Loosing a friend is hard. I would know. But I guess I should start at the beginning. I?m Lucy and I live in the cornfed state of Nebraska. I go to the University of Nebraska Lincoln and am majoring in English and Journalism. I have been dating a guy who is a few years older than I am and he is majoring in education. We have been dating for 3 years now and live together in an apartment off campus this year. I lived on campus last year and had a roommate named Sue. She and I were close and when I told her that Mark, my boyfriend, and I were moving in together she was devastated. She was a freshman and I a sophomore. I showed her the ropes and so she was nervous to be living with someone new. She was afraid that we would grow apart and that we wouldn?t talk anymore.

The week before school began, Mark and I moved into our cozy 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment. As we were settling in, we happened to run into Sue and her boyfriend, Ryan. They had happened to rent the apartment next door. With us knowing each other and now living next door, Mark and I decided that we would have a movie night and invite Sue and Ryan.

Getting ready for the movie night, Mark was hooking up the tv and DVD player and I was throwing together some snack foods, when I realized that we had forgot the main thing for that night, the movies. We both decided to take a break to go rent some movies. We were there and back in forty-five minutes and we finished the little odds and ends needed for that night.

7:30 rolls around and I hear a knock on the door. I answered it to find Ryan all by himself. He asked me, ?Have you seen Sue? She went out to the store but never returned.?

I answered, ?No she hasn?t been over here and I haven?t seen her since earlier when she was moving your things in.?

Ryan seemed pretty upset so I invited him in and explained what was going on to Mark. Mark and Ryan then decided that they would go out to look for Sue while I stayed here in case she returned. So while the boys were out searching, I began to unpack and put things away. Hours passed and still no word from the boys, so I decided to call Mark to see if they had come across anything. He answered on the third ring and responded with a frog in his throat. He was very quiet when he said, ?She?s dead.?

In that instant I wished I wasn?t alone. All I could see in the back of my mind was Ryan and that he wouldn?t be able to use the ring he had bought for Sue. I couldn?t imagine living without Mark so I told him to come home as soon as he was able to and that if need be Ryan could stay here tonight. An hour later Mark showed up and said, ?Ryan went to Sue?s parents for the night. He wants help tomorrow on moving their things to her parents.?

All I could do was cry. Sue was my best friend, and now she is no longer here and I didn?t know what to do without her. I then had a sudden thought come to mind so I responded to Mark, ?What happened to her then? How did this occur??

Mark, still being so quiet, answered me saying, ?She was kidnapped, raped and strangled. They said it was very brutal and that she never stood a chance.?

?Do they know who did this horrible thing to her?? I asked.

?Yes. It?s our landlord, Mr. Bigby. He was the one who did all those horrible things to her.?

?So what does that mean for us? I don?t want to move again but I don?t think I could live here knowing what happened to her.?

Mark didn?t respond. I didn?t know what to say or do because I knew that Mark was just as good of friends with Sue and Ryan as I was. We just sat there in the silence, in the dark and just sat there. We didn?t know what to do so we just sat there and waited for the next day to bring some happiness that probably wouldn?t come.

The next morning we awoke to the sound of banging on the door and found Ryan there bawling in relief. Just as we were coping with Sue?s death, we got the great news that Sue was alive and that they had identified the wrong girl. Sue was captured but she was the one who survived but was unidentifiable.

With all of this great news, I couldn?t say anything. I didn?t know how to respond and Mark thought that I was in shock. I just sat there and looked at them with a look of surprise as they hugged and planned to go to the hospital to see Sue.

Arriving at the hospital we found Sue up and around. She had improved so much that they were talking about letting her go home. She had had a face lift and plastic surgery and looked great for having been tortured.

We were so glad to have our friend back, so we threw a welcome home party at our new apartment building.