• It happened at the dead of night on the summer of 1999. School had been let out just 7 hours before. Students were at home relaxing, making plans for the rest of the summer, visiting family, and thinking about the next year ahead of them.
    Eight of my friends including myself from Cal-state Fullerton University were at the beach just hanging out over a bonfire like they had done every year since junior high, enjoying their free time for the next 2 months. Ralph, Luis, Nancy, Eric, Jenny and I were talking about what they were going to do for summer vacation and sharing jokes. Monica and Andy were too busy making out to hear anything that the others where saying, absorbed in their own world. Everyone was pretty happy, except one.
    “ . . . when she opened the door, he jumped out, and she started screaming her head off.”
    The laughter that came from the group was deafening, because Luis, the group clown, had just told a hilarious story. I smiled a little bit, before letting it slip away.
    “You should have seen her face,” Luis said excitedly, and then imitated the expression, which had them all laughing again. “Oh! I’ve got a joke that I heard today, want to hear it?”
    “Yeah sure,” Eric said with a smile.
    “Okay. What do you call a smart blonde?” Luis said with a smirk.
    “What?” Jenny asked.
    “A Golden Retriever!” Luis replied and started cracking up, as did the others.
    “That’s not funny,” Nancy said, who was a natural blonde, but she started laughing anyways.
    “I’m going to the bathroom. I’ll be back in a bit,” I said, as I got up and started walking down the road toward the bathrooms.
    xxx


    Why did this have to happen to me, I thought as I stepped into the stall, everything was going fine. At least I thought it was. I came out after I was done and washed my hands. Then looked up into the cracked, dirty and lip-sticked smeared mirror; what I saw was not myself, but it was.
    “God, I look horrible,” I whispered to myself. My eyes were red and there were wet streaks down my cheeks from all the crying I had done.
    Josh and I had been together for 6 years. But, I hadn’t known that Josh was cheating on me the whole time with some girl that has been around the whole school. Why did he do this to me, I thought and more tears slid down my face. I felt so lonely. I walked out of the bathroom and started down the sidewalk.
    “But I’m not alone. I have my friends and I shouldn’t be sad because school’s out and it’s summer.” I wiped my tears away and looked at her watch. It was 3:00 a.m. they should be heading home soon.
    Suddenly someone grabbed me from behind and clamped a hand over my mouth. Then I heard a familiar voice behind me close to my ear.
    “Don’t scream,” he said. I nodded and he let me go. I turned around quickly.
    “Josh? You scared the s**t out of me. What are you doing here?” I said angrily.
    “To see you,” Josh answered.
    “No! I don’t ever want to speak to you again. Not after what you did to me,” I said, about to cry.
    “Just let me explain,” he said urgently, a desperate almost mad gleam in his green eyes.
    “I said no,” I said firmly, turning around and starting to walk away. I needed to get out of here or I was going to break down. So I quickened my pace, but he grabbed my arm and turned me around.
    “Let… me… go,” I demanded, tugging to get loose, but he only held on tighter.
    “No. You’re not going anywhere, not until I’ve said what I have to say,” he said taking a deep breath, “I had always given you what you wanted, gave you all the love I could give you and how do you repay me? You dump me, without letting me explain.”
    “You cheated on me,” I said, “With that slut. Now let me go, your hurting me.”
    “No, I didn’t, I love you.” Josh said painfully, but loosened his grip.
    “No you don’t. Now let me go,” I replied.
    “I wasn’t going to do this, especially after what happened, but it’s the only way you’ll listen to me,” he said.
    “No. I don’t want to listen to you, I don’t want anything to do with you, now go away,” I shouted at him, while I twisted and pulled trying to get free.
    “It’s the only way.”
    “What’s the only way?” I demanded. But he wasn’t paying attention to me. He seemed to be trying to convince himself of something.
    “Yes. It’s the only way,” he said again and let me go.
    I was starting to get scared and wanted to run, but I was paralyzed with fear. Then Josh took a few steps toward me, while pulling something from his pocket. And I gasped.
    xxx


