Last Breath | Teen Ink

Last Breath

September 13, 2022
By Anonymous

“SOMEONE GET HELP!” screamed Samantha, as she watched the boy bleed out from his chest. “Oh god,” she cried.

 2 hours earlier.

Both characters, Samantha who is the main protagonist and Nathan her best friend, decided to go to a homecoming after party in the streets of West Adams, Los Angeles. Samantha or Sammy if you’re her friend, is a gifted 17-year-old mixed girl with beautiful dark brown curly hair, light brown eyes and a pretty smile, who self identifies herself as a bisexual; she unfortunately lives in the projects of LA along with her best friend Nathan. Nathan is also 17 years of age and a tall bright African American boy, not to mention, he is the star quarterback of West Adams Highschool that has a bright future ahead of himself. Both kids were never the party type, but this was going to be their last year experiencing a homecoming after party together because they were soon going to be graduates. Now that you know about our protagonists lets continue the story.

“Sammy!” Nathan shouted over the loud music, “Sammy! Sammy!” he kept on repeating until he could get a response from Sammy who was obviously flirting with a girl from school on the living room couch of the owner’s house. Nathan saw the girl give Samantha pills but didn’t think much of it.

“Yeah, my bad I cannot hear you over this enormously loud music and this cute girl that I’m having a convo with, what do you need?” she questioned.

Nathan chuckled, “Do you know where the restroom is at?” he asked.

“Yeah, just down that hall and the first door to the right I think” she stated, while pointing to the hall she was talking about.

“Thank you, and good luck with your little friend or whatever!” Nathan shouted as he walks through the huge crowd of highschoolers while holding the back of his jeans expressing his need of urgency to use the restroom. Samantha laughs and continues to talk to the same girl, Rachelle, for 15 minutes before she was interrupted again by a high school dropout, Richard Banks who just got out of probation for grand theft auto.

“So, what are ya’ll two beauties up too?” he asked Samantha and Rachelle, they both gave him an awkward look and continued their conversation. “Hello? I’m talking to ya’ll,” he said eagerly waiting for a response back. “What so ya’ll want to ignore me? Aye girl you’re telling me you can resist this? C’mon now.” He exclaimed egotistically, speaking directly to Rachelle.

“Yes, I can resist that, as a matter of fact I’m one hundred percent sure everyone here can” She laughed, leaving Richard humiliated. Out of anger he slapped her across the face, Rachelle’s nose started to bleed that instant.

“ WHAT YOU SAY TO ME YOU MOTHER F-” before Richard could finish speaking Samantha punches him directly at his face, making him stumble just a bit. His eyes were filled with rage, his hands formed fists as he pounced at Samantha. Before she could react, Richard tackles her to the ground in front of everyone at that party, but no one stopped him, instead they all watched. Richard punched Samantha several times before some one lifted Richard off her and threw him on the ground; it was Nathan who stopped Richard from beating up Samantha even more. Nathan, who is bigger and stronger, stared down Richard on the floor, just waiting for him to lay a finger on him. However, Richard got up and escorted himself out the building he knew he wasn’t going to win a fist fight against Nathan.

Nathan picked up Samantha off the floor and asked her if she was okay, she nodded her head yes. “I Can’t be saving you all the time now, you know that,” he rambled humorously handing her a cold bottle of Coca Cola for her head to numb the pain. “It’s getting late you ready to go home?” he asked her.

“Yeah this party is lame anyways,” Samantha agreed. As they walk outside, Samantha gives her farewells to Rachelle before she leaves and make sure that she’s okay. Rachelle didn’t pay no mind to the slap Richard had hit her with she was mostly worried about Samantha. Samantha didn’t want her to worry too much and said she’ll be okay will see her on Monday at school; they both took a 12 second hug then they went their separate ways. Nathan and Samantha walked down the street talking about the conflict that had just happened earlier.

As Nathan guides Samantha back to her apartment, a shining all red Camaro speeds into the parking lot with a voice screaming “Ya’ll messed with the wrong person!” The boy shouted. Pointing a gun out from his window

“It’s Richard,” Samantha exclaimed, she noticed quickly from his voice. Three loud shots were then fired, “POW! POW! POW!” As Richard drives off, Nathans body dropped to the floor.

“Sammy am I bleeding?” he says softly, as blood starts to leak from his floral button up shirt down to the concrete pavement “I can’t breathe Sammy” he grabs her hand. Sammy opened her mouth, but she could barely speak, choking on her own words.

“Yo- you’re go- going t- t- to be alright Nathan, just don’t close your eyes please. Don’t close your eyes,” She stuttered. “SOMEONE GET HELP!” screamed Samantha, as she watched the boy bleed out from his chest. “Oh god,” she cried. She starts to press against his chest to stop the consistent bleeding coming through the bullet hole. Unfortunately, she was too late, he was gone. It was his last breath. Samantha laid there for the rest of the night waiting for the ambulance and police to arrive, but she soon blacked out mysteriously, waking up to police sirens.

“Put your hands in the air!” The officer ordered, pointing a gun at Samantha. She was confused, she knows she didn’t do anything; she swears she didn’t.

“Officer I’m innocent, just get my friend to a hospital please!” She insisted. Samantha raises her hands obeying the officers order and to her surprise there was a knife covered in dried blood in her hands, she turned around to look at Nathans dead body and instead of bullet holes it was stab wounds that she started to see. They were even visible to the blind eye. “Oh no, what have I done?” she whispered to herself silently.

            As she starts to question what truly happened last night, she gets a sudden vision in her head, and it all started with the pills Rachelle had given her at the party. Samantha started to realize she was never truly conscious that night. Nathan even knew it and tried to take her back home to calm her down and to keep her from making a fool of herself; they had gotten into an argument during their walk back. The pill she had took made her aggressive, unstable, and hallucinate. that’s when she stabbed Nathan three times in the chest.

Sadly, both lives were lost that day, figuratively and literally. Nathan was tragically killed by his best friend and Samantha was soon going to prison for a crime she mistakenly committed that would haunt her for the rest of her life.


The author's comments:

This piece was inspired by the effect of drugs have on people and not just that but how easy a life can be taken away by someone.


Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 0 comments.