It was near the end of summer before the boys’ sophomore year of high school, and the group of friends that had been together all their life were hanging out at one of their homes. They knew these warm days of leisure were almost over, so they tried to make the most of them. Mike, a tall basketball player whose house they were at, was the most skilled of the group at both video games and at his favorite summer activity, water volleyball, which the friends played almost every day in his pool. The competitive spirit between the boys was intense. Brendan had showed up five out of  seven days of the summer weeks. He was also tall, and the closest person to match Mike’s skill in water volleyball. He was funny, energetic, and played many sports, including ranking seventh in soccer goalies across the nation And then there was Hunter: a 6’5 football star who enjoyed hanging with the group after his workouts and training. A natural competitor, Hunter played well at everything. Trevor was another one of the boys; he was 6’3 but not that athletic. He was funny and was able to put the blame of his horrible water volleyball skills on his teammates with his persuasive manner. Gabriel also showed up most days, who was on the shorter side and always loved to have comedic input during a conversation, even if he knew nothing about the topic at hand. Deuce, a reliable addition to the group, was basically like a dad-in-training. He was big, good at backyard games, looked out for everyone and loved dad jokes. Last, and maybe least, was Chris. He was way shorter than the rest of the group, which made him by far the worst at water volleyball, but he would never admit to it and would lie about his height, even when he went to get his permit. Chris’ best trait was being honest about his many shortcomings, other than his height.

The day started out the same as any other; Brendan showed up around 10:00 AM, then the rest followed throughout the next hour. They shot basketball’s in the driveway until the last person arrived,  and then started a game, playing to 21, so they could get hot and sweaty before going into the pool. The pool was rectangular and four feet deep, perfect for water volleyball, but was often extremely cold, since it was usually in the shade. When they got in the pool, they had to make teams; Mike and Brendan would start out on separate teams because they were the two best. Although, the teams didn’t matter that much as Mike’s team was always destined to win. They would play for hours, only feeling cold in the water whenever the play would stop. The boys used five inflatable balls as the volleyball, with a string cutting the pool in half as the net. After all five balls were hit out of play, the person who hit the most out, which was usually Gabe, would have to get out of the pool and get them all. During this time, the remaining boys would either just jump on each other in a mosh pit fashion, or have chicken fights; which are when two people get on peoples shoulders and knock the other one down.   

Around 1:00 pm, Mike’s father came home to cook his famous hot dogs on the grill, two-three for each boy. After the feast, the boys would go inside and play videogames for a few hours. They played super smash bros, Mario Kart, Mario baseball, and many other Mario games. Mike never lost a Mario Kart game, as he knew all the shortcuts on every map, so everyone else would get tired of that game really fast. In Super Smash Bros, the three losers (as only four remotes can connect to the console at a time,) would give up their remotes to the people that had been watching. During the time that people weren’t playing, they were most likely eating a watermelon shaped ice cream, with flavors such as lemon as the shell- and sherbert as the watermelon part, with chocolate chips which looked like seeds. After they played for awhile, they went back out to play more water volleyball, that was really everyone’s favorite activity at Mike’s house.

    The boys played as long as they could, until it got too dark to  see the ball. They were all still restless and full of energy, though, as teenage boys can be after a long day. The friends still wanted to do something else for fun.  “Let’s ding dong ditch the neighbors” exclaimed Mike. Everyone except Trevor was on board with the idea. “What if we get caught?” questioned Trevor, as he knew Mike’s father would be more than upset if the neighbors complained about his son disrupting their sleep again. “How could we get caught, it’s easy to run away” affirmed Hunter. Trevor tried to defend himself by bringing up the time Mike got in trouble last month for throwing a rock at someone’s house. “That was different though” Mike stated, “that’s not ding dong ditching, that was throwing a rock at a house, obviously the guy was more upset than someone who just gets their doorbell rang so he came out to find us.” “But your dad said that if you get in any more trouble with neighbors then you won’t be able to have us over for the rest of the summer because that was the fourth time you’ve been caught.” responded Trevor. “Okay, then we just won’t get caught” said Deuce. After a few minutes of name calling and peer pressure, Trevor was on board. The boys got changed out of their swimwear and headed out to the neighborhood to follow through with their plans of mischief.

They ding dong ditched multiple people, only getting a few people to open their doors, not even going outside to look for them. It was Trevor’s turn to ring the bell, and when he did he heard an angry voice inside “WHO IS IT?!” Before Trevor even started to turn he saw the man arise and make his way to the door. Trevor knew he wasn’t fast enough to get away without being seen so he hid behind a tall plant the family had right next to their door. The man came out and looked around, but as Trevor was in all black, he didn’t see him, but he continued to look. As the man glanced to the opposite side from where Trevor was, Trevor jumped out of the bushes, landing on the grass and luckily not making much noise. After a few, long minutes, the man went back inside, and as the rest of the boys were in the woods, they signaled to Trevor that it was all clear.

