The Shot Heard ‘Round the…Neighborhood
...ket by colliding with our bat. I looked up and locked eyes with her and right then I knew we were not going to enjoy the results. Our mothers forced us to go to Ryan’s house to apologize. I was completely humiliated to have to apologize for what I did; I still felt he deserved it. Jason and I worked a lot the next year to pay for the damages, but we got it fixed. We would never see Ryan again. So we thought. I was having the party this time when my mom was out of town, about three years after the party at Jason’s house. Much smaller this time, there were a few of my choice friends, maybe 20 people. Jason showed up a little later than the rest of the crowd but it didn’t matter as we were still hanging out on the deck enjoying the evening. I got a phone call from a number I was not familiar with. Aaron was his name, he was an acquaintance of my sister and he wanted to come to my house and hang out. He was with Ryan and some other people who are all notorious for causing trouble. He argued with me on the phone for about five minutes because I did not want them to come over. Then he popped out from around the corner, still on the phone with me, and still being denied to come to my house. I was so mad and in a bad situation. I had calmed things down with Ryan because we went to the same school and neither of us really wanted trouble with the other but Jason never got that opportunity. Ryan hated Jason and he wanted nothing more than to walk over and can him in a pickle jar. I wasn’t going to let that happen so I demanded that Ryan, Aaron and his other friends leave. They gave me a hard time but finally left my house. Shortly after the antagonists left everyone else did, too. The next phone call was not the one that I wanted to receive. It was from a friend of mine who had just left telling me that Jason was getting jumped in the cul-de-sac. I ran down the street to see what was happening and there were three guys beating up my best friend. I could not believe this was happening. I immediately jumped in not worrying about my own well-being to get these guys off. The steroid munching, self-proclaimed “Hurricane McLean” hit me in the face a few times and I didn’t get a chance to react. I was very scared for my friend because I couldn’t do anything to make them stop. Then I had the not-so-brilliant idea to get my gun. I don’t know exactly what was running through my brain but I felt it was the only option I had. As I flew through the kitchen, I yelled for my girlfriend and her friend to call the cops. They were already on the phone. Nervous as I have ever been in my life, I grabbed my 30-30 rifle out of its hiding spot, barely managed to load five shells into it because my hands were sweating and shaking so badly, then I stormed outside faster than ever possible, fueled entirely by adrenaline. I remember thinking “There’s no way this is happening, there’s no way.” They saw me coming. There were five of them total and three ran into their blue minivan, parked but still running, waiting for a quick getaway. Aaron and Ryan stood their ground and were threatened by me to leave now. No movement. Jason got up and I said “Leave, just get out of here, I’ll take care of it!” “No way I’m not going anywhere” replied Jason. “Get in your truck and go home NOW” I was furious that he wasn’t leaving. Jason listened to me this time, I guess he saw that I had the situation under control. He got into his truck and locked the doors but Ryan was in front of it and Aaron was standing at his driver side door. I yelled again for these guys to get out of my sight but they still didn’t oblige. My gun, pointed into the air, started barking. One shot, one flame, one bullet traveling toward who knows where. I watched the flame shoot out of the barrel. At least 3 feet straight out was the brightest, almost white flame. I don’t know if it was the flame lighting up the night sky or the enormous thunder-crack that echoed through the neighborhood but the world seemed to pause right then and there. Nobody moved for what seemed like 20 minutes until I started screaming again. “There’s a million more where that came from!” I screamed at the top of my lungs which at this point were about as high as Mt. Everest. “Jeff don’t, they’re leaving” I heard from behind me, I did not turn but recognized it as my girlfriend voice, she had just gotten out of the house. “Get out of here now!” I must have repeated again and again. The gunshot, along with the hatred burning through me, caused Ryan and his friends to get in the car and put it into drive but they had no intention of leaving their friend behind. Aaron, still standing at Jason’s driver side window, began punching it. “Thump, Thump, Thump” his fist sounded as it bounced off ...