Not So Innocent

Part 16

"Emily," A soft voice says, knocking at my door. My eyes floated up to see Echo, tear streaks staining her face.

"Hi," I replied, motioning for Echo to come in. Echo closes the door with a soft click and comes to sit on my bed. She sits crossed-legged and begins to chew on her cuticles, which was always her nervous habit. "Is everything okay, Ec?"

"I..." Echo trailed off, pushing her messy brown hair out of her face. "Emily, I have to tell you something."

My eyebrows raised. "What is it?" I asked, leaning back on my bed's headboard and giving Echo my undivided attention.

"I—I haven't been honest with you," Echo said slowly, and again, my eyebrows raised.

Echo has been my best friend for about two years now. We tell each other everything—which sounds like a middle school girl thing to say, but it was true. My thoughts swirled. Most people think it would be something horrible, judging by her reaction, but Echo makes a big deal out of little things all the time, so my worry became small pretty quickly. "Oh?" I said.

"I haven't been honest with anyone. I've been lying..." Echo said softly, and she finally looked me in the eyes, and I'm startled. Her small, innocent expression that she always wore gracefully disappeared and she looked cold and broken. It scared me to see her so different.

At this point, even I couldn't stop my voice from wavering a bit, "W-what do you mean?"

"I—I guess I should start with my childhood, shouldn't I?" Echo said after a moment, and she sighed, blowing her cheeks out. "As you know... my parents passed at a young age." I nodded. "W–when I found them... dead, I had no idea what to do. I—" Echo's voice broke, "I was scared. Really, really scared."

"I ran away. I don't think I had a destination in mind, I just... I had to leave there," Echo said quietly, and I nodded again. Echo, though an honest person, rarely ever talked about her childhood. "And... At some point, I found this building. I was cold and hungry and just wanted to go home, but I knew I didn't have a home at this point, so I went into this building." Echo began crying again, but this time, she was silent as the tears escaped from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks.

"So I went inside... and there was this group. The oldest guy in the group was about... I don't know, fiftyish? He took me in and took care of me for a little bit." "Eventually, I left, thinking I'd be okay on my own, but then, Foster Care picked me up. I didn't want to go, but they said I had to. But, that's when my cousin, Oliver, stepped in. He was seventeen at the time, but he lived with his mother, so legally, he could take me home. I agreed and began to live with Oliver and his mother. His mother was never around, so Oliver always took care of me anyway. Everything was alright there, we were low on money, but Oliver was like a brother to me. I still talked to the group I met that one night, mostly to the oldest guy's son, Eric, since he was only a few years older than me and we went to the same school. Anyway, fast forward a few years. When I was around sixteen, going on seventeen, it turned out, this group of people was a..." Echo gulped, "Gang."

My eyes widened and I couldn't help but gasp. "Wait... you were involved in a gang?!" I exclaimed, practically jumping up.

"Yeah... I didn't really understand it at the time, which is why I agreed to what I did..." Echo continued, "That's when I found out about how bad Oliver and my money situation was. We were close to being evicted from our apartment at this point, and I told Eric my worries, who told his dad. The oldest guy in the group, Eric's dad, then decided to make a deal with me. The deal was that he'd give me the money I needed if I were to join the gang."

"You agreed?" I asked softly, trying to keep my voice neutral.

Echo nodded, "I had to. I didn't want to go to Foster care, Emily. I wanted to stay with Oliver."

"Okay..." I said slowly, somehow understanding why she agreed to what she did, allowing her to continue on.

"So, I trained to be a gang member and got the money I needed. I trained for a few months, and when they thought I was ready, I had my first case," And Echo began to cry again. She put her head in her hands and cried for a moment—soft, quiet sobs.

"My first case was to... to kill Oliver." And I froze. Echo cried some more, and she looked physically broken. The girl I loved—my best friend—was a murderer. Now that I knew this, all of the strange things Echo had said and done made sense. Her nightmares, her sleepless nights, her quietness. It all made sense now. "I didn't understand it, Em. I didn't. They told me Oliver was going to kill me—they told me he was a liar. And I believed them. I don't know why, but I believed them," Echo sobbed.

"And so, I set everything up. I told Oliver I had a Spelling Bee in the next town over. He gladly drove me and, just as planned, the tire popped in between both towns. It was a secluded area—quiet. I knew it would be the perfect place to do it..."

I wanted to shield my ears, stop listening, but I couldn't move. "And so, when Oliver was changing the tires, I did it. I stabbed him in the chest."

I want to scream at Echo, hit her, hurt her. But the regret contorting her face—she hated herself for what she did. Maybe I should run and scream—turn her in—but she's still Echo Davidson. The one I love—the one I care about.

I couldn't hate her if I tried.

A fresh new POV for yall!

What do you think will happen next?! There are only four chapters left to publish, so shit is about to go downnn