FRIENDS

Tiffany (8:00 p.m.)

      Hearing another gunshot made the world feel like a scary place in a children's book. Maybe the evil forest? Either way it was scary and forbidden. A road that four teenagers, an unconscious boyfriend, an unfortunate English teacher, an ex boyfriend, and a nerd should not be on. The road to the unknown.
     I had closed my eyes tight for each time that a gunshot rang it would mean blood, injury, or death. I wanted to be somewhere else. I wanted to be in a different children's book. I wanted to be whisked away by Peter Pan, eating porrage with Goldie Locks, or scarfing down a candied house with Hansel and Gretel. But I was here.
      I opened my eyes to see that everybody was frozen just as I was. And more surprising Aneika was unharmed. Even Cece had paused in shock. Aneika hadn't been hit!
    Using Cece's shock to her advantage she continued her dive at her sending the weapon airbourne and sliding to my feet. The girls started to tussle. Aneika clawing at her with her jolt of anger and strength. I had only seen Aneika fight once in my life and every time it was an event. Last time she had sent a girl's papers flying in different directions. But this was more than a high school girls brawl on a staircase.
      Cece had used these strikes as amp to regain herself. She fought back with a hard blow to Aneika's ear which even I could hear. Khari and Zailie stood awestruck both too scared to move let alone to get in between. Cece was now swinging at her wildly, grabbing at anything that was within arms reach. Aneika was knocked down due to a misbalance within the heels she was wearing. I saw a glimpse of Cece's face while they fought, she wasn't trying to just fight her, she wanted her dead.
     Cece started dragging Aneika, they were approaching the edge too closely. It took me minutes to understand what Cece's motive was. She was going to throw her off the roof! Anieka regained strength and got to her feet, starting another tussle, this time, too close to the edge. This was my friend on the edge of this roof in a full on battle. I had to act. Now.
     I looked at the weapon that sat at the tip of my right boot. Come on Tiffany, do something. Anieka suffered another blow to her chest. Tiffany, move! Why wasn't I moving? It was the one moment that I had to fight. I couldn't run, like I had done from Matt, like I had done from John. No more running, it was my time.
    
       "Zailie, call for help." It was almost like a whisper, I wasn't even sure I heard it. I started to yell. "Zailie call now!"

     She heard me this time because she had looked at me scaredly and pulled out her phone. I looked at Khari who seemed to have forgotten his anger and replaced it with fear. "Try and bright them away from the edge." I yelled.
     He edged his way over to them, and tried to move them closer, but he took a hard hit in the nose and fell back. Ok, now my turn! I reached down to pick up the gun. It was heavier than I thought as my shakey hand wrapped around it. I had seen enough action movies to figure out how to hold it. I cocked the gun ready to shoot. I was trying to aim for Cece's shoulder to get her off of Aneika but the fighting threw off my target. Then time began to slow as if, I were in some film.

       I guess you could say I was the average basket case girl. The one the girls always forgot her name, and the boys didn't care much to know it. I had managed to go under the radar for a majority of my life. And I had learned to cope with that. I was a misfit and a runner. I ran away from my problems and didn't care whether it hurt anybody else. If I could run, I was free. Or so I thought. I ran away from love, and the boy  who had loved me. I had ran from all of my problems and never looked back but I couldn't run anymore, this was it, the part when all I could do was fight. I used to think that if I had myself I was ok and that the world would just leave misfits and runners like me alone, that there was no plan for us but to not fit in or to just... run. But I had finally realized that life had put me in so many of these situations because I had to learn to fight them head on. I had made mistakes in my choices but I was learning. And here I stood with a loaded gun in my hand ready to fight and I didn't know how. I had ran so far off the Earth I didn't belong, I had made myself a misfit. But it was time to fit in with the world just as snug as the trigger between my fist.

       A loud gunshot rang. And it took me a minute to realize that the gunshot wasn't from me. Cece staggered while holding her arm as she lost balance and fell. One moment she was on the edge, the next she was gone and all left was her screams as she was falling. Aneika stumbled as well at the suddenness but found her balance. We all turned to face the shooter behind us.

     "Oh my god, you?" Was all Zailie could say. As we came face to face with Tyler.