Trevor’s heart was pounding, as he was so close to getting caught, and he wanted to go back inside. The rest of the group, however, wanted to have that same experience of being so close to their victim, rather than just looking on from afar. Trevor, though, said he’d had enough, and went back inside to play videogames and munch on some chocolate  s’mores bars. Mike’s turn was up, and he knew which neighbor to go to. He went to the garage and started banging on the door, but no one answered. He went to the doorbell and rung it at least 15 times, when he heard a baby start to cry and then a man shout “YOU JUST WOKE UP MY DAMN DAUGHTER!” Mike had figured the neighbor might react like this, but didn’t think about the actual consequences. He ran as fast as he could and jumped into a prickly spruce tree, getting scratched everywhere. He was able to see the door but didn’t dare make a noise as the man came out with a flashlight, his dog, and a cig in mouth. The rest of the boys observed the situation by watching from Mike’s deck, but as even they could hear the baby crying that the angry father, they ran inside Mike’s house to avoid getting caught. The man was flashing his light in all directions as his dog was sniffing the ground, and he kept saying “I’m not going inside until I find you.” He went around his house to look for the culprit and Mike knew this was his chance. He sprinted down the street in the opposite direction of his house, which ended up being the downfall to the prank of ding dong ditching. When the boys peeked through the window to look at where they thought they knew Mike was hiding, they noticed he wasn’t there. The only explanation they could think of was that he had gotten caught, because neither Mike or the neighbor was in sight as the neighbor was searching out of sight in the woods at this point.

“We have to save Mike” Hunter stated as he knew leaving a brother behind was not a possible option. The others agreed, and Brendan, one of the boys, suggested “Let’s go out the back and through the woods in case he’s still out there.” But Hunter ignored the suggestion and bolted through the front door as he wasn’t aware the neighbor was still looking for a suspect. Hunter managed to run for about three seconds when the neighbor turned the corner of his house. The dog started barking and the light flashed on Hunter- he was officially caught. The neighbor knew there was more kids as he knew Hunter didn’t live there, so he barged through door of Mike’s house. He started yelling about how his daughter has an early morning dance recital and that she finally fell asleep from being anxious all night, just to have the “neighborhood pranksters” wake her up again. This woke up Mike’s parents, who were asleep, as it was 1AM, and they had no clue any of this was happening. After a few minutes of yelling at the kids, they realized Mike still wasn’t home, as he was still hiding and didn’t realize anyone was caught. He got a call and when he looked at his phone, his heart stopped. It was his father, who he knew should be asleep, and would only be awake if something bad happened. “Get home. Now.” his father demanded.

Mike got home, and at this point his neighbor had left, but the boys were still sitting there with his angry dad in the room, still in his robe as he was just asleep. Although his dad stated that if he got in trouble again with the neighbors, he wouldn’t be allowed to have the boys over anymore, that was a bluff. He was still mad, however, and made most of the boys go home. He drove them back in what was an extremely awkward and silent car ride, with each kid having to tell their parents they are coming home for disrupting the neighbors, and now their parents by waking them up. The only one that stayed over that night was Trevor, as he lived on the other side of town and wasn’t part of the incident. However, he still had to sleep in a room alone and go to bed. The next morning Mike had to go over and apologize to the neighbor.

The next week, everything was blown over, the neighbor accepted the apology, and the boys were back again. They had the usual day of going out and playing water volleyball, basketball, and videogames. It was rainy and foggy. Once the sun went down, and the boys were playing video games, Mike said “Let’s go ding dong ditch again.” Hunter was very against this, as he was the last boy to get dropped off from the night they got caught, and said “absolutely not, you don’t know how awkward it was being in a car with just your dad, no talking, and no music.” Brendan was on board though, and just him and Mike went out together. They started with homes they don’t usually ding dong ditch, so if someone went around looking, they wouldn’t suspect them. They rang a few doorbells and got a few laughs as sleepy neighbors went out and quickly turned aggravated as no one was there, just goofy kids waking them up when they have work in the morning. They got to a neighbor that they had never ding dong ditched before because Mike knew they were strict parents and a little bit crazy. They agreed that this would be the last one before they go back inside, because they didn’t want to test their luck of not getting caught for the night. They got to the doorbell, rang it, and ran. No one picked up, so they rang again; this time, however, they heard screaming, which they assumed was a tired parent yelling at them, but no one answered the door. They went back inside, and continued playing video games with the rest of the boys- for only a few minutes. Lights started to flash outside, sirens came as well. It was the cops. Mike and Brendan put it together that the neighbors called the police instead of picking up. They convinced everyone to say that they were always inside playing video games, and there was proof that at least four of them were inside because the video games show the past games played until you restart the gamecube. Mike’s parents woke up, and came downstairs. It was only 11:45 PM at this time, but they still were mad. They angrily asked if it was Mike and everyone else, as if they were already expecting a “yes,” but he denied it. Mike’s dad went outside and talked to the police and asked what was wrong. The cop responded with something that no one would have every guessed. The police said that one of the people in the house woke up to a doorbell, and was heading down the stairs to see who it was, when he tripped and fell down the stairs, hitting his head, hip, and many other body parts on the way down, and was out cold and bleeding. Mike’s dad came back in and told the boys what had happened, and that he was glad that they weren’t ding dong ditching anymore, as an incident like that could have happened to them and they would have gotten in serious trouble. Brendan and Mike were shaking, sweating, and obviously extremely nervous. The police came up to the house to calm Mike’s father, saying that the man should be okay, but will be in the hospital for a few weeks as it looks like he broke his hip bone and had a major concussion. When he was talking to Tom, Mike’s father, he noticed the group of kids in the living room. He asked if he could come in and explain things to the kids and ask a few questions to see if they saw anything. He asked if they had ever ding dong ditched before, because he guessed that the person that rung the man’s doorbell was a kid ding dong ditching, as no one would ring the doorbell at that time, and then disappear, which they all agreed to saying yes. He then asked if they went out tonight to ding dong ditch. Mike responded with “no, we’ve been playing video games all night, we ding dong ditched last week and got caught so we don’t do that anymore.” The policeman asked the rest of the boys to agree that they weren’t the ones that did it, and reminded them that lying to a police officer is a crime. Brendan was the first to agree, saying after last week he wasn’t going to ding dong ditch again. Before anyone else could say anything, the police officer luckily said “okay, thank you.” and left. All the other boys looked at Brendan and Mike, and didn’t say anything. Mike repeated to them that they can’t tell anyone the truth, for the obvious reasons that him and Brendan could get in a lot of trouble. Everyone went outside to see the ambulances and police cars with their loud sirens. All the other neighbors were out in their robes, while the police officer went around explaining what happened to each person. After the ambulance left, the police were still there, for what seemed to be looking for anything that may have indicated who was there. One of the officers walked up to Mike and his friends, and explained that everyone suggested that if they thought it was anyone, it would have been them. Mike started stumbling his speech, saying that they used to but it wasn’t them this time. He was sweating looking anywhere but at the policeman's eyes, and his arms were visibly shaking. Brendan stayed quiet, swaying back and forth, and his skin started turning ghost white. He fell back and hit his head on the edge of the concrete stairs they were standing in front of. All attention switched to that, which gave Mike a brief moment to gather himself again, and the police officer rushed to help Brendan from the ground. The policeman called in another ambulance to come because Brendan was now bleeding from the back of his head.

