Where it all began ("Bend or Break" Book 1)

Chapter 6

At that moment, the urge felt more powerful than ever and I leaned into her slowly till I felt her soft and gentle breath upon me. I tilted my head slightly to the right and met my lips with her's. I closed my eyes; her lips felt so tender and warm. Thrill washed over me and my heart raced like it never had before with anyone else. I then felt Andrea's lips part from mine, I opened my eyes again and saw that Drea had turned away from me.

"We can't" she whispered, "It's not right".

After an awkward and uncomfortable moment of dead silence, I murmured " What should we do about the evidence?" I asked embarrassed

"We should bury it" "sneak out in the middle of the night and bury it somewhere remote, like the woods"

"No one will be there in the middle of the night"

"Ok" I nodded "Chris will leave the hospital at about 10:00" "we should meet here at 12:30" "the hospital shuts its lights off at 11:30, but we should wait an hour, just to make sure no one's around" I suggested

"Ok" she agreed "Let's meet here at 12:30".

"We need tools to dig too" "And gloves" I added. We wouldn't make the same mistake of tracking our fingerprints again.

"Ok" she nodded "There must be surgical gloves in the ER?"

"And we'll use a paperclip to open it. I saw paper clips at the desk at the entrance. We'll get one" I added.

"And a shovel? Where will we get that?" She asked

"We won't find one here. The best we can do is to get a large serving spoon or spatula from the cafeteria" I shrugged "It's always open".

"Let's do this. You get the gloves from the ER and I'll get the spatula and spoon from the cafeteria" "Agreed?"

"Agreed" I nodded "We meet

At the entrance at 12:45"

"Ok," she murmured.

Chris left the hospital at 10:00 and the lights in the halls went out at 11:30. I laid in bed and gazed at the plain white room walls I despised. I thought about how'd I'd acted in the past days and how I'd' been too self-absorbed to realize how Andrea might have felt. It hadn't been just me, who'd lost her best friend a couple days ago and soon would be in jail for murder, for my best friend's murder. Andrea too. Poor Drea. She was the last person on earth to deserve the fate that had been thrown at her. And, unlike me, who and Chris, she had no one to help her through it. She had no support system. Both mother and father were abusive and violent towards Andrea, if not psychotic. I mean, what loving and right-minded mother would through a plate at her daughter ?!. I wonder how she had handled the tragedies of the past few days, better or worse than me. If worse, she sure didn't show it. "She's too altruistic and kind, if not noble, to show it," I thought.

"It's time" I breathed in the emptiness of my dark hospital room.

I tiptoed to the door and opened it cautiously, I peered through and checked the halls, no nurses or patients and no policeman. I swiftly ran across the hall to the reception desk, avoiding to hit the heels of my feet on the blue and white marble flooring. I grabbed a black paper clip from the small silver tin on the left corner of the pecan colored desk and ran down the hall again, past Lab's room, to the last door on the right, labeled "Operating Room 1". I looked for the keyhole on the doorknob and pushed the flattened paper clip straight through as far I could and began to twist it. Soon I heard the lock click open.

"Your good at this". I jumped in fear, "I'm screwed" I thought but as I whirled around, I sighed in relief as I recognized Andrea's familiar grin.

"You scared the shit out of me" I whispered

"I didn't mean too" she smiled a smile that appeared to be relaxed, almost jovial.

"I have the spoon and spatula" she whispered and displayed it to me, the orange plastic bag, the handle of the metal spatula exposed. "And a kitchen knife, in case we're not alone " she added

"Good thinking" I murmured as I opened the door to the operating room. I sneaked in and Andrea slipped in behind me.

"Oh, and you obscured the cameras?" I asked

"Uhm" she nodded "As soon as I left the room"

Sure enough, on the instrument table, I read on a blue rectangular cardboard box, next to the forceps, "8 mil Nitrile Powder-Free Exam Gloves". I pulled two pairs out and handed one to Andrea. We pulled them on and left the room, locking the door behind us by twisting the kitchen knife Drea brought into the keyhole.

We sped across the hall again and out the sliding glass doors and into the brisk night air.

"As the song says" 'Let's take on the world?" I whispered

"Let's take on the world" Andrea echoed and her eyes, her lips, and soul all at once smiled warmly at me.

I took her thin, iced, stiff hand and warmed and softened it.

I could see a fire rise in Drea, melting the ice in her piercing blue eyes. Melting the fear away.

"We'll take on the world" she repeated. This time she meant it.

We headed into the woods, the moon was shining over us, I heard owls hooting in the distance and a sweet smell of gardenias somehow relaxed me. For a moment, just one moment, I had almost forgotten about the tragedies of the past few days.

I sighed. "Why us?" I thought. A week ago my life had been nothing short of "perfect", with my two wonderful best friends, my boyfriend and my Stanford dream not far from becoming reality. My life was almost novel-worthy. Now, there would be no chance of getting into Stanford, not even in my wildest dreams. I would most likely be in prison by college age, and I'm not being pessimistic. "How did we end up like this?" There was no point in being positive, we were most possibly going to jail and that would be the begging of the end of our life. As Charles Maurice would define it, it would be the begging of the end for us.

I gazed at Andrea, who walked quietly beside me. Her eyes were red and puffy, a teardrop rolled by her cheek.

"Lab" I smiled "Our life's falling apart around us and we can't stop it. Our life's shit and sometimes I feel like I can't even breathe. Our best friend was murdered, we are being framed for a murder we didn't commit, and I feel like every time my brother walks out of the door, there's a chance he may never come back, and I hate it, I hate it so much. I hate all of this so much, but still, through all the shit, I still manage to smile"

I took Andrea's hand again and squeezed " I can't help it, whenever I look at you, at your beautiful, tender face, I smile".

Andrea brushed my wavy black hair behind my right ear and caressed my cheek. She leaned in and whispered to me:

"I have lost so much, but I still have you, Alisa Clarke, and that makes me the luckiest girl in the world"

"You mean that?"

"Yes" she smiled "I mean that"

I instinctively felt the urge to kiss her again. But if I was going to kiss her, I was going to do it properly, at the bench near the Frozen Yogurt stand of the mall maybe, I wanted it to be absolutely perfect, not here in the woods where we were going to bury murder evidence and when Ray was controlling our lives. I wanted at least one part of my life to still be perfect, still novel worthy.