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I was paralyzed with fear as that reality moved through me.
But then the screams cut through, and that’s when I shifted my attention away from Janelle.
The part of the cliff that had broken off and started plummeting down was heading straight for Faye and Cristina. It was too large, and they had no time.
In the next instant, I watched as that boulder landed on top of them, sending them beneath the surface of the water.
“No!” I shouted, praying they’d come back up while knowing it wasn’t going to happen.
For a brief moment, I was too stunned to move. But then I realized that if I was wrong and there was a chance they survived, I needed to get in and help them.
So, as I looked down to the opposite end and yelled, “Help! Please help!”
When the people noticed me waving my arms, they started running in my direction. I jumped off the edge and crashed into the water. I swam as fast as I could to where my friends had been in the water, and when I went under, I couldn’t find them.
I’d thought that they were in the shallower spots and that I might be able to get to them, but if they’d been pulled farther out, it was easily forty to sixty feet deep. I’d never be able to get to them.
“Oh, God,” I rasped, swimming toward the rock wall. I had to try to get to Janelle. “Oh, God, please be alive.”
I made it to the edge, hoisted myself up out of the water, and climbed over the rocky terrain to where I saw her bloodied, battered, and lifeless body lying there.
“Janelle,” I cried. “Janelle, please.”
She didn’t move. She didn’t answer.
And when I finally made it by her side and put two fingers on her neck to feel for a pulse, there wasn’t one.
“No, please, no,” I begged. “Help!”
Tears were rolling down my face, my heart was in my throat, and my stomach was twisted in knots.
I stayed there with my hands on my best friend’s body and cried for what felt like hours before anyone else made it to where I was.
Even though I continued to see exactly what had happened as it replayed over and over in my mind, I said, “I don’t know what happened. I don’t know how this happened.”
Eventually, someone helped to usher me away from her. As I sat on the ground, I cried while my body trembled.
My three best friends were dead.
Everything else was a blur.
There was no graduation ceremony for Faye.
There was no graduation ceremony for Janelle.
There was no graduation ceremony for Cristina.
Instead, funeral services were held.
Cristina’s was two days ago, Janelle’s was yesterday, and Faye’s was today. The day they were all supposed to walk in their graduation ceremony, an event they’d all worked so hard to be a part of.
Now, there was nothing.
There was nothing for them to look forward to or to work toward. Their families wouldn’t be able to celebrate any more special occasions with them.
And it was all my fault.
Word traveled fast, and people were already talking.
