step on me - Ethan Landry

3

𝘼𝙎𝙃𝙇𝙀𝙔 𝙇𝙊𝙂𝘼𝙉 put her braids up into a ponytail as she stared down at the work on her laptop in front of her. She regretted going to college since she found herself overwhelmed with school work all the time, but she didn't want to move back with the mom and dad with the words "I quit school."

So the best she could do was suffer with the consequences of being stressed and overwhelmed with work.

"Are you okay, Ash?" Ashley looked over to her dorm buddy who had also became a close friend. "I'm fine. I just don't understand how you can do all this work then go and party like nothing ever happened. This shit is stressful!" Ashley complained as she placed her head onto her pillow, scooting her computer away. "Girl you got this, it's not as hard as you're making it." Michelle said making Ashley squint her eyes. "I take breaks. You have took a break since you started." The brunette noted.

"Breaks only make me want to stay away from the work for even longer." Ashley said. Michelle only laughed as she walked over to the brown girls computer and picked it up. "Okay, how about you take a break, and I'll continue this mess of yours?" She suggested. "Would you really?" Ashley placed her hand over her heart in disbelief and gratefulness. "Yeah I would." Michelle sat back into her bed as she placed the laptop onto her lap.

The second Ashley closed her eyes her phone rang making her groan. Michelle noticed this and laughed.

The brown girl picked up her phone, seeing that it was her big sister, Giana.

"Hey, Gi. You're interrupting my break time." She spoke. "I-I'm. But did you see the fucking news?" It sounded like her sister had been crying. "Wait-are dorm doesn't have a tv though." Ashley spoke. "YouTube. Check YouTube right now, Ashley." The brown girl looked over to Michelle who had already been looking at her with worry on her face.

"What the hell am I suppose to search?" Ashley sat up worriedly. "I don't-fuck! Macey was found dead. And so was her roommate." Giana explained the best she could. She couldn't say much without bursting into tears.

Macey was Giana's best friend.

"What the fuck?!"

*.·:·.☽✧ 🔪 ✧☾.·:·.

The friend group all sat together at the cafe with emotionless faces. It was quiet, it was nothing but the sound of the bell whenever someone would enter.

"Who the fuck would do something like that?" Giana finally spoke. Her voice was barely above a whisper but everyone heard her. No one could answer because they didn't know the answer.

They couldn't blame it on the fact that it was nearly Halloween. No one in their right mind would kill someone as a Halloween prank.

Ashley looked around at her friends, making eye contact with Ethan. Ashley could almost never tell what he was feeling.

Ethan always had the same resting face and she hoped that one day she'd be able to understand what he was feeling with just a glance. Before she looked away he sent her a small sad smile, he didn't know what to do since she was looking at him so intensely for such a long time. But Ashley softly smiled back as much as she could.

"Does anyone know if her parents were notified?" Mikah asked. "Oh yeah cause we obviously knew before her parents." Dominic scoffed. They all looked at Dominic who muttered a sorry shortly after his sarcastic remark. "Victims parents are always notified first after the victim is found." Anthony spoke. Giana flinched at his sentence. "Can we not say victim? Macey is still Macey." Giana said.

Everyone grew quiet again, knowing she was right.

They all left the cafe, one by one. Some had to leave because they had class, others because they had work. Ashley had nothing to keep her busy.

So as she walked out, she placed her headphones over her ears and started walking away from the cafe as quick as she could. She sighed deeply as she walked along the crowd whilst waiting for the walk light to turn green.

The brown girl jumped as she felt a hand on her shoulder. She quickly looked back to see Ethan. "Shit! You scared me!" She called out, Ethan quickly apologized. "Sorry, I didn't mean to." He said and she shook her head. "I'm just paranoid. I searched up the recent news, Macey and Alissa are every where. They were both stabbed to death. Multiple stabs wounds were found. So I've been jumpy all night and today." She spoke to the tall boy.

The light turned green and the boy continued walking with her. "They found that the last person she spoke to was an unknown number. The phone that called her was found in her closet." Ashley kept going. "Wait, what?" Ethan's eyes We're squinted in confusion. "Whoever attacked Macey and Alissa were in their dorm. They just happened to leave the phone in the closet after the attack. The phone was perfectly new. No information that could track the killer." Ashley informed him.

She wanted to tell the others but the mood was down and she didn't want to speak about the fresh heart breaking news, but she couldn't hold her thoughts back. So she wanted to tell someone she trusted the most.

"Is there a murderer on campus or just a murderer who's coming on campus?" Ethan asked and she shrugged. "No one knows. That's what they're trying to find out-and sorry for basically making you listen to me talk about our friend being, you know..." Ashley trailed off and Ethan nodded. "It's fine. You're just trying to figure things out. I just can't grasp the fact that she's dead, it doesn't feel real so I don't know how to react." The boy spoke honestly. Ashley looked over to him, grabbing his hand and squeezing it softly. "We barely spoke about our feelings. We kinda just stared at what was in front of us." Ashley commented and Ethan nodded.

Though they had only known each other for six months into the school year, they had felt like they knew each other for a while.

Ethan intertwined their fingers, desperately wanting to change the conversation. "So where are you headed?" He asked. Ashley smiled softly. "Somewhere I sneak off to think alone. Wanna come?" She asked. "If this is what keeps you safe then yeah." He said, Ashley turned to look at him. "Keeps me safe?" Ashley asked. "Yeah, cause the murderer can be anywhere, right? If we wanna start somewhere, think of him being everywhere. No one is safe. We shouldn't be alone." He said.

Ashley smirked. "Or is it that you're just scared?" She teased. Ethan laughed as he rolled his eyes. They were able to take the tragic news off their mind when they spent time together. But once they had to go back to their dorms, reality hit.

Macey was gone.

And there was nothing they could do about it.

not edited.