A Certain Romance (Reimagined)

Far From The Truth

Senator Hood (D) Arrested For Son's Murder. 

Oh. The words were in bold print on the front page of The Seattle Times. Day after day, seemingly The Hood's were the only thing making the headlines. When one thing closed, another unfolded right before our eyes. 

This was fucked. Of course, I couldn't bring myself to react because I had grown numb to everything going on. I trusted Samantha's dad was going to make sure this ended up being a cold case. And yet, he found a way to turn it all around and bring the senator into it. 

Ashton sat across from me at the island in the kitchen, carefully trying to finish reading a book about law to ease his mind. We were guilty. In fact, every single one of us, besides Veronica, were guilty. We all played a role in the death of Calum. I think the only reason Ashton was so worried about everything was because he couldn't believe his best friend was dead. 

"Have you seen the news?" Arrie entered the kitchen, frantically. He slid into the room, his socks almost forcing him to slip. 

"No." Ashton shook his head, looking over from the book. 

"CNN, now." I demanded. 

Dad had stuck a small 19 inch television in the kitchen so he could watch Seahawks games while cooking, maybe he was good for something in this household. Arrie flipped the television on, punching in the exact numbers for CNN. Secretly, we'd all been watching the news and memorized the exact channel of CNN out of silent paranoia. Before the Calum incident, none of us were keen on watching the news, local nor national. They always found a way to bash one of our parents publicly for something shady that they had likely done, but we all wanted to stay blind to the evils our parents could commit. Nothing could hurt a family more than the media. That was how Mrs. Hood found out the senator was cheating. 

"It worked..." Arrie muttered with slight amusement behind his voice. His eyes flickered over the screen, taking it all in. 

"What?" Ashton sighed, slamming the book shut with a loud thump. 

"The senator's shoe prints being traced in the snow to the body...the gun."

"The gun?" I asked, quickly getting irritated with Arrie's way of being vague and expecting us to know exactly what he was thinking. 

"Evelyn snuck the gun out of the senator's house before we left for Lydia's. I had the honor of placing it back in the residence before we called the police...so everything would be traced back to his own father." Arrie shrugged nonchalantly. This was everyday fucked up life for him in the biker gang. He wouldn't let this situation make him feel any type of way. He was trained to be emotionless. "I did this to make up for what happened to Sam. At least the man will be locked up where he belongs."

"And Veronica?"

"She wasn't able to give very much detail since she was heavily drugged at the time it happened." Arrie reminded. "Unreliable." Surely, Veronica wouldn't put it past her to think that at least one of us in that house New Year's Eve was responsible for Calum's death. She wasn't completely dumb. She was just unreliable. 

Arrie soon after mentioned he needed to go grab some essentials from a store. What? I couldn't tell you because I didn't bother asking. I didn't quite care enough to know either. 

"I know you're worried. I know you feel guilty." We were conditioned to feel guilt. It started from a young age, when our parents would reprimand us for something totally human then causing us feel the emotion of guilt. As we get older and the guilt continues to grow with you, you begin to feel like everything you do is not good enough. I couldn't speak much on behalf of Ashton and his childhood, at times I felt like I knew him, but most times, I barely could even tell you what his favorite color was or what his favorite childhood moment was. Maybe that made me feel guilty.