Chapter 26

A Friendship In Ruins

The way the naked, mutilated body of poor Liv Morgan had been dumped near Hope's Creek local pool didn't stray too far from how Kaitlyn had described her body being discarded before she broken down in tears in front of her friend; she indeed had been discarded like she was trash, as it turned out. She had gone missing on Sunday evening and her body was discovered on Thursday night. Rage, horror, sadness and disgust must have risen deep within anyone who had read the news article regarding her discovery in the most recent news paper, where everyone could read how exactly she had been found. Liv's body had been heartlessly stuffed inside a trash bag that perhaps hadn't been big enough for her entire body to fit inside or the killer had been in a haste while getting of rid of her, since she had been found with her legs sticking outside the bag; if she could have fitted inside while the bag could still be tied shut, then she most likely would have been mistaken for stray trash and ignored, because after all, why would someone bat an eye about a lonely trash bag nearby a public facility? The ones who had found her were two local women who happened to pass by the pool while they were on their way to a birthday party of a mutual friend of theirs; police were called immediately at a nearby house when they, much to their absolute horror, saw Liv's legs sticking out of the bag. The sole reason why the corpse had been identified so quickly was because of her face, that didn't have any mutilations whatsoever… but if it had been her face that had been entirely caved in instead of the back of her head, having been bashed in repeatedly with a blunt object so violently that more than one half of her brain had turned into a gory, soup-like substance, then it could have taken a longer time for the forensics team to correctly identify the unfortunate girl.

Fear and shock had already swept through Hope's Creek once when it had become clear that when Alicia's death had been anything but natural and it seemed to increase in tenfold when the following missing girl had turned out to be brutally murdered as well. You could feel that atmosphere wherever you would walk through this once so peaceful, quiet, all-American town, no matter where you would walk, be it in the more shady part of town where Roberta Lee was definitely the most well-known person who lived there (for all the wrong reasons, of course), the shops, or the high-class neighborhood; it was unsettling, unrelenting and suffocating. It had infected all of Hope's Creek. The police wagons driving down the streets almost felt like it had become a common sight, just like the police officers who would not only question anyone who happened to live around the area where Liv Morgan's body had been found if they had seen or heard anything suspicious on that night, but also people from other neighborhoods. Much to their increasing frustration, it seemed like not one person had seen or heard one thing that could lead to the person who possibly not only had killed Liv, but Alicia as well. Not one witness, just like in her case.

One certain family in Hope's Creek was unfortunate enough to suffer far worse than everyone else did. Rumors from their neighbors had it that when the horrifying news that absolutely no parents wished to hear, reached the household, Liv's mother was so distraught that she fainted almost immediately and could only hysterically cry upon regaining consciousness. Liv's parents were completely inconsolable, for their daughter, who they desperately wished for to be found alive and safe as quick as possible, was ripped out of their lives in the most grisly way imaginable.

Kaitlyn remembered Liv once talking about all the plans she had in mind for the summer when she come over to her place on that day. Roasting marshmallows above a bonfire, going to Bangor to visit an arcade hall that had recently opened, swimming in the river, finally try out skateboarding, playing hide and seek in the woods during the night with only a flashlight… none of them were going to happen now. Her friend was gone. And not 'gone' as in like she had moved away or broke off the friendship because of a fight or something, as most friendships end in these ways. No. She was murdered. Murdered and dumped in the gutter like she was a piece of worthless stray garbage instead of a human being made of flesh and blood. It was these thoughts that made tears instantly well up in her eyes and spill down her cheeks. How? How could someone be so cruel, so heartless, so twisted? What kind of person would do something like this? Liv didn't deserve any of this! These tears would mostly flow during the morning and night, on times where she was lying in her bed; that's when her grief for Liv would be at its worst.

Thankfully there was someone who was there for her to make it all a bit easier for her.

