"Well, what do you think?" Latisha and Dana stared at me like I was a lunatic. "Since when do you
wear dresses?" Dana laughed. " I don't know, but I like this one." I trailed off. Latisha
was just smiling at me. "It's for a boy isn't it?" I looked at her for a minute, then
blushed and turned away. "Oh my god it is. It has to be, this is the sixth time she's picked out
a dress to try on!" Dana laughed. I couldn't believe they were making fun of me. "What's
wrong with you two? You both have boyfriends don't you?" I asked. I was being as stubborn as a
rock. "Uh! no" they both laughed. "But hey, you asked us about the dress, I think it looks
great on you, then again, I honestly want to go home" Latisha laughed. That really pissed me off,
so I huffed, changed, got out of wet seal and started off to the exit. The girls were right behind
me. "You know Latisha, you don't have to be such a b." I mumbled under my breath. "Excuse
me?" She asked. "Nothing! Let's just get out of here" . To many hours at the Galleria was
starting to get to my head and I honestly didn't want to be crammed in between hundreds of people
any longer. We drove back to my house and started up the porch steps when we heard multiple gun
shots from inside the house. "What the hell was that?" Latisha said. We ran into the house when
I heard foot steps running out the back door. I ran towards the back door when I took a double take
and saw my foster sister, June, on the ground, in a pool of blood, and my best guy-friend, Eric,
with my dads gun, shaking in his hand. I froze completely. Time stopped, everything turned red, and
I felt as if I was going to scream, but no sound came out of my motionless mouth. Eric began to
raise the gun towards me, as if he was going to shoot me. I froze completely. My heart was beating so
fast it felt like it was about to burst, but he never fired. Instead, he dropped the gun and
collapsed to the floor. Latisha and Dana came running inside and stood by me. Dana gasped "Oh my
God." She turned around to keep herself from throwin' up. Latisha fell on her knees and began to
cry, that was the very first time I had ever seen her cry."What! What happened?" asked Dana.
I went to June and felt for a pulse, but got nothing. I slowly started toward Eric but as I got
closer to him, I could tell he was in pain, he was bleeding everywhere. "Eric say
something!" I whispered. He slowly raised his head, he was bruised all over his face, his lip
was cut open, his nose was bleeding, he had a black eye, his leg had been stabbed and he had looked
like he was being beaten to death. He tried saying something, but instead he fainted and his head
hit the floor. I started crying and ran to his side. "FOR GOD'S SAKE! CALL THE FLIPPING
POLICE!" I screamed. Dana grabbed her phone "Hello? Is anyone there?Yes this is an
emergency, what else could it be? I'm calling you aint I?No, sir. My friend is lying on my
couch half beaten to death and my friend's sister is lying on the floor dead!NO IM NOT BEING
SARCASTIC JUST GET A FLIPPING AMBULANCE OVER HERE NOW!" Latisha and I lifted Eric up on to the
couch, that's when I noticed his back was bleeding. I couldn't feel his warmth when we picked
him up, it was as if he was already dead. Nothing but cold skin. He was losing the color of his
soft skin tone. I put his head on my lap and wrapped my hands around his face. His body shivered
and he got goose bumps as I did this...and that left me hopeful for him. "Hold on Eric, we're
getting help, don't give up" Latisha brought bandages and wrapped Eric up the best she could.
"Wait, where's Sam?" I asked. Sam, my 5-year old sister, Eric was baby-sitting
her because they both didn't want to come shopping with us. I softly put Eric's head down and
went looking for her when I heard crying in the pantry. "Sam? Is that you, Hon?" I asked softly.
"Whit?" She asked. "Yeah, it's me, Sam" I sighed. Sam peeped open the pantry door,
then came running out of it, into my arms. "June had a knife! She pointed it at me! Eric saved me,
he got me away from her before she got to me! She hurt him in the back, Whit! She and all those
other girls!" I looked into the living room to see Eric's head in Latisha's lap and Latisha
rubbing his cheek softly. Dana was sitting by June's cold body, talking to herself in Spanish and
shaking her head. Then she screamed and shot up. "June?" I ran into the living room and saw Dana
backing away from June. Big eyed and in complete shock. That's when I saw June's head slowly
rotating to look at Dana. She was laughing. "He's nothing now, Pink, finish him off! You don't need me to do the job, now, you're the mas" she faded off
and died. Latisha looked at me, opened mouthed and teary eyed. Sirens were coming into the drive way
and Dana ran to the door. "THANK GOD! THE POLICE ARE HERE!" Sam dashed outside, meeting up with
our father, Officer James Michaels, he had been in the military for fifteen years before my mother
died, after that, he went ahead and joined the police department "DADDY!!" Sam yelled.
