Narrator's POV

Payton and Joe were outside walking when he turned to her and said, "So how is your first day at Juilliard so far?" Clearly he didn't know what to say. He got nervous so easily.

"It's good. What about you?"

"It's good." They started walking slower and there was a silence for about 2 minutes. T

hen Joe said, "I really can't take this anymore Payton."

"What? But I" But before she could say anything, Joe pulled her close and gently touched his lips to hers. She looked at his beautiful light brown eyes and noticed that they were staring right back at her.

Then she said, "What was that for?"

And he replied, "For being so you. I really like you. You're different from your friends. You don't look for guys, you let them come to you. You try to be nice to people when others aren't. You defend people when they're in trouble and you always look out for people more than you do for yourself. I like that about you… a lot." He paused and got really red-faced.

Payton smiled and lifted his chin and touched her lips to his quickly and said, "I like you too." Then he began to kiss her passionately. They stood there on the sidewalk kissing for what in reality was 10 minutes but to them had been 10 seconds.

Then Payton said, "Maybe we should be getting back now." He nodded. They went back to the bar and found everyone the same way they came except Ian and Destiny Hope. Payton thought that they were probably still fighting about what they had done so she blew it off as nothing.

She went in the bathroom and saw Destiny Hope and Ian in there arguing, but something was wrong. Destiny Hope had a knife in her hand. Payton walked up to her and said, "Destiny Hope you have to calm down. Please give me the knife."

"NO! You and him! He cheated on me! He's going to pay."

"Destiny Hope. Please give me the knife. We'll pay harsh labor to you. Just don't do this, please." She reached for the knife and all of a sudden it went black.

"Destiny Hope please don't do anything!"

"No he will pay. Wait. Who is that?" Then all they heard was Ian screaming and Payton fainted. She woke up with Joe's face over her again. Her eyes slowly began to open and Joe pulled her into his arms and squeezed.

"I'm so happy you're okay. Jesus, I was worried sick. Ian had to be admitted to the hospital. He's in critical condition."

"What? Where is he? I have to go see him in the hospital. I have to make sure he's ok. What happened to him?"

"Ok. Calm down. We're in the waiting room right now. They are doing surgery on him right now. Payton, it turns out he was stabbed four times. We're waiting to see if the surgery was a success." About 2 ½ hours later, the doctor came back out. They all stood.

She said, "The place of puncture was in the superior vena cava, a major artery. We tried to stop the bleeding but we couldn't. Ian didn't make it. I'm sorry."

Payton's eyes grew wide. Her knees suddenly gave way and she couldn't stand upright. Ian is dead. I kissed Ian 10 minutes before he died. I was there when he died, she found herself thinking.

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The next day, the funeral service for Ian had just ended. They had made their way back to the dorms at Juilliard. Payton went out fora walk to clear her head. After sitting down on a bench thinking for five minutes, Joe walked up to her. "Hey."

"Hi," Payton replied.

"How are you feeling?" Joe asked.

"I feel scared. I was there when he died. I just didn't know he was being killed. I couldn't see anything. It was all dark. I can't remember anything after that except that I accidentally cut myself with a knife, but I can't remember how I got the knife. Joe, what if I did it? What if the killer was me? Joe, what am I supposed to do?"

"Stop it. Stop it, please. Payton look at me. You are the sweetest, nicest, most- beautiful and out-going, most self-less person I know. There's no way it could have been you who did it," Joe replied.

"I guess you're right, but Joe, after I left you to go use the bathroom, Katrina said you went after me. If I didn't see you come in the bathroom after me, where did you go?" asked Payton.

He staggered a bit and then said, "Umm… I did follow you, but I decided that since you were going to the bathroom then I shouldn't follow you after all and let you have your privacy. Listen to me, we're both clean."

He leaned down and kissed her and she kissed him back and they remained in blissful unison for almost 6 minutes. Then she realized Joe tasted so good, even better than Ian. He tasted like cinnamon and sugar and everything that was sweet and beautiful in the world.

Then he pulled away and said, "Please don't worry about this whole case. I know you wouldn't do anything like this."

Then she smiled and looked at him seriously and said, "I guess I wouldn't. But would you?"