Brown Girl

Bridge Over Troubled Water.

"Ma'am, we have evacuated the building and cleared the area. The building is now ceased and backup is on its way. We even have got a team ready to go in if necessary." The chief of police, Blake Shelton, informed the principal.

"All that is fine, but what about my students who are stuck in there!?" Rimkus glared.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but we can't do anything about it until and unless we know which area of the building they're stuck in. I can't send my men in there blind." Blake explained as calmly as possible.

"You have to do something! What am I going to tell their parents!? They are just two teenagers, stuck with the scared boy who has a gun! You can't just wait out here doing nothing!" Rimkus screamed.

"Sir!" A sub-inspector came running, interrupting their conversation. "We have the file on Colin Hampshire."

"What does it say?" Blake inquired.

"Sir, he's seventeen; lives with his grandmother; parents are dead; sees the local therapist twice a week; suffers from a mental ailment." The inspector listed out.

"What mental ailment?" Blake's brain nerves started to rack.

"Bi-polar depression."

~

"There has to be something we can do to help them!" Joey growled in frustration as the four of them stood in midst of the chaos on the football field.

"Joey, they're not letting us get out of field, leave alone enter the f*****g building." Christina explained.

"There has to be a way to sneak in." Mira contributed.

"And you'll do what after going in? You don't know which room they're in, if they're together, if Colin is still in the mood to shoot the brains off someone, or even what's happening." Christina tried to smack some sense into them.

"Then we'll find out." Colt declared.

~

It had been more than two hours since they were stuck in the cafeteria. Alisha and Alex were sitting on one table and Colin was sitting on one, on the other side of the barrier.

"You shouldn't have done that to me." Colin whispered and Alisha realised he was talking to her.

"Done what?" She asked.

He sighed, looking at the floor, not being able to make eye-contact. "Break my heart."

Alisha inhaled slow and long. "I was trying to help you."

He chuckled humourlessly. "By breaking me even more than I already was? Why? Why couldn't you just love me back?"

"Colin..." Alisha trailed off. "Colin, I couldn't choose to love you. You don't control how you feel about someone. If I would say that I liked you back, it wouldn't be true and that would break you even more."

"So you chose him over me?" Colin spit out, tilting his head to Alex.

"Colin, it wasn't a choice between you both. I didn't look at you as more than a friend. You have to understand that." Alisha whispered.

Colin looked at her. "You've done some pretty bad things to me, Alisha. You should know that."

Anger boiled through her. "Like what? Like trying to be your friend? Like trying to stand up for you? Helping you? What, Colin, what? And what about the things you did to me? Should I forget all about them?"

"What did I do? All I ever did was be nice to you." He growled.

"What about lying to me? Telling me that your grandmother was in the hospital?" Alisha demanded.

Colin glared. "She was in the bloody hospital."

"No, Colin, she wasn't. I spoke to her. She says that she hasn't been to a hospital in eight years."

Colin seemed confused. "That's not possible. She was in the hospital and I know it! I was there every f*****g day while she just slept around like a hag!"

Alisha was taken aback. She thought long and hard to why Colin would think so. "Colin...you see a therapist twice a week, right?"

"Yeah, so? That means I'm crazy?" He bit out.

"No, no, it doesn't." She shook her head. She thought about the previous events that occurred with Colin and noticed the signs. His mood swings, temper, delusions, behaviour....

"Colin, do you take any kind of medication?" Alisha asked.

Colin ignored her.

That was all she needed.

Alisha slouched back in her chair with wide eyes. She knows all about his condition since she used to intern with an organisation that provided care and treatment to people with behavioural and mental disorders.

Concerned, Alex nudged her, asking what's wrong.

"He's suffering from bi-polar syndrome. And this is one of his depression caused episodes." Alisha said out loud.

~

"I have an idea!" Joey jumps.

Everyone looked at him expectedly.

"We can still see what's happening through the back! The cafeteria is visible through the back of the school and then we find a way to enter the cafeteria and that way, we won't go in blind." Joey explained.

"That's....not bad, actually." Colt shrugged.

"But how are we going to get to the back?" Christina asked.

"Chris, it's complete chaos all around. Who's to notice if four teenagers are missing?" Joey gave an evil twist of the mouth.

~

"Why did you stop taking your medication?" Alex whispered.

Colt sighed. "I just wanted to be normal. For once in my life, I wanted to be a normal person, a student, a friend...just exist."

"Look how well that worked out." Alex muttered to Alisha.

She leaned in towards him, glaring. "Do not mess with the guy who has a f*****g gun."

He nodded.

"Colin, you are normal. You aren't mad or crazy! You're a normal teenager with issues." Alisha tried explaining.

Colin snorted. "I am far away from normal, Alisha. I take pills to control my behaviour, I get ragged in school for being weak, I don't have friends, I don't remember what I say and when I say it and I have no f*****g one to care if I die."

