Minutes feel like hours as I sit behind the bushes hoping not to be found by Mina. She'll surely kill me as soon as she sees me.
I texted Carson 8 minutes ago. Where is he? This isn't that far from his house.
I hear Mina fumbling with the rope. She jumps on an old, rotting picnic table and throws it over a large branch about ten feet off the ground.
"Perfect." She grunts.
"Jada, what'd you do to Daniel?" Mina yells to the trees. "Oh come on, don't leave me hanging."
I peer from my hiding spot and see her standing next to the table, this time a noose dangling from the tree above her.
My blood goes cold.
Suddenly, my phone rings and vibrates loudly, piercing the silence.
"Ah! I knew it!" Mina yells. She runs toward my direction and I jump up.
I quickly try to maneuver through the leaves and branches that surround me, but I step directly onto a huge shard of a broken beer bottle and fall.
"Ahhh!" I scream.
"You should've known not to run." Mina hisses as she puts me into a headlock. She drags me back to the clearing while my foot leaks blood.
Once we get back, I see Daniel still laying in the same spot. I try to watch his chest but I don't see it rising or falling.
"So, let's see," Mina starts. "You steal my boyfriend, you break Danny boy's heart AND his skull. What are you going to fuck up next Jada?"
"You shut the hell up." I say, wincing from the pain.
"Stand up on the fucking table." She commands.
I don't move.
She pulls out the sharp blade I had hidden in my purse and flicks it open, pressing it into my ribs.
I weakly climb on to the old picnic table as it creaks with my weight.
"You were so sad. Your best friend turned on you, your boyfriend dumped you. Your mother never paid you any attention. Is there anything else that you want me to add to your goodbye note?" Mina asks, staring up at me.
"Jada? Jada!" I hear a hushed voice calling for me.
Carson emerges from the treeline and a wave of relief falls over me.
"Baby? Is that you?" Mina asks, forgetting all about me.
"Mina... what are you doing?" Carson asks in shock.
Mina shrugs and walks over to him.
"I'm so glad to see you. Ever since you moved schools, we haven't gotten to see each other. I miss you babe..." She slides her hand down his chest and stops at his pants. "I know you miss me... the way I used to make you feel..." she continues to move her hand down and grabs him.
"Stop," Carson says firmly. "I don't want you Mina."
Still, she leans in close and kisses his neck and starts to unbutton his pants.
Carson tenses up for a moment before forcing Mina off of him. "Get off of me."
I slowly inch off of the table.
"Why are you acting like this?" Mina shrieks.
"Why am I acting like this? You're trying to ruin our lives over some bullshit relationship that barely lasted a few weeks!" Carson yells, seething with anger.
Just like that, something changes in Mina.
"B-bullshit?" She says softly. "We loved each other."
"I never loved you." Carson spits.
Mina stands still for a second and within seconds she is lunging at me. She knocks into the table which sends me flying backwards onto the ground. She claws at me like some sort of rabid animal, slashing her nails into my skin.
"Carson! No! Get her the fuck off me!" I scream.
He runs to us and kicks Mina in the ribs. She loses her breath and falls off of me.
I quickly scramble over to Carson and he wraps his arms around me.
Mina gets on her knees. Her disheveled appearance is frightening.
"I did this for you— for us," Mina cries. "I thought you would love me for this."
Carson says nothing.
"I thought that blackmailing all of those other girls that you would talk to would make them stop, and it did. But you never came back to me," she continues. "And this stupid bitch just wouldn't leave you alone. I was just going to make it look like a suicide."
Mina stands up as she sobs.
"You meant everything to me, Carson! I waited, I never even kissed another boy because I wanted to save myself for you. And all you did was FUCK SOMEONE ELSE!" Mina screamed.
"You're fucking insane." Carson says, his voice shaking.
In an instant, Mina is running up on to the table and the noose is around her neck.
"Oh shit, no!" I scream, running up to her.
Carson holds me back as she jumps.
The noose tightens. She struggles. Her eyes fill with blood and her face turns purple as her body jerks around.
"We can't let her die!" I shriek. "We need to call an ambulance and the police and—"
"We're not calling anyone." Carson says flatly.
"Why?" I cry.
"It's over now," He tells me. "Let's go home."
"But Daniel... I- I think I killed him." I whine. "And Mina, what do we do about Mina?"
"Let's go home, Jada." Carson grabs my hand and leads me out of the trees.
As we leave, I step over Daniel's lifeless body.
Just before we leave the clearing, I turn around. Mina's corpse swings slightly in the breeze, and she smiles.