It was now 12:37AM, Mike’s mom was the one that had to call Brendan’s parents to tell them that their boy is in the hospital with most likely a major concussion. The ride to the hospital was dead silent. Nobody knew what to say, even Trevor, the guy that can always crack a joke in any situation. Nobody could tell what to worry about, Brendan, or the neighbor that had to go to the hospital as well, and if Mike and Brendan will ever be caught. The hospital was quiet, as not many people were there because it was a little after midnight. The hallways were dimly lit, and it was a little chilly because of the A/C that on. The hallway to Brendan was long, with open rooms on each side. With each room, the boys would peer in as they walked by, seeing sick people that gave them the chills. The only noise was the air conditioning, with the occasion cough from various rooms. When they got to Brendan’s room, they first saw him in the bed, knocked out; then they saw his parents sitting in the chair. Once they fully turned the corner into the room, they saw another police officer. He had them take a seat, and asked them questions he already seemed to know the answer to. “What happened to him?” he asked. “We were outside talking with an officer because one of our neighbors got hurt, and he became ghost white and fell to the ground, and hit his head.” Mike was able to spit out without seeming nervous. The officer asked what happened to the neighbor to cause everyone to wake up. Mike responded by saying that “someone ding dong ditched him and he fell down the stairs as he was going to see who was at the door” then quickly added “at least that’s what the officer told us.” After he added that last statement, his nervousness was starting to show. “And you kids wouldn’t ding dong ditch right?” the officer question. For Mike, it felt like everyone knew he was the one to do it, and they were just waiting for him to admit it. Mike began stuttering and visibly sweating. “Y-y-yes, well no, we would bu-but not anymore, but it seems something teenager boys would do r-r-right?” “Is the man doing alright?” Hunter asked, as he knew Mike needed someone to come and help him in the conversation, but didn’t know whether he was ready to lie to a police officer. “Unfortunately, he’s now in critical condition. He’s hanging in there but it’s not looking that good.” It got quiet for a few minutes, with the only noise being the air conditioner in the hallway cranking away the icy cold air. “How will Brendan be?” asked Pam, Mike’s mother. “I don’t know, he should be fine but I don’t know the severity of the concussion, the doctor should be back in a minute, he will be able to give you a better synopsis.” After a few long seconds, the police officer left the room, saying he will be back with possibly new news and possibly more questions. After he left, Brendan’s dad, Bob, asked “be honest boys, were you the ones that ding dong ditched?” Mike was quiet, he didn’t want to lie to Brendan’s dad but if he told the truth, it could then get back to the officer, which in Mike’s mind would cause him to be arrested for lying to a cop. He was saved when Hunter confidently replied “no, we were all playing Super Smash Bros.” After hunter stated that, the other boys started to confirm. “It wasn’t us this time.” promised Chris.

A nurse came in and broke down how severe the concussion was. “He hit his head pretty hard, and after looking at the scans he will definitely be out for the first few weeks of school, and will definitely miss soccer season.” This broke Mr. and Mrs. Willis, as Brendan was a top soccer prospect for his class, and was planning on eventually going to a division one school for soccer on a full ride. Nobody knew what to do, the room was speechless, but every second someone would sniffle or blow their nose. “He will be able to leave tomorrow morning, and after that he should not play any video games, should not use his phone at all, and stay in a dark environment as much as possible.” said the nurse, and then adding “and obviously not do any school work.”

A glum looking doctor and the police officer came in after a few minutes of everyone looking at Brendan, not saying a word.

“I’m sorry to break the awful news, but Mr. Francisconi has been declared dead.” he muttered. Everyone went pure white. No one knew what to say, and Mr. and Mrs. Lundquist started crying.

