The End

Chapter 17: Serena

"There's no time to change clothes, Serena, we're already late for the graduation!" Harper yelled as we slammed the car doors and bolted into the building. We had driven all through the night to try to get here on time, and I hadn't bathed since we'd stayed in the hotel. I didn't even want to know what I smelled or looked like.
We paused just outside the gymnasium entrance and listened to the teacher announcing graduate names. They were calling the "F"s now, which meant I was too late for being called up to the stage. I scanned the inside of the gymnasium, looking for Jasper, and I found him instantly. The very moment that I looked at him, he looked at me right back, as if our spirits had already been calling for each other. I motioned him over, and without hesitation, he got up from his seat in the middle of the ceremony and ran to me. His arms enveloped me, even lifting my feet off the ground and spinning me around. At last, I felt complete again.
"Alright lovebirds," Harper called. "I'm gonna leave you two to it while I get out there before they call my name. I think they're about to call me up!" she said, and then ran out the door to the gymnasium.
I pulled away slightly from Jasper to look at him. "Oh my God!" I exclaimed, cupping his face in my hands. "What happened to your eye?!"
"No, don't you worry about my eye. Look at you!" He returned, running his fingers over my tangled hair, and wiping dirt from my face and clothes. "Where have you been?! What were you thinking?!" he practically shouted while still maintaining a whisper as to not cause a commotion. He sounded so frustrated with me.
"Jasper, I, I'm so sorry," I began to stutter, not even knowing what to say or where to begin. My own frustration began to leak from my eyes, blurring my vision. I was so happy to be back with him, but I felt so bad at the same time, and I was just a ball of emotions.
Jasper must've picked up on the way that I was feeling, and he held me tight. "We can talk about everything later, alright? Nothing else matters now but this," he whispered into my ear, giving me a small squeeze. His voice had gone from sounding angry to comforting in an instant.
Just then there was there was the loud bang of a gunshot from the gymnasium. Jasper released me, and I jumped back, alarmed. Then there was another bang, and another, and then they were continuous, one after the other. Without thinking, Jasper and I ran to look out the door way to see what was happening.
People were scattered, screaming. And the ones that weren't lie on the ground, blood pooling around them. There was one scream that was particularly louder than the others, and it took me a moment for the realization to hit that the scream was coming from my own mouth.
Suddenly, there were people running towards me, towards the exit. One of those people was Harper. She was close enough that I could hear her yell, "That motherfucker is going to hell!" And then saw the person with the gun -a graduating teenager, no, two graduating teenagers- and one of them had the gun pointed at Harper as she ran.
"No!" I screamed. But there was nothing that could be done. Harper dropped to the floor as the bullet struck her back. "No, no, no!" I went to run to her, but Jasper grabbed me and held me back, pulling me out of the way of the door. "I have to get to her, let me go!" I screamed and kicked and scratched relentlessly, but not once did his grip loosen. Finally, I went limp in his grasp, not knowing what else to do. He scooped me up in his arms with little effort and carried me down the hall at a near jog.
"There was no way I was about to let you run in there and risk your life like that!" Jasper told me. When we reached the parking lot and got all the way over to his car, he set me down in the passenger seat, buckling me up and running over to the drivers' side. As I sat there for a few moments, letting everything replay, my thoughts went to my mom and Addie.
"My mom! Addie! They're in there, oh my God!" I immediately unbuckled, about to open the car door again, but Jasper stopped me.
"They're not in there! They left when they called your name and you never showed," he explained. I relaxed back into my seat.
"For once, I can say that I'm actually glad I was late for something," I muttered before bursting into relentless tears. Jasper called 911 with the voice feature in the car, and drove with one hand on my knee trying to comfort me. I was wailing and crying, filling the air with unpleasant sounds, and filling the seat and floorboard with steaming hot tear drops. And I was drowning in it all.