Love Kills

The sounds of the screams that came from the workshop on the morning of Thursday September 27th 2018, didn’t even begin to compare to the screams and pleads that filled the room the previous night. Kids piled into the shop around their teacher, Mr. Shak. Rose knew she needed to blend in, so she worked herself up.

“What is it? What happened?” she asked anxiously.

“It’s Kate,” Leonard replied quietly.

Leonard was a freshman. He and Rose had become close from the first couple days in their first hour woods class. When you are surrounded by nothing but wanna be fuckboys, you kind of have to find someone decent to talk to and stick by their side.

Rose, now the picture of innocence said, “Kate who?”

“Kate Man. She’s dead.”

“Marco’s ex?” She asked after making her face go completely blank.

He nodded his head. She pushed through the crowd with all her force. When she finally reached the front she gasped but it was all for show. She knew what she would see before she even saw it. She knew Kate’s body parts were scattered around the shop. Not only did she know that, but she could tell you exactly where those parts were. Last night, after the deed had been done and she and Marie had gone their separate ways, an enormous rush of guilt had hit Rose. By the time she had snuck into Kylie’s house where she was spending the night, Rose could barely think straight. The high from the weed gummy bears had been quickly fading. Visions of Kate begging for them to stop and screaming in agony as they slowly dismembered her body, kept Rose awake the whole night. The deal was this: after Rose and Marie had come up with their crazy ass plan to torture and murder Kate, Rose texted her mom to see if she could stay the night at Kylie’s. When her mom said yes, she texted Kylie that she was spending the night and would show up late because she was hanging out with Letrell. That served as her alibi. Was it smart to put her fate in the hands of a freshman? Nope. Not even in the slightest. Be that as it may, Rose knew that if someone asked Letrell if Rose came over, he would in a heartbeat say yes. His cooperation was guaranteed if she gave Letrell what he wanted. If someone questioned her whereabouts, Rose would show off the hickey on her chest. When she and Letrell had been fooling around in 8th hour Wednesday, Rose had encouraged him to give her a hickey and it didn’t take very much convincing. Being that the hickey was from the same day, Rose figured that worked as an alibi too. Now as Rose looked around, she turned pale and ran back into the classroom, Leonard tailing her. Out of everything so far, that was not for show. Rose really did feel uneasy when she saw Kate’s blood and body all over the floor, walls, and assorted saws and tools. She had been able to stomach it last night because, little did she know, weed made her insusceptible to her emotions. The screams, the cries, the blood, hadn’t affected her in the least. She felt nothing but hatred towards Kate for hurting Marco.

‘Oh shit’, Rose thought. ‘Marco.’ She had the technique, the alibi and the motive all figured out, the only thing she hadn’t thought of was Marco. Considering the whole reason she did it was because of him, she found this pretty ironic. For the first time in this whole thing, her head was filled with thoughts of how her actions would affect her crush. Though they hadn’t talked about Kate since she fell off the grid and wasn’t responding to Marco’s texts, calls or snapchats, she had a sneaky suspicion that he still liked Kate. When he had first called Rose and told her about Kate, she could hear the smile that was sure to be playing on his lips. She could practically feel the excitement coming off of him in waves… ‘And I killed her’, she thought guiltily. Rose bolted out of Mr. Shak’s room and Leonard tried following.

“Just stay here Leonard!” she yelled.

He froze in mid step, his eyes big saucers.

“Let me deal with this!” She snapped again.

He looked as if she had struck him.

“Please Leonard. I have to find Marco,” she begged, desperation oozing from every word.

Understanding flashed across his face and he nodded curtly.

Rose hurried out of the classroom and tore down the hallway, her Converse sliding on the floor. She felt so foolish and lost in her thoughts that she ran right into Marco himself. With his backpack on, a pass in his hand and a goofy grin on his face, he was clearly oblivious. Which meant he had no clue about Kate or the horrendous scene that awaited him.

"Bitch," he mumbled, teasing Rose.

"Marco."

"What?" He said before tazing her in the sides.

"It's Kate."

The smile slipped off of his face and panic started to creep in. "What happened?" he asked anxiously.

