Trapped at home

The familiar ring of the zoom call echos throughout the houses of the three friends, or the 'three musketeers', so they once called themselves. Instead of the chipper hello's and exchanges of laughter between the tightly knit group, the ends of all lines are nearly silent. A silence so great, that not even the worlds smallest cricket could be heard. 

Finally, a young teenage boy with curly brown hair comes into view of the camera on his computer, facing the other two with a sorrowful look painted across his sunken face. Scattered clothes, water cups, and paper plates along with other crumpled up garbage have conglomerated distastefully into several large piles throughout his room. The ominous lighting coming from the brightened screen exposes this mess along with the darkened bags that settled beneath the boys desperate eyes. 

"I'm surprised you guys even picked up. I never thought I'd hear from any of you again," a hint of raspiness dripped from his swollen lips solemnly as he spoke. 

"We haven't heard from you for almost a week now Issac, we... well, I was worried about you," Jamie expresses nervously with an inkling of hesitation. She shyly looks down at her nails, picking at the black polish to avoid making direct eye contact. For if she were to as much as take a glimpse into his honey brown eyes, she knew she would burst into tears right then and there. She wouldn't let him see her this way, she was strong so she told herself. Absolutely no one, not even Issac Patton himself would get the rare benefit of seeing her in her weakest state. 

"Yeah man, I just want you to know that I do forgive you for everything that has happened..." Marcus speaks into the microphone on the side of his earbuds. Behind him are bare basement walls, freshly coated in a blanket of gray. Marcus holds a tattered blanket to him, shivering slightly not only from the frigid cellar's cool air, but from the sheer look on his friends face. A look that so much as frightened him like a little child on the night of Halloween. 

"Yeah, you may forgive me, but I sure as hell don't, and I refuse to forgive myself. If I had only stayed in my lane and not worried about it, everything would've been okay. Katy... would've been okay," Issac chokes, holding back tears in his eyes.  

Jamie speaks up suddenly, coming to face his brokenness with her own. "Issac stop, it's not your fault. We all knew her family, and they were completely at fault for this. You couldn't have done anything differently about the situation." 

"Oh yeah right. Nothing about it? What about Alex huh? He's been my friend since the second grade, and you're saying I couldn't have helped him? I can't do this anymore, I have to go. I'll talk to you later, maybe. Fuck, I don't know what I'm going to do." Issac buries his face in his hands, trying his best to keep himself together for the sake of Jamie and Marcus.  

"Issac, wait please. We haven't told you," Marcus rushes his words in attempts to explain just as Issac's screen grows pitch-black with disconnect. 

 "-it's over, we can leave." Marcus watches as Jamie's screen soon disappears, and he is left staring at his own reflection sitting on the couch. He jumps back with a small gasp, nearly dropping his phone in utter terror. He had hardly recognized his own face, let alone the shadow of one standing behind him a second ago...

. . .