"Now that I'm gone you're gonna miss me,"
"Dad!" The sound of Lia's voice echoed throughout the night, the girl abandoning her spot on the back of the ambulance to run over to her father.
Ken Murphy didn't hesitate to pull his only daughter into his arms, the sound of the girl's cries echoing in his ear drums. It broke his heart to see her this way, and he couldn't help but blame himself. He should've caught whoever was doing this already, then this wouldn't have happened.
"Boss, we're going to need you over here," Kirby Reed, one of Ken's coworkers grabbed the man's attention. He just nodded at her, the girl sending a knowing look before going back to the police officer she was talking to.
"Lia, I gotta get to work, okay?" Ken asked, pulling her away from him. "All your friends are standing right over there. If you need to you can always come stay at home and it'll-"
"No!" Lia quickly cut Ken off, "I just-" She stopped, wiping at her cheeks. Her face was dirty with blood and tears smeared all over. "I just want Ethan." She mumbled, "I'd feel safer if he were here."
Ken glanced around, failing to see the boy. The only people around besides reporters were Ozzie, who had been getting checked up at the same ambulance Lia had come from, then a couple of other students named Amanda Cook, Cleo Vornado, and fraternal twins Jonah and Jenny Bennett.
Lia nodded as she realized by the look on his face that Ethan was yet to arrive, and so she pulled away from her father entirely. She knew he was here mostly for work, and he didn't really have the time to sit and comfort her and make sure she was okay. She just took in a deep breath, nodding once more before walking past him and to where the rest of her friends stood.
"Lia, I-" Amanda stopped. She didn't know what to say, yet neither did anyone else in their friend group.
Although they had been keeping up with all of the news articles and shows, they hadn't believed anything like this would actually happen.
Tears pricked at Lia's eyes as she glanced at Jonah. He stared at the ground emotionless, tears threatening to spill. He didn't let them fall, however, and instead would just look up at the dark night sky to make them go away.
"Jo," Lia softly said, ignoring everyone else.
The boy looked at her, and as he saw the look on her face the tears finally began to spill. A pained sob left Jonah's lips, and Lia found herself beginning to cry all over again. She pulled him in, wrapping her around tightly around his torso.
"What did he do to deserve that?" Jonah asked, his voice cracking in pain.
Jenny, who looked at her brother in hurt just lightly rubbed his back, while Jonah clung to Lia for support.
"He didn't," Lia managed to spit out, her eyes clouding with tears all over again.
"I-Is, are you bleeding?" Jonah sniffled, pulling away from Lia to look at her. "You need- you need to be checked out by the ambulance, you could di-"
"Jonah," Lia sternly said, resting her hand on his cheek. "This isn't my blood."
Jonah just looked her over, his hands grabbing at the stained material. He ran his fingers over the torn sweater, realization hitting his features. "This- this is Josh's?" He asked, looking back up at Lia.
She just nodded, "I tried to save him, Jo. I really did."
Jonah's lip quivered, his eyes meeting back up at Lia. "This is his," He repeated as if he were still trying to comprehend his death. "There's so much."
"Jo," Jenny gently said, "Maybe we should go." She sent daggers toward Lia, although nobody seemed to pay attention as they were more focused on Jonah.
"N-no, no!" Jonah called out. "My-my friends, they need me."
"It wasn't a good idea to come here, anyway." Jenny sent another glare toward Lia, "You shouldn't have come over here."
"Okay, wait-" Cleo stopped, looking at the girl. "What?"
"She came over here with his blood all over her knowing it was going to trigger Jonah." She motioned to Lia.
"Why would I purposely come to hurt Jonah?" Lia asked, "I was coming to comfort him."
"How pathetic do you have to be to blame this on Lia? We get you're friends with that bitch Savannah but that doesn't mean take anything you can get out on Lia. Something serious just happened, we lost our friend." Amanda snapped.
"I don't give two fucks about the problems Lia has with Savannah, all I care about is my brother which clearly Lia is affecting." Jenny motioned to Lia.