She wordlessly pointed towards the shop. He threw his backpack down and fast-walked to Mr. Turner's room which lead to the shop as well. Rose did her best to keep up, but she could tell Marco was on a mission and there was no keeping pace with him when that happened. As they walked in, she and Marco pushed through the kids. Rose put her hand on his shoulder for comfort. She felt him tense and when she saw him set his jaw, she knew that he had seen it. He turned to leave, her hand falling to her side. For a split second their eyes locked and she saw his were filled with hatred, anger and what's more, an emotion she hadn't seen him express often: sadness. She tore her eyes away and went to follow him but thought better of it and let him leave. Feeling her stomach drop, Rose searched the room for Marie. Surely she was feeling the same way as her. What she saw when her eyes met Marie's, sent shivers through her entire body. When Rose looked into her accomplice’s eyes, she saw hunger, bitterness and just a touch of pride, but no remorse to be found. Though Marie's eyes said one thing, her face said another. She wore a perfect poker face of sadness. Disturbed, Rose decided to check on Marco after all. Reaching his backpack in the hall, she looked around for it's owner. Seeing a flash of blue in the corner of her eyes, she whipped her head around and that's when she saw him. Marco was outside and clearly upset 'Why shouldn’t he be? He just saw the girl he likes in a dozen bloody pieces', she thought to herself. She ran to the door and put a stopper in it after she got outside.

As Rose approached Marco, she saw that his hand was bloodied as he continuously, and mercilessly punched the brick wall. He paused for a second to scream out in anger, his eyes glazed over, and she sprang in front of him. If he was going to hit something, it should be her because she was the one that caused him to hurt like this. He brought his fist back to start another round of abuse on the building, and he was two seconds from hitting her, before he snapped out of it and retracted his fist reluctantly. She threw down her arms, which served as her shield, and looked at him.

"Move."

"No," Rose crossed her arms.

"Move Rose," the demand came out more stern and aggressive.

"Not a chance."

"I will hit you," Marco stated.

"Do it then. It's better than breaking your hand on a brick building."

He balled his fists again and for a second, she thought he would actually hit her. Instead he let out a cry of frustration that made her jump like a kitten when they hear someone sneeze.

"God damn it Rose!" he cried, his voice filled with such sadness it actually broke off a piece of her heart.

"Why do you have to be so damn stubborn?" He asked.

The question, though a simple one, cut through her like the first of many blades that went through Kate. She let out a half-hearted laugh, even though what she really wanted to do was cry.

"Because, that's my best trait," she answered. She placed a hand on Marco's shoulder again and with that, he burst into tears. Rose withdrew her hand in shock; This being the first time that she had ever seen him cry, she was unsure of how to handle it. She was good at consoling people but this was Marco, the one who could do a complete 180 in 2 seconds flat. She regained her composure and wrapped her arms around her friend. His body shook with sobs and feeling every one, she took all her remaining energy and focused it on not collapsing.

"Oh Marco," she soothed. "I didn't know you liked her this much."

"You don't get it Rose."

"What?"

"I didn't just like Kate, we got back together yesterday."

Rose felt herself get light-headed with guilt. When she didn't respond, Marco pulled away and looked at her.

"There are two people in this world that mean the most to me, and Kate made that list."

Though her throat closed up, she somehow managed to speak. "Who's the other one?" she dared ask.

"You," He replied slowly.

"Oh Marco," she moaned in sympathy again. If only she had known this before, she wouldn't have raised a hand to Kate's fragile body. Her thoughts trickled off as he cupped her face and kissed her slowly and passionately. She wanted more than anything to bask in the kiss, but she felt too guilty so she pulled away subtly. She was so close to spilling the truth. The words were on her lips when she paused. She couldn't bear to think of how he would look at her afterwards; full of betrayal, hatred and devastation.

"I'm so sorry Marco," she whispered instead. The four words having an alternate meaning hidden within them. He pulled her to him tightly.

"I am going to find who did this and I will make them pay."

She flinched at the steel in his voice. She couldn't explain how, but she knew that he really meant it. Another shiver went down her spine. She felt her knees weaken, and this time she possessed no energy, nor strength to stop it from happening. As cliche as it sounds, Rose collapsed in Marco's arms and fainted instantly.

The bright lights of the health room made Rose come to.

"Are you okay my wife?" concern laced Camilla's voice.

Rose hauled herself into a sitting position. "Yeah," she replied.

At the sound of her voice, Marco, who had been slouched in a chair with his head between his knees, shot upright and ran to her side.

"Are you okay Rose? I never should've told you like that. You were already worked up as it was. Are you sure you are okay? Did you hit your head?" He rattled off hurriedly.