It was at this point that AJ had become the only friend she had. Not only that, but she also happened to be the one person who had been there for her the most. Well yes, her parents did know how much Liv's death had devastated their daughter and they did try her best to comfort as much as possible in their own way; her mother cooked Kaitlyn's favorite dinner (spaghetti carbonara, which she barely able to eat) at the end of the day where the naked, bloodied corpse that was found in a trash bag was confirmed to be her missing friend and her father constantly reassured her that the bastard who did this would definitely be caught very soon since there was so much police force in town now. But AJ had been the one who had been most capable of easing her inner pain. During the three days that followed after the gruesome discovery at the local pool, it had been the petite girl that could make Kaitlyn smile and briefly forget about her grief. It were the little things she did for her that mattered so much to her, such as the time where she snuck into her bedroom at night with a bag of chips, two cans of soda and three comic books when her parents were out for dinner at some restaurant at Bangor; the girls had spend the night on Kaitlyn's bed snacking on the deliciously salty snack while reading the dialogue of the superheroes and villains out loud with comically-toned voices. Or the time when they made a bunch of paper boats and let them race against each other at the river, with a large branch that they had placed across the water acting as the finish line. AJ's boats had won most of the matches but that didn't matter to Kaitlyn, because it had been a lot of fun nonetheless. All of this had meant so much to her, it had been these small things that she had needed so much and they did make her grief more bearable.

And it was exactly after those three days passed that a third girl went missing; it happened on a Monday night.

She had gone out that night to go to a poorly-timed birthday party of a friend and just like with Alicia and Liv, she never arrived home. The only thing the police found of her was her bike, which was lying next to the road with a flat tire, so she would have never had a chance of escaping her kidnapper even if she attempted to get away on her bike. And that girl's name was Carmella Van Dale.

No matter how hard the police searched, they couldn't find a single trace of whoever had taken her nor any witnesses; the bastard was like a damn ghost when it came to targeting his victim and getting away. Or he was so convinced of his own luck that he had grown bold.

'Wait… Carmella has gone missing?' There had been a small hint of surprise in AJ's voice when Kaitlyn told her about this when they were once again hanging out at Casa La AJ the day after fear fully struck Hope's Creek once more. She stopped reading the magazine she had been reading earlier down and stared at the bushes for a couple of seconds. Then she scoffed and twitched one of the sides of her mouth into a quick smirk. 'Well… can't say that I'm too saddened about that.' she said before shifting her attention back on an article about the latest fashion for girls from her age.

Well… if Kaitlyn had to be honest, her reaction didn't really surprise her; she knew how Carmella had treated her all this time, she knew it all too well. But still… this was something you wouldn't wish upon your worst enemy. Yes, Carmella Van Dale was a total bitch, she had always agreed on that, but she didn't deserve something this horrific. God knows what kind of hell she was going through right now, that is, if she was still alive at this point. She just hoped that the police would be able to find her and her kidnapper before it was too late.

And with all of this police force on the streets these days, you would assume that some clue that could lead to the killer's arrest and Carmella's rescue to be found fairly quick, right? Unfortunately, this hope, of which Mr. and Mrs. Van Dale were desperately holding onto, more so than all the other residents of Hope's Creek, proved to be in vain. A whole week, an agonizing time where fear ruled the entire town like an invisible, vicious tyrant, passed by without the police finding anything. Not one person in the right mind dared to let their beloved daughter, sister or cousin go out at night while this lunatic was still out there. People still tried to continue living on their lives during this time, but you could still clearly see and feel that things had changed. The whole community had been shaken at its core by the horrors that had struck Hope's Creek and the tense, fearful atmosphere that was lingering around the whole town was nearly suffocating. This was not the sleepy, uneventful but peaceful Hope's Creek Kaitlyn knew and grew up in. It was like she had somehow ended up in a whole different place that just happened to look identical to Hope's Creek, like some strange world that could only possibly exist in nightmares. This was all because of that bastard, that sick bastard, this was all his fault…

Even though this summer would be bound to become the darkest time in the history of this town, both AJ and Kaitlyn agreed to try their best to make the best of this summer as much as they could; this season was something that psychopath could never take away from them.

