why are we so blind

In a little town of Linton, North Dakota, there was a young man named Adam Anderson. In Linton there really is not much a person can do for entertainment except do something stupid. One day during school a couple students, named Adrian Smith and Brandon Parker, got together to pull a prank on someone. Their prank was to get someone covered in glue and feathers. As they were setting the prank the principal walks by and asks “what are the two of you doing?”

Adrian turns around and says “we are going to pull a prank for a video and post it to YouTube.”

“Ok as long as nobody gets hurt then it is ok.” The principal says as he walks in to his office.

As the principal leaves they finish putting the prank together and then they sit back and wait for the victim to walk in to their trap. While they are waiting, Adam is walking down the hall straight towards the trap but before he steps in to it he is stopped by one of his friends, named Stephanie Harris. She asks “did you finish the math homework?”

Adam looks in his bag and hands her his assignment and says “ya if you want you can copy it.” “Thanks I will give it back to you after first hour” Stephanie says.

"Ok that’s fine" Adam says as he walks towards Adrian and Brandon’s trap.

Just as Brandon and Adrian were giving up hope on their prank they notice Adam walk into the trap but something goes wrong with the prank. They notice that the glue in the bucket had dried up and got very hard so as Adam walks through the door the bucket falls down and hits Adam on the top of his head. As it hits his head Adrian and Brandon burst out laughing. As the day goes on everyone starts to make fun of him for him having a bucket hit him in the head. Later that day he goes home and heads to his room and sleeps until the next morning.

The next morning Adam wakes up and he walks to school wondering “what will happen to me today?” as he gets to school he is greeted by a group of seniors who start to make fun of him for what happened to him yesterday. As he gets to his locker everyone around him are laughing at him. So as the bell for class to start Adam stays by his locker and waits until the hallway is empty of people except for him. When he is alone he goes into his backpack and pulls out a flashlight, but as he takes the back off of the flash light he tips it over and a razor blade slides out onto his hand. As he holds the razor in his hand he rolls up the left sleeve of his shirt exposing multiple scars on his arm. Some of the scars are worse than others and some are fresh and some are old. After he rolls his sleeve up he takes the razor blade and presses it firmly to his arm and he slides the razor slowly across his arm and he watches his blood trickle down his arm to his finger tips and then drip to the floor. Just then he realized that it is making a small puddle of blood on the floor in front of his locker. So he runs to the bathroom and gets a bunch of paper towels and wipes up the blood that was on the floor. As he gets the blood off the floor he stands up and rolls his sleeve down to cover up the cut and trail of blood on his arm. Just as he closes his locker the bell rings and then the hall is flooded with people again, that just start talking about what happened yesterday as he walks by going to class. As he gets to class he notices that Adrian and Brandon are already in their seats like they were waiting for Adam to walk through the door.

During class the teacher calls on Adrian to answer a math problem that was on the board and as Adrian stands up to answer it he grabs his bottle of water and pours it all over Adam and says “look Adam pissed his pants.”

Just then everyone in the class looks over and starts laughing including the teacher. That’s when the bell rings and Adam is the first through the door and walks to the bathroom. When he gets into the bathroom he looks in the mirror and sees nothing but pain and punches the mirror, as Adam punches the mirror Stephanie was walking towards her third class when she hears the sound of glass crashing to the ground. So she walks to the door to see if anyone is hurt or needs help but she doesn’t hear anything so she decides to just keep walking towards her class. While Adam is in the bathroom he grabs one of the big sharp shards of the mirror and uses that to add another line to his arm but it cuts a little too deep and it just keeps bleeding even though he grabs a bunch of paper towels and presses them, as hard as he can, to the cut on his arm.

Just as Adam is about to walk out of the bathroom, Adrian walks in and sees that Adam cuts and laughs at him for it and calls Adam a freak for doing it. So Adam tries to ignore him but later that day everyone in the school knew that he cuts now and as he walks down the halls he notices everyone shunning him. As he reaches his locker he sees Stephanie standing by it and says “hi.”

Stephanie looks up at Adam and asks “can I see your arm?”

“Why do you want to see my arm?” Adam asks looking confused.

Stephanie grabs Adams left arm and rolls up his sleeve to expose the gruesome scene for which she hoped was a lie was true “why are you cutting yourself?”

“I’m cutting because it feels like the right thing to do, so I’m sorry if it makes you sad but it is something I need to do.” Adam says as he pulls his arm away from Stephanie and rolls down his sleeve.

Then Stephanie looks Adam in the eyes and sees nothing but pain and sorrow and wonders why Adam is so hurt. As she was thinking that Adam walks away and gets tripped by Brandon and then everyone begins to laugh as Adam is on the floor trying to pick his stuff up. That’s when Adrian walks up and kicks Adam’s books and papers all over the hallway and says “have fun picking this up freak.”

