The Necklace
I stood and watched the scene in wretched horror. Policemen, paramedics, and coroners
were everywhere. Moving all around me while I stood still, never moving. I couldn’t move. My eyes were locked on Emily. I began to study her. How her hair was a beautiful chocolate brown. How it spun wild coils in every direction. Her green eyes, honestly, were the brightest they had ever been. It was like every feature she always had stuck out to me now.
“Miss? Can we have your statement?” A sheriff, who’s name tag read P.Bolton, asked. I
nodded, following him to is car.
“I just need to know what happened, from beginning to end,”
he said, sympathy playing with his hazel eyes. I took a deep breath before speaking, “it started on Monday…”
I twisted and turned, adjusting my polka dot dress.
“Lauren, your friends are here,” my mom said, a disapproving look on her face. She
never liked my friends, especially Brianna. She believe that she was a bad influence on me and my future.
“Coming.” I tossed my bag over my shoulder and followed her
down the stairs.
“Morning,” my dad smiled, kissing the top of my head and
returning his focus to his phone. My Dad was a real business man. Kind of like the ones you would see in movies, the ones that put their job before their families. It sounds sad, but it is the normal for my family.
“Be home by four please, your father wants to eat at The Capital Grille.”
“Yes Ma’am,” I replied sarcastically and leaving the kitchen.
“What took you so long? Parents hounding you?” Lucas asked, placing a kiss on my
cheek.
“As always,” I mumbled, fastening my seatbelt.
“Maybe we can take your mind off of it tonight? My parents are going out with friends,”
Brianna suggested, leaning onto the center console.
“Where’d you get this?” I asked, noticing the thin, gold chain with the cursive letter ‘B’
hanging from it.
3.
“My dad brought it back from New York,” she smiled, “but seriously, you have to
come.”
“I can’t, I have to have dinner with my parents.”
“Fine, what about after? Come on Lauren, it will be fun,” she whined.
“Okay, okay,” I laughed.
~~
“Can anyone tell me how dioxygen is prepared in the laboratory?” Mr. Thompson asked,
walking slowly up and down each aisle. He stopped beside Brianna who sat with her legs propped onto the desk, not paying any attention.
“Miss Fitzgerald?” He asked, tapping on her shoe with his pen.
“Yes sir, it-it’s, when you-”
“It is prepared by the thermal decomposition of potassium chlorate using Manganese
oxide as a catalyst,” a voice spoke from the back of the room, next to the windows.
I turned around and looked at her. Emily Smith. She was, hands down, the smartest
person in our grade. Think honor roll and recognition after recognition. Most people made fun of her for not hanging out at parties, always having the right answer, always having a book in her hands. I, on the other hand, sort of envied her. I was lucky if I passed.
4.
“Thank you Miss Smith,” Mr. Thompson smiled, walking to the front of the room.
“Thanks Emmy,” Brianna mocked.
I watched as Emily shifted in her seat. I felt bad for her and I often stuck up for her, but it was no use against Brianna. She was ultimately ruthless.
The bell rang, releasing everyone from their fourth period classes to their lunch period.
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled, accidentally bumping into Emily.
“Don’t worry about it,” she smiled, tucking one of her coils behind her ear.
“Watch out for that one Lauren,” Brianna hissed, “I heard that she caught something that
pretty hard to get rid of, if you know what I mean.”
Emily stopped in her tracks before continuing down the hall.
“Brianna, stop,” I sighed.
“Stop what?” She questioned, giving me an unpleasant look. I shook my head, knowing I
would not be able to win in an argument against her.
~~
“Babe, are you sure you can’t hang tonight?” Lucas whined, wrapping his arms around
my waist.
“I can’t, if I skip this dinner my parents will kill me,” I joked, placing a light kiss on his
5.
nose.
“Live a little,” Brianna said, twirling one side of her pink bubble gum on her finger.
“You have lived enough for the both of us,” I chuckled, walking up to my house.
“We’ll pray for you,” they yelled, driving off into the distance.
“I am home,” I called out, dropping my bag and jacket by the door.
“Sweetheart, go upstairs and change,” my mother demanded, ushering me up the stairs.
“Of course,” I chuckled, analyzing the black, knee-length dress that my mother had laid
out for me. The collar was her special touch. My parents had this issue with how I dressed. To sum it up, they thought shoulder’s should be covered, ankles as well.
“Lauren, we are leaving in five minutes,” my mom belted from
the bottom of the stairs. I groaned at the flats she had paired with the dress and stomped downstairs.
“Here’s your coat, your father is meeting us there,” she said on her way out to the car.
~~
6.
“Oh hun, I forgot to tell you, the Smith’s want us come over
for dinner Wednesday night,” my father mentioned.
“That sounds lovely, don’t they have a daughter your age,
Emily I think is her name.”
“Yeah, she seems nice, though I don’t really know her,” I mumbled.