    Back at the campfire Ralph, Luis, Nancy, Eric, and Jenny were still laughing after Stephanie left and were just starting to calm down. The last chuckles floating in the cold wind. All that was heard was the sounds of crashing waves on the shore. Ralph turned and looked at the spot were Stephanie had disappeared.
    “God. She’s really upset,” Nancy said.
    “Yeah, because she had to dump Josh,” Eric replied, “I thought he loved her.”
    “I still can’t believe it,” Jenny said angrily, “He’s been cheating on Stephanie since day one.”
    “I know! That jerk! Stephanie is one of our close friends and I can’t stand her being so unhappy,” said Nancy.
    “But Josh seemed pretty upset with himself, angry even,” Luis pointed out, “It was actually scary.”
    “Yeah. Did you see his face?” Eric asked.
    “Yeah. We should keep an eye on Stephanie. I don’t trust him,” Jenny said.
    “Me neither,” Monica said sitting down next to Nancy. Monica and Andy had just joined in to the conversation.
    “Speaking of Stephanie, where is she?” Andy asked.
    “She went to the bathroom,” Nancy answered.
    “Well, she’s been gone for a long time,” Jenny stated.
    Ralph sighed, “She’s probably crying her heart out again.”
    They all fell silent and stared at the orange and red crackling fire. All of us had been best friends since kindergarten. Even as we grew up, they remained close. Going to the same elementary, middle, and high school. And we all even got accepted into the same college. If one person in their group was sad, we all were.
    Just then a loud noise was heard in the distance.
    “What was that?” Monica asked startled.
    “I don’t know, maybe it was a car back-firing,” Luis suggested.
    “Who would be driving their car at this time of night?” Ralph asked, looking toward the spot where they had heard it.
    “I wish it was a car, but that sounded like a gun shot,” Andy said. “I’ve been out with my dad to a shooting range before, I know what it sounds like.” They all looked at each other fearfully.
    “Oh, my God!” Jenny said in a panicky voice, “It came from the direction of the bathroom.” They all looked at each other confused. Then their eyes widened one by one with realization.
    “Stephanie!” they all shouted together. They jumped up and started to run toward the bathroom.
    xxx


    “Oh my God!” Josh said, as he looked down at himself. He was covered in blood, Stephanie’s blood, and she was dead. He gently put me down on the floor and watched her blood form little rivers running down the sidewalk, steadily getting wider. A filling of guilt and grief settled over him. He looked up when he heard voices coming from the path.
    “Stephanie!”
    “Stephanie, where are you?!”
    He panicked. My friends were looking for me. So he did what the only sensible thing to do at the time. He ran.
    xxx


    Ralph led the group up the sidewalk calling Stephanie’s name. Then the bathroom came into sight and Monica let out a blood-curling scream and stopped in her tracks. Everyone looked over on the ground and followed the rivers of blood with their eyes.
    “Oh my God!” Nancy cried out, covering her mouth with her hand.
    “Someone call the cops,” Luis whispered. And Ralph went off to call the police.
    I was on the ground, lying on my back with a look of surprise on my face, covered and surrounded in a pool of blood. Monica turned around unable to look and walked into Andy’s arms and started crying. Eric stared in shock at my dead bloody body. Three minutes more like hours of silence before anyone said anything.
    “Who would do such a thing?” Eric asked.
    “Isn’t it obvious,” Jenny said with tears running down her cheeks, “Josh did it.”
    “Yeah, but even though Josh was upset, you don’t think he would actually go the length of killing her,” Nancy asked through her sobs.
    Luis looked back behind them all and saw Eric standing a little away from them, hanging his head and holding his hair like he was about to pull it out. Eric was probably taking it the hardest because he had been secretly in love with Stephanie. But it wasn’t much of a secret because they all knew him like the back of their hands. They walked over to him and Luis put a hand on his shoulder.
    “Are you alright, dude?” he asked.
    “I’m going to kill that b*****d,” Eric said, balling his hands into fists.
    “No. Don’t say that,” said Nancy, “You’ll be arrested.”
    Monica, who had been my first friend when we went to kindergarten, was still crying pretty hard. But she finally got a hold of herself and looked up from over Andy’s arm.
    “Do you guys t-think that maybe she wasn’t m-murdered, and that s-she . . .” Monica swallowed and blinked back tears, “that she committed suicide?”
    “No.” Eric said firmly, “she wouldn’t do that, besides if she did there would be a gun beside her and there’s not.”
    Monica nodded and buried her face back into Andy’s chest.
    Just then Ralph came back from calling the police on his cell phone, “The police are on their way.”
    They couldn’t do anything; all they could do was wait.
    xxx