“I thought they said he was going to be okay” Mike sighed, with cracking in his voice as it was obvious he was holding back tears. The doctor briefed them on what happened that caused his death.

“When he fell down the stairs, he hit his head with a great force that caused hemorrhage, which caused intracranial pressure, severely damaging the brain. He also fractured his iliac, which has one of the strongest blood supplies in the body, creating internal bleeding-”

The police officer interrupted as the doctor was explaining what else happened to cause his death. “An investigation will be conducted throughout the next couple weeks as someone may be charged with involuntary manslaughter.” Mike froze as if he were to get caught, his entire life would be thrown away. He started questioning the boys about what they knew, as they were the top suspect as of that moment.

He repeatedly asked them if they were the ones they did it, when Deuce said “no, we were all inside playing video games for hours and there’s proof of it on the gamecube.” The officer stated that he would like to see how they can prove it wasn’t them, because that could help eliminate them from being the top suspect. At this point, all the boys knew they had to help each other out as now most of them were lying to various people.

Trevor backed Deuce’s point, by saying that there were unfinished snacks in the room they were in, and then jokingly said “I would never let food go uneaten unless it was an emergency” to add to the evidence and to try and lighten the mood. The officer agreed to come over the next day, and left the room while saying “if you have any questions, you know how to contact me, and if you see anyone in the streets at night immediately call.” After he left, it was quiet as Brendan was still in the hospital bed.

No words were said for the next few hours until Tom finally muttered “we should probably get going to get a few hours of sleep.” The only people that stayed behind were Brendan’s parents, who were not going to leave without him.

Around 8:00 AM, the officer pulled up to Mike’s house, and the only boys that were still there were Mike, Trevor, and Hunter. He asked them for how they could show they were in the house, and they showed him the gamecube and TV, which they left on all night. It showed the various games played throughout the night: 10:45, 10:53, 11:01, 11:09, the games kept showing constant games throughout, as they boys played while Mike and Brendan were the only ones to ding dong ditch. Hunter also showed him a snapchat story at 11:36 PM that showed them all of them were playing video games. The officer thanked them for helping with the case and being honest, and left. Mike’s parents reiterated that they were glad they listened to them last week and that they didn’t continue ding dong ditching. After his dad left for work and his mom went back upstairs, they started talking. They kept trying to justify what had happened.

“You obviously didn’t mean to, it was a freak accident.” Hunter said.

“It wasn’t your fault at all, try not to freak out about it, no one will find out it as you.” stated Trevor. Mike couldn’t focus on anything else, as he was part of something that resulted in death, and he could possibly be charged with involuntary manslaughter. Mike lost his appetite and didn’t talk much at all throughout the day, so Trevor and Hunter went home. Later that night, Trevor suggested that someone ding dong ditches Mike’s house, so it will seem like it was someone random that did it. Mike said that might work, but whoever does it should be extremely careful, and also ding dong ditch other houses as well. Gabriel agreed to do it, as he was one of the faster boys and wanted to help out Mike. Later that night, Gabe went around the neighborhood, ringing multiple doorbells, including Mike’s, before running into the woods until he found another road, where Deuce picked him up. The police came, but couldn’t find anyone, as now even Mike’s parents could promise that Mike was in the house sleeping at this time. The boys were finally able to go see Brendan after a week, and they asked him what he remembered. He didn’t remember anything, and had no idea what had happened to Mike’s neighbor. They told him that while they were playing video games at Mike’s, police cars came because a neighbor fell down the stairs, and asked them all questions, which led to Brendan fainting.  

Throughout the next few weeks, Mike became paranoid about everything, and was on edge whenever someone would call his name. No one had hung out since they saw Brendan, and summer was just about over. Hunter suggested they all hang out again because they can’t just not hang out anymore. Everyone except Brendan went to Mike’s house around 1:00 PM and played water volleyball until late at night. Throughout the day, they had a good time, while the music was playing and they temporarily forgot about what had caused them all to be so down recently. Although they were all having fun, whenever someone would say Mike’s name, he would freak out as if it was someone telling him that he had been caught.

School started, and so did soccer season, without Brendan. The team was horrible without him, as they had no backup goalie which made them let up around seven goals a game. Rumors started going around the school that it was the boys that were the ones who ding dong ditched, and all of them denied it, but it still went around.

