The Devil On My Side

“Oh no. We messed up” I whisper to Katrina. 

We stare at the bloody body on the floor right beside our sneakers. 

“Why did we do that?” I think.

Katrina just smiles. She stands there looking at the body, with a face that reads “this is my best accomplishment.” I start to panic as some police sirens start coming near the place we are. 

“Let's get out of here,” Katrina whispers.

We run down the street around 15 blocks after we pause to catch our breath. 

“That.. was epic” Katrina giggled.

I thought the exact opposite of her. Katrina may be my best friend but sometimes she goes crazy. By crazy, I mean.. insane. She can turn somehow into a real life devil. How did she manage to persuade me to kill someone?

Oh wait.. she didn’t. She lied that we were doing some music video recording. Why did I have to believe her? I know she’s not the type of person to shoot a music video. I’m so plausible. We walk to my house as if nothing happened. Katrina’s parents got divorced 3 years ago, so she basically lives at mine. She hates her parents and if you ever come to my house, Katrina’s probably going to be over. We arrive at my house and enter slowly.

“Hi honey! Hi Katrina! Did you girls have fun at the movies?” mom asks.

“Yes Ms. Olivers” Katrina answers for me.

Katrina is the best at lying. When I try lying, my eyes start twitching and my face turns red. By red I mean tomato red. 

We walk up the stairs to my room and lay on my bed as we look for something to watch on my mini tv. 

“The news?” Katrina suggests.

She may be very rough but on the inside she may sometimes be a granny. She loves watching educational channels and the news. We always end up watching world records or National Geographic.

“Sure,” I replied with a yawn following right after.

Normally I would keep trying to get her to change her mind and watch some anime with me but today I wasn’t in the mood.

I doze off into thinking if the police found the dead body yet or if they would somehow trace it back to us.

I look at Katrina and she seems to be not enjoying today's news. When I look at the tv screen I almost choke. 

“Oh.. my.. lord” we say simultaneously.

A silence comes among us as we look at the tv screen and each other again and again.

What are we going to do. The worst thoughts start running through my mind. 

“Is that us in the background running? Do you think they noticed? What if they do something with our fingerprints? We should tell the cops before we get in bigger trouble!” I say in a very fast and panicked tone. 

“It’s fine. We wore gloves and masks. They shouldn't be able to recognize us” Katrina assures me with great confidence.

Sometimes I wish I was as confident as her. She never has panics and always just goes with what she thinks. She never lets anyone talk her down and speaks her opinion on everything. How great would it be if I was like that?

Slam! I hear the door open. Mom walks in the room with a worried look on her face. 

“Oh so you saw the news too” she says.

I look at Katrina because I don't know what to say. She also looks at me as if she ran out words also. 

“Look mom, we can explain” I start to say.

“There's no explaining needed. Thank god you’re safe!” mom interrupts.

Me and Katrina look at her confused. Katrina smiles. 

“We’re okay Ms. Olivers. Thank you for worrying about us though.” Katrina says.

“Of course dear. What were you going to say?” mom asks me.

“Oh uh I was going to say that after the movies we went to the… candy store and each bought.. one lollipop?” I lie.

“Your face is turning red and your eyes are twitching. I know you're lying.” she says in a very frightening way.

“Uh.. haha?” I laugh awkwardly.

“It's fine if you guys bought more than one lollipop. Your safety is the only thing that matters to me right now.” she smiles.

Thank god mom wasn’t talking about turning us in, to the police because she was suspicious of how we were a block away from the body. That’s when I felt bad for mom. I felt bad that she was worried about us while we were lying to her about almost everything. How worried she must be. We have to tell mom about what we did soon I think as mom leaves the room.

“Katrina?” I ask.

“Yea?” she responds.

“Don't you ever feel guilty about lying to someone?” I ask her.

“Nope why?” she replies with her great confidence.

“Just wondering” I lied.

We sit on the bed watching National Geographic for another 2 hours. In my mind I keep wondering about if I should tell mom. One part of me really wants to, but the other part of me doesn't want to get Katrina in trouble.

“Katrina. I really want to tell my mom about what we did. I feel so guilty about how she's worried about us while we’re lying to her.” I finally say.

“Do you want to end up in juvie?” she asks.

“No but-” I start to say.

“Then shut your mouth and act like nothing happened. If someone asks about it, just lie and we’ll be good.” she harshly interrupts.

We sit in silence for another ten minutes until she gets a call from her dad and has to go home. I lead her out the door and say goodbye. Then I go back upstairs to my room and watch anime. I try to get “the incident” out of my head but it just won't go away. The guilt also lays parked in my head while I eat dinner. 

“Mom,” I called out for her.

“Yes honey?” she responds while washing the dishes.

“It was me. I killed him” I say.