Words

We all had been very good friends but Jane had recently been very absent. She would skip out on us or not be involved at all when we hung out. When we drank she, who would be the first to take a bottle, started to reject it when we handed it to her. Jane wasn't acting the same as before.

One night we went to one of our frequent hang outs, the clifftop by the river. We were drinking and acting stupid, Jane had once again refused to drink but she still joined in the games. We were playing a game of buzzed and seek. Loser had to drink beer from their shoe. Jane was the seeker.

I remember that I was crouched behind a tree, listening for anyone coming. I could hear voices distantly so I held my breath, hoping I wouldn't be found. But then we heard her scream. Her chilling scream fell away and was cut off sharply. I stood up and rushed to where I heard Jane. "Jane!" I yelled frantically. I pushed through the brush and stopped at the cliff edge. I looked over. The full moon gave enough light for me to see Jane. I could see her twisted and broken body very well. Moonlight reflected off her eyes that stared up at me. "Jane?" I sobbed. I didn't even know I had started to cry. I felt my tears drip from my cheek and fall silently.

Jake was the first one to arrive, then Lina, Brendan, and last was Ally.

"Kate, what happened?" Jake asked quietly. I pulled back from the cliff edge and slowly ran my gaze across their faces. I don't even know what I was searching for. I crawled away from the drop off and sat down. "Where is Jane?" Jake changed his question. I raised my hand and pointed toward the cliff. They all gave me confused looks then rushed to the edge. Someone else screamed and two gasped. They came away from the edge and we all sat in silence.

Snapping of twigs was heard and then Trish appeared, cigarette in hand. "What's going on?" She asked, her words slurred slightly. Trish was always the heaviest drinker and smoked whenever she got a chance.

No one answered her question, a new question was instead introduced; "Did she jump?" We all began to look at each other. Jane was not like that at all, we all knew that. But to think one of us... pushed her.... Trish walked over to the cliff and looked down. "So Jane was suicidal?" We winced at her words. How could Trish act like this? Sure she was cold to many people, but Jane was dead.

Jane was dead. That thought hurt as is went through my head. "I'm going down to her. She might just be unconscious." I wiped my tears away and stood.

"She's dead," Jake said. I froze at his words, they sounded so cruel.

"We don't know that," I said quietly.

"No, Kate, we need to go back to the car. We need to hide the beer and call the cops." I was shocked that Jake was more concerned about the police finding the beer.

"What about Jane?" I almost screamed, tears caught in my throat.

"Jane is dead!" Jake yelled back. He quieted down when he heard the force in his voice. "She... If we get caught... we'll go to jail. The police will blame us for her falling because of the beer."

I stepped back and then looked around at the others. All of them but Trish were distraught but seemed to agree with Jake. I quietly went back to the cliff and looked over. I whispered, "I'm sorry," then walked back to the car with the others.

We hid all the beer in a secret trunk space in Jake's silver Mustang. We called the cops after we all downed a few bottles of water and decided on a story. When they arrived with paramedics they rushed to the bottom of the cliff. While we waited for them to bring her up, officers questioned us. Our story was the same, 'We came to the clifftop to hangout, we ventured off and then heard Jane scream. We saw her then ran back to the car to call the police.' There wasn't any evidence against our story so they left with Jane in the ambulance, with no sirens.