What was it that was different that day? Was it the rain splashing down on the sidewalk, setting a dreary mood in the cliché way that only rain can do? Was it the heavy traffic in the street, causing bad attitudes and impatience all around? Or was it the fact that Jackson, the most popular kid at school, was trudging through the hallways with a scowl on his face and his hands in his pockets?
While the hallways were filled with rowdy people pushing and shoving on their way to the next class, there seemed to be a barrier surrounding the silent figure of Jackson Cooke. Nobody came close to him, leaving a wide space between waves of people that people feared walk through.
“Hey dude, you okay?” Jackson turned around, looking for the person who would dare enter his space and disturb him during his brooding time. “Jackson, over here!” Jackson located the intruder. Bernie, your average jock and one of Jackson’s closest friends, was walking towards him with a careless smile on his face, oblivious to the environment around him.
“I’m… fine” Jackson managed to grunt out, changing directions in an attempt to avoid conversation. However, he had no such luck.
“Come on, man, I know that’s not true.” Bernie put his hand on Jackson’s shoulder, trying to get him to turn around. “You know if anything’s wrong, you can talk to me about it, right?”
Jackson whirled around, his eyes blazing in fury. “Can I? You think I can talk about my problems to such an insensitive prick who couldn’t even read the attitude if it dressed up in a maid’s outfit and frenched him? Do you think, maybe, there’s a reason nobody’s going near me? So until you can understand anything, get out of my face, and out of my life.”
Bernie backed away, eyes darting around, only to widen upon realizing that everyone in the hall had stopped to witness his shaming. Ears bright red, he stood there as Jackson stomped off towards his next class, visibly upset and pissed off.
Throughout that day, the way Jackson lashed out was the talk of the school. It spread from mouth to mouth like wildfire, shocking and even turning some of Jackson’s closest friends against him. However, throughout this all, Jackson ignored everyone, solemnly continuing his activities, only speaking if absolutely necessary.
By the time school let out, Jackson had turned from the most popular and well-liked kid at school to the most despised. Many of the people who formerly looked up to him now thought him to be a bastard that wasn’t worth their time of day to talk about. Surprisingly, Jackson didn’t seem to care.
While others dismissed it as just his true colors, Vince didn’t think so, believing there to be something more that everyone else was missing. Some sort of reason for why he was acting so down in the dumps. Normally, Jackson was such a cheerful guy. If you had a bad day, it was definitely him who would try and cheer you up.
So as the days passed, while everyone put the thought out of their minds as another thing that just happened, Vince began investigating Jackson’s life. Sure, that sounded really odd, as they’ve been friends for over three years, now that he thought about it, Vince realized he didn’t really know much about his friend’s life. He didn’t even know where he lived, and as he asked around it appeared that nobody else did. For as social as Jackson was, he was never really one to talk about himself.
So, Vince was on a mission. A mission to find where Jackson lived. It seemed simple at first: Just follow Jackson as he went home. There was just a tiny problem. Jackson was picked up and driven home, while Vince normally walked. So, in order to avoid suspicion, Vince came up with an idea. Each day, he would walk as far as he could, following Jackson’s car, and the next day, wait for it where he lost it the previous day. There was just one problem.
“Oh my god,” Jackson exclaimed, banging the window in frustration “Do you see that kid? I’ve told him over and over to just leave me alone, but he just keeps on pestering after me! Like, seriously! He’s been stalking us every day!”
“That’s nice.” Alfredo pompously said, curling his mustache and looking staunchly at the rear view mirror as he backed up the car and pulled up in the driveway. “Now, if you don’t mind me interrupting your little monologue, Master Jackson, we have arrived at home.”
Jackson waited for Alfredo to open the door, ignoring Vince’s stare as he walked into his house, head held high. As he dropped his bag on the floor, he subconsciously winced, and immediately picked it back up. He started to walk up the stairs leading to his room, and with every step, his shoulders slouched just a little more.
As Jackson neared the top, the voices got louder. Stuffing his fingers into his ears in a vain attempt to block out the noise, he rushed into his room and slammed the door. Jackson slowly removed his fingers, and lay down on his bed, hoping to drift off to sleep before the fighting began again.
While this was happening inside, Vince prepared to enter Jackson’s house and ask his parents what was wrong with Jackson. The closer he got to Jackson’s house, the further his jaw dropped. Due to his poor, but not terrible eyesight, and the fact that he had been standing at the curb of the driveway, while he had been able to see the address of the house on the sidewalk, and the outline of the building, it was only now that he began to recognize actual details of the house. If it could even be called that.
The sheer size and magnificence of the building couldn’t be put into words, so Kai’s not going to waste another hour trying.
Vince rang the doorbell and paced back and forth, thinking of what he could possibly say when Jackson’s parents opened it. Should I just be up and front about it? No, that’s too direct. How about I ask if Jackson’s at home? Yeah, that’ll work. I’ll just say I came over to work with him on a project. Vince’s mastermind plan was made, and now all that had to happen was for Jackson’s parents to open the door.
A while passed, and still nobody answered. Vince was bored out of his mind, and decided to just excessively ring the doorbell until someone let him in. After 23 consecutive presses, he heard footsteps get closer. Stepping back, Vince straightened his neck and smiled a large smile as the door opened.
“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?” Vince snapped back, frightened by the furious face of Jackson popping out of the doorframe.
“Sorry, man, I just wanted to know what the math homework was…” Vince mumbled back, praying that Jackson would buy his act.
“Mmhm, sure you did. Does that explain why you’ve been following me on my way home every day of this goddamn week? So, I’m going to ask you one more time? What the hell do you want with me?”
