How to Save a Life ((Closed))

[Aaron Byers H4]

“Aaron Michael Byers, you better wake up, or you’re going to be late for your baseball practice!” Aaron groaned as he heard the familiar shrill of his mother’s voice calling from downstairs. He didn’t want to get up. His whole body was limb under the covers, unable to move. Picking the pillow up, he set it over his head falling right back to sleep. Why did Baseball practice have to be so early? Didn’t coaches know that kids want to sleep in during the summer? It was the only time he could ever get the chance to snooze in late after Hogwarts. “Aaron! Oh Aaron. What are we going to do with you?” someone sang happily as the door slowly squeaked open. Groaning, he pulled the pillow case more over his ears, trying to drown out the girly singing. “Aaron! Oh Aaron! Get up,” Lenora sang merrily yanking the pillow off of his head. He just laid there pretending as if he never heard her until feeling something fluffy hit his head. Aaron wrapped his arms around his head, not going to give in yet. Feeling more soft blows from the pillow, Aaron finally turned around and grabbed the pillow from his sister, smacking her gently on the head. “I’m up! Alright?” he said seeing Lenora’s happy smile as she nodded her head, her blonde hair shaking slightly. When she turned around to leave, Aaron threw the pillow at her back laughing as she didn’t do anything.

“Aaron, are you ready?” Brad Byers asked as he waited by his son’s door, fixing his tie. With one look of Aaron in his pajamas still, the older man shook his head. “When are you going to get your act together? You have ten minutes. If you’re not downstairs, dress, and ready by then, you’re not going to play baseball.” Aaron eyes grew wide at the comment. No baseball? What kind of life would that be? With a nod of his head to show his father that he understood, Aaron went straight toward the dirty laundry hamper for clothes. Brad only smiled closing the door as he headed down the stairs. Taking out a long sleeved white shirt with blue at the sleeves and top, Aaron also took out a pair of shorts throwing it onto of his un-made bed. Taking the bag out from his closet, he set it down on the bed as well, quickly pulling on the clothes. When Aaron really wanted to do something, he did it, and he was an extremely quick dresser. Tugging on a pair of sneakers from the side of the bed, he quickly grabbed the shoulder bag and headed down the stairs. He was half way down the stairs when hearing the radio blast loudly from his bedroom. That was the reason why he could never get up in the morning! The bloody alarm clock would never go off. Quickly heading back to his room, Aaron turned it off.

Aaron partially flew down the stairs as he made his way into the kitchen. Helen Byers was sitting at the table with a book opened in front of her. “Good morning sweetheart.” Smiling at his mother, Aaron took out a bottle of water, setting inside of his bag. His mom even got him little bags of chips he could eat for a snack. Set those inside as well, Aaron took a pop tart from the box along with a Gatorade. His father walked into the kitchen carrying a big black brief case. “Ready?” he asked grabbing his car keys from the hook by the window sill. Aaron nodded his head walking down the hallway toward the front door. The two headed down the driveway to the gray car where he sat in the passenger seat, buckling the seatbelt. The car started and was soon backing out of the driveway.

[Aaron Byers H4]

Aaron wiped off a bead of sweat that had gathered on his forehead when the coach blew his whistling signaling all the boys to take a break. “This honestly has to be one of the toughest practices today,” Jake said as Aaron unzipped his bag taking out a water bottle he had packed earlier. They were under the shade by the tree, everyone else scattered around the small park. Aaron nodded his head taking a large sip of his water enjoying the icy feeling it brought to his hot throat. “This is conditioning, so it’s supposed to be tough. Just be glad we haven’t done suicides yet.” He could hear Jake groan taking a large swig of his own water. “Were not soccer players, though sometimes I feel like we joined boot camp, not a baseball team?” Aaron laughed as he poured the water on his head sighing with content as the cold water washed the sweat away. Luckily this break was a twenty minute one. The coaches would give a long break in the middle of the day, and small ten seconds ones every different drill they did. Luckily Aaron was a pretty good at batting and was on second base. Baseball was a big part of his life. It was only one of the few things that made Aaron want to act older and be more serious. Well, he rather liked Defense against the Dark Arts, but school wasn’t fun.

Noticing that there were a couple good looking girls walking by, Aaron looked over toward Jake who noticed them as well. “Don’t you even dare think about it Aaron.” With a wink toward his friend, Aaron caught up the girl’s pretending to fall on the ground. He cried out in pain clutching his ankle. The girl’s turned around and quickly got on their knees to make sure the younger boy was alright. “Are you alright sweetie?” they asked trying to get a better look of his ankle. Aaron just clutched onto it tightly, his face winced up in pain. “I don’t know. I was trying to chase after my friend, but I tripped and fell.” The girl with brown hair tucked some strands behind her ear smiling sweetly at the younger boy. “Here let me see it…” she asked moving his hands away from his ankle. She took a quick view of it before smiling at him. “It’s probably only a tiny twist. I don’t see any swelling.” She looked back at her friend nodding her head as they both helped him up. One of them ruffled Aaron’s wet blonde hair while the other just smiled. “I’m Miranda and this is my friend Britney,” she said pointing to the other girl with blonde hair. Aaron just smiled, his right eye closing in a wink. “I’m Aaron.”