"Hey! Why don't you back the fuck up before you get beat the fuck up, yeah?" Tara suddenly came into view, stepping between Jenny and Jonah.
"Oh great, the whole clown posse is here," Jenny said, looking at the group who just arrived at the scene. "Jonah, let's go."
"Jonah you don't have to go," Lia said, looking at Jonah. He was still grabbing at her shirt, smearing the wet blood onto his fingers.
He had been completely unaware of the fight brewing around him, his eyes and mind set on the fact that his best friend had just been brutally murdered.
"Oh, look at you all big and mighty, sticking up for the fact that we don't even know what happened!" Jenny exclaimed. This caught her brother's attention, and everyone looked at her in shock. "For all we know, you could have done this!"
"W-what?" Lia stuttered out.
"Oh, don't act stupid!" Jenny exclaimed, waving her hands around. "You're fucking psycho, you think the rumors aren't going around that you're the person behind this?"
"I love you Jonah, but I'm about to beat the absolute shit out of your sister," Amanda warned.
"Me too," Tatum agreed.
"You're all delusional, haven't you been through this shit before?" Jenny asked, looking to the five who'd been involved in the Woodsboro massacre only a year prior. "Why would you willingly befriend her as if you wanted to go through it again?"
"Sam," Tara warned. "She's asking for it."
"Tara, don't." Sam grabbed onto her younger sister. "She's not worth it."
Lia pushed past Jonah, who just stared at his sister in confusion. Jenny smugly looked at Lia, her arms crossed over her chest.
"Tell us, Lia, tell us how you mutilated Joshua."
"Sam," Tara said again, seeming to be asking for her sister to hold her back.
Mindy and Chad shared a look, one of worry.
"You stabbed him when the others weren't looking, didn't you?" Jenny took a step closer to Lia. Lia stared back at her in silence, seeming to let her speak whereas the others made comments on the side. "You gutted him, knowing how fucked up Jonah would be. You gutted him knowing her had a family, that he had-"
She didn't get another word out. Gasps echoed throughout the night as the sound of a hand colliding with Jenny's cheek sounded through the air, a silence growing between the group.
Everyone stared at Lia in shock. They hadn't expected her to do anything, especially punch Jenny. They'd expected it from Amanda, Cleo, or even Tara or Tatum, but not Lia herself.
"How about you shut the fuck up and stop accusing people of shit they didn't do?" Lia advanced toward the Bennett sibling.
Right before she could get another punch in, Chad swooped in and picked the redhead off of the ground. He pulled her back, the girl flailing around in his arms. "You're pathetic just like Savannah! Maybe you're the killer!"
"And why would I kill Joshua?" Jenny screamed back, beginning to head in Chad and Lia's direction.
Before she could get very far, Jonah began to process what was happening. He stepped in front of Chad and Lia, the girl still moving around in his arms. "Don't you dare Jenny," He warned.
"You're siding with them, seriously?" Jenny asked disbelief written on her features.
"My best friend just died. He was just murdered in cold blood. Have some fucking decency for once," He glanced around the group as he said it, his words more than enough to cause Lia to fall limp in Chad's arms.
Nobody said anything, and so Jonah took that as his queue to leave. He pushed past his sister and walked off, following the street lights in the direction of who knows where.
Jenny just glared once more at the girl, "You just fucking wait, you stupid slut." She spat at the girl. She turned, following the direction her brother had walked in.
This left the group on their own, Lia breathing heavily as she gripped Chad's arms. He held onto her, still partially afraid she was going to run after Jenny the moment he let her go.
"Jesus, what a fucking ass." Cleo crossed her arms over her chest, breaking the silence.
"You can put me down now, Chad," Lia muttered, the boy listening immediately. She dropped to the ground with a quick thud, the adrenaline leaving her body as she began to feel the pain from punching Jenny.
She rubbed her hand in pain, wincing at the sudden feeling. Chad gently grabbed her hand to look at it, clicking his tongue. "Looks like you fucked your hand up," He said.
"Hopefully her face was worse," Tatum said.
"Probably, you heard the sound of bone hitting bone," Mindy said.
