“Hey!” she yelled.
I ran.
“I don’t need your help!” you screamed.
I ran.
“You’re against me! Both of you—you’re against me.”
I passed Jack and Katie talking in the hall.
“I’ll kill myself. I swear, I’ll kill myself,” you threatened.
I was sure she was running after me.
“We’re not going to leave you alone,” I said.
She had to be running after me.
I am not the center of anything.
I imagined all the cameras taking pictures of me. Capturing me as I ran. Capturing me, but not catching me.
I imagined her behind the camera, smiling.
Out of the school.
Out into the air.
“That’s the question, isn’t it?” you said one night. “Does death bring freedom, or is it the end of freedom?”
Right into the woods.
Farther.
Farther.
Back to where it happened.
Back.
Back.
Hearing them behind me.
Running out of breath.
Knowing this had to be the place.
I followed you into the woods.
I followed you.
I would have followed you anywhere.
I thought that.
And then you went somewhere I couldn’t follow.
They followed me.
“Here,” you said.
“Take my picture,” you said.
“What are you doing, Evan?” Jack was yelling.
“It’s her,” I said, pointing to the girl. “Can’t you see it’s her?”
“I’m so sorry,” Katie was saying to her.
“I’m so sorry,” I cried to you. And the way you looked at me, I knew I was never going to see you again.
“He has my bag,” she said.
“Evan, give her back her bag,” Jack ordered.
“Evan, get help. I’ll stay here. You get help.”
“You need help,” Katie said.
I pulled at the zipper.
I opened the bag.
It has to be her.
I turned it upside down.
I turned all our lives over.