Smiling Faces

A group of men who grew up together in elementary school were a tight knit group. Their friendship grew stronger as they attended high school and were on the same football team.

They have always been together through everything and were best friends. They were never apart at any parties or events, and glued to each other’s hip.

But one night during a bonfire during their senior year they all were involved in something terrible. This hidden truth has kept them together, but tore them apart.

For some of the guys, particularly one it ate at his heart. While others wiped their memory clean as if nothing never happened.

Dean slams the front door open at James’s house and walks into the room, tripping over the rug and stumbling over the threshold with the 35 year reunion flyer in his hand and throws it on the ground.

Compared to his friends, he is the shortest at about 5’9” and slim. People have always seen Dean as the weaker and more emotional one in the group.

He has dirty blonde feathered hair with icy blue eyes, and is wearing a black leather jacket with blue jeans.

“I’m not doing this! We can’t keep going on like this and act like nothing happened. What we did to h…” Rocky covers his mouth to stop him from talking, but Dean continues to yell frantically.

Rocky is brown skinned, with wavy dark brown hair and deep brown eyes. He is 5’11” and medium build.

James responds, “Man, you gotta calm down.” And places both his palms on Dean’s shoulders. He rips them off him,

“No, god dammit! No! What we did 35 years ago… not even the devil himself could do such a thing. You assholes!”

James is light skin with long light brown wavy hair, stands around 6 feet tall. He is also of medium build.

Bo gets angry, and walks over and grips Dean up by the neck and pushes him against the wall and some of the pictures in frames come tumbling down, “Listen to me you son of a bitch! You better keep your mouth shut! Or I will kill you! You hear me! We were just kids, that night just got out of control and we weren’t thinking, we were kids.”

Bo is the biggest of all the guys. He stands a little over 6 feet and is muscular, on the stocky side. His hair is pitch black, with brown eyes.

Dean pushes Bo off him, “That is no damn excuse!”

Rocky intervenes and says, “Dean… you act like you weren’t a part of it. You joined in too, right along with us. I didn’t see you stopping yourself and questioning back then if it was wrong.”

Dean screams at the top of his lungs, “And that is wrong!!!!!! The worst thing to do to a person who we are supposed to care about, our friend, smiling in everyone’s faces every year at these reunions.

How can we do this? We are monsters!” His hands cover his face as he is crying immensely. He knows the men are staring at him now; his jaw tightens and he is trembling.

Tears spill over his face, and he wipes them away, takes one long, hard look at his friends and then storms out the room.

All the guys glance at each other, then Bo asks, “You don’t think he’s gonna say anything to anyone, do you?”

Rocky replies, “I don’t know. Each year he gets worse. This year, especially.”

“This happened years ago, and most of us do not remember all the details. We have moved on with our lives. Dean will mess everything up if he opens his mouth.” Bo yelps.

“He is right, though. We did a terrible thing years ago; there are moments my dreams make me pay for it and eat me alive,” James explains as he shakes his head.

“I have a wife and kids. I can’t let this get out. We were all drunk out of our minds and on other s**t. Our minds weren’t clear.” Bo shrieks out.

“But damn, Bo! Like Dean said, does that make it right what we did? And to whom it was is even worse.” James snaps back.

Rocky places his hand on James shoulder, “Come on man, don’t get worked up. Bo is right, we need to stay calm. This will blow over. Dean does this every year, and then he says nothing. Just let him be, he always works out his demons at the end of the day.”

Bo looks over at James, “These years go by and now after all this time you are worried. Things were going well; it’s Dean that is bringing all this up and getting into our heads. We need to remain cool; this will blow over like it has all these years.” Bo responds, wiping his forehead because he’s sweating so hard.

“This won’t blow over man, this will only catch up to us,” James said as he takes a deep breath and a sudden gulp, pulling his sleeves up.

They all stood there in silence, measuring each other’s faces, knowing they were hiding a dark secret, because now they knew Dean could cause them a world of trouble.

Every year they worry if Dean will be the one to open his mouth. He allows it to dig at his soul, and he is on the verge of snapping. The guys know if he did, then there is no turning back, and no way to make amends for it.

This secret is so serious it could cause widespread devastation. The thing that Dean said is accurate; it’s the fact that they smile in people’s faces after all these years gone by that is the worst thing of it all.

That worries the men the most.

If this ever gets out, it is about how everyone will know who they really are and what they did.