Sophia was my best friend since 3rd grade and we'd done everything together ever since. She knew everything about me and I was almost certain she knew me better than I knew myself. We were always together; during school, after school, on the weekends, all of it. It was Friday night, so I decided to call her to sleep over as she did every Friday.
“Hey I miss you,” I said.
“I miss you more,” she said.
“Do you wanna-” she cut me off.
“Yes, I wanna come over. I’ll be there in 15.”
“Okay perfect, let me know when you’re 5 away.”
“Okay, I will. Love you, bye.”
“Bye love you more.”
She was the going-out type, unfortunately. I didn’t mind it, but I mostly liked to stay in the comfort of my own home. She always found a way to convince me, though I didn’t usually put up much of a fight. I was already waiting for what she was planning for that night.
“Oh my god, Dylan just texted me to go to Adrian’s tonight. It’s in a few hours so we have time to get ready and everything,” she said.
“Do we really have to go, though?” I said.
“Um, yes absolutely. Can you even tell me when the last time we went out together was?”
“Yeah, it was literally like last week.”
“No, it definitely wasn’t.”
“Yes it was, you can check.”
“Well I don’t care because whenever you don’t go to these kinda things you always complain to me about how you wished you went. I’ll drag you out the door if I have to.”
“Fine. But you have to figure out how we’re gonna get there.”
“Ugh, fine,” Sophia said.
The address to Adrian’s was somewhat far and somewhere I wasn’t familiar with where he lived. Dylan offered us a ride with one of our other friends, Troy, who would pick us up. It almost seemed too good to be true; they never just offered anything like that. Even though Sophia and I were close with them, Troy always told us he wasn’t our personal Uber and would not be giving any rides if we didn’t have at least $10.
“Why do I kinda have a weird feeling about going? I don’t know Adrian like that and he lives 26 minutes away, it’s not like he's right around the corner. What if Troy and Dylan can’t actually take us home?” I asked. I knew they weren’t the most reliable people all the time.
“I doubt he would do that. If anything, I’ll call my sister to take us home. She usually can. If we tell her it’s an emergency and we have no other way home she has no choice but to say yes,” said Sophia.
“Yeah, I know. I just feel like it’s an odd situation. Do you know anyone else going?”
“Ari told me she was going with Ava.”
“Oh ew.”
“Right? They’re so annoying I cannot stand them. But, Gavin also said he was going with Michael and Chris.”
“Oh that’s good, I like them.”
“Yeah. I’m sure there’s gonna be a lot more people than that though.”
“Well, I hope so. I guess we’ll see when we get there.”
“Yep, we will.”
My phone buzzed with a notification from Troy, “Hey. We’re 5 away be ready.” We would get to Adrian’s a good amount after it began, which was fine with me. Showing up early to these kinds of things is usually super awkward and nobody is there yet. But as soon as we arrived, it seemed to not even have started yet.
“Sophia, I thought you said there were gonna be more people. So far I only see everyone you told me plus 5 other randoms. What even is this?” I said.
“It’s still pretty early. I'm sure there will be more people. If not we can leave,” she said.
“Yeah, if Troy still wants to take us back.”
“Shut up, I told you my sister could.”
“As a worst-case scenario.”
“Honestly, it seems like that’s what we’re headed.”
“Did you hear that?” I asked. Something was going on upstairs, but the music was so loud it was being drained out.
“What are you talking about?”
“It sounded like someone screaming from upstairs.”
“It’s probably just the music or something there’s no way you would’ve heard it from all the way down here. You’re going crazy,” she joked.
“Yeah, probably.”
We finally saw Adrian after what felt like forever. I thought it was strange I hadn’t seen him until now. It was his house so I was expecting to see him sooner, especially since there were only 10 people I had seen the entire night.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hi,” I said. He was looking at me up and down as if he was trying to figure something out. I had only ever met him once before and it was a brief hi and bye. Why am I still here? I barely knew anyone and this was excruciatingly boring. I waited for him to say something else, but he didn’t. He was still staring when I walked away.
“Sophia, I wanna go home,” I said.
“Yeah, me too. Let me call Lily. I don't think she’s far,” she said.
“Okay let’s just wait in the bathroom or something. Adrian is so weird.”
“Really? What did he do?”
“Yeah, he was staring me down without a single word. He looks psychotic.”
“Ew, that is so weird. At least Lily’s on the way already.”
“I love her. Can you check how far she is?”
“It says 14 minutes.”
“God bless her, I’m going to die if we have to stay here any longer.”
“Stop, don't say that.”
“You take everything so seriously, I’m kidding,” I said.
We were sitting in the bathroom, counting down until her sister would arrive. Now she was 9 minutes away. Time felt like it was taking hours for only 5 minutes to pass. She was 6minutes away. We were staring at her location so intently she could probably feel us waiting for her. 2 minutes now. We began to walk outside as she was turning the corner. Adrian was sitting on the couch and everything had gone silent. It was only almost 10, had everyone left already? No one even said goodbye. Maybe they just couldn’t find us and left while we were in the bathroom.
“Should we run out or say bye to him?” I whispered.
“I’m gonna say bye, I feel kinda bad,” Sophia whispered back.
“I don’t really want to, I’ll just wait for you at the door.”
“You’re so rude,” she laughed.
“Whatever.”
The couch had to be 5 feet away from the door at most. I looked around the house and noticed blood in the kitchen and on the stairs. How did I not notice this before? Were my eyes deceiving me? My heart was racing. There was absolutely no way we ended up in a psycho killer's house. I was almost too scared to look upstairs but determined to figure out what was happening. It looked like someone was lying at the top, but I couldn’t tell who it was. Littles platters of blood were barely noticeable on the stair carpet; I had to squint really hard to even tell what the stains were. I had to stay calm though--for Sophia. Adrian couldn’t know what I saw or he would kill both of us.
“Sophia, your sister’s outside,” I said, anxiously. I was giving her the “we have to get out of here right now” look with my eyes, but the dim lighting didn’t convey the urgency it needed.
“I know, I’m coming,” she replied rolling her eyes as she said it. She was leaning over to hug Adrian bye and he pulled out a knife. Before I had the chance to see what he was doing, the knife was already through her back and she collapsed onto the floor. I stood there in disbelief. My heart dropped to my stomach and I could feel a lump in my throat. I didn’t know how to react. All I could do was stand there with my jaw on the floor, unable to scream or say anything or run away. He turned to look at me.
“I’ve always seen you around school,” he said.“
"What?” I said. I was still standing there dumbfounded. I couldn’t process what he was saying.
“You’re really pretty. I used to sit 3 seats behind you in chem sophomore year. You haven’t changed one bit.”
“Uh-” I struggled. I couldn’t speak. Not after the scene in front of me. I had never seen him in any of my classes. I couldn’t believe the words coming from his mouth. Was he expecting me to have a normal conversation with him after he just killed my best friend for no apparent reason? Where was he going with all this nonsense?
“Just because I actually like you, I’m gonna let you go. Say nothing,” he said.
But I couldn’t get myself to move.
“Go!” he yelled.
I tried to move, but with no luck. It was like my legs were glued to the ground.
“Okay, I guess if you want it that bad,” he laughed maniacally. With a murderous look in his eyes and knife in hand, he walked toward me
Jade Diaz is 15 years old in 9th grade. She mainly likes to spend her free time hanging out with her mom. She really enjoys reading dystopian novels like The Giver, Hunger Games, and 1984. She lives in Broward County, Florida and has not previously published any of her work, but she is looking forward to this accomplishment!
"Murder's weapon on the table" by VanDammeMaarten is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?ref=openverse.