It had been two years since the incident, and everyone seemed to forget about what had happened. Mike had constantly lied to himself for countless months until he truly felt that it wasn’t his fault at all, and when looking back, he just saw it as an unfortunate event. It was now summer going into Senior year of highschool, and they would still always go to Mike’s house to play water volleyball, basketball, cornhole, and video games. After being in high school for two more years, a lot of people in their grade had begun drinking and smoking. A few of the boys had tried one or the either before, but didn’t like either. One night, at around 12:00 AM, Gabe brought out a liter of vodka, offering if anyone wanted shots. Mike got angry, as his mom was very against drinking and smoking and if she ever found out there was alcohol she wouldn’t let him hang out with any friends. The peer pressure of everyone else got to him, and he took 8 shots. They snuck out of the house to go for a walk, stumbling with each step, talking about life and what will happen after college. They got home two hours later, and made sure that everything was cleaned up before going to bed. The next day, Gabe offered if people wanted to sleep at his house, as he knew he parents would be gone, and he said he was throwing a “little party.” Mike told his parents he was sleeping at Gabe’s because they always sleep at his house, so they wanted a change. They said yes and reminded him to not drink, stay safe, and if needed, to call them. When Mike got to Gabe’s house, it didn’t look like many people were there at all as there was only Gabe’s car. Once he got inside Ho were, there were around 30 people there, loud music, and alcohol. Everyone was taking shots, and Mike didn’t have a bad time when he was drunk, so he decided to join in. People were taking shot after shot, and everyone was having a good time. Gabe made sure everyone was taking care of their cups and disposing of everything when they were done so he wouldn’t have to clean up at the end. Chris had been matching every round with hunter, the 245lb football star, while he was only 130 pounds. After his 13th shot, he needed to sit down. He started taking deep, slow breaths, and his skin turned pale. Whenever he would try to get up, he would fall back down. After a few tries, he stayed on the ground, unresponsive to anyone. His eyes were closed. Mike had been there to see him fall and not move, in which he yelled over to Gabe. Gabe turned the music off and everyone looked over. Some people said he just fell asleep and to turn the music back on, but Gabe knew that he wasn’t asleep because he wasn’t waking up. He yelled for everyone to get out as he was going to call the police. Everyone yelled and tried to get him to not because they were too concerned about themselves because they thought that they would get in trouble. Gabe continued to call the cops and everyone fled outside. The only ones that remained were the boys, and they called Chris’s and Gabe’s parents, letting them know what happened. Gabe persuaded the rest of the boys to leave, even though they didn’t want to leave him behind, he convinced them it will be alright and it’s not worth them all getting in trouble. When Chris’s mom arrived, she rushed to the basement, to see Chris on the ground with Gabe holding his head up and to the side. She knew the police would be there soon, and told Gabe to hide somewhere. Gabe was confused on why she told him to do this, but listened anyways as he could hear the sirens of the police. He was apologizing profusely to her and she kept repeating that it was okay and that everything will work out. Then there were three hard knocks on the door. Mrs. Swensen told Gabe to hide one last time as she was rushing up to get to the door, and he hid in a closet. Before she could get to the door, the police kicked the door down as they knew they had no time to lose. The police rushed downstairs, and managed to get Chris’ unresponsive body to the ambulance. The officer that stayed behind asked Chris’ mom questions. Gabe was able to see out of a crack in the closet, and was scared about what was going to happen and if Chris would be alright.

“Do you know anyone else that was here?” one officer asked.

“No, I don’t think so, if there was anyone else then they left.” She replied.

“Does that mean this is your house?” the other officer questioned.

“Yes.” Mrs. Swensen replied. Gabe was confused on why she would say that. He was grateful that she didn’t say any names of the kids that were there, but didn’t know what lying about the owner of the house gains for her.

Another question came: “Do you know why he was drinking?”

“No, I was upstairs when I heard a thud so came down to check on him, and he was on the ground with a solo cup next to him, and a bottle of Vodka on the table.”

“He didn’t have any friends over? He just drank by himself?” asked the skeptical officer.

“I really don’t know, there were no cars, and his friends would definitely know not to drink and drive, even if they were to drink. It’s a possibility but to my knowledge, there was no one else.” Gabe was still in the closet, barely breathing as he didn’t want to be heard. It had felt like hours being in there, and all he wanted at this point was for the police to leave.

“How many shots would you guess he had to take in order for him to pass out?” Chris’ mother asked concernedly.

“He weighs 136 pounds” she added.

“Depending on how long he was drinking for, let’s say over the course of an hour, around 9, and if more he may be in critical condition.” responded one of the officers. This made Gabe extremely worried as he recalled Mike telling him that Chris had been matching Hunter, who weighed a lot more, so could handle more liquor.

“Okay, thank you” she muttered.

“Would you like a ride to the hospital ma’am?” The officer offered. She accepted the ride and they went down to the hospital. Gabe waited another five minutes before moving to make sure that everyone was gone, thinking about what could happen. He was started to remember the night two years ago that lead to the death of someone, and remembered the toll that it took on everyone, and couldn’t imagine what would happen if the person who died was one of the boys, and now that imagination could become a reality. He knew he couldn’t drive to see how Chris was doing, even though he had sobered up from the adrenaline, but he knew the alcohol was still in his system. His mother was on his way home from her work, as she was a night shift nurse, and he was trying to conjure up the possible consequences that could arise from his furious mother. It was 12:00 AM when his mother got home, and Gabe believed she was going to be more angry than he could even imagine.

She walked through the broken down door, and screamed “GABRIELITO SAHAADI VEGA!”

Gabe hasn’t heard her yell at him by his full name since he was little.

He quietly responded “down here.”

“What happened?” she immediately asked. Gabe knew he had to be completely honest with his mother

“I had people over and we were d-d-drinking and playing music when Chris took too many shots and p-passed out?” he stuttered.

“Then what?” she demanded.

“I told everyone to run as I was calling the cops, Mike and them stayed behind but I told them to call Chris’ mom and then to leave.” he truthfully told.

“What happened when she showed up?”

“I was making sure Chris had good elevation and had his head turned so he wouldn’t choke on anything in case he were to vomit so he wouldn’t choke.” he confidently said, as he realized he may have saved Chris’ life, although he also knew all of this wouldn’t have had happened if he didn’t throw the party.