"What about your grandmother!? Me!?" Alisha tried desperately.

He laughed. "Grandma? She's so aloof that she doesn't even know what day it is. Her body is so weak that it'll probably kill her before I kill myself. And you? What would you care? You're too busy with your group of friends, your love interest, your life to even give a rat's ass about me!"

Alisha broke. "You seriously think that low of me? I have been worrying my ass off, wondering where the f**k have you been for God knows how long! I have been to your house a countless times but you were never there! I checked every place that I thought you could be, I asked my other friends to find out something about you if they can and you think I don't give a rat's f*****g ass!?"

She took a deep breath to calm herself down, shaking as she took her seat back. "I always thought of you as my friend, Colin. I'm sorry that I never fell for you, I'm sorry that I couldn't understand you before, I'm sorry that I cared for you. I'm sorry for everything, Colin. Just, please, do anything you want to me. Don't punish Alex for my mistake. Let him go."

"I am not leaving you alone here!" Alex said harshly.

Colin was oblivious to Alex's protest. "You cared for me?"

Alisha sniffed. "Yes, yes, I did. But I guess I was wrong to do so because you were so blinded by the resentment that you had towards everyone that you couldn't see past it."

Tears were flowing from Colin's eyes as regret and shame covered each and every part of him.

"Why didn't you trust me, Colin?" Alisha tried stopping her tears as Alex put an arm around her shoulder.

Colin shook his head, not having the strength in him to answer her.

~

"Joey! What do you see!?" Colt whispered as Joey was on the tree branch, through which he got a wide range of view, trying to see through the cafeteria as the rest of them surrounded the tree, squinting up at him.

"I see..." Joey's eyes widened. "I see the three of them!"

"They're in the cafeteria?" Mira's eyes went huge.

"No, in space." Joey rolled his eyes. "I'm seeing the cafeteria that means that I see the three of them there only! It's obvious!"

"Okay, what are they doing?" Christina asked.

"Um..." Joey's eyes squinted. "Al and Alex's backs are to me but they're sitting on a table and there is a barrier between them and Colin. Colin still has the gun in his hand and his head is in his hands. They all look pretty shaken up."

"How can you say that Alisha and Alex are shaken up?" Christina rolled her eyes.

"Well, I can see that Al's shoulders are shaking and Alex has an arm around her and I'm guessing that they're not laughing. So...." He trailed of obviously.

Backfire, Christina thought.

~

"I wake up every morning wishing that I could go back to sleep again. But I can't even sleep for more than about a couple of hours, if you think about it. Every morning, I think it's just one day less that I have to come back to this hell-hole. One day less." Colin sighed, speaking after a long while.

"Every day I only pray for one thing. For these thoughts to stop haunting me, breaking me. Do you know how it is like to feel a part of you break everyday? How it is like to not have anyone to talk to? How it is to listen to the vile voices in your head that keep whispering in your ear every goddamn minute!? How it is like to make blood flow from your arms just to ease your gut-wrenching pain? How it is like to be depressed?"

No one spoke for a couple of heartbeats.

"I do." Alisha said. "I know how it feels like, Colin. How it feels like to just give up and run away from this life, from this torment that eats at you and ruins you. I know exactly how you feel, Colin, because I have faced it too."

This was news to Alex.

"But, Colin," she continued. "Life is not only about those dark days, about those moments that you wish you were dead. There are two sides to it, and you have to face both of them. Giving up mid-way is not an option. Someone told me once that, 'You can find a million reasons to die, but you need only one to stay alive.' Give yourself a chance and see what happens."

"It's too late." Colin whispered.

"It's never too late. You can still change what's happened. Just surrender to the police." Alisha whispered.

"No!" Colin screamed as he got up from his seat violently. "I am not surrendering! If I do, I'll go to prison! I'd rather not get out of one and land up in another."

"Colin," Alex tried. "You may not go to prison at all. You have a condition, and on grounds of that, the judge will probably sentence you to get treatment. And looking at your clean record, before this incident, they definitely will not sentence you to prison."

Colin narrowed his eyes.

"Yes, he's right, Colin. They will let you go on the basis of your condition. Just, please, there's still time, you can surrender and give yourself another chance." Alisha tried to get him to agree.

"You promise?" His eyes pleading as he looked at Alisha.

She nodded. "I promise."

~

"So, you're telling me that, you four, saw the shooter and the hostages in the cafeteria?" Blake asked as the four of them went and told the police as soon as they saw what was happening.

"First of all, they're not shooters or hostages, they're teenagers. And second, we all didn't see them. Only Joey did." Christina spoke.

"And Joey," Blake turned to him. "Are you absolutely sure it's them?"

"Unless there's another group of 'shooters and hostages' stuck inside that school, I'm sure." Joey rolled his eyes.

"Now are you going to do something!?" Rimkus screamed.

