"Tiffany! You got a 53 on your science test!" Zack McGill said.
"Shut up, Zack. Please. Your adolescent habits get really annoying," Tiffany
Carter replied calmly, not looking up from her poetry book.
"Adolescent? Since when do you use big words?" Tiffany's longtime crush,
Jake Westwood, asked her, snickering.
"I started using big words at about the same time your vocabulary dropped,"
Tiffany shot back.
"Jesus, take a chill pill, Tiff. I was just making a statement."
"Yeah, well, do me a favor and keep your mouth shut from now on," Tiffany
said, returning to her book.
Tiffany Carter was an average 14 year old. She had a pretty good family,
fairly good friends, but she was depressed. She hid it well, but starting
on that day, December 11, 1998, she couldn't hide it anymore.
'What's her problem? She's been like this for awhile,' Jake thought. He was
so oblivious to the fact that she lusted after him morning, noon, and night.
He thought that she just wanted to be friends.
'Dear Journal,' she wrote that night. 'I don't know what to do. I've been
so depressed lately. I can't tell my parents, I can't go on prozac, how am
I going to solve this?'
The next day after school, Tiffany prepared herself for what she was going
to do. She knew that Jake and Zack usually went to the park on Thursday
afternoons to hang out, so that was where she was going to go.
Tiffany packed a backpack with books, a rope, and other things that she would
need. 'I'm so sorry I have to do this, Jake. You just don't understand, do
you?' she thought sadly.
When she arrived at Gold Flower park, she was greeted by the sweet smells
of fresh flowers and clear pond water. She walked over to a secluded spot
where no one would see her, except for Jake and Zack, since this is where
they went. Tiffany would know, she had followed Jake home from school on
Thursdays on numerous occasions.
She prepared the tree... hung the rope on a branch, made a stack of books,
and stuck her head through the noose. She sighed and held up the note that
she had. Jake Westwood, it said in bold blue letters on the envelope.
She took a deep breath and kicked the books down. "Sorry, Jake" were the
last words that came out of Tiffany Lynn Carter's mouth on that cold December
afternoon. Her limp, lifeless body hung from the tree, a satisfied smile
on her face.
When Jake came to meet Zack, he saw something in the corner of his eye. He
turned around and screamed. Tiffany's body hung from a tree, an envelope
in her jacket pocket. He ran over to her and untied the rope that was tight
around her neck. He gently lay her body down on the grass beside him and
stroked her cheek. A tear fell from his eye.
'If only she knew how much I cared for her,' he thought, 'maybe she wouldn't
be here, lying beside me, dead... if only she knew that I loved her.'
©1998 Catherine Court
The author welcomes your comments.
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