    “At about 3:00 we heard the gun shot . . .”
    Eric was recounting his day with a cop, as was everyone else. It was about 12:00 in the afternoon. There were cops milling around, making notes, taking pictures, looking for evidence, and whatever else cops do when having to solve a crime. Stephanie’s body was still lying on the ground, but there was a white sheet covering her and blood was soaking through. The section of the beach was blocked off by yellow CAUTION tape that fluttered in the wind. And people were standing behind the tape, wondering what had happened.
    The cop that had been talking to him finished and walked off. He stood there staring out into space, mulling over the events that had happened in the past 4 hours. “They are probably going take Stephanie’s body away to a lab and cut her open”, Eric said to himself shuddering at the image that was in his head and rubbed his eyes.
    He had found love at the age of 22, still in college, his life barely taking off. Now she was gone, he could never tell Stephanie how he felt. He had a chance, plenty of them throughout school, but he had been to chicken to say anything. He knew that his friends had figured it out by now. Especially Luis, they had been friends before the rest of them had met, it was hard to keep anything from him. Everyone else too, they weren’t stupid. But Stephanie had been too busy with Josh to notice anything as simple as a change of affection coming from one of her friends. But now she knew, and wondered how she could have missed it.
    He looked out to the water, turned light blue by the sun. His eyes scanning the vast beach of milling people enjoying their summer, not a care in the world. His friends were coming over now finished up with their questions, along with the sheriff.
    “You kids should go home and get some rest, it’s been a long night,” said the sheriff, “we’ll keep you updated on what we find about your friend.”
    They agreed, so they turned away and went home. Eight friends had come to have fun, seven left to mourn the loss of their friend.
    xxx


    The next day they all met up and went back to the beach. The section still blocked off, but that didn’t stop them. Nothing had changed very much from the day before except my body had been taken away for an examination. There were a few police officers roaming around taking notes and pictures. Trying to see if they had overlooked something.
    The sheriff came over and asked them how they slept. Not one of them had slept very well; they never would again without seeing the image of a body covered in blood.
    The sheriff told them that they had found a piece of clothe in the bushes a few feet away from where my body had been found, it was female. So it was possible that someone else was involved or it had been left behind from some other time.
    Then they had to leave so they wouldn’t get in the way of the police’s work. So they thanked the sheriff and left the beach.
    xxx


