The Creek

You check the time. Perfect. As intended, you’ve arrived fashionably late. You didn’t want to be here, not after what had happened. You take a deep breath as you open the door and enter the enormous beach house. There were loads of people here so perhaps he wouldn’t see you, after all you hadn’t seen or spoken to each other in just over a year. As you made your way to the bar trying to stay hidden from sight, you suddenly hear a familiar voice coming up behind you.

“Sara? I didn’t expect to see you here.” He said as he approached you with a smile.

“I didn’t want to be.” You tell him, turning back to the bartender and ordering your drink.

“Don’t be like that.” He sighed and placed his hand on your shoulder.

You quickly brush it off and walk away. Maybe some fresh air would do you some good. You make your way outside staring off into the distance as you listen to the waves crash against the shore. You close your eyes and breath in the crisp air trying to forget the memories of the previous year. You feel a tear run down your cheek as the events play out like a bad movie. How could he be so calm? Acting like nothing even happened.

“You can’t hide from me forever.” He says, startling you out of your thoughts.

“Watch me.” You say, turning to go back inside.

He grabs your hand and spins you around so that you are facing him.

“Why are you being like this? He asked.

“Do you not even remember what happened? How are you so calm?” You ask.

“Sara, I told you, we have to move on and forget about that. We need to go on with our lives as if it never happened.” He tells you.

How could he be so cold? What we did was horrible. We murdered someone in cold blood and just left them. The police never found his body, he was still listed as a missing person, but they didn’t have hopes of ever finding him alive at this point. They didn’t have a clue of what we had done and we agreed to never speak of it again and to go our separate ways. Before that we had been pretty close, I had known Derek since I was eight years old. We did everything together, until that night at least. Derek decided to play a prank on the new kid, Frankie, he wasn’t the most popular to say the least. Nobody really liked him much, but he still didn’t deserve to die. I wasn’t a part of Derek’s plan, quite the opposite really. He picked me up and told me we were going on a boat trip to celebrate a friend’s birthday. Imagine my surprise when I got in the car and saw Frankie in the back seat. Derek told him it was his birthday and Frankie thought someone liked him enough to invite him to a birthday celebration. I told Derek to call off his plans before we got on the boat, but he wouldn’t listen. His plan was to push Frankie overboard and then speed away and make him swim home. A harmless prank he told me, just innocent fun. Innocent my ass, but how were we supposed to know that Frankie couldn’t swim? As soon as Derek pushed him over I could see the terror in his eyes and instantly knew we messed up. I told Derek to dive in and save him but it was too late. Frankie swallowed too much water and was dead before Derek could even get him out of the water. 

Another tear slides down your cheek as you remember the events of that terrible day. Derek wraps his arms around you as you bury your face in his chest. You can’t hold back any longer, you had been putting on a facade for too long. You let out a sigh and like flood gates opening up the tears stream down your face.

“He’s gone.” You cry into Derek’s shoulder.

“It wasn’t our fault.” He says as he holds you.

“We should have told someone.” You sobbed.

“Sara, I would have went to jail. It was premeditated.” 

“It was an accident.” You corrected.

You couldn’t take it anymore. You had kept his secret for an entire year. It was time to come clean and if Derek wasn’t going to do it, you would do it for him. You pulled away from his arms and wiped your face. Heading back through the beach house and to the front door. Derek followed you trying to reason with you, but you had had enough. Everything was eating you alive. You couldn’t eat, couldn’t think, couldn’t even sleep. You walked to the edge of the driveway and pulled out your cell phone to call a taxi. Derek pleaded with you not to do anything until the two of you had a chance to talk about it, but you refused. You got in the taxi and gave the driver Frankie’s address. You would start by coming clean to his mother, the poor woman never lost hope that he would come home safely. She deserved to know that her son would never be coming back. Your mind raced as you sat in the back of the taxi cab trying to figure out what you were going to say to Frankie’s mom. What do you even say to someone in this situation? As the taxi pulled up the driveway and let you out you took a deep breath as you walked up the steps to the porch. Trying to find the words to say you rang the bell and waited for what felt like an eternity for Frankie’s mother to answer the door. Finally the door opened and a petite woman with shoulder length salt and pepper hair was standing in front of you.

“Can I help you?” The woman asked.

“Ms. Cooper, I know what happened to your son.”