Chapter 17

The next morning everyone woke up and went about their business. Jonah was up at five-thirty, Adam and Tyler seven-thirty, Twitch at nine, and Sophie and I at ten; the usual for every one. But nobody had seen Kenny. We all just figured he was in his room still pinning for Layla and about what he did to Sophie, so we paid no attention. Well at least at first…

“Have you guys seen Kenny at all today?” Adam asked after coming in out of the rain later in the afternoon.

“Haven’t seen him, but don’t really care,” Tyler said looking up at him from the table with a fake smile. Adam rolled his eyes and shook his head as he took off his jacket.

“Does anyone else know?” he asked.

“No, no one has seen him,” I said.

“Well somebody should go check on him,” Adam said sitting down at the table looking around the room to see if anyone would. Jonah rolled his eyes and unwillingly got up.

“I’ll do it,” he said in a slightly annoyed tone and went up stairs. He went down the hall to the fourth door on the left, the last bedroom on that side of the hall. He knocked on the door, not hard but loud enough for the average person to hear.

“Kenny,” he called but there was no answer. “Kenny!” he called again, louder this time. He reached down and began to turn the door knob, it was locked. “Figures,” he thought a loud. He fiddled with the door a bit more for a moment. Seeing that it wasn’t going anywhere he just kicked the door open. There was a loud crack and bang as the door it self split and hit the wall.

Kenny was hanging from the ceiling fan by a bed sheet, dead. Jonah sighed and shook his head. He walked into the room giving Kenny a brief looking over. He saw that there was cocaine sitting out on the dresser. Then he turned and came casually back down stairs.

“Where is he?” Adam asked the moment he saw Jonah.

“Adam and Tyler I need you to come up stairs with me,” Jonah said plainly and motioned for them to join him.

“What,” Tyler said as he stood up.

“Just come,” so they both followed Jonah up the stairs. They walked over to Kenny’s room.

“Hell,” Tyler said wide eyed and was the only thing that any of them could manage to get out for a moment.

“How, why…” Adam said thinking out loud.

“I bet he was high,” Jonah said pointing over at the dresser,” and thought it would be a good idea to hang himself from the ceiling fan,” he finished in his normal calm tone.

“Let’s get him down,” so the three of them got Kenny down from the fan and laid him on the bed.

“I’ll get every one else,” Jonah said and came down stairs to us.

“What’s wrong? Is he all right?” I asked as Twitch and Sophie stood up from the table.

“I need you guys to come up stairs with me, some thing has happened,” he said.

“What,” he ignored me and turned beginning his way back up stairs. I hurried after him now dying of curiosity. Twitch and Sophie followed.

When I reached the door and saw Kenny lying lifeless on the bed I stopped cold and suddenly felt sick to my stomach. Twitch and Sophie came up behind me, when Sophie saw him she turned her head away and toward Twitch. The both of them walked away.

“What, what happened,” I managed to ask.

“He hung himself from the fan with his bed sheet,” Jonah answered. Every one was speechless. We just stood there looking at Kenny for what seemed like forever before anyone spoke.

“What are we going to do?” Tyler began, “Barry him in the back yard and not tell any one about it? What would people say if they ever found him? They’d say that one of us had killed him…” he was interrupted.

“That’s really our only option,” Adam said, “I mean I can’t think of any thing else we can do because if we go and tell the police they’ll find out all about us any way. What do you think Jonah?” turning to see Jonah’s reaction to the whole thing.

“I agree with you Adam, we can’t tell anyone,” Jonah answered.

“All right then, let’s burry him,” Tyler said somewhat reluctantly as he stood up. Then they all left to find the best place to put him.

“I’m sure there are some things he would want to be buried with him,” I thought, so I began to go through some of his stuff. I found a lot of gross old junk in that room but one worthy thing, a picture of him and Layla. I shook my head. “If only he hadn’t been so stupid, if only she hadn’t left, this wouldn’t have happened,” I thought, “What if Jonah hadn’t come, what if I hadn’t come?” All of these cinereous went through my head. Really it wasn’t anybodies fault but Kenny’s

We found an old that was big enough and put him in it. I laid the picture on his chest before we closed it up. Then we buried in the basement. The boys made a little tomb stone with his name; the proper dates, birth and death, and that he had committed suicide.

We set out all the things he used to do it so if we ever needed evidence that one of the boys hadn’t done it themselves we would know where it was in his room. Then we locked the door.

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