    Later on in the day at about 1:00 PM they were walking down a street, when they spotted Josh. He was sitting outside of the local In-N-Out, he had is face in his hands. Eric saw him first and charged straight at him.
    “I’m going to kill you,” he said, grabbing his jacket and shaking him.
    Josh just looked shocked and looked at Eric with a blank look. He looked horrible. ,His eyes were all red, like he had been crying. Not at all like his usual self. Josh was one of those popular guys at school, he was on the football team, he was attractive and all the girls liked him. But he had had his eyes on Stephanie since high school. Then he had finally gotten the courage to ask her out and they had been together ever since. And now she was dead.
    Ralph and Andy both grabbed Eric by his shirt and pulled him back.
    “Chill dude,” Ralph said.
    “Yeah, relax,” Andy said.
    “He killed Stephanie,” Eric snarled.
    “No. I didn’t,” Josh said soberly, “I loved her.”
    “You’re a liar,” Eric said trying to break loose from Ralph and Andy’s grip.
    “How can you say that after you cheated on her,” Jenny said angrily.
    “I didn’t cheat on her. It’s all Megan’s fault. She’s been after me since before I even got with Stephanie,” Josh said defensively.
    Megan had also gone to high school with them. She was one of those big-chested, air headed blondes that couldn’t think for her self. God only knows how she managed to get into college. She always got her way, flaunting herself everywhere she went, making guys drool all over her. But not everyone fell for it, and that made her mad. Josh was one of them, and she had been trying; yet failing to catch his attention for years.
    “What do you mean, she’s been after you?” Monica asked.
    “She’s obsessed with me,” Josh exclaimed, “She told me all the time even after I got with Stephanie. And on the last day of school she was bugging me, saying that she hoped that she had me for a class next year and all that stuff.”
    “But we caught you guys kissing,” Nancy said stubbornly, refusing to believe him.
    “Yeah. But she pulled me into it, literally,” Josh said flatly.
    “What do you mean?” asked Andy.
    “I mean, I saw you guys coming down the hall and so did she. I was about to call you guys over, when she grabbed me and started kissing me,” Josh answered.
    “That’s when we saw you,” Monica said sitting down in the seat next to Josh.
    Josh nodded, “Stephanie came over and started yelling at me. She wouldn’t even let me talk, then she took off.”
    “Yeah. She was pretty upset,” Eric said.
    “I know and I felt really bad,” Josh said with a deep sigh, “and I wanted to go find her, but Megan wouldn’t let me.”
    They all fell silent thinking of Stephanie and the last day of school. Now they could remember briefly seeing Megan jerking Josh to her. They had all been really mad at Josh that they had overlooked it. A light breeze, warm and comforting passed by them reminding them briefly of Stephanie.
    “Last night I went to the beach looking for Stephanie because she wasn’t at her house, and I remembered that she was going out with you guys. I tried to talk to her but she wouldn’t listen,” Josh said.
    He stared out into the busy street. They followed his gaze out to the mother’s pulling their children by the hand down the sidewalk. Josh sniffed and laughed a little “It seems like she’s still here, even though she’s not” he fell silent and took a deep breath.
    “I had the whole day planned out for us, but it went completely wrong, all because of Megan,” Josh said quietly.
    “What were you planning?” Luis asked sharply.
    Josh hesitated and looked around at all the faces around the table, then looked down at the cracks on the table. “I was going to ask her to marry me.”
    They all gasped. “You were,” Nancy asked lowering her hands from her mouth.
    Josh nodded, “I went to the beach, I was going to tell her how I felt and how she was mistaken, thinking that I cheated on her. B-but when I was about to propose, there was a gun shot and Stephanie fell and I caught her,” Josh brushed away his tears, “She was dead before I caught her. The bullet went straight into her heart.”
    “Why did you run if you didn’t kill her?” Jenny asked.
    “I guess I got scared and I was already upset and I really didn’t know what to do, so I ran,” Josh answered.
    “Well if you didn’t do it than who did?” Andy asked.
    “I don’t know . . . but who ever did is very handy with a gun,” Ralph said.
    “I can’t shoot worth s**t, but I swear who ever did it is going to pay,” Josh said determinedly, and they all agreed.
    “I think I have an idea just who might have done it,” Luis said.
    xxx