Then Adrian and Brandon start walking away and everyone else is just standing around like nothing had just happened. About a half an hour later after the last class of school had started, Adam is still in the hallway trying to pick up the stuff that Adrian had kicked all over the hall. As he finishes picking everything up he puts his stuff back in his locker and grabs his backpack and realizes that someone put something in his backpack that started oozing through the fabric of the bag. As he opens his bag to see what is in his bag he notices that someone dumped a bunch of yogurt in his bag as a joke and to wreck all of his stuff.

As the bell rings for school to be over for the day Stephanie looks towards Adams locker she notices that he is already to the door, so she runs to catch up to him but by the time she gets to the door she is stopped by Adrian asking “hey Stephanie want to hang out tomorrow?”

“No sorry I have homework I have to do for next week.” Stephanie says as she pushes the door open.

Adrian follows her saying “oh come on it will be fun.”

“I bet it will but my answer is still no.” Stephanie says as she walks away.

That night when Adam gets home his father is sitting in the living room and as Adam walks through the door he can smell the scent of alcohol and cigarette smoke and thinks “oh s**t I’m dead.”

As Adam tries to sneak by his father says with a drunken slur “hey Adam get your a*s over here I want to talk to you about something.”

“Ya, what’s up” Adam asks as he walks into the living room.

As he stops in the doorway of the living room his father gets up holding a piece of paper and says “what the hell is your problem and why did you break a mirror at school?”

“I broke it because I was pissed off” Adam says with a little irritation in his voice.

Then his father grabs him and throws him into a wall putting a hole in it and his father says “oh look at what you did now you worthless piece of s**t!”

As Adam gets up off the floor he walks past his father and says “sorry.”

As he walks past his father he walks up stairs and goes to his room. When he gets to his room he looks at a reflection of himself in his television and asks himself “why am I even alive if everyone hates me?” as he turns to his bed to get some sleep he can hear his father throwing stuff all over the house. So he goes over to his dresser and pulls out I knife and looks at his arm and makes another line but this one was across all of the other ones and he just watches it bleed and bleed. Then he walks over to his bed and goes to sleep so he can see if he will wake up tomorrow or not.

As time passes he is woken up by his father saying “get up its time for school.”

“How is it time for school, it is Saturday.” Adam says with a confused look on his face.

His father looks at him and says “it is Monday, you slept the entire weekend.”

“Oh, ok” Adam says as he gets out of bed.

As he gets out of bed he thinks “how in the hell did I sleep the entire weekend without being dead?”

As he is thinking, he walks down stairs and notices that the entire house had been trashed but just keeps walking towards the door. When he gets outside he can hear his dad throw something at the door just as he closes the door. So he just ignores it and walks towards school, and that’s when he notices a group of little kids playing together on a playground while they are waiting for their bus to take them to school and thinks “whatever happened to those days where everyone was friends with everybody?” As Adam arrives at school everyone had forgotten the bucket incident but they remember him tripping in the hall and his stuff flying all over the hallway. So they look at him and then Adrian walks up behind Adam and pushes him so he falls over and then everyone starts laughing at him. That’s when Adam gets up and punches Adrian in the face and walks away. As Adam walks into the school the principal stops Adam and brings him into his office and says “why did you punch Adrian in the face?”

“He pushed me down so I turned and hit him in the face.” Adam says with a little irritation in his voice.

The principal looks at Adam and says “that’s not a very good explanation so I’m going to give you detention for today and tomorrow.”

“You know what, f**k you, this is stupid I get bullied and when I make a stand to defend myself I get in trouble, well you know what I don’t care anymore.” Adam says as he slams the door to the principal’s office.

As Adam walks down the hall everyone looks at him and avoids him like he has some kind of contagious disease. When he gets to his locker he sees Stephanie walking towards him but he tries not to notice. When Stephanie walks up to him she grabs his left arm and rolls up his sleeve to expose the deep cut from Friday last week. As she is looking at is she asks “why did you do this?”

“I did it because I had to.” Adam says as he pulls his arm away from Stephanie.

Stephanie looks Adam in the eyes and sees more pain than she saw last week and asks “is anything wrong?”

“No nothing is wrong.” Adam says as he closes his locker.

“That’s bull; please tell me what’s wrong?” Stephanie asks as she holds back tears.

“I’m sorry but nothing is wrong.” Adam says as he starts walking away.

That’s when Stephanie can’t hold back the tears anymore and she looks at the floor and watches some tears fall to the ground. Then she sits down up against the wall and watches everyone walk by like they are in a trance. As the bell for class rings she just stays by Adam’s locker trying to think of what could cause him to cut himself so badly. Then she thinks that she could be causing him to cut but then she sees Adam’s father walk into the office and then she hears the principal call Adam to the office. Then about a minute later she sees Adam walk into the office but then walk back out but his father is with him and she sees his father punch him in the side of the head and say “what the hell now you have detention, what the f**k is wrong with you?”

