Sharpay ran as fast as she could manage in her stilettos over to Troy, Chad, and Gabi's hotel room.
"What's going on in here, guys? I heard-"Sharpay started to yell, but trailed off when she reached the doorway and saw a bloody mess that she identified as Chad, an also bloody, crying Taylor slumped over him.
"OH MY GOD! RYAN GET IN HERE!" Sharpay yells, already dialing 911 on her cell.
"What's up, Shari?" Ryan yelled running into Chad, Gabi, and Troy's room.
"OH MY GOD!!" Ryan yelled, stumbling and almost losing his balance at the shock of the horrifying scene.
Sharpay was in tears as she stared at Chad laying there motionless under a hysterical Taylor.
"It better not be too late!" She yelled.
"Hello?" Sharpay said into the phone.
"New York Emergency, how may we help you?" A female dispatcher answered.
"Please, just get ambulance here pronto, my friend Chad is bleeding heavily… and…he's…he's not moving…Ryan check and see if he's breathing!" Sharpay stammered, struggling to make the words that came out of her mouth make sense.
Ryan regained his composure and ran over to Taylor and Chad.
He tried to move Taylor away from Chad so he could check his breathing.
"I can't, Shar! Tay won't let go of him!" Ryan yelled, still tugging at Taylor's distraught body.
"What do I do? We can't get his girlfriend Taylor to get off of him! She's distraught and doesn't want to let him go!" Sharpay yelled hysterically, losing hold of her sangfroid.
"Ma'am, you've got to get Taylor off of Chad because if his airway is still functioning, she could be cutting it off," The dispatcher warned.
"All right, keep trying Ryan; I'm coming over to help!"
"Now, ma'am, stay on the line and stay calm, I'll talk you through it and try to help you get her off of him. Meanwhile, I'm sending an ambulance right now."
"Thank you! Thank you so much!"
"No problem. Now keep tugging!"
Sharpay obeyed the dispatcher, put her phone on speaker before laying it on the floor next to her, and kept tugging along with Ryan trying to remove Taylor from Chad's body.
"Now try talking to her! Tell her what she needs to do, bring her back to reality! She's obviously losing touch with it! And try to get her to tell you exactly what happened!"
"Taylor, honey, you've got to let go of Chad. I know you don't want to, but he's not going anywhere, as long as you let go of him. Ambulance is on the way and whatever airway he has left, you're cutting off by holding him like that," Sharpay told Taylor, as nurturing and soothingly as she could manage.
"But he'll die, Shar! He'll die and it'll be all my fault! I can't let him go!" Taylor cried.
"How is it your fault, honey?" Sharpay asked.
"Eli! He-" Taylor started to wail.
"Eli?" Sharpay, Ryan, and the dispatcher asked simultaneously.
"Who's Eli?"
"This guy who goes to school with Taylor and eventually developed a crush on her, and therefore, butted heads with Chad. Is he here?" Sharpay pressed.
"Yes…and…no," Taylor said miserably, lifting off of Chad just a little, and hanging her head low.
"What do you mean yes and no, honey?" Sharpay asked.
"He's here but…but…I…I…" Taylor trailed off.
"You what?" Sharpay asked suspicion coated on her voice.
"I…I killed him!" Taylor screamed and dropped to her knees beside Chad and curled up in fetal position.
"What?!" All three of the listeners responded.
"Oh my God…" Sharpay said, no longer able to stay calm and crawling over to huddle in Ryan's arms.
"Where is Eli and what happened?"
"He's-"
Suddenly, police and EMTs rushed into the hotel room.
"What happened in here?" A police officer asked.
The officer looked around the room and caught sight of the crying and huddled Sharpay and Ryan, then the distraught Taylor rocking in fetal position, then the bleeding body of Chad.
His eyes widened and he then saw Sharpay's sequined pink cell phone next to Chad's body and picked it up.
"Hello? Hello?" He asked frantically into the phone.
When he got no answer he looked at it.
Connection has been lost read across the phone.
He turned to his men. "What are you standing here for? Take care of that kid!"
The EMTs rushed over to Chad and started cleaning him up and checking his airway.
"His breathing is weak, but still there," One of them informed.
"Which one of you knows what happened here?" The police officer asked.
Sharpay and Ryan looked at the man, then at each other, and pointed to the still frantic Taylor curled up in a ball.
"Ma'am, can you let me know what happened here?" The police officer said to Taylor.
Taylor just stayed silent and wide-eyed, continuing to rock back and forth.
"Ma'am, are you responsible for this young man lying over there?" The police officer asked calmly.
That snapped Tay right out of it, and she almost looked like herself again. The expression on her face that used to be scared and distraught and switched to anger as soon as the officer mentioned "Are you responsible?" and "Chad" in the same context.
Taylor watched the EMTs take Chad out of the room on a stretcher and a flash of anguish showed on her eyes before anger chased it away.
"No! No! I tried to save him! He's my boyfriend of 3 and a ½ years!"
"Well then, unless you can tell me exactly what happened here, we'll have to take you in as a suspect," The officer warned.
That really pushed Tay to the edge.
"NO! ELI DID THIS TO CHAD! NOT ME!" Taylor shouted at him.
"Who is Eli, and is he here?" The officer asked, totally unaffected by her outburst.
Taylor glared at the officer hatefully before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath to calm herself down. "Eli used to be a friend of mine from school who developed a crush on me and butted heads with Chad. He came over here and shot him just below the heart."
"Do you have proof?" The officer asked.
Taylor glared at the man again, looking as if she was ready to rip his big head off. "Sir…go over there beside the TV and I guarantee you that you will find all of the evidence you need."
"Very well," The officer walked over beside the TV as Taylor had instructed and looked at Eli sprawled out on the floor with a gun lying on top of his chest and a bleeding gun wound in the center of his chest.
The officer turned around and looked at Taylor. "Are you trying to tell me that this man committed suicide, ma'am?"
"No. I'm trying to tell you that he shot my baby but didn't exactly aim correctly. He was going to try again, so I tried to take the gun from him, and it went off."
"Heh. So you didn't just kill him for shooting your beloved boyfriend?" The officer snorted.
"No! I would never!" Taylor screamed.
"That's what all the ladies say," The officer said.
"Sir, I do not appreciate the way you are accusing our friend. If Taylor says she didn't kill Eli on purpose and he killed himself on accident, then we believe her. And your opinion doesn't count, because you don't know her," Sharpay told the officer.
"Furthermore, we heard Taylor screaming "Oh my God, Chad," and "No!" before the gun went off which is why we ran in here in the first place. Now, with all due respect, if that's not enough evidence for you, I don't know how you became an officer, sir."
The officer stared for a long time in thought. "All right. Let's just get to the hospital and get this kid in a morgue. You will not be considered a suspect, ma'am, in neither this boy's death or your boyfriend's."
"Thank you, officer," Taylor said.
The officer started to walk out of the hotel room.
"Oh and officer?" Taylor called to him.
"Yes?" He asked, turning to face her.
"Apology accepted," Taylor smiled.
A/N: I told you I'd get an update in all my stories before the week was over and this is the first one! I hope you liked how everything turned out! And don't worry, it isn't over just yet.
Love ya and thanks for your incredible patience,
T