Vince’s plan had failed, so in a desperate attempt to get the information he wanted, he decided to come clean. “Look Dude, you’ve been depressed and pissy these past few weeks, and I just wanted to know why. That’s all.”
“Fine. You wanna know why I’m so down in the dumps?” Jackson responded in a venomous voice. “You, of all people, want to know why? Because, For the last few weeks, my life has been a living hell. My parents have been fighting, and they bring me into it. I can’t even leave my room without being dragged into an argument. Even goddamn worse, we’re moving. To Europe.”
Vince had thought that Jackson’s anger was reasonable, and maybe it still was, but Vince was pissed. He’d wasted all that time thinking that Jackson was deep in depression due to something major, but to learn that he was only being a douche just because he had to move? That was just way too much.
Vince hollowly laughed. “Wow man, I mean, That’s tough. It must be so hard to pack up and move. So, how are you going to deal with it?”
Jackson tilted his head slightly, confusion evident in his eyes. “Deal… with it?”
“Yeah, dude, what are you going to do? Be depressed for the rest of your life just because of some occurrences that went down when you were thirteen?”
Jackson’s face darkened and twisted with emotion. “You know what? Screw it. What life is there left for me to live? It’s already ruined. All of my friends have left me, my parents are breaking apart, and I even have to move continents. I give up.”
“...So, you’re going to kill yourself? That’s how you intend to solve your problems?”
Jackson didn’t respond, causing Vince to shake his head and sigh in disappointment.
“You know what? I came here to get one of my friends out of depression and back into life, but I think I know the truth now. The Jackson I believed was my friend wasn’t anything but a fraud. A disguise of the coward underneath who can’t handle any sort of problems the world throws at him. You give up on life? Then I give up on you.”
As Vince turned to leave, he heard a door slam behind him, as well as the sound of muffled tears. However, his heart had already hardened to the point of steel, so turning around and apologizing was out of the question. As such, he just kept on walking.
Jackson had planned to simply just yell at Vince and go back to his room, but the harrowing argument he just partook in hit him hard, leaving him sobbing in front of the door. As he sat there crying, a figure wearing a coat and holding a suitcase walked up to where he was. After looking down on him with a disgusted face, the figure kicked him aside and ran out the door.
Clutching his stomach in pain, Jackson slowly began to hear the world around him once again. For the first time in a while, the house was completely silent, with no trace of any conflicts besides Jackson’s loud sobs filling up the silence.
Jackson slowly stood up, trying to calm himself down, his sobs reduced to barely a sniffle.
If he had expected sympathy or compassion of some sort, he was wrong. His mother looked his disheveled figure up and down before stating nonchalantly, “Your father has no relation to us anymore. He has left, and we will never speak of him again. Do you understand?”
Jackson slowly nodded, his side aching as he just now realized who the figure in the doorway was.
“Good, but in case that man seeks revenge for some reason, it would be best for us to go under the radar for a while. That’s why we’re going to move to Switzerland to live with your great-aunt and great-uncle.”
The words struck Jackson’s head like a jackhammer, confirming his greatest fears and his worst nightmare. It was official, this day was the definition of a living hell. Jackson ran into his father’s room, desperately searching for the one thing that could end this before it got worse, his snap back to reality in this dream world.
And there, lying on to the bedside table, was his antidote. He picked up the gun, hands shaking, and raised it up slowly. As he lifted it up, he thought about how good his life was before a couple weeks ago. He had friends, was at the top of the social hierarchy, owned all the latest technology, and his family seemed normal. He found it ironic how he although he used to comfort people in their times of need, nobody bothered to help him in his. Well, except for Vince.
As he thought about Vince, he found himself thinking fondly about the fun times they had together, like when they were at science camp together and they put a frog in the cabin leader’s sleeping bag, getting them kicked out of the cabin for a night, but also making them legends to their classmates. As he thought about it, his hand instinctively lowered the gun, but then he remembered the last words Vince spoke to him, and his motivation was renewed.
Jackson raised up the gun to his temple, taking deep breaths as his life flashed before his eyes. His finger reached for the trigger, and Jackson began hyperventilating. He was going to do it. He had come this close, no reason to chicken out now. He closed his eyes and pulled the trigger. All through the house, a shot rang out.
  About a week later, while he was home alone, Vince received a letter in the mail. He didn’t want to open it, seeing it was from the person he hadn’t seen since they argued, but his curiosity got the better of him. He unfolded the letter and read it aloud.“Dear Vince, the worst person I’ve ever met. My time left here is limited, so i’ll keep this brief. I’m glad you gave up on me. I didn’t deserve you. I’ve thought about our argument, and I’ve made my decision. I’m going to a better place now. Goodbye forever, Jackson.”
Vince gripped the letter tightly in shock, the full meaning of the words just now dawning on him. He’s Gone, Vince. You’ll never see him again. You caused this. You caused his suicide. You’re practically a murderer. Tears welled up in his eyes before he tried to blink them away. No, Vince, You’re not allowed to cry. You’re the reason he’s dead. Vince looked at his hands, and for a second he could have sworn they were stained with blood, but the moment he blinked, it disappeared. You’re guilty for his death, Vince, admit it. Vince threw back his head and tears of guilt and remorse streamed out of his eyes as the letter fell, forgotten, onto the floor and under the couch.
As a plane landed in the Geneva airport, out stepped two people, a tall, yet chubby woman, and her son, a young 13 year old by the name of Jackson Cooke, who felt, for the first time in a long while, happy to be alive after his attempted suicide.
If he had to remember what had happened at that time, Jackson would have described it as a miracle, saying that by the force of something greater, he was saved from death. He wasn’t religious, but at that moment, he truly believed that it was a higher power that allowed him to live. The sad truth, though, was that it was just a blank, but he wasn’t aware of that.