And that was exactly what they did during this same week. They were doing exactly what everyone else who lived here was trying to do; continue to live their lives. And it just so happened that the girls' lives were still young, ready to be filled in with countless, beautiful memories that were yet to come, all of them surely stemming from the few years of precious teenage life that they still had left. The two girls only had each other to spend the summer with and they both knew that. Not for one day had Kaitlyn cared about what her parents had said about her friend that one time; AJ was her best friend and not even they could get between them. They would meet up every day during the week and together, they created the most wonderful memories that Kaitlyn (and most definitely AJ too) would forever remember and hold dear to her heart, no matter what age she would reach.

In the vast area of lively green that were the local woods, the girls were able to escape from the suffocating atmosphere that had swallowed up the town and live in their own world, which would belong to them and them alone. It was like nature was smiling down upon them, since every day they would visit this amazing place, the sun would brightly shine without a single, bothersome cloud to get in its way. One of their favorite activities had to be playing tag; it was that one game where they could put all their energy into. The girls would run as fast as they could when one would try to stay out of reach of the other, often playfully taunting each other and emitting laughs. Other things they both loved to do was to climb in the trees to see who could climb the furthest (though none of them would go further than two and a half meters), chase each other around with sticks while pretending they were holding deadly weapons, draw silly pictures in the sand, see who could throw pebbles the furthest down the river while standing on the bridge, tell each other jokes and imagine what kind of mythical creatures could possibly live in these woods and what kind of weapons they had to use to hunt them down.

One particularly warm day during the week gave Kaitlyn the idea of looking through the drawers of her wardrobe to see if she still had a spare swimsuit left. Thankfully there was a sunflower yellow swimsuit, of which the last time she had worn was a year ago or so, waiting on the bottom of the drawer to be rediscovered by her and it turned out to be exactly AJ's size. Her eyes had blinked in surprise when her friend presented this little gift to her, which made Kaitlyn secretly wonder if she had ever owned a swimsuit in her life. Their clothes and shoes stayed behind on the shore when they entered the calm river, changed into their swimsuits and hoping that the water would be cold enough to cool down on this day. The water's temperature was just fine and the girls were having the time of their lives, swimming down the river, seeing who could hold her breath under water for the longest time and splashing each other with the refreshing water. Both agreed that two hours of swimming was enough for them and spend the following hour lying on the pebbles on the shore, letting themselves dry up in the sun and trying to figure out what kind of object some clouds in the sky resembled. Kaitlyn would never forget the twinkle in AJ's eyes when she told her that she could keep the swimsuit after they were done dressing up.

And then there was this one time where they had to hurry to their hideout with two large, white, grease-stained boxes containing freshly baked pizzas (pepperoni for Kaitlyn, Hawaiian for AJ) before they would get cold; the smaller girl had come up with the idea of leaving the pizzas in the sun for a little while if they'd happen to get cold, but Kaitlyn wasn't quite sure if it would have any effect. Luckily they could both tell the temperature of the tasty lunch had barely changed after they had picked up from the recently opened pizzeria near the town house. It was quite a sight to behold for the passerby's who happened to pass them by on that afternoon; two girls, young enough to be considered as the next victims of the murderous madman who had been terrorizing this town for what felt like an eternity and yet both seemed to be completely unfazed by the fear that kept Hope's Creek steadily in its cold, suffocating grip, speeding down the streets with one girl controlling the bike and the other sitting right behind her with one hand placed on her friend's waist while holding the pizza boxes with the other. As soon as they sat down on the inflatable mattress and swung open the greasy, carton boxes, they dug in like any teen would do whenever pizza was presented. Even though they were too busy with chomping down on their slices to speak one word to another, they were still having a good time nonetheless. Because hey… it was summer, they were young, and it was just the two of them in their secret hideout in the woods. How much better would this get?