“Oh, here she comes,” my mom whispered. I looked up to see
Emily dressed in a white button down shirt and a tie. I didn’t even know she worked there.
“Hello and welcome, my name is Emily and I will be your
server tonight, can I-” she stopped as she met my gaze, “Can I start you all out with drinks?”
“Yes, two glasses of DuMol for my wife and I, and my daughter will have a glass of
water,” my father said, folding his hands on the table.
“Yes sir, and were you all aware of what your main courses would be?” She asked,
looking at me then quickly looking away.
My father ordered for us all and pulled his phone from his pocket. He always did that.
My mother, nor I, got the chance to order for ourselves.
We finished dinner, ending the night with a slice of coconut
cream pie for me and my mother to share. All night, I watched Emily. I wanted to get to know her for some reason.
~~
7.
Wednesday rolled around and I couldn’t have be more elated. My parents were going out
with friends tonight and Brianna was throwing a party at her place. Her parents were cool. They knew she threw parties when they went out of town, but pretended like they didn’t. Mine, on the other hand, nearly choked when I asked for permission to attend said party.
“Lauren, I know you really want to go, but I just don’t think it is in your best interest,”
my mother explained, placing herself at the end of my bed.
“Mom, you said I could go, what changed?”
“For starters, I was never okay with you going to this party, I mean you know how I feel
about that girl,” She argued.
“I know,” I groaned, throwing my hands up.
“You can go, but be responsible,” she said, handing me my jacket.
“Thanks, I’ll see you later.”
~~
“Okay, I cannot believe that your parents are actually going to let you come party with
us,” Brianna babbled.
“Don’t jinx it,” I laughed.
“Spaz alert,” Lucas’ teammate, Andy grumbled as we passed Emily.
8.
“Watch this,” Brianna said and stuck her foot out, causing Emily to trip and drop her
books, “Oops.”
The group laughed, but I didn’t. I couldn’t. What they did to her, tormenting her
everyday, wasn’t right.
“Let me help you,” I said, grabbing one of the books she dropped.
“Thank you,” she smiled.
“No problem,” I replied, beginning to walk away.
“My parents,” she blurted, “my parents told me that your family will be joining us for
dinner tonight.”
“My parents are, but I am going to hang with some friends instead.”
“Brianna’s party?” She asked, tossing her brown curls over her shoulder.
“Yeah, did you want to come with me?” I suggested, feeling good about the choice to.
“I don’t think she’d be too happy about that,” Emily chuckled, looking at the ground.
“Who cares?” I smirked,”maybe we could get ready together at my place?” She agreed
and offered me a ride home, telling me to meet her at the side entrance after school.
The school day came to an end and the night began. Almost everyone was talking about
Brianna’s party. It was said to be the “party of the year”. I followed the sea of students down the hall and departed at the side entrance to wait for Emily, who just happened to be waiting for me.
9.
“Ready to go?” She smiled, pulling her keys from the small compartment of her
backpack.
“Yeah, sorry if I kept you waiting.” She assured me that she hadn’t waited no more than
five minutes. She led me down the parking lot to a silver Corolla.
“Wow, this is nice,” I gushed, running my hand along the shiny hood.
“Thanks, it was-I think your friends are flagging you,” Emily said, peering over my
shoulder. I looked back to find Lucas and Brianna with confused expressions.
“Give me one minute?” She nodded and got into the car.
“What are you doing?” Brianna laughed.
“What do you mean?”
“Babe, whatever she said to trick you into that car-”
“Stop guys, I invited her to my house to get ready with me,” I explained, growing tired of
the conversation.
“Ready for what? My party? No way Lauren, she’s not coming,” Brianna hissed, folding
her arms over her chest.
“Why? Half of the school is going.”
“Lauren, I really don’t think you should be hanging out with this girl,” Lucas said with a
sigh.
“I have to go, I’ll see you tonight.” I walked away, not wanting to hear another word. It bothered me that they were so quick to judge her without even knowing her. It wasn’t right, nor was it fair.
10.
“Here,” I handed Emily a pair of dark jeans and a purple top,” try these.”
“Is everything okay with Brianna and your boyfriend?” Emily asked from my bathroom.
“Yeah, why?” She walked out the bathroom, turning in a circle.
“Fantastic,” I laughed.
“Thanks, but seriously, they didn’t seem okay with me attending the party,” she
explained, tying her hair into a bun.
“They will be fine,” I assured her.
“Are you ready to go?” She asked, giving her attire one last look.
“Definitely.”
~~
After being at the party for over an hour, I finally found Brianna and Lucas.
“Hey, come take a shot,” Brianna slured, handing me small glass with a pink liquid fill to
the brim.
Giving in, I took it down and shivered at the warm sensation in my chest.
“Where’s your friend Emma?” She laughed, spilling whatever was in her cup.
11.
“It’s Emily,” I corrected, scanning the room, “there she is,I’ll be back.” I shoved through
a tightly knit crowd of people to get to Emily who sat on the staircase.
