Alive >> Jake Fitzgerald << Scream

Thirty-Seven.

A week had passed by since Will's death and people were already starting to forget about him, there were no more condolence cards posted into my locker, there were no more hushed whispers in the halls, and there were no more speeches at school. It was almost as if my best friend had never existed in the first place.

But I knew he had. And the rest of my friends knew he had. But things weren't the same, without Riley and Will, or without Nina and Tyler for that matter, things would never go back to the way they once were. No matter how much I wanted them to.

All of my friends had returned to school and we sat together at our old spot on a picnic blanket beneath the oak tree, it was the first time we'd sat there since Riley had died. But of course, it didn't feel the same.

Brooke, Jake, Emma and I were the last remaining four of our old friends and it hurt like hell to know that we got to live whilst the rest of our friends were six feet under. Kieran, Audrey and Noah sat with us at lunch, but no matter what, the void that we all felt couldn't be filled without Will and Riley.

"Come on! You all need to cheer up!" Noah smiled encouragingly at Brooke, Emma and I, we were still mourning over our dead friend, Jake however was taking things better than expected.

"Give them a break dude." Jake narrowed his eyes, "One of our best friends just died."

"I know, I'm just saying we should focus on other things, like... the Halloween dance."

"What about it?" Audrey asked

"I'm the DJ!"

"That great Noah." I sighed before placing down the Apple I'd just bitten into. "But what does it have anything to do with us?"

"Wait, you guys aren't going?"

"After everything that's happened? I don't think so Noah, sorry." Emma shrugged, her head fell to rest on my shoulder.

"Kieran, I thought you were gonna ask her?"

"Way to ruin the surprise Noah."

"Wait, you wanted to ask me to the dance?"

"Who else would I ask?" Kieran smiled across at Emma.

My heart melted at the possible thought of my brother being happy with someone for once. For most of his life he'd struggled to make friends and make the right decisions, but after he moved to Lakewood and met Emma everything began to fall into place, I was happy that he'd found someone, even if that someone was my best friend. I just didn't want him to fall back into old habits.

"So what do you say? I'll pick you up at seven?"

"Yeah, I'd like that." She bit her lip

"Have him home by eleven!" I stood up and pointed at the Duvall girl, "He needs his beauty sleep."

"Why are you like this?" Kieran groaned before pulling me back down into my seat.

"Brooke?" Noah asked

"Dances aren't really my thing." She shrugged

"Yeah, the only dance she ever went to was the one we had freshman year and she left a half hour later to go catch a movie."

"I made Lydia come with me." She giggled

"She was the perfect date." I leaned into her side.