Marked

where it all began.

"Another body was found early this week, cause of death is yet to be determined. The victim has been identified as sixteen year old Alexandra Flair. A small X shaped cut was found on Alexandra's left hand. The cut appears to match the cuts found on the last four victims. Investigators believe this is the way the killer marks their victims weeks before they are killed" I immediately shut off the TV.
I knew Alexandra, everyone knew her. Not because of our extremely small town but because she was what you would call a "queen bee." She was pretty, popular and perfect, that is what everyone believed. Everyone was blinded by her shiny blonde hair, her sharp hazel eyes and seemingly sweet smile.No one ever saw how twisted she could be.
Alex wasn't always known as Miss perfect. In eighth grade she was not popular and not  that one beautiful perfect girl.
There was three of us, Nikki , Alex, and I. We were best friends since we were in second grade. Everything was great until eighth grade when Alex and Nikki started fighting, it started out as small disagreements but even then I was all ways caught in the middle. they were able to look past their disagreements because of how long we stayed friends.Until one day we got a new student in our class. His name was Luke.
Luke was tall with tan skin, dirty blonde hair and crystal blue eyes. Of course we all thought he was gorgeous. he was the definition of handsome.  Alex saw him first, Nicky wanted him too. Alex and Luke started dating a month later but that wasn't reason enough to get Nikki to back down. Nikki would always be trying to get closer to Luke from hanging out to texting, it all made Alex extremely jealous. Eventually the jealousy lend to even more fighting.
Alex, Nikki, Luke and I were in Alex's room,and her parents were out of town and
would not be back till the next night. After a while Alex and Nikki ran out of drinks. I think i was the only one who avoided drinking. Alex volunteered to go get a couple more beers from downstairs.
While Alex was away Nikki started slowly inching closer to Luke no matter how many times he'd move away she would keep moving closer. After a while of waiting Luke and I were getting more impatient, Alex should have been back by now. I decided to go see what she was doing.
As I walked out of the room and started to walk towards the large staircase I noticed Alex from the corner of my eye looking back into the room. It was then that I realised she was never going to go down stairs, This was somehow just more of Alex's drama.
"Um, hey what are you doing?" I ask in a hushed tone
"Shh" Alex whispered. It was then that I knew she was spying on Luke and Nikki. "Could she make it any more obvious that she's hitting on him, what a freak." Alex hissed.
"Alex, whats going on?" I ask growing more concerned.
"She's not going to get away with this, he's my boyfriend she is such a bit-"Alex stopped mid sentence, a look of shock and anger washes over her face. I turn away from Alex and look back into the room to see Luke trying to push Nicky away as she kisses him.
"Oh my god!"I whisper to Alex.We stay silent for a few moments, until Nikki and Luke break apart.
"I'm back" Alex announced as she pranced back into the room with a joyful tone to her voice and a sweet smile planted on her face. Her act was so convincing That it has me wondering if I had just imagined the whole thing.
"I have to go I just remembered I have lots of homework to do."I say, obviously just making an excuse to leave. I can feel that Nikki and Alex are going to get in a huge fight. Luke and I exchange a look of understanding.
"I'll come to, I have an assignment I need to Finish." Luke says before we both start to walk out the door.
As we walk through the dark empty Streets Luke breaks the silence."How much did she see?" I give him a look that says it all. "Great, just great."
"She knows it wasn't your fault." I say in a lame attempt to comfort him.  He shoots me a weak smile. "Crap!"
"What is it?" Luke asks
"I forgot my purse." I know that when I go back I will see all hell breaking loose, But I turn around and start to walk back anyway, as I say a quick goodbye to Luke.
I arrive back at the house and knock on the door. No answer. I remember I left the door unlocked when I left, so I open the door and step into the house. To my surprise I don't hear anything, no yelling or even an argument just complete silence. 
I hear a ear piercing scream coming from the hallway.I sprint through the living room and into the dark hallway. I stop dead in my tracks. Nicky lying on the floor in front of the stairs. blood covers both her head and the ground below her she's completely unconscious . That's when I see Alex standing at the top of the stairs holding her arm. It all comes together. Nicky and Alex got in a fight, they were drunk. Alex was angry, Nicky was jealous. Alex Just pushed Nicky down the stairs.

 I knew there would be a fight I knew it was going to be a bad fight, but I would have never thought it would go this far. I check Nicky's pulse and am filled with relief to find she is still alive, But I could barley hear her breathing.
"Merissa!"I hear a voice scream my name from the doorway.
"Over here!" I yell back.
Suddenly Luke rushes towards us. I tell Luke to call the police he returned moments later. Still we are unable to wake up Nicky. I look back up the stairs horrified to find that Alex is gone.
What seems like an eternity later I hear sirens outside the house.
Nicky is brought to the hospital. Alex hides her injured arm, telling paramedics that Nicky fell down the stairs. When I confronted her, I told her that I was going to go to the police station and was going to tell the truth about everything.

'' I don't think you want to do that.'' She mocked as I walked away. '' Not unless you want every one to know that the trip to see your cousins in the summer was really spend in a mental hospital. How easy would it be to convince every one that you pushed Nicky once they know that You're less than stable? Maybe I'll show then my arm, tell them you cut me, when I tried to break up the fight.'' I remember gaping at her in disbelief, this whole time we were friends she was my worst nightmare, wearing a kind mask.

Time was stopped. Like I was waiting for something that's never going to come anyway. That's how I felt sitting with Luke in the waiting room that night. For three hours we sat in silence, there was nothing to be said. I remember just thinking how strange it is how fast things change, just a few hours before I was walking towards my friends house excited, and then I was at the hospital not even knowing if all my friends would survive.
The doctors would not tell me or Luke anything about Nicky because we were not family.  When Nicky's parents arrived  talked to the doctor , then they came and sat across from us. Everyone stayed silent until I asked if they knew anything about Nicky.
"She is in surgery now she suffered severe head injury. The doctors say she'll live , but they don't think that she'll recover fully." Answered Mrs.Mcneil, you could see that she would not be able to hold back her tears for long.
Luke and I left not long after talking to Nikki's parents. I went to see Nikki at the hospital a week later, to this day I wish I didn't. Seeing Nikki in the hospital bed with that blank stare killed me, no matter what I said her blank stare continued. I went to apologise for leaving her that night and for never seeing how bad things were with her and Alex. Both the doctor and her parents warned me about how bad the trauma was, about what a dramatic effect the fall had on her mind. Still I never expected her to look so empty.
Nicky's parents never found out that Alex was responsible for the fall.  As soon as Nicky was released from the hospital her and her parents moved to a city far from our town leaving what happened that night behind them, or at least trying  to.
Alex took advantage of the fact that she got away with it, She told everyone about how alone she felt without Nicky. She used everyone else's guilt and sympathy to get what she always wanted, to be popular and now even in her death everyone would know her.