it. He's old news now.

People use to stare, but now they don't care.

I use to get looks of awe and envy and now no one gives me a second glance. I quit the team and focused more on my classes and I found a liking to writing.

They gave me looks of sympathy when I didn't need it. Sympathy I didn't want. Now they only give me looks of disgust because of how I turned out.

I couldn't handle it. I wanted to end it.

83 months after death

Everyone was hurting in their own ways, it wasn't just me. I wasn't the only one fighting off grief.

A best friend was boiled over with anger and ended up failing school, having to redo his senior year.

An ex-girlfriend was left sleeping around trying to numb her pain and later on got an STD.

An artist found a friend he could confide in and ended up getting into his dream school.

A guy that worked in the police force got shot in the chest trying to save his friend and died on the way to the hospital. They held a ceremony for his brave act of heroism.

A nice girl rose to the top of her classes and is now studying medicine to help others.

Obviously, not everyone gets their happy ending, the world doesn't care about you from the beginning, so you have to make yourself care about you.

A hand clamped around my shoulder snapping me out of my thoughts, "Hey, are you okay?" I turn around to look at him, Ashton Carter, my brother.

"Yeah, I'm okay." I smile, not a fake one, a real one.
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This is the final chapter, and sooner or later I will begin editing the story.

Have a good day.🙃

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