"Samantha, are you ok?" Dad asked. "Daddy, Eric is hurt!!" she cried. Dad looked at her with
this intense look, a look that scares me sometimes if the occasion is bad, he put her down and ran
into the back of the house and froze. I looked at his reaction, it was cold, hard, and filled with
hurt. He looked absolutely crushed. I couldn't bare looking at him any longer so I turned myself
back to June. Dad noticed his gun was on the floor and that Eric was on the couch, still alive. His
facial expression looked like he was about to kill someone. He started tearing up and squatted down
by June to feel for a plus. But just like me, he got nothing, he looked at the floor, to keep me
from looking at him when he started crying "Did he kill her?" He looked at me. His mind was
going crazy. I stood there, teary eyed and shocked that he was acting this scary towards me when he
completely lost it. He grabbed his gun out and shot a warning shot towards at the ceiling, after my
shutter of adreneline he was right in from of me yelling in my face. "WHITNEY, WHAT
HAPPENED?!!"I was about to answer him when Dana's dad, Officer Rodriguez, walked in. "Ok,
we've been outside for ten minutes and we still haven't done anything" He faded off. He
stood by Dad, big eyed and horrified. "Oh my God, What the hell happened?" "We don't know,
but Eric needs a doctor" I said. Officer Rodriguez just looked at me. "NOW! DAD! NOW!" Dana
screamed. Officer Rodriguez ran off and called for the paramedics to come inside to take Eric to the
hospital and to take June to the investigation lab. "INVESTIGATION LAB? FOR WHAT?" Latisha
yelled. "We have to see if she has any bruises, cuts, anything before she was shot, to make sure
that she wasn't the one being attacked" one doctor said. "We don't even know what
happened!" I yelled. Dad looked at me, his eyes were telling me to shut up and sit down, but I
didn't listen. I wanted to save my friend. Even though he killed my sister. Doctors started
rushing in "Can we at least go with Eric then? We're his friends." Dana asked one of the
doctors. "Any of you related to him?". I looked around cause I wasn't related to him, Dana
wasn't either but I didn't know about Latisha. "I'm related to him, sir, he's my first
cousin." Latisha said. I looked at her. I was shocked, I always thought she liked him or something
cause she was around him all the time. "Alright then, you kids can come." the doctor sighed.
After the long, depressing ride over to Meadow Creek Hospital, we sat by Eric, he was laying in his
bed, still knocked out from when he fainted. We stayed at the hospital even when our families left.
We didn't want to miss anything. It was going on our 4th day being there and none of us had talked
to each other. We had gotten the results back from HPD and they told us that the only wounds June
had was the guy shot and some bruises. So it was Eric who was obviously the victim before the gun
was fired. I finally fell asleep but woke up an hour later after having a nightmare. Dana was still
asleep when I woke up, but Latisha was awake. She had been awake, and she wasn't going back to
sleep till Eric was healthy again. I walked over to Latisha and sat by her. "I didn't know you
two were related." I whispered to her. She sighed softly. "Yeah, My mom met his uncle 25 years
ago over in D.C., they've been together ever since." she smiled. "Eric was the very first
cousin I met. We were two years old" "That boy was as crazy as penguin trying to fly!" She
laughed I looked at Latisha, she was crying again. "I can't believe anyone would hurt him,
he's so sweet, but the most deceiving thing is that it was June who did it..." she cried. "I
trusted her ever since you're dad took her in. I became friends with her because it was the right
thing to do and even though we went our separate ways last year, she was still my friendand now
she's dead" I couldn't believe it either, I couldn't believe she would even do this, her
and Eric had always been so close I always thought they liked each other. Only that made me a tad
jealous then happy for her." "AHHHHHH!!" Eric screamed and shot out of the bed. Dana's eyes
shot open to look at Eric. We all looked at him, big eyed and worried. He laughed at us. "What's
wrong guys?" He smiled his injured smile. " Eric, you have a hole in your leg." He looked
down, then wobbled to catch himself. "Oh, now I feel it." And he fell to the ground just like
that. We all gasped and went after him. He looked at us and gave us all a twisted look. "How long
have you guys been watching me? Y'all look like you've been awake for days. I've just been
layin' there and you guys have been here for" he started "Eighty-two hours" "The
doctors say your making a fast recovery though, so the sleep is good" Dana sighed. "For you at
least." Dana said. "Oh" Eric faded off. "Eric, What happened?" I asked him.