• Eric leaned back in his chair and growled.

    “Why can’t I think of anything?” He started yanking out his hair in frustration. “Why did I agree to write that story in the first place?” He heard four knocks at his door. “Who is it?” he asked morbidly. It was his parents, his parents always knocked four times. His mother was wearing a crisp navy blue blazer with a matching skirt while his father was wearing a dirty white muscle shirt.

    “Hi Honey, how’s the story going?” his mother asked with a cheerful grin. She stood straight a skill she learned from her job as a real estate agent.

    “Could be better, I’ve got writer’s block.” Eric said glumly. He looked up to see his mother coming to comfort him. His dad grunted and left. He, no doubt going to start inhaling chips in the basement.

    “Don’t worry Sweetie, you know that they say. All it takes to cure some writer’s block is just a change of environment.” she said beaming. “I’m sure you’ll pick it up tomorrow.” His mother was wrong. He didn’t pick it up the next day.

    In fact, Eric continued to have writer’s block until three days before it was due. That day happened Julie Carson’s birthday, she was in Eric’s opinion the cutest girl in school. She had light auburn hair and her bangs sometimes got in the way of her deep sparkling blue eyes. Most guys would only pay attention to her looks and not think of her as a person. She was good looking; she was tall, fit and very smart.

    Eric would stand by his locker awestruck by her beauty until the bell rang, shattering his fantasies of taking her out on a date. He lived five minutes away from his school. When he got there he saw her walking down the hall and remembered it was her birthday. Every time he thought about asking her out, his mind would come up with thousands of worst case scenarios. What if she laughs and says “No way would I go out with you” or what if she just walks away? Despite all those uncertainties, Eric marched up to Julie and greeted her.

    “Hey Julie.” She turned to him.

    “Hi Eric, How’s that story for English class going?”

    “Oh it’s going great.” He lied “So I…” he hesitated “I heard it was you birthday today so I thought I’d give you this.” Eric took out a small wrapped box and handed it to Julie. She tore off the paper and opened the gift, inside was a small silver bracelet that read on tiny engraved letters “Julie Carson”.

    “I love it!” She slipped it on her wrist. “How does it look?”
    Eric replied

    “It looks awesome on you. And another thing … uh”. He stumbled over his words.

    “Wait, I have to ask you something.” Julie had a shy look. “Would you like to go,” She was playing with her fingers. “to a movie on Sunday?” Eric’s heart skipped a beat! His mind repeated “That can’t be. That can’t be.” But the rest of his body was shouting yes, yes!

    “Well …?” she asked, her eyes sparkling.

    “Yes!” he blurted out. “Yes, I would like to go to a movie with you on Sunday” He beamed. “What movie should we see?” Julie smiled and said.

    “I’m sure you’ll think of something.”

    “Oh, ok then.” He had no idea what movie’s she liked.

    “Alright then, meet you at the bus station on Terry Fox Avenue” She said… “and by the way, choose a chick flick”. Eric nodded furiously.

    “Right! Bus station, Sunday, Terry Fox, chick flick got it” When the bell rang Eric bade Julie farewell and zipped on to his geography class. For three days Eric was walking on air. He wrote 20 pages for his story, though he was only supposed to write 6! When he gave his English teacher, Mrs. Hughes the stack of paper, she looked astonished.

    “Eric! I am impressed. Your story is three times as long as I told you to make it. I’m looking forward to reading it.”

    On the day of his date, Eric took $60 to pay for everything, admission, popcorn, candies, everything. He walked to Terry Fox and stood at the bus station watching cars drive by. Eric was there for half an hour waiting until Julie appeared across the road.

    “Hi Eric. Ready for our date?” she called to him.

    “Yup” he replied. She started skipping across the road. Eric gazed into Julie’s eyes. She was the most beautiful person on the planet when she was happy. Eric was so felt so incredibly ecstatic for the next few moments when their eyes met. A honking car shattered their fantasy. Eric glanced to his left. To his horror, he gazed at an orange Chevrolet as it streaked past him and slammed into Julie.

    “No! Julie!” She flipped over the car her legs arcing above her. She landed on the pavement with a thud. Eric leapt into the street, swore and knelt beside her. She was unconscious. The driver of the car jumped out and started yelling at Eric.

    “Stupid kids! Didn’t your parents tell you to look both ways?” The man looked weary, probably from working all day.

    “Call 911.” Eric told the man.

    “Why don’t you?” Eric was so angry with the man

    “Call an ambulance!” The man with a look of complete hatred flipped out his phone and dialled the number and minutes later an ambulance came and took Julie to the hospital.

    For the next few days, Eric’s routine was simply wake up, go to school and then go to bed. He was far too worried about Julie to eat anything. Then on Wednesday, Eric was hunched over a book in the cafeteria still in a slump when a voice crackled over the PA.

    “Three days ago, young Julie Carson stepped out into Terry Fox Avenue and was struck by a passing car. Until now, she has been in the ER under intensive medical attention.” The tubular voice sounded grim. “We have only just received word that Julie has, in fact, passed away.”