    After a full day of searching, they find out where Megan lived, they finally found it. Along the way they debriefed Josh on what the police had found.
    “So Megan could have did it,” Josh said quietly, trying hard to stay strong.
    “Yes. But we need evidence,” Luis said, “Here it is.”
    Ralph pulled his truck up the driveway and they all got out. After a few knocks at the door, it was apparent that no one was home.
    “Damn, she’s not here,” Andy said angrily.
    “Or she took off,” Eric replied.
    “No. She’s still here, but is obviously planning on leaving. There’s a suitcase out on the bed, filled with clothes,” Ralph said, coming back from around the house.
    “Well, we’ll just have to find her before she really takes off,” Nancy said.
    “Yeah. But how are we going to do that,” Monica asked soberly.
    “I don’t know. We’ll figure it out,” Andy said reassuringly, wrapping his arms around Monica.
    “Maybe we can find Megan’s friends and relatives and see if they know where she is,” Monica suggested.
    “That’s a start, then we can go from there,” Jenny replied.
    They all agreed and pilled into the car and drove to Luis’ house.
    “I think I know where her parents live,” Luis said thoughtfully after a while.
    “Good. We’ll go there first,” Eric said.
    “How did she even get her hands on a gun anyways?” Monica asked, her curiosity kicking in.
    Josh turned his head away from the green blurs that were the trees out the window, “Her dad is a police officer.”
    “How do you know?” Nancy asked.
    “She always bragged about it,” Josh answered, “ ‘My dad’s a cop, he takes down bad guys,’ ‘he’s even taught me how to use a gun,’” Josh stopped his ramblings immediately, shocked by what had come out of his mouth.
    “Well, we know how she got the gun and she knows how to use it properly,” Andy said from the back seat.
    “She stole it from her father and killed Stephanie with it,” Jenny answered flatly.
    “Yeah. But we still need to find her,” Luis pointed out.
    Josh nodded, “It’s weird, I’m usually trying to avoid her, now I’m trying to find her.”
    After a moment of silence Ralph spoke up, “You know, maybe we can use Josh as bait to make her come out.”
    “What do you mean by bait?” Josh asked with a look of unease on his face.
    “I mean we can leave a letter or something by Josh saying that Stephanie’s dead and he needs her,” Ralph answered, pulling up onto Luis’ driveway and shutting off the car.
    “And that the cops are after him because they think he did it,” Eric said catching on.
    “Exactly. She’s bound to come out and help him,” Ralph said, putting his fist into his hand.
    “It could work,” Josh said nervously.
    “Okay. Then lets hurry up and write that note,” Monica said.
    So they went inside and set to work.
    xxx


    “Okay. The note is done,” Josh said picking it up and flicking it about to get the other’s attention, “Look desperate enough.”
    Monica picked up the messy but finished note that Josh had written and read it:
    Megan,
    I need you. I don’t know what to do. Stephanie’s
    dead, and I feel so lost. And it doesn’t help that the cops
    are after me. Stephanie’s friends are on me like dogs.
    They think I did it, Megan. I didn’t do it, I swear. You
    believe me, don’t you? You’re the only one that can help
    me; the only one that believes in me. Meet me on
    Wednesday night at the park if you can make it .I need you.
    I don’t know what to do. Help me please.
    - Josh


    After reading it she passed it on. After a moment of silence when everyone had read the note, Jenny spoke up, “What if Megan didn’t shoot Stephanie?”
    “Well, who else could it be,” Luis asked.
    “I don’t know, someone we don’t know,” Jenny said with a shrug. When no one said anything she said quietly, “Just a thought.”
    It remained silent for a few moments that they could hear the rustling of the leaves on the tree outside. Then Monica voiced everyone’s concern, “I hope this works.”
    “It’s got to,” Luis said with tears in his eyes, turning away from a group picture of all of them at the beach last year. Stephanie was in the front, smiling.
    “Okay, now that the note is done we have to send it to her,” Ralph said.
    “I’ll go right now,” Josh said getting up to leave, “I’ll be back.” So he left.
    They all remained silent and waited for Josh to come back, only the ticking of the clock on the wall was audible in the gloomy silence. Half an hour later Eric’s cell phone went off and he went to the kitchen to answer it.
    “Where’s Eric?” Josh asked, coming back inside from delivering the note.
    “Phone call. Was she home?” Andy asked.
    Josh shook his head, “No.”
    “Hopefully she gets the note,” Nancy said.
    “They got the results back on the piece of cloth that was found in the bushes,” Eric said coming out of the kitchen quickly, barely containing his excitement.
    “And?” Monica asked impatiently.
    “And it matches the DNA of Megan,” Eric finished.
    They all breathed a sigh of relief: they were right.
    “We have our evidence,” Jenny said, “Now we have to find her.”
    “Are the police looking for her?” Andy asked squeezing Monica’s hand confidently.
    Eric nodded.
    “So we are just helping the police now,” Ralph stated.
    “Yeah. And I told them what we are up to and they said it was a good idea, but to just be careful,” Eric said.
    “Are they going to be there?” Nancy asked.
    “Yeah. They’ll have the place surrounded so she won’t get away,” Eric said, and then turned to Josh, “All you have to do is have her confess to you that she killed Stephanie.”
    “Okay. I guess that won’t be that hard,” Josh said softly.
    “We’ll be near by with a tape recorder to catch her confession,” Andy said.
    “You just have to look like you haven’t really slept, going crazy with grief and say that you are just going to turn yourself in,” Jenny said simply.
    “Okay,” Josh said.
    “Megan is going to get what she deserves,” Luis said.
    xxx


