𝗵𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗱𝗲

(𝗱𝗿𝘂𝗻𝗸) 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗻𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘀

Rakim spends ten minutes staring at his laptop screen in shock. He can't believe what he just saw. Well, heard.

A knock makes him snap back out of his thoughts. Jarad is sticking his head through the door.

"Can I come in?" the lightskin boy asks.

Because his throat is closing up, Rakim can only shake his head in response. His eyes are burning painfully but he's not going to cry. Especially not in front of someone else.

The last time he cried was in fifth grade when he broke his leg. He's not a softie. Not even the funeral of his grandpa last year made him shed a tear.

Jarad is looking at him oddly but they're not friends and Jarad doesn't want to invade Rakim's privacy by asking him if everything's okay so he keeps standing awkwardly in the doorframe. "Do you want me to-"

"Can't you tell I'm busy? Get the fuck outta here!" Rakim snaps and glares at Jarad, who is pissed off now too.

"I spent a lot of hours doing this for you. Don't ask me for help again" he huffs and closes the door loudly behind himself when he leaves.

"Fuck you, bitch" Rakim mutters and slams his laptop shut.

After two seconds he regrets what he just said. Maybe the IT-guy found something helpful to get Carter locked up forever so he stands up quickly to run after him.

He grabs the boys arm and makes him
turn around. "I'm sorry, I was rude for no reason" Rakim apologizes shamefully.

Jarad sighs. "Alright. You wanna see it now?"

"Please" Rakim nods.

They go back into his room, Jarad sits down on the couch across of Rakim and places his MacBook between them so they both have a good view on the screen.

"So. Like I told you, Bourne and McCollum have shared over ten thousand messages between April and September 2019. A lot of it wasn't important, mostly them talking about series and games like Infamous and- nevermind." Jarad stops himself when he sees Rakim's confused stare.

"But they also write about having depression, self harm and other very dark stuff. McCollum seems to have gotten molested by his stepdad and Bourne suffered severe abuse through Carter. So much that he..."

Jarad scrolls down until he finds the part of the conversation he's searching for. "Look."

Pierre Bourne: he beat me up again yesterday

Pierre Bourne: i can't do this anymore

Pierre Bourne: close 2 kms.

Pierre Bourne: logging off think i heard him coming back

"What does that mean?" Rakim asks and points at the screen.

"Killing myself. It's internet slang" Jarad explains with a smirk.

"Oh." Despite being just 23, Rakim feels very old.

"Carter is really a monster." Jarad shakes his head in disgust.

Rakim couldn't agree more. And to think that this creep and Symere...he feels his breakfast making its way up his stomach.

"We can use that as evidence, right?" he asks contentedly.

"Of course."

"Great!" Rakim smiles while clapping his hands together. This just made his day ten times better.