She answered all his questions and statements in her head. 'No I'm not okay. You should've told me before I committed a crime. Of course I was worked up. Yes I'm sure I'm not okay. I couldn't possibly have hit my head because I fell into your arms'. All snide thoughts aside, she had never seen him so concerned and the fact that it was directed at her was too much to handle. She was the girl that was so selfish and so greedy for his love that she murdered a human being. The severity and unfairness of the situation rushed back to Rose and she promptly burst into tears. Camilla pointedly shot a glare at Marco before she scooped her best friend up in her arms soothingly. Marco raised his hands in the universal 'I surrender' motion and left the room.

The school nurse looked on silently. "I called your parents to tell them what happened," she paused before continuing. "They asked me to have you call them when you wake up."

"I'll do that right now," Rose muttered.

As much as she wanted to accept her parent's offers and have a romantic date with her bed, a movie and a jar of peanut butter, she also knew she couldn't leave Marco to suffer through the day on his own. Which is why at 9:00 a.m, Rose Turner was walking to her AVID class. She had assured her parents that she was fine and they had reluctantly let her stay at school. Camilla walked her to the door but broke off there and said her goodbyes. All eyes locked on Rose as she walked into her class. She could only imagine that the same thing was going to be happening to Marco all day, so she bit back the tears, drew herself up and sat down with as much pride as she could muster.

The two days following Kate's death - or should we say murder?- flew by for Rose. They were just a blur of tears, hugs, condolences and kisses. Yes, kisses. And not the greedy hard kind from Letrell, but the soft, sweet kind from Marco. In a span of three days, Rose Turner's life had turned upside down by the same amount of events. Those things included: helping to kill a girl out of sheer greed and misplaced jealousy, being told by the boy that she has a hunch that she loves that he cares about her a lot, and receiving a kiss from said boy. While all that was a lot to take in, there was also one more thing: Marco asked Rose to be his girlfriend and she said yes. Though he was determined to solve Kate's murder and still grieving, Marco was wrapped up in Rose. It was odd because she had never seen him so happy. This week seemed to be full of parts of him that she had never seen. His girlfriend was just brutally murdered and yet he seemed, at least to outsiders, to be content with his new one. But just when things were starting to settle down and Rose was warming up to no longer being single, everything changed. Monday morning, when she went to kiss Marco as she had just three days ago, she felt that something was off. He looked as if he hadn't slept and instead spent the night crying and upon inspecting his hand, she saw fresh cuts and bruises on his knuckles and fingers.

"Marco?", she asked tentatively.

He refused to make eye contact until she tipped his chin up and saw the tears brimming his eyes. She wrapped her arms around her boyfriend and both felt and heard him break into sobs. Biting back tears herself, she rose from her seat and took him with her. Looking up, she noticed the whole class staring. Some smirking, others shocked and others still, looked uncomfortable. A boy stood up as if to say something and Rose shot him a look that said 'Try me'.

Searching for her teacher, she swallowed her anger and spoke. "Mr. Shak, can we go in the hall for a second please?"

"Yeah, take all the time you need."

Rose guided Marco to the door and into the hall, afraid that if she let go, he would collapse right there. She walked the two of them down the hallway, just past the windows, before she asked him what happened.

He stepped back from her embrace and spoke slowly. "Give me your phone," he instructed.

Without hesitating, she grabbed her phone out of her pocket, unlocked it and gave it to him. His hands moved swiftly on her screen as he clicked on the Facebook app. Only when the page was loading and his hand should have been still did she notice that it was in fact shaking. Once the page was loaded, he typed a name in the Facebook search-bar, hit okay and handed the phone back to her.

"Oh my god," Rose whispered.

What she saw horrified her. Someone had created a profile under the name "The Bitch is Dead" and the profile picture itself is what made her drop her phone. She felt her case slip from her fingers, watched it tumble down and even heard it hit the ground, but she made no move to pick it up. Marco bent down instead and handed her the phone. Looking at the picture again, Rose's blood ran cold. It was a picture of Kate being gagged with her own t-shirt. How did she know that? She knew because that picture had been taken on Wednesday, just moments before Kate experienced excruciating pain, but also just minutes after she had admitted that she had only been playing Marco. Scrolling down, she focused on her breathing. Now was not the time to have a breakdown, not with Marco less than five feet away. The page was set up solely to hate on Kate Man. There were posts from the owner dated from Friday. The posts were horrible. The worst part was that people were responding positively to those posts. They said things like:

"I'm glad she's dead."

"One less slut at MFHS."

"She was nothing but a bitch that went from guy to guy."

"Whoever killed her should be given a reward, the execution - pun intended - was so smart and bullet-proof."