    Everyone was at Josh’s house the next day, waiting by the phone for news on Megan. They were all on edge about the next day, Wednesday, when everything was going to go down. They just hoped it worked. Luis was pacing the floor behind the couch. Monica, Andy, and Jenny were trying to watch TV, but were occasionally glancing at the clock over the doorway to the kitchen. The others were just sitting around the living room . . . waiting.
    Eric stood up suddenly, “This is taking forever,” he cried.
    “I know,” Nancy said softly.
    Andy nodded glancing at the clock, but seeing Luis at the corner of his eye, “Luis! Will you sit down you’re driving me crazy,” he snapped.
    Luis stopped and looked at Andy’s weary face, then looked down at the floor, “Sorry,” he murmured, “I can’t sit still. I hate waiting.”
    Just then a car door slammed shut outside in the driveway. Josh ran over to the window and looked out. “It’s Megan,” Josh said frantically.
    “She’s not supposed to be here,” Andy said, looking for somewhere to hide.
    “Okay. Um . . . mess up your hair Josh. L-like we planned,” Monica said quickly.
    “Okay,” he said, running his fingers energetically through his short brown hair, “You guys can . . .can hide in the bedroom and call the police.” They nodded and hurried into the bedroom.
    The doorbell rang and Josh hurried to the door. He ran his fingers through his hair for good measure. And put on the craziest look he could muster, it was almost comical.
    “Megan!” he cried helplessly, and threw himself at her, clinging desperately. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t . . . I don’t . . .” he said hiccupping.
    “It’s okay,” she said softly, smoothing his hair back and walking him back through the door. “I have a perfect plan.”
    “What?” he asked, following her.
    “We’ll run away. Pack up and leave,” Megan said turning around and clasping his hands in hers, “Then we’ll finally be together, like we should be,” she said with a glazed look in her eyes.
    “B-but they’ll catch us a-and put us in jail and . . .” Josh said, frantically.
    “Shh!” Megan said, pulling Josh into her arms and kissed the side of his head, stroking his hair lovingly, then pulled away, “I’ve got it all planned out, they’ll never find us,” she said smiling, looking out the window.

    Meanwhile in the bedroom, everyone was watching Josh and Megan in the living room.
    “God, she’s planning to run away,” Jenny asked disgusted, holding the tape recorder.
    “She’s early. We were going to meet her in the park tomorrow, remember?” Monica said softly.
    “Yeah, but there’s nothing we can do,” Luis replied.
    They continued to watch. Megan had pulled Josh into a deep kiss, which he unwillingly participated in, “Don’t you worry,” Megan whispered as the lights flickered angrily but she ignored them, then let him go.
    Josh turned around and looked toward the bedroom, giving them a look that clearly said ‘get me out of here.’ They understood and Ralph took out his cell phone and called the police.
    xxx


