Impact by James Dekker

Author:James Dekker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV000000
ISBN: 9781554696437
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2009-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

“We worried about our younger son, Jordan,” my father reads. I wait, but he does not look at me the way he looked at my mother earlier. “We know what a terrible toll his brother’s death has taken on him.”

Michael Riordan was called as a witness. He said what Shannon had already described. He said that Tony Lofredo had come into the school library when he was working on a project with Shannon. Tony pulled him up out of his chair and punched him in the stomach and said that would teach him to fool around with Shannon. Michael said that Tony then punched him in the face, and he kept punching him. He said Tony got suspended, but even then he was afraid to go back to school because Tony used to hang around across the street. He said he transferred schools to get away from Tony. He said he made sure he didn’t transfer to the same school as Shannon because he didn’t want Tony to get the wrong idea.

Tony’s lawyer objected.

That afternoon, after court was recessed for the day and I was outside, waiting for my parents, who had stayed behind to talk to the prosecutor, Shannon came out onto the sidewalk. She was pretty when she was at my school, but that had been almost two years ago. She was even prettier now. I guess I was staring at her, because she smiled at me as she walked toward me.

“You’re Mark’s brother,” she said. “It’s Jason, right?”

I felt my cheeks burn the way they always did when I was embarrassed.

“Jordan,” I said.

“Right,” she said. She smiled at me the way you smile at some stranger your parents have just introduced you to. “Well,” she said. She paused, as if she wasn’t sure what to say next. A car horn tooted and she turned her head toward the sound. A look of relief flooded her face. “I have to go,” she said. “My boyfr—” Her cheeks turned red. “My ride is here.”

She ran to a car that had pulled up at the curb. She got inside. The driver leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. He looked a couple of years older than me. I watched his car pull away from the curb. I watched Shannon disappear.

Seeing Shannon made me realize how much had changed since Mark had died. It also took me back, way back—to school the way it used to be when I actually cared about it, to what it was like being the kid brother of one of the most popular guys in my school, to how things were always so easy for Mark when they were so hard for me. Back to when I used to wish I was more like Mark. I wanted to be as outgoing as he was, as confident, as comfortable around people. But I wasn’t.

The new girl at my school was a good example. I noticed her the very first day of school, which was just a couple of months before Mark died.

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