There were plenty of clothes that could be traded between the two, something which Kaitlyn saw as another way of rebelling against her parents, particularly her mother, who had always practically been forcing her to wear those stupid, girly clothes for as long as she could remember. And it just happened on that very Monday afternoon, where the girls decided to trade some clothes, that she didn't feel one ounce of regret when she took out some of her clothes she chose to give away (a light yellow summer dress with puffy sleeves, a pair of white socks with a pink heart pattern and an orange, thin vest with a yellow ribbon attached to the pockets) to her friend, because that morning she woke up to her parents having yet another heated argument downstairs in the kitchen; she could hardly understand what it was about this time because she was still lying in her bed, but whatever it was, it was bad enough for them to scream at each other like goddamn demons. Damn… the day had barely begun and the atmosphere in the house was already ruined. Kaitlyn was so angry at her parents for that, it was like they didn't care about how they affected her with their constant fighting. That's when she decided to rebel against them in the best way she knew how; meet up with AJ at their hideout and give her some of her clothes. When she arrived at Casa La AJ with a backpack full of clothes, it turned out that her friend seemingly had the same idea in her head, much to her amusement. And so the girls spend most of their afternoon having their own little dress up party in the woods; out of the few clothes AJ had brought for her, Kaitlyn's favorite new piece of clothing had to be a denim dungaree; wearing it was so comfortable and it was definitely something a tomboyish girl like her would wear. After they were done with checking out their gifts, they went out for a deliciously cold smoothie.

But just as it went with all the other wonderful days they had spend together, the sky eventually darkened from a lively shade of blue to blue-purplish, signaling the incoming evening. It was be at that time of the day where the two friends would part ways and head home, because after all… they hadn't forgotten about the monster that roamed the streets of Hope's Creek at night. Each time they would head home, they promised each other that they'd give each other a call once they would arrive home, and thankfully, one of the girls always picked up when the other called.

Despite being thrown back into the harsh reality of being forced to live with parents that were at each other's throats all the time and knowing that there was an unthinkable kind of evil still out there that kept the entire town in his grip, Kaitlyn genuinely enjoyed every day she spend with her friend, promising herself to never forget these memories and always went to sleep those nights looking forward to the next day. And while she did have a great time with AJ, she did think it was quite a shame that they hadn't met up with Dolph anymore during the past week. That would have been really fun, even if it would be for a little while, as long as she would see him and talk to him. Just the thought of him talking to her as soon as they would sit down on one of the bar stools made butterflies gently flutter around in the pits of her stomach, it was that sole thought of being around him that was needed to make her look even forward to the next time they would see each other again. She had no idea when it would happen, but hopefully soon enough.

It was on that very moment when she thought of all of this where she realized how much she actually missed him…

There had been a couple of times during these past days where AJ had been talking about him, and each time his name would roll out of her mouth, Kaitlyn noticed the twinkles in her eyes growing as bright like Christmas lights. ('Mrs. April Jeanette Ziggler… that does have a nice little ring to it, doesn't it?', 'Seriously, how can a guy be so ridiculously cute?' and 'I wonder what he'll think of me once he sees me in this dress!' were some examples of these occasions) Yes, Kaitlyn was perfectly aware of the feelings her friend had for the handsome boy... but little did AJ know that she had been harboring those exact same feelings for Dolph as well. Kaitlyn wasn't going to lie about it; there had been moments where she felt so damn guilty and like a horrible person for having a crush on her friend's crush. This was so not okay, not okay at all. But still, she couldn't help herself. She had tried to ignore the butterflies whenever she thought of Dolph, she really did, but it was no use. There was no way she going to tell AJ about it, knowing damn well what the consequences for their friendship could be. Not once had she minded sharing a secret with her, but this one had to be kept for herself, for as long as she had to.

When she came home on that Monday evening, she felt a tight knot in her stomach that she had felt plenty of times and was dreading the atmosphere that she was bound to feel all around her. Kaitlyn had expected either two voices shouting one insult after another at each other or a silence so tense that it would make anyone who'd step into this house uncomfortable as hell. But as soon as she had closed the backdoor behind her, she immediately felt that something was… different. Soft, romantic violin music and inaudible muttering could be heard, clearly coming from the living room. What the heck? Kaitlyn tried to be as quiet as possible when she practically tiptoed from the kitchen to the living room, quickly peeking inside once she reached it. Her parents didn't notice her at all. Their attention was hogged up by the romantic movie that was being broadcasted on the television. What Kaitlyn was seeing was an incredibly rare sight. They were cuddling up on the couch, looking like they were having a genuinely good, relaxing time together; they had lit up some scented candles and poured themselves two glasses of red wine. So was there still some love between them after all? The dread of going back into a warzone of a life at home she had been feeling for nearly the entire day disappeared like a small patch of leftover snow in a ray of sunlight, filling Kaitlyn with relief. Thank goodness… it was the best kind of change she could imagine for this household. The girl decided not to disturb her parents and headed upstairs.

