High school can be difficult for a lot of people especially if they transfer schools every year. For the last five years I had attended six different schools. Every year it was because of something new but this year I was getting a new little brother so we moved into a bigger house. I didn’t have any friends but the students in this school seemed to be friendlier than most other schools. The first day was perfectly sunny but not hot there was a swift wind blowing. The day gave me a feeling of joy as if something good was about to happen, that day I met a student named Peter and found that we had many of the same classes together so I began to talk to him and we became friends. Peter was Mexican and his family entered the U.S. illegally, their English wasn’t the best but it didn’t matter to me.
We became close friends we would sit together in class, and at lunch we would eat together. The other kids didn’t bother us and we didn’t bother them. I soon however began to make new friends and they would join me and Peter in our activities, there was never any problems between any of us. One regular day I got to school expecting to see my friends hanging out like they always do but instead I saw Peter walking away from the group.

“What happened?” I asked my group of friends who were now standing in a more defensive posture.

“We don’t know he just simply left, he didn’t tell us anything. “I didn’t pay much attention to it but the next couple of days I began to see less and less of him up to the point where he would only be with me when my other friends weren’t around.

“What’s wrong?” I asked him, I was still confused about what was happening.

“Nothing” He replied, but I knew something was bothering him.

I quickly caught on with what was happening. Peter was constantly being harassed by my friends; I didn’t see anything wrong with it after all they were just fooling around so I joined them. After a while I began to see less and less of peter around school. One day I found him by himself in the cafeteria. There were kids around him but I doubt he knew any of them. Before I called my friends over I sat next to him and he simply got up and walked away to another empty seat without saying a word, so I got up and followed him.
“What do you want?” he asked in a rather demanding voice he looked tired and his eyes were beginning to tear. I was shocked and motionless my first friend was not only mad but he also hated me.
“We were just playing around” I hesitated not sure what I should or did say. He left looking devastated. I felt bad but there wasn’t anything I could do. The next day I didn’t see Peter at school; I was worried that he hadn’t shown up because of what had happened. Despite what happened we still kept on starting rumors about him. Him not showing up to school didn’t help him it just made it worst.

The next week I saw Peter again but so did my friends. They told me to get him into the bathroom they didn’t tell me for what and I didn’t ask I just went along with it. Peter looked like he really didn’t want to talk to me.

“I’m sorry for the things that I’ve done to you, and I want you to forgive me.” I exclaimed.

“Ok” he replied in a low faint voice he looked up at me and I told him I had to go to the bathroom so I could get him to follow me. Once I got Peter to the bathrooms a group of kids that I didn’t know but were no doubt recruited by my friends pushed Peter into the bathroom. Once inside I never saw Peter come out but did hear a lot of the kids screaming. I assumed that they were beating him but I didn’t tell a teacher or try to stop it myself instead I let it happen. Someone must’ve told a teacher because there was a group of them outside the bathroom within a minute of Peter entering the bathroom, but by then the damage had been done. Everyone ran out of the bathroom so quickly the teacher wasn’t able to stop any of them.

The next couple of weeks Peter didn’t show up to class until we got news that he had committed suicide. I didn’t know what to think this whole time I thought that our comments were mere foolish behavior. I didn’t expect anyone to take them so seriously, and now my first friend in high school had committed suicide because of me.