“The Court pleads Venessa Martin guilty of the murder of Ian Walker and sentences you to a jail sentence of 14 years.” 

I get up from the chair that allowed me a front view and look around at the mixed mood of sadness, joy, and anger.  I watch as Venessa fights from the cops trying to grab her and screams, “IT WASN’T ME! I DIDN’T KILL HIM. I DON’T EVEN KNOW HIM. PLEASE.” It’s such a sad sight. 

She turns to me and says, “Erica, you know me! Tell them. Tell them I didn’t kill him.” I move closer to her. When I’m close enough I slap her across the face.  I grab her by the shirt.

“We both know that’s not true now is it?” I whisper. She looks at me shocked with sadness. 

“You…” She says as the cops grab her and this time she doesn’t fight back. I smile and turn as I walk out of here leaving the place in flames. I hear someone say,”Erica you will pay for this.” But I think I must’ve just been hearing things. I go outside and decide to get a milkshake from the most popular dinner in our entire town—Walker’s. This place also happens to be the place that my dead best friend’s parents own. It’s busy, I hear whispers about how sad it is, how young he was, how could his own friend do thist to him. I order two milkshakes, one for myself and one for Ian. I sit down in the booth we always sat at—me, Ian and Venessa. I put a chocolate caramel milkshake across from me and put a chocolate milkshake infornt of myself. I finally let myself cry as I drink the milkshake. I pay leaving a tip as I exit the dinner. I get in my car and drive to the graveyard where Ian’s body lies. 

I exit my car with a plastic bag carrying goods for Ian and me. I walk towards his grave and make sure noone is around. I sit down infront of the grave and take out the black roses I bought. I put them buy his grave and started laughing so much that I start crying. 

“We won today Ian,”I say while facing his grave.

We won or should I say I won. We got her, everyone knows she killed you. It’s a shame that you had to die though. I really didn’t mean to kill you, but you got in the way. If you just stayed out of the way and let me kill Venessa then things coulld’ve been different. 

“It should’ve been her,” I say angrily. 

“It should’ve been her,” I say as tears pour down my face. I look up at his grave. But what’s done is done. Now I only have myself and I have to protect myself. I stand up brushing the dirt off myself. 

“Ian help me. I know you might be mad, but I can’t get caught. Venessa deserves to be in jail she killed you and mark my word. If she somehow worms her way out of there I’ll hunt her down and avenge your death.” I say as if I’m actually talking to him.

“I’m never going to see you again, goodbye Ian.” I say shedding the last tear I’ll ever shed for the love of my life. I get back in my car and with the night sky covering me let myself really cry to my hearts content.  Was I really the one to blame? It’s all Venessa’s fault. It’s all her fault. I close my eyes and a memory comes to mind.

It’as Ian he’s wearing the black hoddie he always wears and a pair of shorts because the sun isn’t being generous today. I see Venessa wearing a yellow flowing floral dress. Mine is the same except mine is red. We are all heading back home from the beach house we bought in LA. We all liked road trips because we all listen to the same music so we never fought over the music. We were best friends all three of us. Except I was in love with Ian and the only other person who knew about that was Venessa. She said she would help me tell him since I was super nervous. We were having fun in the car as we drove back home to Keathville a very tiny town in Southern Washington. After many hours of driving and some breaks in between we finally made it home. The plan was to crash at my place and then they would head back home to their houses with their parents. I had none so my place was our hangout space. I mean we were all 18 so we would be ok. Losing to a game of rock paper scissors shoot I went out to go get food from The Walker’s. As I am walking up the steps to my small one story house I hear yelling. Which is shocking since we never fight, it’s rare but still. As I get closer to the door I hear Ian yell,”You can’t do this to Erica. She has to know. You know if you tell her she’ll listen to you.”

“No she won’t. Look, she’s in love with you. She won’t listen to me.”

“I know she is and you already knew that I love you. So why did you tell her you’d help her?

“It’s because I love you, if we tell her she’ll hate us and as for the money. I’m going to take it all. She deserves to pay me back for the years she spent at my house. She keeps saying she’ll pay it back but she won’t.” I shiver as I hear her say that. Venessa has never once told me she hated me despite how many times I asked if I was a burden to her. I’m frozen, so all I can do is listen.

“Venessa, you’re not making any sense. Stop this madness,” Ian begs.

“STOP IAN. Do you even love me? Hurry up and pack the money before she comes. We have to leave before she gets here or she’ll cause a scene.” I have to cover my mouth from crying. I never knew Venessa hated me this much. I didn’t notice the door was open a little so I look through and see Venessa taking all the money I saved up and putting it in her bag. 

“Ian, go outside and wait for me as I get everything ready. If she comes yell for me. Finally this Erica chapter will be over.” Ian starts heading to the door I run down faster than I every did in my life. I can’t believe this is happening to me. I decide that if they want to be happy without me I should’nt get in there way. It’s the least I could do for them, then maybe one day Venessa will hate me less. I decide that I atleast want to say goodbye to Ian one last time.  I walk to him slowly and he turns around. Before he can say anything I cover his mouth and close my eyes letting a tear drop. 

“I Know Ian. I know. It’s ok. I’m not mad at you. I don’t hate you. Be happy.” I smile at him and take my hand off his mouth. He lets a tear drop and looks at me.

“I’m sorry Erica. I really am, but we love each other. I promise you’ll never see us again.”At this  his voice cracks and he looks down. I do the only thing I can and hug him. We stay there as the silent tears fall. We here a gun shot and seperate seeing Venessa standing infront of my door with two bags in her hand. 

“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING? I love him, He’s mine. Erica please. Let him be the one person I can have. Please.” I’m scared. I don’t know what to do, but for some reason I start to get annoyed. 

“Venessa, he loves you. Just stop this already and leave before I stop you. I don’t get why you hate me. What did I do so wrong?

“Oh we both know that’s not true now is it?” She comes down the stairs and as she grabs for Ian she makes the mistake of dropping the gun. She must not have realized as she only focuses on Ian. I pick it up as anger fills my every bone. I didn’t do anything to her except be nice and kind to her. Who is she to hate me? As they turn to go I point it at her, and Ian sees me and before I can stop it. Bang.

I wake up. The sunlight is beaming down on me.  That’s when I realize waking from my dream that Venessa deserves what she got. Now she’s all alone and so am I. I look to the passenger seat and see Ian sitting there looking at me. 

“Erica, I know you didn’t kill me, but Venessa didn’t either. If you ever loved me then you’d do what’s right.”

“I can’t. I can’t turn myself in. Not for her, she’s the reason you died. She’s the reason I killed you,” I sob. 

“Please Ian don’t do this to me or I might actually do this to myself.” I look over at him and he just smiles. He thinks I’m good and he’s wrong. I close my eyes and blink twice. He’s gone. I try not to think about what he said, but it’s hard not to. 

A few hours later I’m find myself infront of the police station.  I heard that lying and turning someone else into the victim has bigger sentence then just jail. I get out of the car and stand there. I feel someone standing next to me and notice, Ian is back.  I look at him and smile. He holds my hand and doesn’t let go until I reach my final moment.