A Toast to Death

Chapter 2

He was dead, just like that. Yes, we didn't like him, but it wasn't like we wanted him to die. We just stood there in silence. Seeing someone die right in front of our eyes was not a fun experience, especially since it was everyone's first time experiencing such. In fact, it got Steph crying, Tyler throwing up, Dawson sweating, and I was just dissociated. A bunch of people were gathered at our table. Some were recording, and others were just straight-up frantic.

After a while, the cops came to the restaurant, and everyone moved out of the way so they could get to the body. They asked us some basic questions to try to understand what had happened. A few minutes later, the ambulance arrived, and the medics ran inside with a stretcher. The medics put Jerry's body on the stretcher and took him into the ambulance. One of them was being filled in by one of the cops.

The cops then began asking us more detailed questions about what had happened and how we got to that point. We walked them through the entire thing, from the moment we saw Jerry to that very moment. The cops also questioned the employees, as well as other customers. I know water usually likes to go through the wrong pipe, but a couple of coughs should've fixed it, not killed him completely. After a bunch of questioning, they told us that they'll get back to us and that we should not worry.

"Where's the water he drank?" One of the cops put on gloves, brought out a pH testing meter, and tested Jerry's water. After a few seconds from when the meter was put inside, it began to beep. The expression on the cop's face showed that something was bad, very bad. Two other cops were called, and when they were both shown the number on the meter, they become concerned.

The forensics team was called, and they showed up minutes later. The cops told everyone to go outside, so they could adequately canvas the restaurant. When we got out, we were told that we could go back to school and that we shouldn't leave the country. Obviously, we weren't going to leave the country, why would that have even crossed our minds?

The ride back to school was so quiet we could hear each other's breath. No one said a word. When we got back to school, we went to our various rooms, and that was when my parents called. They could see our energy had shifted from the joyfulness we felt on move-in day to awkward silence.

One thing about my mum is that she always prided herself in knowing me so well. She asked us what was wrong, and we told her everything. She was so worried, and rightly so, to the point where she added Steph's mum to the call. They were both very concerned but told us we would both be alright, and we should stay safe. We promised and said we'd try our best since it was only the start of the semester.

Since we never got to eat, we decided to order in. Steph asked if we should invite Dawson and Tyler too, just because they had just had a day as we did, and I agreed. After they arrived, I took everyone's order, while Steph tried to find a show we could binge to put us all in a better mood. Needless to say, her effort was futile. Even Tyler tried cheering up the mood by setting Dawson and I up to insult each other, but we both weren't in the mood for that. We all just sat there in silence until our food was delivered.

When I got back from collecting the food from the delivery person outside, I heard music blasting from my room. I knocked on the door and Dawson opened the door. He had a party hat on his head with a candle in his hand. It was all Steph's idea because she thought Jerry would've wanted us to do that. I laughed because she was indeed right. In 9th grade, he had said he wanted people to celebrate his life, instead of mourning his death. Steph handed me a party hat and a candle.

Steph paused the music and pulled up a picture of Jerry from his social media. She asked each of us to say some words about him. It was a little funny because we didn't really know him well enough. After we were done, we went to get our food. We also found a good show to binge on while eating.