As she watches she sees Adam get up off the ground she sees his father punch him in the stomach and throw him up against the brick wall. Then she gets up and runs over and says “stop hurting Adam.”

“Get out of the way this doesn’t involve you.” Adam’s father says as he pushes Stephanie away.

As he pushes her away, she notices that Adam is unconscious as he is lying on the floor. Then his father decides to walk out and go home and when he leaves Stephanie goes back over to Adam to see if he is alright but just as she gets to him the principal walks out and says “Stephanie get to class.”

“I want to see if Adam is alright.” Stephanie says but is interrupted by the principal saying “that doesn’t matter now get to class he will be fine just leave him be.”

As Stephanie gets up to walk to class she hears the principal tell the janitor to throw Adam outside so he is out of the way. When she turns around she sees the janitor dragging Adam towards the door so she runs after him. When she gets to the door she sees the janitor throw Adam down the stairs leading to the front doors of the school. As she gets outside she sees Adam slowly get up and start walking towards his house. Then she decides to see if he is alright, so she runs to catch up to him and she asks “are you ok?”

“Ya I’m fine, why do you ask?” Adam says trying not to show pain.

“I was just wondering because I saw your father hitting you during school and I watched the janitor throw you down the stairs in front of the school.” Stephanie says as they walk down the road.

When they reach Adam’s house Stephanie says “if you need someone to talk to, just call me.”

“Ok sure thing.” Adam says as he walks inside his house.

Later that night Adam’s father gets drunk again and takes his aggression out on Adam by throwing him into objects and or through windows or anything else that can break. As that happens to Adam, while Stephanie is doing her homework her mother walks into her room and asks “anything interesting happen in school today?”

“Well the usual but can I ask you something?” Stephanie says as she turns around to look at her mother.

Her mother looks at her and says “of course you can, what is it?”

“What should I do if I see a friend getting bullied and beat by his father?” Stephanie asks.

Her mother looks at her with a little confusion and asks “is this a guy we are talking about or a girl?”

“It’s a guy.” Stephanie replies.

Her mother replies “you should notify the principal that he is being bullied and stay out of his personal life if he is getting beat at home.”

“I don’t like to see my friends hurting though.” Stephanie responds.

“I guess you will have to live with knowing one friend is hurting.” Stephanie’s mother says as she walks out of her room.

As her mother walks out of her room, she grabs her phone and calls Adam to see if he is alright, but after three attempts she gives up and goes to bed. As she goes to bed Adam is holding on to stay conscious but he finds it hard, especially when he is getting thrown through things and into things, but just as Adam is about to lose consciousness his father walks upstairs and goes to sleep. As Adam is lying in the floor he thinks to himself “why am I here if I cause everyone pain, I think the world would be better off without me.” As he is lying on the floor he looks at the ceiling and falls asleep where his father had left him.

The next morning Adam is woken up by his father kicking him in his side and him saying “hey dipshit get up its time for school.”

As Adam gets up and grabs his stuff he notices that his father left the key to the gun safe on the table so he decides to take it and keep it with him in case things don’t change at school. As he gets to school he is greeted by a group of students mocking him for getting beat up by someone outside of school.

When he gets to his locker he sees Stephanie waiting by it so he just decides to say “hi.”

“What happened to you last night?” Stephanie asks with concern.

“My dad got drunk again last night.” Adam says as he opens his locker.

“Well, are you ok?” Stephanie asks as she looks at all of his wounds.

“Ya I’m fine” Adam says getting his books out of his locker.

“Are you sure, because you look like you’re in bad shape” Stephanie says but gets interrupted by Brandon and Adrian yelling that Adam was beat up by a girl outside of school. Just then she notices Adam is just still and won’t move, and everyone starts laughing at him. Just then Adam turned his head to look at Stephanie she notices that she can see that his eyes have absolutely no emotion in them what so ever. As she is wondering “why,” Adam decides to just go home because apparently he is not welcome at school anymore.

When Adam leaves Stephanie turns around and walks up to both Brandon and Adrian and smacks them both in the face and says “you really want to know why he is beat up all the time?”

Adrian looks at her and says sarcastically “sure why not.”

“He gets beat up by his father at home because his father comes home drunk and enraged so he takes his drunken anger out on Adam.” Stephanie says as she walks away from them.

As she is walking away everyone realizes that they shouldn’t have done that and that now they feel bad. When Adam gets home he realizes that his father isn’t home so he pulls the key for the gun safe out of his pocket and thinks “is this the best solution for all of this?”