“Then the police came and she told me to hide.” he stopped for a second before continuing

“They started asking questions such as who else was here, and whose house this is. She said that she wasn’t aware of anyone else but then she said that it was her house.”

“Finally, they left and then you got here a few minutes after.” Gabe said.

His mom thought for a minute, realizing that Gabe, although he threw a party and she was furious about that, he was responsible enough to call the police and tell her what had happened when everything went downhill. She was too tired to think about the consequences he will have, so told him to just go upstairs to bed. Gabe did not expect this response at all, and it frightened him, and he stayed up all night thinking about what will happen in the morning.

The next day, they received a call from Chris’ mom and she told him about how Chris was doing.

“He will be fine, according to the doctors, and they said that if anyone had waited any longer, he would have died.” She said, with a few cracks in her voice from having to say that her boy was close to death.

“I also told them what you did, and how you made sure his body was in the right position, and they said that if you just left him lying down, he would be dead.” She managed to add with the cracks becoming more frequent.

“I’m so sorry for all of this, it won’t happen again I swear, I’m not gonna drink for years now.” Gabe replied.

“I’m glad he’s okay though.” He quickly added.

“Thank you, it is high school so it was bound to happen eventually, but any other person would have left him to die” she said. Gabe felt horrible still, as he knows that he was the one that put the idea of drinking into Chris’ head, but just said that he would stay for anyone, and reiterated that he was glad Chris was okay. Gabe told his mom what Mrs. Swensen told him, because he knew that this would help lessen the consequences, and also because he thought she should know everything that is going on. She thought for a few minutes, before telling him that she was proud that he stayed and helped with Chris, but started telling him things to do different before getting into the punishments.

“First off, no more drinking, but I established that before last night, and you still went against me, so if it happens again, make sure only you are giving out the drinks, and don’t give anyone more than 6 shots, and make sure they are spread out in time. If anyone looks visibly drunk, cut them off. Keep snacks and offer water out constantly. Don’t drink yourself until everyone else is done, and that will be boring and seems stupid, but if you drink as you’re giving out drinks, you will forget how many others gave out. Obviously don’t drive. And finally: remember what happened last night every time you go out, and that one of your best friends was a few minutes off from dying, and you would have been at fault.” She commanded.

“Ok”responded Gabe.

“Now… you are not going to sleep over anyone’s house for the rest of summer, and I’m going to start tracking your phone from now on. When Prom comes around, you are not sleeping anywhere but here, and you are the only one that will be here.” She told him. Gabe was surprised that it wasn’t as bad as he thought, but was still upset with the consequences, but understood that it was a fair punishment.

Gabe told the rest of the boys that Chris was going to be okay, and that they should all go visit him in the hospital. After everyone showed up at Gabe’s, they went to the hospital. It was the same one were they went to visit Brendan a few years ago, and the same hallway. It brought chills down Mike’s spine, as the distant memory that he was able to bury deep down was trying to claw its way back up. When they got in the room, they saw Chris and his mother next to him. After Hunter closed the door as he was the last one to enter the room, Gabe started off by apologizing about everything again. She continued to ease him down by telling him that Chris will be okay and reminded him that he is the reason why he is still alive.

She then explained to all of them what she told the police, when Brendan asked “won’t they figure out that it’s not actually your house?”

“Well, they would if it was for a legal issue like drinking, but my brother was one of the police officers and changed the police report from a legal issue to a medical one, so everything should be cleared up.”

“Why would you lie to the police and have your brother risk his job to cover up what had happened?”

“If it went in as a legal issue, and then underaged drinking, you all would have gotten in trouble, and so would Mr. and Mrs. Vega, which I don’t think is that fair to them. If the school found out about the party and what happened, all of you boys could have and would have been kicked out of national honors society. And you saved Chris’ life.”

“Thank you so much” each of the boys repeated when they realized how much she helped them out. Once again, the boys were able to get out of legal trouble through lying.

“Just don’t forget this next time you go out to drink, that one of your best friends almost died because of how careless you all were, and that he was minutes away from dying, and might not be so lucky next time, so please be responsible.” She added, They nodded.  