    After that, the entire café fell silent, staring at Eric and awaiting his reaction. He fought back tears, then, it occurred to him, he didn’t care. He let out a long desperate sob. Then placed his head onto the table and bawled his eyes out. He was completely disconnected.

    He tossed his lunch in the trash and stood up as if in a dream. He then glided to his locker; he slid the dial to 64, 51 and 31. The Dudley lock clicked open and his locker door swung out at him. Whack! The door had left a rectangular bruise on his forehead. His hands trembled, not from the pain of the bruise on his head, but the fact that he was reaching for a knife. He always kept a knife tucked away in his locker for “just in case” scenarios. He grabbed at the knife, hands shaking. He brought it to his wrist.

    He stood there for a moment; time itself had stopped, waiting for whatever Eric was going to do. He gulped and began to press the knife down on his arm. Right then his best friend rounded the corner just in time to see a knife pressed on Eric’s arm. His nickname was Hickey because he always had a hickey on his neck. Eric was often jealous of him; Hickey always seemed to get what he wanted. Hickey shouted and ran over to Eric, grabbed the knife and threw it across the hall. It slid to a halt in front of Mrs. Hughes’ room. Hickey sat Eric down and simply stayed there with him. They sat there for what seemed to be an eternity. Eric’s hands shook uncontrollably.

    Mrs. Hughes opened her door to see the two boys sitting on the floor one shivering like it was fifty below. She stepped forward to find a knife lying in front of her. Mrs. Hughes was a smart person and she also heard the announcement over the PA earlier. So she knew about Eric’s problem. She put the puzzle pieces together, picked up the knife and tossed it in the trash; she walked over to Eric and Hickey. She planted her butt beside Eric and patted his back. They continued to sit there for hours. Time and time again more kids sat around Eric; his hands still trembling. By the end of the day more than five hundred kids had been sitting around Eric. More and more coming, students texted and phoned their friends telling them to come and comfort Eric.

    The army sat there all night, and refused to leave until Eric did. Sooner or later the local news had been aroused and they leapt at the chance to cover this story. Throughout all this Eric still sat there shivering. After a day some kids started to get hungry so they sent friends to get food and water. After three days of this Eric stood up, he scanned the crowd. Over a thousand eyes and ears staining to see or hear what they could. He managed a smile, and whispered. “Thank you all”

    His words moved like a tidal wave, every kid repeating it to the one beside him or her. Eric started walking away; kids started plastering themselves to walls to give him room to move. Hickey and Mrs. Hughes stood up too. They closed up Eric’s locker and followed him. One by one, kids started to leave until the school was completely empty.

    Once Eric got home he continued up to his room. Eric’s parents never watched TV so they had no idea where their son had been for the past three days. Hickey and Mrs. Hughes explained to Eric’s parents what had happened. For another three days he only lay in bed and ate whatever his parents put in front of him. He almost ate his IPod.

    He went back to school to collect his homework several days later and walked to his locker. He clicked open the lock and swung open the door. A little metal thing dropped out. He bent over and picked it up. It was the bracelet he gave to Julie but it was different. As if it had an aura around it, it looked different too; it now had a mellow reddish tint to it. He clutched the bracelet and ran to the local hospital it was only on the other side of the freeway. Out of breath he approached the front desk, and argued with the secretary for a while until a doctor came out and told her that Eric was allowed inside.

    “Can I see all of Julie’s belongings here?” Eric asked. The doctor was a tall man with white hair, and a somewhat smooth face.

    “Sure you can. Come with me.” He brought Eric to a room where there were lots of drawers to small for bodies. The doctor gestured to one of the drawers, Eric opened it. Julie’s Student ID and some pocket change lay in the box.

    “Was there a bracelet that had her name on it?” He asked.

    “Now that you mention it there was, but obviously it isn’t here.” He stroked his chin “Now that’s strange.” he whispered under his breath.

    “Am I the first to see her belongings?” Eric asked.

    “Yes and no one could have broken into here. There’s 24 hour security.” He looked very puzzled “that is very strange” his hand lifted form his chin and he looked over at Eric “If that’s all I think you should go now.”

    “Alright thank you doctor.” Eric said as he left. He walked home examining the bracelet closely. As he stared at the bracelet he thought the red tint could be rust. So he dipped it in CLR. He got nothing, the red was still there. He was truly puzzled. Then he noticed the slight sent of iron. The bracelet was made of silver which didn’t make any sense. He held the silver bracelet up to his nose. There was a definite smell off iron.

    “The bracelet is made of silver that means that the scent of iron can only be…” That’s when he realized that the red tint was blood not rust. Blood... Julie’s blood, as Eric looked over the bracelet he felt a roughness on the back of the nameplate. He turned over the plate and read the tiny words on the back. The cuts and scratches were rough and obviously done by amateur hands. The letters formed the words “loves you.” Eric slipped on the bracelet.

    At that moment Eric vowed never to love again.