Careless, Reckless Decisions | ONC 2021

Chapter Five

"This is fun," Kia chuckled darkly, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand. Her mood had completely changed from before.

"Seriously? We're hiding a body!" I looked over at her incredulously, not believing my ears.

"It was a joke," She deadpanned, continuing to dig a hole out in the middle of the forest.

We had followed a deserted road deep into the woods, where we thought nobody would find him.

"Now isn't the time for jokes, this is serious." I deeply wanted to help her dig, to speed up the process, but my stupidly shaky hands stopped me from doing so.

I didn't realize how much I had scraped them up, and holding a shovel just worsened the pain.

So, instead, I was the lantern holder.

Yay me.

I didn't even know how we managed to find a shovel and lantern in Kia's car, but apparently, she was 'prepared for every emergency.'

"No shit, sherlock." I could feel Kia's anger and annoyance rolling off her in waves. "Okay, I think this is big enough."

After inspecting the hole, and reluctantly looking back at John still crumpled up in the trunk, I eventually ok'd the hole.

I sighed, "Yeah, ok."

Kia glanced over at me, "I know your hands hurt, but do you think you could help me lift him into the hole?"

"Yeah, of course." I gulped and tried to hide my disgust as we made our way over to the car. "I can't believe we're actually doing this."

Kia didn't say anything and just nodded her head.

"On the count of three. 1, 2, 3!" We both lifted him up, our gloves sticking to his motionless body, and quickly dropped him down into the pit.

The sight of his broken bones suddenly made me woozy again. And this time I couldn't hold it.

Coughing up my insides next to a tree, in the middle of the night, in a deserted forest while burying a guy my best friend killed... was not how I pictured this night to go.

Yea, maybe I could picture myself puking, but it wouldn't be over the overwhelming vision of blood.

I couldn't believe that I thought I would be having fun tonight. It seemed almost impossible to imagine the excitement I was feeling earlier today.

Where did this night go wrong?

I instantly flinched as Kia reached out her hand to pat my back.

"I think I'm better now," I reassured her, even though I knew I would never feel better again. "Let's just get this over with."

"Agreed. We should have been done by now," Kia shook her head and stomped over to grab her shovel.

She was acting as if this was a school project that was 30 minutes past the deadline.

But instead of confronting her, I went to go grab the lantern again and watched as tons of dirt molecules floated down over John's body.

By the time we had buried him successfully and covered our tracks, it was already 2:45 am. Meaning that I was extremely tired and ready for a good night's sleep.

But unfortunately, there was still more to be done.

. . .

"Ok," Kia smacked her hands together, wiping away the mud and blood. "Now it's time for the cleaning process."

Knowing that my parents wouldn't be home and that Jarred was sleeping, we both got into Kia's car and started our get-away to my house.

"Are you sure you're fit to drive?" I glanced over at Kia, as she drove on the deserted highway. "I could drive instead."

"I'm fine," Kia was rigid and kept her eyes on the road, not once sparing a glimpse at me.

"Well, you don't seem fine. In fact, you shouldn't be fine." The silence seemed to stretch on forever, and every painfully long second, I got angrier at Kia. "Here, just let me drive. I've driven before, and I think-"

"Oh my god, Jenna, I said I'm fine!" Her hands gripped the steering wheel, turning a ghostly shade of white. "Just stop complaining for one second, and let me think."

I immediately shut up, and stared out the window, hoping to see something other than darkness.

It was like the black outside was sucking us into its never-ending void of mistakes and regrets.

If only I had listened to my gut and stayed home.

I sighed. If only.

"We're here," My head shot up from the windowsill, surprised I could even fall asleep.

I quickly unbuckled my seatbelt and ran into the kitchen to grab cleaning supplies.

I knew that Jarred was an extremely light sleeper, so I made sure to tip-toe as I made my way around the house searching for stain remover.

Let's just say we would need a lot of that.

When I finally emerged from the front door, I was hit with the revelation that I was covering up a murder.

It felt as if I kept blocking out the idea that John was actually dead. It didn't seem real. A part of me wanted to believe it wasn't. A part of me yearned for it not to be real.

As I trudged over to Kia, I let my feet scrape against the cold, hard sidewalk, trying to get my thoughts under control.

That's when I realized that my shoes were still back at the party or otherwise known as the crime scene.

They were still where I had attempted to chuck them at John.

I froze in my tracks and Kia looked up at me, "What's wrong? What happened?"

"I left my heels back in the forest. I completely forgot about them," I looked up at her through blurry eyes. "Everything is ruined. The police will find them and track them back to us. I-I ruined it all. I'm sorry."

My voice cracked, and I broke down in the middle of my driveway, as I let Kia hold me.

This was a completely foreign concept for me, as I had always been the one to hold her when she cried.

"I-I'm sorry Kia. I didn't mean to... please forgive me." I grabbed onto Kia's arm, balling my eyes out.

I couldn't care less if anybody heard us, for all I knew, we were screwed.

"Shh, shh," Kia stroked my head gently, and it made me wonder why I never came to her with my problems before. "It's okay, just calm down."

Oh, yeah. Her's were always more important than mine.

Still, it felt nice to be validated.

"No, it's not okay. It's-It's," I could barely make out my sentences, as I hiccupped; tears streaming down my face.

"Jenna, look at me," Kia sat me up and stared straight into my eyes. "I got those shoes from my friend, who got them from a friend. They won't trace it to us, and even if they do, I'll just say I gave them away to a shelter. It will all be fine, everything will be fine. I promise."

I replayed those words in my head.

It will all be fine, everything will be fine. I promise.

Ha.

You shouldn't make promises you can't keep.