"Here, I'll take Lia to go get her hand wrapped up." Chad offered, glancing at the group.
The others agreed, grouping together as Chad pulled Lia away from the others. He led her to the ambulance where Ozzie sat, explaining what happened to Ken, Kirby, and Officer Bailey.
Officer Bailey was Quinn's dad, from what Lia gathered. She hadn't known much about him but was very intimidated by him because of the way he seemed to glare at her anytime she was around. She'd only been around him a handful of times because of this, although sometimes it was just unavoidable.
The two waited patiently for the medic to finish with Ozzie, Chad stealing a few glances at Lia.
"That was pretty badass." He complimented, to which she just pursed her lips.
"It was very out of character."
"She was a bit of a bitch," He said, sending her a look.
"It's only because all she knows about me is because of what Savannah's told her." Lia shook her head.
"Who's Savannah, by the way?" He asked.
"So, you remember the guy you fucked up at the mixer at the beginning of the year?" Lia asked.
Just before Chad could answer, the medic turned their attention to the two.
"She has a hurt hand, and needs wrapped," Chad told the medic, who just nodded as they went to gather the supplies they'd need. "The egotistical asshole, yes." Chad then answered, causing a dry laugh to leave Lia's mouth.
"Yeah, I dated him." She admitted, "And our relationship ended for numerous reasons, but one of them was because he decided I wasn't enough."
"What?" Chad asked, crossing his hands over his chest.
"Yep. The all-famous Savannah Bright, who has always been jealous of everything I've had, decided she wanted him too." Lia sadly explained, "And because he needed more than just me, it worked."
"That-that's so shitty," Chad spoke. "You don't deserve that."
"Well, it's the past, so." She shrugged, seeming to push any feelings about the situation down. "Has anyone told Ethan?"
"I've been calling and texting, but I think he hasn't been answering since he had Econ tonight." Chad shrugged.
"Well, thanks. I'm sure that I would've ended up in worse condition than Jenny if you weren't willing to pull me back like that." Lia winced as the medic began wrapping her hand.
"Hey, it's nothing. I knew someone was bound to hit her, I just don't think anyone expected it to be you." Chad glanced at the group, "You gonna be okay tonight?"
"Will you?" She asked, looking at him.
"Fair enough," He said.
It grew silent as the medic finished wrapping up Lia's hand, and once they were finished she was let go. Ozzie was let go around the same time, and so the trio began to walk toward where their friends stood.
The sound of a car pulling up outside of the yellow tape caught Lia's attention, and she felt her heart drop into her stomach as the back passenger side opened. Ethan practically threw himself out of the car. He'd barely waited until it stopped, and he immediately ran under the tape and in the direction of the ambulance, his eyes bouncing everywhere in search of one particular person.
Finally, his eyes landed on Lia. She had fallen behind the two boys she'd been walking with, and feelings began to overwhelm her all over again as she watched Ethan make his way over to her.
Once she was in arms reach, Ethan didn't hesitate on grabbing ahold of her. He pulled her close to his chest, his eyes squeezing shut in relief as he'd been so afraid something had happened to her. He would've raised hell if Lia had been murdered, and so when he made eye contact with his father standing next to Ken Murphy, he glared as hard as he could. The older man just looked away, putting his attention back on the two FBI agents.
"I got here as soon as I could, Li." He mumbled, pulling away from her long enough to get a good look at her. "I had my phone off because I was in Econ, but as soon as I got Chad's texts-"
"Ethan," Lia said, cutting him off. The boy's mouth slammed shut, taking in the blood all over her body. "I'm okay," She told him softly as if she were reading his mind. "I'm not, but I'm physically fine."
Ethan cupped her cheeks, his body physically sagging in relief. He gently pressed his lips to hers, peppering short kisses on her lips. "I'm so glad," He spoke between pecks, "I was so scared I lost you."
"So when the fuck did this happen?!"
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2292 words.
I hated this chapter, I'm sorry if it sucked :/ it took me a while to write ngl.
Don't forget if you're enjoying the story to check out my other ones!
* This chapter is not edited *
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