This last one was from the owner. Deep down, she knew that Marie had created the hate page, but she didn't want to believe that her accomplice could be so cold-hearted. Of course, that was the only option because Marie was the only one that had that picture. She had taken it so she could quote unquote ‘Plant it on someone else's phone’ and therefore hand the police a red herring. Rose felt sick to her stomach. She finally looked to find Marco crouched on the ground, his head down. Her heart ached for him, but the anger that had caused this whole mess, overwhelmed her for a split second. Kate never liked Marco, she didn't deserve to get to claim his pain. 'I'm glad we killed her' she thought. She immediately felt remorseful. 'What is wrong with me?'

"Did you see the video?" Marco mumbled.

"What video?" Rose asked nervously

"Scroll down."

She did as told and there, with more likes than it should've had, sat a video. A pit opened in her stomach as she understood. To be sure, she hit play and there was Kate, tied to the pole in the workshop and clearly terrified, tears rushing down her face. Rose remembered this moment and just as she convinced herself that Marie had outed her, the voice that she knew was her own, was morphed.

"Tell the truth Kate," the voice yelled.

"I never liked him," Kate mumbled.

"Who?"

When Kate didn't respond, a hand took a hammer and brought it down on Kate's leg, making her fall to the ground in pain.

"Who Kate? You never liked who?" the voice demanded.

"Marco Swanson. I never liked him. I was just playing him," Kate cried out.

"Why?" the voice asked, this time belonging to Marie.

"It was fun. Plus I knew that Rose liked him and I wanted to make her jealous. Please don't do this."

A hand - Marie's- reached for a blow torch and was slowly brought to Kate's arm. "You will pay for what you did. To him and to all the other guys you've hurt."

Rose threw her phone at the wall, just barely missing Marco. A second longer and she would've had to endure the piercing screams that haunted her mind all over again. She crawled over to Marco and embraced him again, it was the only thing she could think to do.

"Did you..." her words faded. She felt him nod.

"The whole thing," he said almost robotically.

"I'm sorry you had to see that Marco," she blurted.

His response was hard as stone, "Now I'm more determined than ever to find the sick bastard that did this."

He got up, helped Rose up and they walked back into the classroom hand in hand. When they were finally sitting down, he took out his phone and she saw why he had had to use hers. His phone was shattered from end to end. She didn't need to ask how it happened, she thanked the lord that her phone hadn't cracked even a little bit and then cringed at how selfish that sounded. She had murdered a girl in cold blood and here she was thinking things as trivial as her phone being cracked. Kate wasn’t even 18. She had her whole life ahead of her and Rose took that from her because she wanted Marco for herself.

By eighth hour, tension made Rose stiff and she didn’t doubt that her teeth were ground down to nothing, her nails too. That's why when Marco came up behind her and tazed her, she felt the need to pinch herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming.

"You're in a good mood," she mumbled affectionately.

"You didn't hear?" he asked excitedly.

"Hear what?"

"They caught Kate's murderer"

Rose tensed, 'They caught Marie?' she asked herself worriedly. Out loud, she said "Really? Who is it?" She tried to match his level of enthusiasm but fell short.

"Liv Nady. Someone tipped off the office that they saw the picture of Kate on Liv's phone. They called her down and when they searched her phone, they found the picture, the video and she was logged into the Facebook page. She claimed she didn't do it and that she lost her phone on Friday and found it today, but they didn't buy it," Marco gushed, his words escaping his mouth at a million miles a minute.

"Huh, really? Who told you that?" She asked even though she knew the answer.

"Marie," he stated plainly. "I guess she was in the office and heard the whole thing."

She nearly scoffed. "Marie?"

He furrowed his brow. "Yeah, why do you say it like that?" he asked, clearly deflated.

'Marie is smart enough to realize that Marco was playing detective, so she told him to throw him off of our trail. Smart,' she told herself.

"No reason. That's great news!" Rose suddenly perked up. 'If he wants to believe that Kate's killer is off the streets, then let him' she said in her head. Relief filled her as she leaned into his kiss and let herself take the weight off her shoulders, as if it were that easy.

Again, two days went by where life started to look up, but of course that wouldn't last. Nope, not for Rose, who had the worst luck in the history of luck. During lunch on Wednesday, she got a text from Marco.

"Can you come down to the shop early?"

She was quick to respond. "Sure, why?"

"I need you."

"Are you okay? What happened?"

"Explain when you get here."

"Okay, I'm on my way. I love you babe."

"Liv was released. She's innocent."

