Music Heals All Wounds

Chapter 2

Maya and I became friends in sixth grade. We only had one class together, but we clicked instantly. She was more extroverted while I was more of an introvert, but we hit it off anyways. I was shocked to see her because we haven't been as close as we used to be. I can't even lie, it was because of me.

Over a year ago when me and Jeremiah got together, I kind of pushed her away. I wasn't used to having a boyfriend and I didn't know how to divide my time between the two of them. On top of that, Jeremiah thought that it was best if I didn't hang out with her as much, so I didn't.

"I heard you were out, so I had to come see for myself."

"Nothing much to see. After everything with Jeremiah--"

"You don't have to talk about Jeremiah if you don't want to." She interrupted.

"No, I was just saying after me and him got together, I know I kind of pushed you away. I wasn't expecting to see you." I said feeling a little guilty.

She didn't say anything for a second, but I could tell she was thinking about what I said.

"Yeah, that sucked. I don't know why I came over here today. I've been hearing a lot of shit, so I'm just glad you beat your case."

We both just stood in silence for a second, not knowing what to say. This girl used to be my best friend, someone I could easily talk to. Yet, standing in front of her at that moment, felt so awkward.

"Let's go somewhere." Maya suggested making me look at her with confusion covering my face.

"Go where?"

"The lake." She said with a small smile.

Memories of our moments at the lake flooded my mind instantly and I was definitely up for a revisit. I ran upstairs to grab my shoes, then we were on our way. The lake was in walking distance from my house, so it didn't take us long to get there.

On our way there we began to reminisce. The lake was our hangout spot that we discovered when we were in high school. We had a lot of moments there. We got high for the first time there, our first time getting drunk was there too, and both of us had our first kiss out there also.

"You remember that time we came here with Derek and Kyle?" Maya asked as we found a spot to sit and watch the water. "Derek really thought I brought him out here to have sex. I wasn't on that type of time and we weren't even alone, so I don't know why he would think that."

I smiled slightly remembering that exact moment.

"Yeah, he seemed a little upset about that. Kyle was mad for some reason too, we barely said anything to each other that night. I guess he was upset he got me instead of you. You were the cute friend."

"Girl we both were cute, what are you talking about? I don't have any ugly friends." She said as I put my attention back on the water. I started to think about my case again and how everyone's been talking. I had no idea when everything would start to fade away, but I hoped it was soon.

"I don't know what I'm going to do." I said looking over at Maya. "Everybody has been speaking on my case and I don't like the attention. I don't wanna be known as the girl who killed her boyfriend."

"The girl who killed her boyfriend that was beating her ass. There's a difference." She said. "And yeah people have been talking, but I haven't really heard anything bad. They've been defending you. It was self defense, anybody with a brain can see that."

I let her words sink in. I wanted to feel better, but I couldn't. I knew it was self defense, but that didn't change the fact that I took a life - the life of a guy that I was in love with. Nothing anybody said could make me feel better about that.

"Besides, all attention is good attention. If it were me, I would make the best of the situation. Like, yeah I killed a nigga, I sure did. And the next nigga that tries it, he'll get put in the dirt as well. Period!" She said and I couldn't help but to laugh.

We stayed at the lake for a while before it started to get dark. Once I made it back home I went straight to the shower. After my shower, I did something that always made me feel better no matter the situation. I wrote a song. The words seemed to just flow onto the paper and before I knew it, I was done.

I titled the song "Damaged." I felt like the lyrics really brought my situation to life and explained exactly how I was feeling after everything. I spent the rest of the night perfecting the song.