Three months later, everyone was boarding a plane back to L.A.,. Jennifer was walking alongside Justin, who was cracking jokes and trying to make her laugh.
But Jennifer's mind was somewhere else.
"Time of death, 11:54." The doctor declared, just as Jennifer ran in the room.
"No, time of death nothing! Bring him back!" she demanded, tears pouring down her cheeks. When thedoctors made no move to revive him, Jennifer ran over to Jeremy and started CPR.
The doctors pulled Jennifer away, screaming and hitting them.
"Sweetie, I'm very sorry for your loss, but there's nothing that can be done!" one of the nurses yelled to get through to Jennifer. "He's gone."
At those words, Jennifer finally collapsed. "He's gone." She whispered, tears pouring down her cheeks in a nonstop river. "He's gone."
Finally, she started hitting the floor in anguish. "He can't be gone! He told me he'd never leave me!" she screamed, and Maribelle threw herself on the floor next to Jennifer. "He told me he'd never leave me."
Maribelle and Jennifer cried together on the floor, until no tears were able to shed.
"He's gone."
"Jen, are you okay?" Justin asked, putting a hand on Jennifer's shoulder as they sat in their seats adjacent each other. They both buckled up and Justin guided Jennifer to where she was leaning against his shoulder.
"What's wrong?" he asked in her ear. Jennifer let out a mixture of a breathy laugh and a sob.
"It's that time."
"What do you mean?"
"Today would be the one-year anniversary of Jeremy's death." She said, her voice barely above a whisper. Maribelle, already knowing what Jennifer said, put a hand on her shoulder as Justin hugged her tighter to him.
"It's okay," Justin whispered soothingly. "It's okay." He started rubbing Jennifer's back soothingly. Jennifer squeezed her eyes shut as she leaned her head on Justin's shoulder.
"When we land, we're going to visit him, okay Jen?" Maribelle said, and Jennifer nodded, hiding her face in Justin's neck, trying to get the comfort that she so desperately wanted.
Justin and Maribelle shared a painful glance, and Maribelle saw something in his eyes that she'd only seen once before.
Once they were up in the air, Maribelle gave Jennifer a kiss on top of her head and went to sit next to Alex. She leaned against Alex's shoulder, who immediately wrapped his arms around her waist. Maribelle was also hurting over Jeremy's death, and she just wanted to be held.
"Are you okay?" Alex asked, and Maribelle nodded. Alex kissed her forehead and hugged Maribelle closer to him. "It'll be okay. You guys have us, right?" again, Maribelle nodded and Alex rubbed her arm reassuringly.
Maribelle wrapped her arm around Alex's torso and the two sat there, silent, as they soaked up the emotions that were going to be running high that day.
Jennifer was leaning against Justin's shoulder, biting her thumb nail nervously. She felt like she was going to throw up. Her hands were shaking and Justin placed his own hands over hers to stop the trembling.
"You all right?" he asked her, and she gave a reluctant nod. Justin took her wrists in her hands and took off her bracelets to reveal her scarred up skin, diagonal and vertical lines lining her bare wrist. Justin realized that she wasn't cutting to release emotions. Those lines told him that she was cutting to kill.
On impulse, Justin brought her wrists to his lips, and kissed every inch of them. He kissed the lines softly, then Jennifer pulled away.
"Please, Justin." She begged miserably, "not today. Please." Justin gazed at her beautiful, tired face, dark circles under her sad crystal blue eyes, her pink, heart-shaped lips trembling slightly. He nodded, mesmerized at how hypnotized he got when he stared into her eyes, and ran his fingers through her long blonde tresses.
"I'm sorry." He said, and she leaned away from Justin to face the window. She looked down at the ocean, and got lost in her memories. Justin thought it best to leave her be, and he turned to face away from her, only to be confronted by a pair of deep green eyes, accompanied by dozens of tiny freckles. Anna was staring him down.
Anna gave him a little wave, and he gave a small polite wave back. Justin watched as she threw her fiery red hair in a ponytail and laughed to himself slightly.
After a while, Maribelle, Alex, Celeste, and Austin have joined Jennifer and Justin, and they start chatting up a storm. Justin couldn't help but notice how Jennifer was trying just a little too hard to smile, she was trying a little too hard to make it seem like she was okay, when in reality, Justin knew she was ripping at the seams.
Justin had told everyone about his very brief encounter with Anna, and Maribelle scoffed.
"I forgot that she was a ginger." Justin said in a hushed tone, and Maribelle let out a dark laugh.
"How could you forget, Justin?" Maribelle said loudly, so that she could be heard. "She did something soulless. Gingers don't have souls."
"Belle," Jennifer warned her quietly, and Maribelle gave Jennifer an apologetic look. Jennifer gave a slight shake of her head, and Maribelle nodded, indicating that she understood her silent warning.
"At least I have class." Anna said loudly, and caught Maribelle's eye with a smirk. "And at least I'm not a dumb blonde. Yeah, I'd rather be a soulless ginger than a dumb blonde."
Everyone heard Jennifer's breath hitch in her throat. Everyone saw the pain in her eyes as Anna's words registered in her brain. Jennifer met Anna's eyes, and saw that Anna was smirking even more. Anna knew what insults would cut Jennifer deeply, and Jennifer, Maribelle, and Anna knew that.
Jennifer distracted herself from the indirect argument going on around her, and stared out at the ocean once again.
Suddenly, Jennifer allowed herself to listen to one sentence, just one. In case she had to pull Maribelle from the scene so that she wouldn't go completely psychotic. That one sentence made her whole world crash down on her fifty times over.
"At least I didn't kill my boyfriend."