“Has anyone told you that you have the prettiest brown eyes? They sparkle in the sun and have little light brown specks in them.” Miranda just smiled at the compliment ruffling Aaron’s hair again. “You’re too sweet.” Aaron just grinned at her and was about to say something else when an older boy came up to the group. He looked around sixteen, just as old as the girls that he had been flirting with. “Why don’t you scram little boy? Their too out of your league.” Aaron shook his head smiling at the girls before turning around at the older boy. “Or maybe they just need someone to treat them right? I don’t see you making any compliments.” This boy didn’t seem to be a nice person, because his face scrunched up in slight annoyance. He put a hand on Aaron’s shoulder, shoving his aside, and before he could even wrap an arm around Miranda’s shoulder, Aaron pushed him back causing him to tumble slightly over. Aaron just wasn’t going to let this guy pick on him. Miranda had to put a hand on her boyfriend’s chest to stop him from doing anything, and without a word they left.

[Aaron Byers H4]

The follow weeks had been a nightmare for Aaron. Every morning he would go to practice, and that same boy would be there to pick on him. This guy honestly wasn’t the type that would just let things go. He even took Aaron’s baseball cap, and stomped on it until he wasn’t able to wear it anymore. Maybe Aaron shouldn’t have talked back, or even pushed the boy? No guy has ever reacted like this before with him. Luckily, Aaron was going to spend the day with Jake. There wasn’t any baseball practice on the weekends, and they weren’t even close to having any real games. What Aaron should be really doing, is his summer homework. He hadn’t even started it, but there were still two months left of summer. That was plenty of time to finish four assignments. Aaron was in his bedroom getting ready to meet up with Jake when Lenora stepped inside. Her hair was up in a messy bun and she looked like she was about to go out. She did theater drama over the summer, and had quite a lot of friends that stopped by. “Aaron you haven’t even started your summer homework yet?” she said with a shake of her head. Picking up an old baseball jersey, Aaron tugged it one, buttoning the front. “I still have two months to finish it.” Grabbing some changed from a jar on his bedside table, Aaron put the change into his pocket. “Just don’t leave it off to the last minute.” Rolling his eyes, Aaron followed his sister down the stairs where they both went in different directions.

Aaron threw the front door open seeing that Jake was already walking down the street to his house. They waved at each other and were walking side by side down the streets of London. His parents only allowed Aaron to walk with a friend, never by himself. They were afraid that something would happen to him, like be in the wrong place at the wrong time, or get kidnapped. Like that would ever happen. The two boys went into different stores, buying random things that they saved from their allowances. Aaron bought some new joke things that he thought Ingrid would like. Just as the girl appeared in his mind, Aaron wondered how she was doing. She had changed quite a lot over the years. More serious, and not the Ingy he meet going to Diagon Alley, where they dressed Shadow up as a human being and sing down the streets of the alley. Shaking his head to get rid of the memories, the two boys where walking down the street toward home when Aaron felt someone grabbed the back of his shirt, dragging him into a nearby dark alley.

There was a dumpster with writing on it next to Aaron as he saw at least four different guys surrounding him. “What do you want?” he asked, his voice shaking slightly, but that only brought a smile to the guys face. When Aaron got a closer look at them, he noticed it was the same guy from the park who had been picking on him for the past couple weeks. “I didn’t mean anything by trying to charm your girlfriend…” before he could even go on, one of the guys kicked him in the stomach hard. Bending over as he felt the pain rush through his body, they soon began to kick him again, this time in the ribs. “You have to know when it is right to stick up for yourself and when not too…it’s your fault….” Aaron jumped back feeling the force of his punch on his face. There was blood flowing down his nose, but his body was in too much pain to even whip it away. “What are you doing? Stop it!” Jake yelled as he headed down the alley toward them. Aaron found this as the opportunity to flee, and stood up quickly trying to make a run for it. Feeling his shirt being pulled again, Aaron gasped feeling something shark stab into his back. His eyes were still wide open as he slowly slumped down on his knees.

At first there was a feeling of pain, soon overtaken by numbness until finally everything went black. There was the sound of the knife hitting the stone gravel and the steps of the retreating boys. Slowly, Aaron fell to the ground falling unconscious. What had he gotten himself into?