“Hey, why aren’t you dancing?” I yelled over the loud music.
“I’m not really a dancer.”
“Oh, come on,” I laughed, taking her hands and leading her to the middle of the floor. It
took a minute or two, but she let loose and began to show signs of having a good time. It was nice to see her happy, to see her smile. Considering the way Brianna, and others, treated her.
~~
When Friday came, I was actually relieved. More than usual. I was relieved that the week
was coming to an end. The guilt, on the other hand, was as strong as ever. I knew that I shouldn’t have, but I continued to scroll through the tweets. There were thousands of them, all of the same thing. They were pictures from the party that showed how out of hand it had gotten. Brianna, as usual, got way too drunk and decided that it would be a good idea to sleep with some random guy. To no one’s surprise, the guy took pictures of her after she passed out. She called me the next day on a rampage. She was convinced that it was Emily who posted the pictures. I tried to calm her down, but it was no use. There was no changing her mind.
12.
“Lauren, you have to stop looking at those,” my mom said, taking my phone from my
hand.
“I can’t help it, I feel bad for Brianna, but she can’t blame Emily just because she wants
to.”
“Well, why don’t you just go check on Brianna,” she suggested, handing me her car keys.
I agreed that she probably needed a friend right now. I tried calling Brianna, but she
didn’t answer, for the fourth time.
I called her home and her mom answered,”Hi Mrs. Fitzgerald, is Brianna home? I tried
calling her, but she won’t answer.”
“Oh, I’m afraid Brianna is not home, she left the house with a friend over an hour ago,”
her mother said, asking if I would like for her to try and reach Brianna. I declined and asked if she would just let her know that I called when she got home.
As I drove through town, I started thinking of Emily. She was being accused of
something she had not done. Thinking of how she probably felt about the whole situation, I decided to go check on her. Arriving at the light yellow, two story home, I got out and walked up to her front door. It caught me off guard to find it slightly ajar.
“Hello? Emily, it’s Lauren,” I called out, walking slowly into the house.
I got no answer in return, which made me nervous. Taking a guess that her bedroom was
upstairs, I went up slowly, coming upon the only door with decoration, a wooden letter ‘E’.
13.
“Emily?” I asked, knocking twice.
Opening her door, I found it to be empty. Everything along the right wall was in its place,
perfectly put. I turned to my left and saw that her bed wasn’t made. Her laptop sat open, on the bed. She seemed to have been working on a paper for school. Her phone was on the bedside table. I don’t know why, but I picked it up. Pressing the power button, the screen came on. She
had been on Twitter, probably going through the chaos like everyone else. I put her phone down and walked over to her window and looked out. The sight was beautiful, the trees were various shades of orange and red. Some of the trees’ leaves had already fallen to the ground. Looking directly down from her window, I saw it.
“Emily!” I screamed.
It felt like everything was going in slow motion. Me running down the stairs and out of
her backdoor. Stopping when I reached her lifeless body. It felt like it took forever for me to call 911, for help to even show up felt even longer. I stood there and looked at her. The blood covering her shirt. The cuts in her shirt, I could only assume was how they did it. Whoever did it. My hand flew to my mouth when I saw it, the object laying next to her torso. It shined in the fall sunlight. It made tears fall from my eyes.
“Ma’am, thank you for your statement,” the officer said before walking over to one of his
colleagues.
“Lauren!” My mom yelled, fear in her eyes. I walked towards her, holding my arms out.
14.
“Baby, are you okay? What happened?” She gasped, repeatedly rubbing her hand over
my head.
“Mom,” I cried hysterically, losing all self control.
~~
It had been two days since I found Emily dead. I sat in the same spot on the couch, never
moving. I kept thinking of what I saw laying on the ground next to her body. It was eating at me. I kept having dreams about it. I couldn’t take it anymore. It wasn’t fair to Emily for me to keep it a secret.
“Mom,” I said, standing from the couch.
“What’s wrong honey?”
“Can you take me to the police station, I-I have to tell them something.” She stared at me
for a moment before agreeing.
“Miss Moore, what brings you down here?” Sergeant Phillips asked, shaking my hand. He sat down across from and folded his hands on top of the table.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Go ahead,” he smiled.
15.
“When,” I took a deep breath,”when you guys were collecting evidence, did you find a
gold necklace with the letter ‘B’?”
He sat up in his chair, his face turning to stone, “What are you getting at Miss Moore?”
“I know who it belongs to and I am pretty sure they killed Emily,” I said, pulling my
phone from my pocket. Finding the photo, I handed it to him.
“There it is,” he sighed, “there’s the necklace.”
I looked up from my lap and watched as she walked through the doors, her hands cuffed
behind her back. As she got closer she stopped in front of me. I stood up and looked her in the eyes.
“How could you? Why would you kill her?” She stood there silent, refusing to say a word
to me.
“Answer me Brianna.”
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