It's funny how just five words can make your bright world go gray. Rose shot out of her seat. Grabbing her backpack and hugging her friends goodbye, she apologized for ditching them and explained that it was an emergency. Then she bolted out of the cafeteria like a bat out of hell, not even giving a damn about the dirty looks she got on her way out. Walking into the shop after the text she just got from Marco, brought back all of the horrors of that night. She could barely breath as she texted her boyfriend.

"Where are you?"

His response was instantaneous. "In the house."

She dropped her bag and ran to the little wooden house. When she ducked inside, Rose all but burst into tears. Marco was sitting in the corner, staring at nothing. Biting tears back for the thousandth time that week, she ran to his side and wrapped her arms around him, scuffing up her knees.

"They said she's innocent Rose," he whimpered.

"How? They saw her phone."

"She really did lose her phone at school. She found it on Monday. The owner of the page created it on Friday night. Meaning it wasn't her. They figured out that the picture and video were uploaded, but they came up with no way to pinpoint the source. That bastard framed an innocent girl. Whoever he is, he's ruthless and deserves to rot in hell," he explained bitterly.

'Ouch’, she thought. "It'll be okay. We will find him," she reassured him.

"I just feel like Kate's killer is closer than I think."

'That's because she's literally two inches from you', she said in her head.

Thursday morning, Rose couldn’t take it anymore. She had to put an end to the voices in her head that haunted every corner and crevice of her brain. She got no sleep last night. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Kate’s bloodied and bashed in face. She had to put an end to all of the lies that just kept building up and backfiring. Most of all she had to put an end to Marco’s suffering. She loved him with every inch of her body and she could see that all this was tearing him apart and she couldn’t bear it. She may have deserved to see him suffer like this but he didn’t deserve to suffer like this. Which means in order to make things right, she had to tell Marie to call it off. Sleep deprived as she was, Rose still kissed Marco when she saw him. Then he disappeared and she went into the shop to talk to Marie. Marie seemed to sense that she wanted her because as soon as they made eye contact, she approached Rose. They stood on the side of the little wooden house. It was the best place since the shop was empty otherwise.

Rose bit her lip."I can't do this anymore Marie." She paused to gather her thoughts. "I know I said I could. I know I said it was worth it if it meant more of a chance with him, but I just can't anymore," she added, her voice breaking.

"Damn it Rose!" Marie yelled. "You assured me you could do it and that you wouldn't back out."

Rose sobbed heavily. "I know I did, but this has gone too far and plus, I was high as a kite when I said that," she said, using that as her loophole.

Crossing her arms, Marie sighed loudly. "This wasn't the plan Rose. I didn't stick my neck out for you just so you could get closer to a guy that wouldn't even give you the time of day, and then have this happen”.

Rose sniffled. "But it's too much to keep inside. What happened is horrible. I'm scarred for life Marie," she blurted.

"What you don't realize," Marie paused for dramatic effect and took a step toward her, "Is that if you go down, I go down with you because it was my idea and I did most of the work."

"I understand that Marie," Rose admitted.

"Look, you got Marco wrapped around your little finger. Are you saying he isn't worth it after all?" Marie challenged snidely.

"Of course not. Marco is my world, and he is worth it," Rose answered resignedly.

"That's what I thought. If you feel so bad, then figure out a different way to sooth your breaking heart.” Her tone was mocking and normally Rose wouldn’t have taken this kind of abuse but she was exhausted, drained, and beaten down.

“You’re into those sappy rom-coms, write it in your journal and burn it or something."

"Fine," Rose huffed.

Marie walked away and Rose started looking for Marco.

"Marco," she yelled.

"Polo," the response was muffled, but close.

A sinking feeling gripped her as she walked around to the other side of the house. Her heart stopped beating when she saw Marco grinning at her from the inside. 'How much had he heard?' she thought worriedly.

"Were you sitting in here the whole time?" she asked casually.

Marco pulled her to him. "Yeah, what were you arguing with Marie about?"

Rose rushed to come up with a fake excuse because she could tell by the look in his eyes that Marco was concerned. Going over the argument in her head, she had the perfect explanation.

"I will tell you, and I won't say you can't get mad, but I will say that you cannot freak out," she stated.

He kissed her hair. "No promises," he muttered.

"I mean it Marco."

"Alright," he said seriously.