The school year started, and everyone had heard about what happened to Chris, so not many people talked about it, just would call Chris names throughout the day whenever they would see him. It was finally senior year, one more year of high school left for all of them, and a sense of senioritis was already hitting. Everything seemed to be going well for everyone: Chris was able to make a full recovery without any permanent damage, Brendan was in talks with three division one schools, Hunter was committed to Alabama on a full ride for football, Mike was planning on going to Virginia Tech, one of the nations top engineering schools, Gabe was planning on going to Umass Lowell on almost a full academic scholarship, Deuce planned on going to Umass Amherst, and Trevor had plans to join his family's business right after high school. Brendan’s last high school soccer season was starting, and they were hoping to win a state title for Georgetown, which hadn’t been done for eight years. It was the playoff’s in soccer season at this time, as Brendan broke the state record for fewest goals let up over the span of a 18 regular-game season, by only letting up one goal. It was the night before the state championship, and Mike decided to go to bed early, even though he had a test tomorrow, he also had the soccer game, as he was also on the team, and decided that was more important. He had been asleep for a few hours when a doorbell rang. He got up and went down the stairs to see who it was. He was wondering who would be at his house at 11:30. When he got to the door, he noticed that no one was there, and he was too tired to care, so he went back up to go to sleep. It rang again, and as he was going down the stairs, he had a split second epiphany of what happened to the man who died years ago. It felt so realistic; he could see Mr. Francisconi going back upstairs, to hear another doorbell, before falling down. He felt like he was in his house, the tight, narrow staircase, with a flower pattern wallpaper that could only be seen because of the moonlight coming through the windows, with family portraits hanging up on the walls. The vision ended when Mike felt a pain in his thigh, before realizing that he had just fallen down the stairs. He wasn’t nearly as hurt as the man once was, and he was able to walk back upstairs with just a little limp with each step, that he assumed would go away by the time he woke up. He was right; he woke up the next morning, not remembering much of what happened that night, as it felt like a dream that was disappearing from his memory within a few seconds of trying to recall what happened. He felt weird, but rationalized it to just being nervous for the game tonight. He quickly ate his breakfast as he was a running late for school, and went out to his car. As he was driving down his neighborhood, he saw a man waving to him out of the corner of his eye, but when he went to look at who it was, no one was there. It was just Mr. Francisconi’s house, with the same light blue 1980’s cadillac that hasn’t moved since his death. When Mike turned his head back to focus on the road, he had to quickly jerk the steering wheel to prevent hitting a mailbox. He tried to stay focused on the road but his mind kept wandering elsewhere: wondering who he saw out of the corner of his eye, the big game, the big test he didn’t study for, and if he’s going to make it to school on time. To calm himself down, he told himself that the test didn’t matter as he his GPA and SAT scores were already so good he would need to fail all of his classes in order to get rejected from Virginia Tech. He told himself that there was no one there, and he was just tired and thought that a tree branch was someone waving. It was finally 6:00, which meant that the bus was leaving for the state tournament game. Mike felt different. He was usually excited for games, especially playoff games. He tried to hype himself up for music, but nothing worked that well. He figured that once the game started, the adrenaline would take over and he would be able to get fired up. The whistle blew, and the game started. Mike was able to channel his energy and was playing with great intensity. The game started out scrappy, with both teams playing dirty, as expected in a high school varsity championship game. Twelve minutes into the game, Mike was looking for a through ball, running with his head facing Brendan, who could punt the ball upwards of 80 feet down the field, when a player on the other team lowered their shoulder into Mike’s chest, and laid him out. Mike stayed down for a few seconds, before comprehending how dirty the hit was, and got up and tried to go back at the kid. His teammate held him back, and the coach called him out for a sub.

“I’m fine, he didn’t even hit me hard, he’s soft” he yelled purposely loud enough for the other player to hear.

“Next time at least wait till I’m looking” Mike added. The coach had the trainer look at his eyes and make sure he didn’t have a concussion. He showed no signs of a concussion and told the coach he was good to go in at any point. When the coach told him to go back in, he had no intention of playing soccer, as all he was focused on was hurting someone back. He found his chance when Brendan made a save and was about to punt the ball. Mike saw the kid who hit him earlier and made sure to stay near him. The ball came at the two players, and Mike got in front. The other player leaped into the air to try and head it, and Mike backed up into his legs. This caused the player to do a 180 and tried to prevent his head from hitting the ground. He put his hands out, and during the silence of crowd’s gasp, everyone heard a loud crack, followed instantly with bloody screams. Mike looked back with what started as pride, but as his adrenaline left and he saw what he had done, he saw pure bone through the forearm of the kid he set out to injure. Both trainers went out to try and help, while the resource officer called in an ambulance. The referee’s got together to discuss whether or not to assign a red card, which would put Georgetown a man down for the entire game, or a yellow, which practically does nothing. They were all ready to agree that it was a red card, based solely on degree of injury, when Mike went up and told them it was an accident.

He persuasively argued, “The ball was in the air, he jumped, and I was trying to get back so I would have actually been able to hit the ball. My head didn’t even turn to face him, how could I have known he was there. I know the game has been chippy, but you have to understand that it was just an accident”

“I know it was an awful injury, and I feel bad about it, but I didn’t even lower my body, he just jumped unbelievably high.” He pleaded. The officials took the lie into consideration, before they caved in and only assigned a yellow card. The other coach was furious, yelling that no accident could result in such an injury. After the ambulance left with the boy, both teams were called back to the field as the game was ready to start again. The tempo of the game temporarily slowed down as everyone was still shaken up about what happened, until half time reached with a tied score of 0-0. The game had fifteen minutes left, when finally what seemed to be a goal was about to take place. A perfect through ball placed Mike on a breakaway. The goalie was running out to try and beat him to the ball, but he was much closer, and faster. Mike won the battle and did a scissor move to get by the goalie. It was now just him and the net, no one else around. He looked up at the net one last time before tapping the ball in, when he clearly saw Mr. Francisconi sitting right behind the net, and then disappear into thin air. Mike stopped in his tracks, turning completely pale, even his face which was previously red from sprinting up and down the field. The ball managed to roll in, and everyone on his team started cheering, except him. He didn’t realize he scored, nor did he realize that he was in a soccer game. His mind was focused on what he just saw, he couldn’t rationalize what happened. His teammates started shaking him with excitement, before they realized he wasn’t just doing a weird no celebration-celebration, and then saw how white he looked. His jaw was dropped and he was unresponsive to anyone. Mr. Francisconi appeared again and started walking towards him.