As he is holding the key he decides that it is the best way so he walks up to the safe and opens it to expose a multitude of firearms. As Adam is looking at all of the firearms he grabs a Colt M1911 pistol and grabs almost seventy five rounds for it. As he loads the pistol he puts the extra bullets in his backpack and then slides the gun in to his backpack. Just as he gets the gun in his bag his cell phone starts to ring. As he looks at his cell phone to see who is calling him he sees that it is Stephanie so he answers his phone and says “yes.”

“Hey I just wanted to see if you were ok because I never saw you walk out of school like you did.” Stephanie says with people in the background talking.

“Ya I’m fine” Adam says as he is writing a letter.

“Ok but hey we have an assembly tomorrow right before lunch.” Stephanie says.

“Ok cool thanks for letting me know.” Adam says as he hangs up the phone.

Later that night Adam keeps writing a letter when his father walks in and is surprisingly not drunk but he is still angry so when he walks past Adam and sees that he is writing something he stops and says “what you writing a poem or something?”

“No it’s a letter for something.” Adam says with a little hesitation.

“Whatever.” His father says as he walks up stairs and goes to bed.

The next day in class Adam is finishing his letter when Stephanie walks up and asks “what are you writing?”

“I’m writing a letter.” Adam says.

“Oh a letter to who?” Stephanie asks.

“It is a letter addressed towards all bullies everywhere.” Adam says.

Just as Stephanie is about to say something the principal says over the intercom that all the students must go to the auditorium for an assembly. As soon as the principal is done talking over the intercom Adam finishes writing his letter. When Adam and Stephanie get to the auditorium they notice that everyone is quiet and attentive. As Stephanie sits down in a chair she notices Adam go back stage and “wonders what he is doing?” Just then after everyone is in the auditorium someone comes out on stage and says “before we start our program we have a student that would like to say something to all of you.”

As he runs off stage Adam walks on stage and everyone wonders “what the hell?” While they are thinking that Adam takes his backpack off and says “you guys have been mean to me over the years but as a matter of fact you guys have been mean to me since second grade, but don’t worry it isn’t your guys fault it was mine, I should have tried to do new things but I decided to isolate myself from everyone and I caused a lot of pain for everyone here, so I am just saying I’m sorry and I am going to fix the problem today because I’m sick and tired of being pushed around and called names and being told I’m worthless by my own father and get beat up by my own father so I guess I just want to say I’m sorry, none of this pain will happen anymore.” As he says his speech Adam reaches into his backpack and pulls out the pistol and puts it to his head and right before he pulls the trigger his final words are “I’m sorry and your welcome.”

As he pulls the trigger everyone watches like slow motion they watch Adam drop to the ground and then the principal runs up to see if he is alright but he notices he died instantly. As he kneels down he sees in his bag the letter that he had wrote. As he pulls it out of his backpack he looks at it and reads it out loud;

“I guess this is it as I write my last words I no longer have to suffer life’s cruel torment,

Dear mom where ever you are, I always loved you even though I never met you but I wanted to know one thing why did you leave me behind, was it because you hated me, was it because you just didn’t want me? Please that’s all I ever wanted to know.

Dear dad, I still love you regardless of what you did to me. As this is read in front of the entire student body I would like everyone to know that some of you helped me out and I’m sorry but this was too much for me to handle thank you for trying, but the rest of you are partially the cause for me to do this I won’t put names in this but they know who they are and you should feel bad because I had to deal with your s**t since second grade and I have the last that I can stand so I give up you win you got the biggest reaction out of anyone that you could get. Before you all forget about me and I fade away forever I want to leave you all with a question I always asked…..Why me.”

As the principal finishes reading the letter Stephanie stands up and yells “is this what it takes for all of you to see the f*****g pain you have caused!”

As she says that everyone looks down towards the floor and then Stephanie walks out of the auditorium. After she walks out she tells the police what his dad has been doing to him and then a day later Adam’s father is put under arrest and Stephanie goes around to elementary schools around the town and tries to help stop bullying so that no one has to go through what pain that Adam had gone through.

 

Why do we push people this far to kill themselves just because someone says they don’t like them or they did something stupid by mistake. Most people that will read this will see a person looking for attention but in fact it is a person who has been hurt so many times that, they just gave up hope on living. So please, help me spread this so everyone can be aware of what bullying can do and so we don’t have young men and women killing themselves because of bullying.

 

 

 

 

 

                                   THE END

Reviews

[Terra Hart]

This was a bit long, and a space between paragraphs would help a lot, but I appreciate the message and am glad you posted this. I believe the writing could have been a bit better, it was a tad..... unemotional... Him dying and all was terrible and sad, but your work didn't really show the emotions of your characters. Still good, but it could have been a bit better

[Marie]

THis is way too long,but I've got to commend you for writing it. You're obviously trying to get a message out. And you're not a bad writer. You didn't make mistakes in punctuation or grammar or spelling. You said things twice when they only needed saying once. Maybe writing this has helped you in some way. It may help others.