Rose snuggled closer before she spoke. "We were talking about Letrell. She helped hook us up. We only did it so that I could make you jealous and if you got jealous, I would know for sure that you liked me. The only problem is, things got uncomfortable with him. He grabbed me everywhere even when I told him not to. Sometimes it was okay, but then it got to be too much. That Wednesday, I hung out with him. We were in his room when he tried to force me to do stuff. When I said no, he tried it anyways until I pushed him off of me and ran out. I had Marie come and pick me up and I told her what happened. She said I had to keep it a secret because if I told, she would get in trouble because it was her idea. He almost raped me, so today I told her I wanted to report him, but she said I shouldn't," she explained. "Please don't be mad, I wanted to tell you, but I knew you would fly off the handle."

Rose didn't even realize tears were falling until she felt Marco brush them away. Of course she wasn’t crying over almost being raped, because that didn’t actually happen. No she was crying because yet again she had be two faced to the person that meant the most to her and she had to fill his head with even more lies. She had to find a way out, these lies were bound to unravel on her and Marie any day now. Marco, not thinking anything of it, kissed her forehead and though the gesture was cute as hell, Rose’s heart broke even more knowing she didn’t deserve his love.

"It's okay," he mumbled, but the dark edge in his voice said otherwise. Marco tipped her chin and kissed her lips.

Rose caught Marie in her lunch and motioned her into the bathroom. Once there, Rose bent to do a shoe check to be sure that no one else was in there before she spilled her guts. "So Marco heard our argument."

"How much?" Marie asked.

"All of it. I told him it had to do with Letrell," Rose said and proceeded to relay the fake story that she had fed Marco. She finished, and Marie agreed that she would talk to Marco during his lunch. It was because of this conversation that when Rose went down to the shop during lunch, and she saw Marie walking away from Marco, she acted confused.

"What was that about?" she asked casually.

Marco wrapped his arms around her waist. "Nothing," he mumbled. "She just told me not to say anything or freak out about what you told me about Letrell."

"Oh, okay," she replied quietly. She spent the remaining time snuggled up to her boyfriend.

The good feeling stayed with her for the rest of the day, that is until eighth hour. While he had his arms wrapped around her, Letrell came up to them. She felt Marco tense and tighten his grip protectively.

Letrell leaned forward and whispered in Marco's ear, "Did you tap that yet?" He stepped back afterwards.

Marco broke away swiftly, but before he could lay a hand on Letrell, Rose stepped between them as a buffer.

"Marco stop, it's not worth it," she said roughly.

"What's your problem man? I was just kidding," Letrell said.

"Letrell!" Rose yelled. "You need to learn when to shut your mouth. It's none of your business what Marco and I do."

Letrell just laughed and sauntered off, unfazed by Marco's outburst. Marco made a move to follow, but Rose put her hands on his shoulders. "Marco. Hey, look at me," she said softly.

Marco tore his piercing blue eyes away from Letrell and locked them on hers.

"Are you good?" Rose asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Don't let him get under your skin. He's not worth the $700 fine from Vito." Though he said he was fine, Rose knew that his anger wasn't going to blow over anytime soon. She would have to keep a close eye on him.

Friday morning, Rose walked into Mr. Shak's room, her good mood unbreakable, or so she thought. When she bent down to kiss Marco, she could tell he was on edge. This alone was able to put a damper on her mood. She had kind of forgotten about the Letrell situation. Her and Marco had gone to see a movie and ate at Applebee's afterwards. She had felt like it was a normal day and they were a normal couple. Of course, right when things started to calm down again, they took a nosedive. She groaned in her head. He refused to admit that something was bothering him, but she knew him better. She also knew that in time, she’d figure it out, and as it turned out, she didn't have to wait long. She was just sitting down to eat lunch with her friends, when she saw him walk in. His pace clipped and his fists in balls, meant that he was in a fit of rage. Her breath caught as she watched him calm himself down and walk over to Letrell's table. A minute later, she watched the two of them exit the cafeteria. Marco's eyes flickered to her own, but quickly flickered away again.

She could no longer see them, when her phone vibrated. It was a text from Marco.

"Just trust me. It'll be fine."

"Okay," she typed back.

They had been out there for a good two minutes, when she decided to investigate. She bit her lip nervously as she rose from her seat. "I'll be right back," she mumbled to her friends. Rose’s foot just made it across the threshold when she heard a slam, followed by Marco yelling.

"Don't you ever touch her again! Do you hear me?!"

She bolted towards the boys.

"Marco stop!" She yanked him off Letrell. "Go downstairs. I will meet you there," she yelled. When Marco made no move, she snapped. "Now! I can handle this," she yelled.

