Human Nature

Sumner Davis was not the boy that everyone thought he was. He wasn’t anywhere close.

At first glance, strangers on the street immediately judged him. In their own minds, Sumner’s dark dreadlocks and various tattoos labelled him as a hooligan, always up to no good. These people were quick to write him off as lazy and lacking ambition.

The kids at our high school, however, knew Sumner Davis as ‘the boy who was everywhere’ - valedictorian of his graduating class, co-president of the student council and an advocate for music education. He had near perfect grades, he was skilled with a guitar and had a beautiful singing voice. In actuality, Sumner was the ideal man - tall, dark and, of course, handsome - and every girl that spent any amount of time in his presence wanted Sumner Davis. Everyone thought they knew exactly who Sumner Davis was.

But, of course, they didn’t really.

They didn’t know that when Sumner Davis was nine years old, he cried for three days straight after his goldfish died. They didn’t know that Sumner Davis - who name simply exuded confidence - was too afraid to ask out Annaliese Baker in the tenth grade. They didn’t know that Sumner thought he’d developed an addiction to tattoos, a fact he shared after his fifth.

They sure as hell didn’t know that Sumner was terrified of spiders, or that he hated being alone on the nights he fought with his father. They didn’t know that Sumner also knew how to play the violin and had been trying to teach himself piano.

They didn’t know that his skin was near flawless, except for the lightest dusting of freckles over his shoulders. They didn’t know that his left eye was the slightest bit lazy. They didn’t know that his middle tooth on the bottom was crooked.

They didn’t know that regardless of how much they fought with each other, all Sumner Davis wanted to do was make his father proud of him. They didn’t know that Sumner Davis watched his mother die when he was fourteen years old. They didn’t know that his little brother, Thomas, idolized him. They didn’t know that Sumner was allergic to dogs, but planned to adopt a cat once he settled into his life at college.

They thought that they knew Sumner Davis. But they didn’t.

They didn’t know him at all.