In her bedroom she lied down on her bed with a comic book she took from Casa La AJ in her hands (she couldn't wait for tomorrow to read how Batman would escape from the Joker's deadly trap, she had promised AJ to bring the comic back tomorrow morning and not to spoil the ending). Though the story was very exciting to read, she couldn't help but think about their plan for tomorrow. Their plan was to take the bus to Bangor to visit the arcade hall that had recently opened, so of course they had to check that out. It just happened to be the same idea Liv had before she… Kaitlyn barely managed to push back a lump with the size of a brick in her throat. It almost felt like treason to Liv's memory, if she had to be honest. Not only that, but she suddenly also felt like it was wrong to have fun despite the fact her friend had died. It was that same feeling she had when her grandfather died after losing a short and unfortunate battle against a sudden case of pneumonia when she was around eight (or was it nine?) years old. She remembered feeling ashamed of herself when she found herself giggling about two classmates goofing around during lunch break one week after the funeral, feeling like she should still be mourning her grandfather's passing. Kaitlyn remembered confessing this to Mrs. Ferguson and she told her that this was normal; losing a loved one was difficult for any person, but life still goes on for you, as it should. As long as you would keep carrying that person's memory in your heart, then said person would never really be gone. In the meanwhile, life still went on and you should be able to live it to the fullest. Thinking these words her ever so kind teacher had spoken to her did help to make her feel better. Of course she would always remember her late friend, in all of her tomboy glory. How could she possibly ever forget her? Liv would forever remain her friend, even if she was gone. And she probably would want her to keep on living her life. Kaitlyn promised that she would try her best. Now with that heavy sense of sadness mixed with guilt disappearing into the background, she was able to focus on her comic book again.

Muffled but loud mumbling emerged from the living room after ten minutes or so, which turned into furious shouting.

Oh God… here they went again. Kaitlyn's stomach instantly wrapped itself into a tight knot with so much force that it caused her to feel absolutely sick.

Why? Why couldn't it ever be nice in this house? Why did they have to be like this? Have they ever considered how much their daughter was emotionally suffering because of what they constantly did? This was exactly why she dreaded coming home, why she much rather went to the woods than stay here in this explosive hellhole, why she couldn't enjoy living here. All of that was their fault, it was all because of them. The sickening feeling then slowly began to change into genuine resentment once she realized all of this. It grew so strong that it nearly made her want to clench her fists, only not doing this because she just happened to be holding the comic book in her hands and wishing not to return it tomorrow to AJ all crumpled up. As each second passed, the argument that had unfolded downstairs grew more and more explosive, growing loud enough for Kaitlyn to understand about what they were fighting about this time; it was about her father acting like a drunken idiot. Kaitlyn had no idea how much wine he had drunk, but clearly it was enough to send her mother flying into a blinding rage, judging by how loudly she was screaming at her husband.

Enough was enough.

If they were allowed to shout at each other, then she should be allowed to shout at them as well.

Kaitlyn closed the comic book, got off her bed, stormed out of her bedroom and walked down the stairs with genuine anger boiling inside her. She was so fed up with this and she wasn't afraid of letting her parents know about this. As soon as she got downstairs, she headed straight towards the living room, where her mother yelled at her father about how much she regretted marrying such a piece of shit like him, to which her father responded by telling her to shut the fuck up.

She was so done with this.

'Cut it out! Both of you, just cut it out!' the girl angrily yelled at the top of her lungs, instantly catching their attention. She noticed both of them raising their eyebrows in mild surprise, but the surprise only lasted for a good three seconds, during which they had also fallen silent.