Marco reluctantly turned and stormed away knowing better than to get on her bad side even more than he obviously was. Rose walked to the corner to make sure he didn't eavesdrop. Letrell attempted to slip away.

"Don't. Even. Think about it," Rose spat, enunciating every word. She walked back over to him, backing him against the lockers. "What the hell did you tell him?" she demanded, poking her purple nail into his chest.

"I told him we never hung out that night," Letrell admitted.

Rose sighed dramatically. "And?" she pressed on impatiently.

"He didn't believe me, he called me a liar," Letrell rushed.

"You are so lucky. Get away from me," Rose muttered and Letrell scampered off.

Rose followed him into the cafeteria and packed up her stuff, explaining to her group of friends that she needed to go. She stormed downstairs to find Marco leaning against the house wall, looking sexy as ever. She stalked over to him, trying to harbor the anger she felt. It didn't work, the scowl slipped off her face like a snake from it's hole.

"What the hell?" she demanded.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't help it. I just kept thinking about him touching you and I snapped," he pouted.

Her heart and any lingering anger, melted when he said those things.

"I know," she muttered.

He kissed her forehead affectionately. "I love you," he cooed.

"I love you too," she replied and let him gather her up in a real kiss.

In fifth hour she had finally found the appropriate solution to everyone’s problems and she took her time with the note as she wrote it, knowing that Marco deserved to know the truth. When she was finished, she went to his locker, fiddled with the lock, kissed the folded note and stuck it on the top shelf before she closed the door and locked it.

The guilt started to set in again over the weekend, as Rose knew it would. She was on the edge and paranoid the entire two days. Every creak made her jump, every noise made her shiver. By Monday morning, she really did feel sick, so when she gave her mom that excuse, her mom believed her. Her dad’s footsteps faded outside as Rose grabbed her phone and the razor blade off of her dresser and slumped into the bathroom. She filled the tub with steaming hot water and stripped down to nothing. She slowly lowered herself into the tub and once comfortable, she ran the blade across her bare wrists, arms, legs and ankles. Pain didn't even register as she watched the blood drip and trickle, with unblinking eyes. She had dyed the water red. As the blood drained from her body, she began to feel light-headed. Her vision blurred as she grabbed her phone. Scrolling through her contacts she clicked on “My World” and hit the call button, nearly dropping her phone in the water. He picked up on the first ring, probably worried sick when she wasn't in first hour.

"Hey," Marco said, relieved.

"Hey," Rose replied faintly.

Concern poured from his words. "Are you okay? You sound sick."

"Just a little tired. I just wanted to say that I will be at home all day. I wasn't feeling up to school today," she lied as silent tears streaming down her face.

"Alright. Well I have to go but..."

She cut him off abruptly. "Wait!" she yelled. The word used up so much energy.

"What’s up?" He asked.

"There's something for you in your locker. Can you go get it?" She mumbled.

"Yeah give me a sec, I'm in the cafeteria."

Rose could hear his footsteps and then the ticking of the lock.

"You got it?" she asked, her voice getting quieter with every syllable.

"Yeah."

"Read it when we hang up," she demanded.

"Okay. Are you sure you're okay?" He asked again.

"I will be," she muttered, almost giving in to the light that kept pulling her away. She forced herself to focus on her boyfriend's voice.

"Okay," he said, confused. "I love you," this he stated with confidence.

"I love you too," she answered sadly as she choked down a sob. The line went dead,

Rose's phone slipped from her hand and into the water and she finally followed. The world went black and everything was silent.

Though Rose's world stopped, everyone else's kept spinning. Marco unfolded the note, a giant grin on his face. Rose, being a hopeless romantic, liked to write “love notes”. She did it with his friend Andreas when she liked him and she did it with Marco. Now, his smile slipped as he began to read the note. His stomach dropped and he furrowed his brow in confusion. The note read:

