The cold wind whipped against Lucy's face as she stood outside the funeral home, trying to stop herself from breaking down. The funeral had just ended about ten minutes ago. It was a nice funeral, something that Lizzie would have wanted. Now the guests at the funeral were all paying their respects to Lizzie's mom. Lucy had stayed and watched as people sobbed and hugged the greiving mother, but after a few minutes, she couldn't handle it anymore. She had to get out of there and get some fresh air. Only the fresh air wasn't doing much good. She still felt like crap.

After standing outside for a few more minutes, Lucy decided she should probably go back. She knew she would have to face Lizzie's family sooner or later, so she decided that she should just get it over with now.

Lucy walked back inside the funeral home and made her way to the correct room Lizzie's funeral was being held in. When Lucy entered the room, she realized she had gone into the wrong room. Just as she was about to leave, she froze when she saw Patrick Moore's picture sitting on top of the casket. Her blood chilled at the sight of him, images then coming into her head from the day of the shooting. She quickly shook those images away and took a look around the room, seeing who had shown up for his funeral. She only saw four people. Lucy felt a little bad that only four people had shown up for the funeral, but she figured that no one wanted to go to the funeral of someone who shot up a school.

Deciding she needed to get out of that room, Lucy turned around and began to walk away. She was stopped when the voice of a woman addressed her.

"Have you come to pay your respects to Patrick?"

Lucy turned around and saw an older woman walking to her. Must be his mother, Lucy thought.

"Were you one of Patrick's friends?" the woman asked. Lucy stared at the woman, unable to form any words. She then saw how the look of sadness in the woman's eyes changed to a look of anger. "Oh my God, I know who you are. You're that Messer girl! You're the reason my son's in a casket right now! How dare you show up to this funeral! You shot my son!"

Lucy flinched at the venom in the woman's words.

"I, I....he was...he would have killed me," Lucy let out. As soon as she said the words, she regretted them. When Lucy's family had told her that it was only self defense, that Patrick would have killed her, it had been the right thing to say. It was, after all, the truth. However, saying those words to the victim's mother was probably the wrong thing to do.

"How do you live with yourself? How do you live with knowing that you killed a person, and you're not even in jail for it?" Mrs. Moore asked. Upon hearing the words, Lucy felt pissed.

"How do you live with yourself knowing that you raised a son who's ultimate goal in life was to kill a bunch of innocent people?!" Lucy shouted.

She didn't even see Mrs. Moore raise her hand up. All Lucy felt was the stinging pain from being slapped hard across the face. Her vision grew blurry as the tears formed in her eyes. She then felt a strong hand grab her arm and pull her backwards.

"Get the hell outta here," she heard her dad say. She felt a small amount of relief from knowing that her dad was there to rescue her. Quickly, Lucy left the room and headed back to where she was supposed to be. Before she entered the room, Lucy wiped the remaining tears out of her eyes, then she took a deep breath and walked in. She saw her mother standing next to Lizzie's mom, so Lucy went to join her.

"Lucy, I'm so glad you could come. Lizzie would have been glad to see you here," Ms. Tanner said, pulling Lucy into a hug.

"The funeral was really nice," Lucy commented.

"Thank you, sweetie. Oh, Elizabeth's uncle is over there. I have to go talk to him."

Lucy nodded as Ms. Tanner walked away, then she turned to look at her mother.

"What happened to your face, Luce?" Lindsay asked, reaching out to touch the side where Lucy had been slapped. Lucy quickly pushed her mom's hand away, shaking her head.

"Nothing happened," she answered. She hadn't even realized that there would be a red mark.

"Where's your dad?" her mom asked.

"The last I saw him, he was threatening to arrest someone for assult," Lucy said. When she saw the confusion on her mom's face, she shrugged, "Ask Dad. I don't want to talk about it right now. I'm going to go find Emily now, okay?"

Lucy left her mother and walked around the room, trying to find her friend. Maybe if she talked to Emily, she would start to feel a little bit better. Instead of finding Emily, though, Lucy found Lizzie's little brother, sitting on a chair in the corner. Lucy made her way over to him.

"Hey Paul," she said, sitting on an empty chair next to the nine year old. He gave Lucy a weak smile, then he looked down at his lap before speaking.

"Is Lizzie ever coming back?" he asked.

Lucy felt whatever was left of her heart shatter at the boy's innocent question. Taking Paul's small hand in her own, she sighed, not wanting to answer his question.

"No," she said quietly.

"So is she up in Heaven? I think she is, because she's an angel, and angels go to Heaven, right?"

Lucy could feel a fresh batch of tears beginning to form in her eyes. It wasn't fair that Paul had to lose his sister at such a young age. At that moment, she felt like running down the hall so she could yell at Patrick's mother some more, telling her that she should have never had kids. Instead, Lucy just smiled down at Paul.

"Yeah, she's in Heaven," she said, "And you don't have to worry about her because your dad is probably taking good care of her."

Paul returned her smile, then gave her a hug. "Thanks, Lucy."

"Anytime, kiddo."

A few weeks had gone by since the funerals for all of the victims, and things seemed like they were finally beginning to go back to normal. The news didn't broadcast things about the shooting anymore, the school was opening up again, and the kids from the high school were starting to talk about normal things again, and doing their normal routine.

Except things still weren't the same in the Messer household. Danny and Lindsay's worry for their daughter was increasing as she continued to hide away in her room. The only time she seemed to come out was when she went to the bathroom or to the kitchen. She ignored all of her calls, and half of the time, she even ignored her parents. All she did during the day was lay in bed or look at old yearbooks and pictures so she could reminisce about the good times.

Lucy herself was a little bit worried about her behavior. No matter what she did, she just couldn't break away from this depression. And the thing that scared her the most was how alone she felt. She knew that her parents said that they were there for her, but she still felt lonely. They didn't know how she felt. They didn't understand what it was like to lose someone the way she had.

She was alone.

Reaching for her cell phone on her desk, she thought about what she was about to do. She knew it was wrong, but she couldn't deal with things anymore. She needed a way to escape.

She took a deep breath as she scrolled through her contacts and found a number that she hadn't dialed in a long time. She pressed the talk button and listened as the phone rang, praying for an answer. Finally, she heard the voice on the other end say hello.

"Hey Eddie, it's Lucy....Yeah, it's been awhile. I just want to tell you that I want to do what I wasn't ready for before. So can you meet me in the park at two?....Great, I'll see you then."

So who the heck's Eddie?

I guess you all will just have to wait and see.

And thanks for all of your wonderful reviews!