'Kaitlyn! Stay out of this!' her mother snapped at her. 'This is none of your business! This is something between adults! Go upstairs, now!'

'No, I won't!' Kaitlyn replied. 'Why can't you two ever stop fighting? Do you have any idea what it does to me? I'm so sick of you constantly fighting! I hate it! It makes me feel miserable! Not only that, it makes me want to fucking puke! Every time when things here start to feel better, you always come up with some bullshit reason to fight like crazy! It's all because of your fights that I can't stand living here!'

'Then go live somewhere else then, if you're so miserable here!' her mother furiously shouted back. 'You ungrateful brat, you can go live with that scummy Lee girl for all I care!'

There was so many angry words stuck in Kaitlyn's throat that they clogged it up, she wanted to say so much, and yet couldn't do it. Simply going upstairs wasn't going to do the trick. Filled with hatred towards her parents, she decided she didn't want to stay in this house for another second. If they still wanted to fight like two idiots after all this, she didn't want to be around. Kaitlyn turned around and went upstairs to quickly put on her shoes. Then she headed back downstairs and ran to the front door. And just before her parents at any chance to call out to her, she was already outside and swinging the door shut behind her with a loud bang.

While she walked down the street, still steaming with genuine anger, a frisky breeze rolled down the street. Once the cold brushed against her bare legs, Kaitlyn seemed to slightly snap out of it and let out a trembling sigh. The anger was still there, but another feeling, which slowly grew stronger and stronger by the second, soon emerged and managed to overlap the other, so much that it nearly brought tears to her eyes. God, she was feeling so… lonely, all of a sudden. It was horrible. All she wished for right now was a pair of arms around her, a soothing voice to tell her that everything was going to be okay and some pleasant warmth that could put her at ease… and there was only one person she could think of when it came to all these needs. She needed comfort, she needed it so badly. The girl looked up at the sky. The evening had slowly began to fully set in; she remembered the sky having this dreamy blue-purplish shade when she had arrived home, but now that some time had passed, it had clearly turned darker. She had to hurry up before it would become night would fall… and she knew damn well what was still lurking out there. One single shiver down her spine was all that was needed for her to walk as fast as she could, all while trying her best to push back her tears.

It took Kaitlyn most likely a little less than half an hour for her to finally arrive at Ziggler's. By this time her arms and legs had grown so cold that it almost felt like it was autumn instead of summer. And much to her dismay, she had miserably failed in trying not cry while she had been walking. Oh man, she must be looking like hell right now… Kaitlyn did have an idea on how her face was looking like and she knew that it was everything but a pretty sight. The area around her eyes was feeling warm, having definitely turned red due to her tears spilling out; she dearly hoped this wouldn't be too visible when she would enter the bar. The girl let out a shaky sigh and opened the door in front of her.

Even though there was faint smell of cigarettes and beer lingering in the air, she was surprised to see that not one customer could be found in this bar. Was it perhaps because of the time? Was it still too early for people to drop by? Those questions soon didn't matter at all, because she saw that one person she had been longing to see from the moment she walked away from her home. He was standing behind the bar, having just finished drying off a beer glass and now looking up in surprise. Kaitlyn managed to curl her mouth into a small smile as a warm sense of safety developed in her chest.

'Oh… hey, Kaitlyn!' Dolph said, putting down the glass. 'How's it going? Where is AJ?'

'Hey Dolph…'

That's when the blonde teen saw the reddened area around the girl's eyes and nose. He had a friendly smile on his face while had greeted her earlier, which quickly disappeared as his face now expressed worry. That's when Kaitlyn knew that the red spots still had been visible after all.

'What's the matter?' Dolph asked with a slightly softened voice. 'Have you been crying? What happened to you?'

