The deadly silence in the desolate hallway was shattered by the sudden, loud bang. The noise echoed as dust barged into the hallway, gathering on the closed lockers. It settled onto the round dial immediately, removing the fingerprints left by the students several months before, and deleting any traces of humanity. The girl emerged before the boy did, sputtering and coughing as she leaned against a dark blue locker. Soon after, the boy sprinted up the stairs, huffing and puffing as he glared straight into the girl’s icy, gray eyes.

“You…you…you little b****!” he exclaimed as the large cut on his lip bled, with tiny droplets of blood dripping all over his pristine white t-shirt.

“It’s not my fault. What happened would have happened, no matter what. You know that.” she meekly responded, hiding her eyes with her blonde hair.

“You could have stopped it. You were right there. You let him do it, you let him f***ing press the goddamn button.”

“His mind was made up. You don’t think it was hard for me to do? You don’t think it was hard for me to watch him push the button?” the girl answered, tears rushing down her face, causing her hair to stick to her small face. “I loved him, you know I did.”

“You didn’t know him as well as I did. I was there right next to him all those years. I was the one sitting in the other chair when his parents dragged him to all those psychiatrists. I was the one friend who actually stuck with him. I was the one who convinced him to take you out that day!” he screamed.?
“You did what?!!”

“Hail, I knew he was sick. I knew how bad he needed help. He thought you were pretty but he was way too nervous to ask you out. I pushed him. You were the best thing that ever happened to him. And, obviously you didn’t think the same of him. You couldn’t even save him!”

“I TRIED! God damn it, I tried so hard. He wouldn’t listen- he was in pain, it was the worst he’s ever been. You didn’t see his face at that moment. You would have let him do it too.”

    “If I had been there a minute…just one minute earlier. He would be here. Alive.” the boy punched a locker, and stood there crying, as the pain surged through his body. “ONE MINUTE! That was all that bloody mattered. And you..I trusted you- once upon a time.”

“Stop beating yourself up. It’s not your fault. It’s his.”

“Of course you’d think that.” the boy rolled his red and puffy eyes. “I know it’s not my damn fault. Just say it- I know what you did. You didn’t kill him, what you did killed him. THAT STUPID NIGHT KILLED HIM.”

The girl trembled as she shivered, “I..didn’t do it, Al. I didn’t”

“Stop lying to yourself. He’s gone now. And you let him go.”

She broke down into tears for what seemed to be the thousandth time that day.
“Admit it, Hailey. It was all YOU. Just do it for once. He’s dead now, it doesn’t get much worse than this.” the boy slumped on the locker.

The girl gazed at the the small, barely noticeable words on the deep blue surface behind the boy. “Save me.”- the tears flowed down her face. She had never quite managed to do that. It was too late now- and it was all because of her. And even now, she knew she felt it but still couldn’t let those two simple words slip from her mouth.