    Megan turned away from the window, “We have to hurry and get you packed, we don’t want the police to follow us,” she said walking toward the bedroom.
    Josh panicked, not wanting to reveal their plan. “But . . . what about you?” he asked.
    Megan turned around and smiled, “I’m already packed,” and continued on her way to the bedroom.
    Josh immediately grabbed her and pulled her into his arms, “I’m scared,” he said, pleading for the cops to come quickly.
    “I know,” she said wrapping her arms around him.
    Josh pulled away, wringing his hands, “I don’t even know what happened. I didn’t even kill her,” he said.
    Megan giggled. “Of course you didn’t silly. I did,” she said coming up behind him.
    “You?” he asked acting surprised, suppressing his anger. She beamed up at him and nodded. “Why?” he asked.
    “For us,” she answered simply, “So we can be together. She was in the way,” she shrugged trailing her hand against the back of the couch lovingly and turned around, “I’ll do anything for you Josh. I love you. Very much,” she cocked her head to the side, “And in time you’ll love me just as much as I love you.”
    Josh’s ears picked up a distant wail from behind him, his queue to quit playing actor.
    “I don’t think so, not in this life time,” he growled through clenched teeth giving her a glare.
    She turned around quickly toward the sound of sirens, “Oh no!” she whispered, not hearing his reply, “We have to get out of here,” she said grabbing Josh’s arm, but he yanked it out of her grasp.
    “You make me sick Megan,” Josh said angrily.
    “What?” she asked dumbfounded at what she was hearing.
    “You heard me. Sick! You killed Stephanie for your own selfish needs. And you expect me to love you!” he snapped, shaking his head in disgust and turning away.
    “But Josh—“ she started, then turned around at the sound of the bedroom door opening and everyone spilled out, Jenny holding the tape recorder triumphantly. Megan’s eyes widened in realization, “You . . . you played me,” she gasped at Josh furious, “All this time. You made up that letter, about how you needed me.”
    Josh nodded smugly, “I could never love a slut like you.”
    “You b*****d,” Megan screamed.
    She spun around as the police kicked the door open. They grabbed her and read her rights, “Megan Ruiz, you are under arrest for the murder of Stephanie Torres. You have the right to remain silent . . .”
    “You can’t do this to me. Let me go,” she snapped at the police, then cried out to Josh, “I love you. I did this for us.”
    Josh turned away as Megan was dragged out of his house, then followed out the door with Andy, Monica, Luis, Nancy, Eric, Ralph, and Jenny behind him.
    Megan looked wildly around, looking for a way out. “Daddy, Daddy. You won’t let them do this! You won’t let them take me to jail!” she shouted at her father, who was standing next to a squad car holding open the door, but only looked away ashamed that his own flesh and blood could do such a thing.
    With her father turning away she had no way to get out. The look of rage on Megan’s face was enough to scare anyone. So finally Megan was hauled away, kicking and screaming, into the police car and taken away.
    Neighbors, who had come out of their houses in bathrobes, went back inside now that the excitement was over. Some muttering about careless kids and all the racquet they make, others just sad that nothing truly exhilarating happened like a shooting or something, but at least they had something to talk about over tomorrows breakfast.
    The groups of friends stood around the driveway watching the squad car take Megan away. The lights of other police cars illuminating their faces. “Now Stephanie can rest in peace,” Nancy said.
    “Yeah. Megan won’t be let out for the rest of her miserable life,” Luis said.
    Eric turned to Josh sheepishly, running his fingers through his hair, “Sorry about accusing you the other day.” Everyone nodded in agreement.
    “Don’t worry about it. I probably would have done the same,” Josh replied.
    “Hey Josh, if your cooking career doesn’t work out you can always consider acting,” Ralph said with a smile.
    Josh laughed, “Maybe.”
    “ ‘I don’t know what to do’” Luis cried, mimicking Josh’s act with Megan.
    Everyone laughed for a minute, and then fell silent knowing that someone was missing. Stephanie was never going to laugh with them again. But they breathed a sigh of relief knowing that Stephanie’s killer had been caught and they can move on.
    “Are we going to come back next year,” Jenny asked.
    “Yes,” Eric said firmly, “For Stephanie.” They all agreed and watched as the squad cars disappeared into the sunset, while a soft familiar breeze caressed their faces. I’m free.