This was what she wanted, what she needed so badly… Just as she was heading towards the bar to hop onto a stool and reveal to him how the explosive drama that happened at home was what made her come here, she noticed that Dolph was already approaching her. She stood still, allowing him to get closer to her. It was just the two of them in this bar; outside from the classic rock and roll coming from the jukebox, there wasn't any other sound that implicated that someone else was around. The closer Dolph got to her, the stronger this amazing feeling in the pits of the girl's stomach became, pushing all the negativity from earlier away and making her forget all about it. She finally saw him again, it filled her up with so much happiness, you couldn't even imagine; it almost brought tears to her eyes. Though her smile grew a little bigger, it still had something saddening. Dolph was now standing in front of her with that same worried expression on his face. Never had a boy been this concerned about her… it made her love him even more for that.

'Jesus, Kaitlyn…' Dolph mumbled as he studied her partially reddened, warm face. 'You want to tell me about it?'

The girl didn't speak one single word, letting the feeling inside her overwhelm her. She fully and utterly foolishly surrendered herself to it without a second thought. Her arms found Dolph's waist and closed themselves around it, pulling his body close against hers. As soon as she rested her cheek against his chest, Kaitlyn dared to let out a little sigh of pure bliss and close her eyes. All Dolph could do was look down at her with his eyes widened in surprise, looking for any words to say, but whatever he tried to say only came out as awkward, astonished stuttering. Kaitlyn didn't notice any of this. This was bliss, this was happiness, this was how safety and comfort felt like… The one-sided, wonderful embrace was now lasting for seven seconds, but to her, it felt like an eternity, in the best way imaginable. It was then when Dolph was finally able to properly react to it; he responded by putting his hands on her shoulders and trying his best to push her away from him without hurting her.

Kaitlyn had been deaf for every sound around her when she had been caught in this impulsive moment of bliss... that was, until she heard a sob that was so loud that not even the front door could muffle it.

Her heart immediately sank to her feet like an anchor when she opened her eyes and looked at the window inside the front door.

Staring right back at her, most likely from the moment she dared to embrace Dolph, was AJ.

Tears wouldn't stop streaming down the girl's cheeks. Not once did she look away from them, as if it were impossible for her to do so. Kaitlyn saw her chin and the corner of the flat line that was her mouth visibly trembling, the latter only slightly opening once to let out another heartbreaking, betrayed sob. And that's when she saw something that AJ didn't have during the day while they were hanging out together; it was clear that Roberta Lee had been taking out her blind, drug-fueled anger on her own daughter again, judging by the small but painful-looking abrasion that was now present on the right side of AJ's forehead.

The realization of what she had done to her own friend struck Kaitlyn like the smash of a sledgehammer; it made her eyes widened in pure shock.

Oh God…

'No…' was all she could utter with a trembling voice, immediately letting go of Dolph.

Right on that moment, AJ let out another sob and quickly walked away from the bar. Panic began to mercilessly set in when Kaitlyn exclaimed her friend's name, ran towards the front door and opened it, nearly tripping over her own feet once she was outside. She wasn't too far away from her.

'AJ, wait! Please!' the girl cried out as she ran after her as fast as she could. She caught up with her in less than three seconds, getting close enough to her to reach out and grab her arm. 'Wait! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-'

As soon as she felt the hand of the girl who she thought were her best and only friend on her arm, AJ furiously pulled her arm away from her, instantly breaking free from her grip and proceeding to give Kaitlyn the hardest shove she had given to any person. The impact was hard enough to knock the girl down to the ground, on which she landed with a painful thud.

'Get the fuck away from me!' AJ furiously screamed at her as more tears from sheer hurt began running down her face. 'You bitch! You bitch! How could you do this to me?! You knew that I had a crush on Dolph, I trusted you enough to tell you that! I trusted you enough to open up and let you be in my life! I saw the look on your face when you were hugging him! Just when I thought that I had finally found someone who was willing to be my friend, someone who doesn't treat me like a piece of shit! I fucking trusted you! I thought you were my friend!'

'I-I'm sorry, AJ…' Kaitlyn whimpered. 'I… I…'

'Shut up! I'm done with you! I don't want to be friends with you any longer, Kaitlyn! You are just like everyone else! I don't want to see you ever again! You fucking bitch, I hate you! I hate you!'
Then AJ turned around and ran away from Kaitlyn as fast as she possibly could, all while sobbing uncontrollably.