Blake nodded. "Positive. We'll give the shooter a chance to surrender and if he doesn't, we take him out."

"He's not a shooter! He's a boy. A misguided boy! And you have no right to 'take him out'. He is not a criminal." Mira screamed.

"You don't tell me how to do my job, girl." Blake glared.

"If you were doing it properly, she wouldn't have to." Rimkus said coldly.

"Now will you please hurry? Or should we only go in and get our friends out!?" Joey groaned.

~

"Colin Hampshire, this is the Ortown Police Chief, Blake Shelton speaking!" Blake screamed through the microphone. "We know that you are holding the hostages in the cafeteria and you have been surrounded by the police! I know, this all might seem really scary but we promise you that if you surrender and let the two hostages go, nothing will happen to you! I repeat. Nothing will happen to you!"

"You hear that?" Alex asked Colin. "Nothing's going to happen."

"They're lying!" Colin protested.

"Okay, Colin, listen to me. They're giving you a chance to surrender and if you take it, they will make sure that nothing happens to you. Alex and I will testify for you, if required. But take this chance, Colin. Because if you don't, they will probably come inside here and then they will be no deal from their side. No one will guarantee that nothing will happen to you." Alisha put forth the consequences.

They could hear Blake again. "We give you two minutes to surrender, Colin!"

Colin seemed to be in deep though and after a couple moments, he said. "Okay."

~

Colin first called Alisha across the barrier, pointing the gun at Alex so that he stays put.

"Don't do anything to her." Alex growled harshly.

"If you try to save her, I will shoot her." Colin threatened.

Alisha moved towards Colin, who took her by the neck and pointed the gun at her head. Alex rushed forward, but Colin shifted the aim to his head, making him stop mid-way.

"I go first, and you follow." Colin growled and moved towards the cafeteria door. He got rid of the rod and pushed the door open, using his back.

Alex followed them out in a rush, keeping his distance. Alisha's heartbeat was erratic. She was sure that Colin wouldn't hesitate to shoot her if he saw anyone as a threat. Yes, he loved her, but there is a fine line between love and hate and Colin's love had merged with the hate line.

Colin exited the building and the police pointed their guns at him.

"Freeze! Let go of the girl!" Blake ordered, pointing his gun at Colin.

"First you promise me that I won't go to jail and nothing will happen to me or my grandmother." He screamed fiercely.

"I promise." Blake nodded.

Colin pushed Alisha away harshly, who stumbled but was caught in time by Alex before she could fall.

Colin raised his hands in surrender.

"Drop the gun and put your hands behind your head!" Blake ordered. Colin did as he was told. The men put their guns away and two police men went towards Colin to handcuff him, dragging him to the car.

Alisha hugged Alex like her life depended on it. He hugged her back with equal force. Stroking her hair, he placed a kiss on the side of her head.

"We got through it. It's all okay now." He whispered.

"Thank you for sticking by me, Alex." She said, pulling back a bit.

"I will never leave you, Alisha. Ever." He promised, looking her in the eye.

"Ever? Really? That could be a problem, you know?" She raised a sheepish eyebrow making him smile.

He cupped her face with his hands. "You got us through today, Alisha. If not for you, Colin wouldn't have surrendered."

"That's true." Alisha sighed making him chuckle. "But I couldn't have done it without you."

He looked at her with warmth shining in his eyes. Before he could say anything more, everyone rushed towards them, gathering around them.

"Oh, god, you guys are okay!" Mira gasped, pulling Alisha away from Alex and crushing her.

"Yeah, Mira." Alisha chuckled, hugging her back.

Mira pulled away, sniffing. "I'm so sorry that I lost you in that chaos."

"Shut up! It's not your fault at all, okay?" Alisha tried to smile, making Mira nod her head.

"You made it out alive, bitch." Christina gave a genuine smile.

"Sucks for you." Alisha rolled her eyes.

"C'mere!" Christina chuckled, surprisingly, pulling Alisha into a hug.

"I'm so glad you got out alive, man!" Colt beamed at Alex and gave him a side hug/man-clap kind of thing.

Alex nodded. "Me too, man."

Joey dabbed at his eyes, trying doing the whole man-clap thing with Alex.

"To do hell with it!" He cried and just hugged the life out of Alex, making him stumble back a bit.

Chuckling, Alex patted his back. "I'm glad too, buddy."

"Glad you're alive, brown girl." Colt smiled and hugged Alisha.

"I think we all are." She rolled her eyes.

Joey pulled away from Alex and turned towards Alisha.

"Al!" He cried and crushed Alisha. She hugged him back, chuckling.

"Joe!" She smiled.

Mira and Christina went to do the whole 'I'm glad you're alive' thing to Alex.

"At least now, for our sake, ask her out, lover boy." Christina rolled her eyes after giving him a short hug.

He glared at her. "She can hear, you know?"

She snorted. "She already knows, you know?"

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