Dear Marco,

It is very obvious that I like you but what I've come to terms with recently is that I love you. And I know it's for real this time. My skin tingles every time we touch and my heart goes haywire when we kiss. You're the last thing on my mind when I go to sleep and the first thing on my mind when I wake up. When you hurt, I hurt, when you cry, I cry. It is for these reasons that I must confess what I have done. I know you've been wondering what happened to Kate and why. I know you've been looking high and low for her killer. Wonder and look no more. I will put your mind at ease and tell you what happened right now. You saw the video, but you need to hear it from me. Wednesday, September 26th, I sat in at one of the robotics meetings, as your teammates can tell you. Kate was there and she was bragging to Marie about how she never liked you. She said she could never like you because you were broken and broken things didn't belong in her life. I was high off some weed gummy bears that I had eaten and was quicker to anger than usual. When she got bored of the conversation, Kate walked over to another table. I offhandedly told Marie that I just wanted to kill her. Marie thought I was serious and my anger and jealousy grew fast. And so me and Marie plotted to kill Kate that night. Other than us, she was the last one to pack up. When everyone was gone, I hit her upside the head with a rubber mallet, just hard enough to knock her out. When she was unconscious, we tied her to the pole with zip ties and waited a couple hours until we were sure that everyone was out of the building. When Kate woke up, is when we started recording. We interrogated her and tortured her in the process. We used various tools to injure her and various saws and machines to dismember her. She was a trooper, she managed to stay conscious and alive until Marie decapitated her. When all was done, I felt no remorse. The cries of pain and the never ending rivers of blood didn't affect me. I was numb. We were sure to wipe our prints off everything and then we snuck out the garage door. We walked to the library, where our Uber was. The driver took Marie to her boyfriend's house and me to Kylie's house. Once I was laying in bed, is when the remorse and the tears came. I regret everything that happened that night. I was jealous because you liked Kate and not me and I was pissed that she hurt you and you couldn't see it. I am so so very sorry for what I did. The visions have haunted me since that night and the guilt is driving me insane. I can't do it anymore Marco. I wish I hadn't done it, but now that I have, I can't live like this. Now that you know, I can’t go on. I could not and will not live in a world in which you hate me. Please know this isn't your fault. Please try to move on, you deserve someone better. Goodbye forever Marco.

Love,

Rose

When he finished, it took Marco a second to register what he had actually read. Little by little, the pieces of the puzzle came together and finally fit together as two legos would. Once the realization hit him, and he dialed Rose’s number. She didn’t pick up and didn’t pick up the three times after. When he had no response, he knew she was gone. He could almost feel her life draining from her as he stood there. He sobbed in agony, knowing there was no way he could save her and dropped to his knees in defeat. After teachers and students started to peer out of their rooms, Marco gathered himself up and bolted out the nearest doors. His feet hit the asphalt and he doubled his pace. He knew he would regret pushing himself so hard later, but right now it didn’t matter. He had to get to Rose, hooking a sharp right off of Titan Drive and gunning it down the street, leaving MFHS far behind him. When he reached Appleton Avenue, he bolted to the other side of the street and continued on. Finally, he made the short-cut by Total Health and ran across Pilgrim Road. Pausing on the sidewalk in front of Holy Cross Lutheran church, he continued his journey and upon reaching Longwood Street, hooked another sharp right. As he passed all the houses, the only thought on his mind was that Rose needed him. In fact, she had needed him for over a week and he hadn’t the slightest clue. Marco finally made it to Rose’s house and tore through the grass. Grabbing the side door on the wooden gate, he whipped it open and didn’t bother closing it behind him. He put in the code for the lock and stumbled through the door.

"Rose!" he yelled. The bathroom light shone brightly, so he ran to it, dreading what he would see. When Marco saw Rose laying motionless in the tub, he rushed to her side, desperately shaking her. "Rose, wake up! Don't do this. Please don't do this," he begged.

Rose had bled out into the tub so that she appeared to be floating in her own blood. Marco clutched Rose's still warm body to his chest. Finally, he took out his phone, called 911 and Rose's mom. He let Rose fall back into the red water and sat against the wall. Though he couldn't think straight, he knew what he had to do. He lost his first girlfriend, his second girlfriend was the one to kill her and she just killed herself. Everyone around him - everyone that mattered at least - got hurt. Marco walked into the kitchen, grabbed a steak knife and retreated back to the bathroom. The two people he cared the most about, were gone. He let out a cry of devastation as he thought of a world without Rose in it. And with that, he brought the knife to his chest and drove it through his heart. He grabbed Rose's hand as he felt the life draining from him and then as he felt nothing, his grip loosened and his hand fell back to his side. Shortly after, the cops showed up. They took in the scene, read the note and sent officers to arrest Marie. Marie was arrested and admitted to everything. She pleaded insanity and was therefore able to be placed in an insane asylum. As Marie was stripped and put into all white clothes, a grin played on her face. She didn't regret a thing. The door closed behind her and she let out a giggle that turned into a laugh, that snowballed into a whole fit of maniacal laughter.

"Love kills," she muttered before she laughed into her pillow.