The entire field was empty in Mike’s eyes except for Mr. Francisconi and himself. When they were about a foot apart, Mike heard him say “I know it was you.” Before fading away after he blinked, and he snapped back into reality. Mike rushed to the woods and started throwing up. The trainer went up to ask him what happened, as his first thought was that the concussion symptoms were setting in.

“Was anyone sitting behind the net when we scored?” Mike asked.

“No, no ones allowed to sit behind the net. Why?” Responded the trainer.

“I think I just saw someone who’s supposed to be dead, or a ghost.” He quietly said.

“That’s impossible. You’re in one of the biggest games of your life, and you were under immense pressure of missing an incredibly easy shot, your brain just wandered and you thought you saw something that wasn’t there.” Mike agreed that it was just because of nerves, but deep down knew what he saw. Mike went back to the team’s bench, and watched the rest of the game. Nobody talked to him because they didn’t want to catch whatever sickness he had, so he didn’t have to explain what happened. He tried to stay focused on the game, but could only think about what he saw, and heard. He also didn’t know what to say to his parents when they asked him, as he knew they saw what happened. He decided he was going to be honest, for once, and tell them what he saw. After the final horn, Georgetown beat Lynnfield, 1-0, and everyone went crazy. The fans rushed the field and the players all jumped together. Mike sat on the bench, and no one said anything to him until Brendan came up and asked what was wrong.

“I really don’t know, I started feeling extremely sick and I think I realized how much I hurt that kid, and it kinda freaked me out.” Mike lied.

“Look, obviously you wanted to hurt him, you can’t tell me otherwise, but you also obviously didn’t mean to hurt him that bad. Like he blindsided you, which could have done serious damage, anyone would have wanted to get back at him.” Brendan said to cheer him up.

“I guess.” Mike said, knowing to just agree because he didn’t want to ruin everyone’s good mood.

When Mike got home, his parents asked him what happened on the field.

“I’m going to be honest with you, I thought I saw Mr. Francisconi behind the net before I shot.” He muttered. His parents were visibly shocked as that would have been one of the last things they expected to hear. It was quiet for a few seconds before Mike’s dad assured him that it was just because he’s mature enough now to realize how sad death can be, and his mind was just flashing back to one of the only deaths he’s experienced in his life. His mom offered to bring him to a doctor if he wanted and if he kept seeing things. When Mike tried to go to sleep, he kept seeing blue and red lights coming in through his window, but whenever he went to see what was going on, nothing was outside and the lights would stop. This happened throughout the night, and he got no sleep. The next morning he told his mom he would go and see someone. She scheduled an appointment with a specialist for later that day. When they got there, Mike started talking about what he had been seeing. He left out the time that he heard the voice saying “I Know it was you.” After he explained what he’s been seeing, the lady offered to put him on medication to help prevent the hallucinations. Mike knew she didn’t believe him, nor would she ever no matter what he told her, as part of her job was to rationalize everything and make people feel sane. He agreed to the prescription, and they helped. He stopped seeing anything that wasn’t real. After a few weeks, he was back to normal. He was happy, joked a lot, and was getting ready for basketball season. On a friday night out, he was planning on going home to sleep, so he didn’t bother bringing his medication. He didn’t drink, as the memory of what happened to Chris was still with him, but everyone pressured him into staying, and he thought that nothing bad could happen for missing one night of medication. When he tried to go to bed, the visions came back. They were the worse they’ve ever been. He kept seeing the man fall down the stairs, and kept hearing that he needed to pay the price for lying and not facing justice. He had visions of himself buying a gun, and what appeared to be a suicide, but right before he pulled the trigger, he snapped out of it. But he felt an urge that he couldn’t explain to go on with the plan .

He was home alone, his parents were in New York for a party. He had tears running down his face, with the end of the gun pressed against his head, when he decided to put the gun down to call his aunt. No one picked up, and he didn’t bother leaving a message. Too much was on his conscience to think straight, and he wept in a chair. Everything was quiet, the only light was from a lamp to his left side. There was a notepad and pen a few feet away from his arm. He grabbed them both and started writing.

He wrote: “I’m supposed to go to Virginia Tech this fall, but I’m not going to make it. I’m sorry, everyone tried to help, but they helped my lies, I never told the truth. I can’t take this anymore, I’ve always lied to everyone because I can’t deal with the truth. I was the one who killed Mr. Francisconi. Everyone stayed inside  and I said I was going to the bathroom”- he crumpled up the paper and threw it near the trash as he cried with his grip tightening on his pistol. He knew what he wrote was a lie, but didn’t want to have anyone get in trouble after he was gone. He pressed the barrel back to his head, and thought about it for a few minutes. He stood up, and got the paper and pen, and continued writing on the paper.

“I went and rang the doorbell, and I heard a scream. I lied my way out of getting in any trouble, but I’m being haunted and I’m going insane. I see him wherever I go now. I can’t sleep, because whenever I do I just relive what happened to him, and wake up with an urge to tell someone the truth, but can’t actually do it. I could have prevented Chris from drinking too much, I saw how much he was having and could have stopped it, but I didn’t.” Tears were running down his face, onto the paper, as he continued to write:

“I understand how this will effect everyone, and some will say I’m being selfish. I am. I can’t face the consequences and can’t live with myself, so I’m putting myself at peace.” Then he signed it with his name. He folded the note and put it on the desk. He closed his eyes, with the barrel touching his chest, and his finger on the trigger.