I should be at football practice right now. It’s 3:45 and my team will be doing warm-ups still. I wonder who is leading my team. Probably Paul Pritchard, he’s knows what he’s doing. We look alike too, it’s like we were twins separated at birth. Six foot three, blue eyes, dark blonde hair. We were even born in the same month of the same year. Our first game was smack in the middle of our birthdays, so afterwards, we had a huge bonfire. We’ve always been pretty close. But then again, so were Victor and I.

My name is Sean Kavanagh. I didn’t choose to be here. Jail is no place for an eighteen year old. A first offense assault charge? That should be no big deal, he’s only in the hospital. The only problem is, they can’t find AJ. That’s the only reason I’m here. They think I killed my ex-girlfriend. “They” being Amanda’s moms. Lawrence knows I wouldn’t do something like this. Truth be told, she probably got too trashed and got a bad tattoo or something and was afraid to go home. Maybe she did too many lines and got kidnapped, she never knew when too much partying was enough. I told them that too. Just because I beat up her boyfriend (who was supposed to be one of my best friends, we’d known each other forever) doesn’t mean that I killed her. I didn’t even touch her. Maybe I yelled a little too loud in her face, but she was used to it. I used to do it all the time when she’d get too drunk and hang all over other guys. She really had a problem. Maybe I should have said something to her parents or to her friends. Nevermind on the friends, they were the same way. For being cheerleaders and “role models”, those girls were total trash. What a thought. Sitting on the floor in my cell, thinking about my ex-girlfriend’s drinking problem. Not about my court date, not about my ugly jail clothes and how they itched, not about how hungry I was. I was worried about my alcoholic, seventeen year old, lost, ex-girlfriend. And they think I was the one who did something to her. What a joke.

I wondered what my parents would think if they were here. My mom would probably be crying. Her baby boy in jail? Unbelievable. She’d sob and sob. My dad wouldn’t even look at me. I’d be a disappointment. Two older brothers, both went to the same college and played football. Both were valedictorian, prom kings, and football captains. I was well on my way to following in their footsteps, already had football captain in the bag. Maybe. I hope they’d still let me when I came back. I’d only missed four days. They had to find her. I couldn’t stand this much longer.

AJ was tired. She had been asleep for the past few hours. Or days. She couldn’t tell. She had had the burlap bag over her head for God knows how long. She tried to reposition herself. A sharp pain shot through her side and her head immediately began to throb. She felt hungover and like she had fallen out of a window. Wait, she was hungover and did fall out of a window. That wasn’t the point. She felt like crap. The bag over her head didn’t help anything. The last thing she remembered was taking shots at Tony’s house with Mari and Vic. That was a usual Saturday night, but she had no clue how she had gotten wherever she was. It felt damp and cold. Almost like a really poor person’s basement. The more she came to, the more she realized the disgusting smell all around her. She finally realized that she was not tied up in any way. She took the bag off, but she still could not see anything but a little sliver of light passing through the ceiling. she felt around for her phone and purse. Neither were in a close proximity. She began to feel around a little closer on the ground and touched something slightly warm and furry: the source of the horrible smell. A dead animal. She quickly pulled herself back and resumed her fetal position on the little concrete slab.

I looked at the clock. Time was going by was too slow. There was nothing to do but worry and wait. And pray.

“I’m not even religious, “ I thought to myself.

For the first time in a long time, I actually sat down and prayed.

After that, I began thinking about all the events that had lead up to this point. The first being me and AJ’s breakup. It had been messy, that’s for sure. They had been at a party. I remember texting AJ earlier that night asking her to go to a party with me. Then another asking what she was doing that night, followed a little later by a “whatever, good night. love you.” That was at 11:11. I remembered because that was the exact time I walked into Joseph and Kat’s house. The night only went downhill from there. I walked into the kitchen, grabbed a cup and poured some Busch Light in.
Before I knew it, I was downing shots with some football buddies. I knew a few of the other girls now that I think about it, but I didn’t recognize them at the time. I thought I would try to call Amanda. She didn’t answer. I turned to the first cheerleader I knew: Mari. I remember asking a little too harshly where AJ was. She had gotten a weird look on her face and sputtered a few words, then turned the other way and quickly walked away. Me being the curious person that I am, decided to follow her.

Maneuvering through the bodies was hard enough, but but Mari was also very short, almost as short as AJ when she didn’t have heels on. She snuck her way up the crowded steps and as soon as she made it to the top landing, I could hear her yelling for AJ. Mari was obviously drunk and started slowing down once the people thinned out. She made it to the end of the hall and I watched her pound on a locked door, yelling for AJ… and maybe Vic? I thought I heard her wrong, but as soon as I heard her say it again, I knew.

I stormed down the hallway. By the time I got there, the door was opening and out walked my girlfriend and best friend. I shoved Amanda out of the way and hit Victor square in the jaw. The rest is kind of a blur, but I remember sitting outside on the front porch, watching everyone run to their cars with their booze. Victor didn’t wake up right away and AJ being th dumb blonde that she is, called for an ambulance. Which ended up being good because I broke his jaw and eye socket or something like that. The police showed up too and asked too many questions that I can’t remember. They asked who, why, how, when, and where. Plus thirty some other questions. Yes, I was drinking. No, I’m not 21. I've known him for 12 years. Me and her have been together for 11 months last Wednesday. Mari and AJ saw it. Those were just the beginning questions.

After they got Victor into the ambulance, they cuffed me and put me into the back of the car. They got Mari’s statement. But not Amanda’s. I’m guessing she ran away since she didn’t want to get caught. I haven't seen her since.

“I’m Amanda Jo O’Shea, but my best friends call me AJ. Typical high school cheerleader. I’m captain though, so I’m more special. My long, straight blonde hair (down to the middle of my back, finally!) perfectly compliments my blue eyes, tan (but not too tan) skin, and always perfectly done nails. I’m a little on the short side. I’m only 5’5’’! I used to date the quarterback, but his best friend is a lot cuter so I’m dating him now. His name’s Victor. He really gets me and he doesn’t get mad when I go to parties like Sean did.

My parents divorced when I was thirteen, so I’ve been back and forth between Mother and Daddy’s house. I hate going to my mother’s. She is like, the worst. She married this woman that is absolutely revolting. Their house is nice though. They adopted two little Filipino children and then last year, they adopted one from Russia! Like hello… Have you seen Salt? That little kid is probably a spy and is going to kill them in twenty years. But anyways, enough about them. My dad is the best. And Mandy is just awesome. Mandy is my step-mom, but she acts like an older sister. She just turned thirty, so she’s still pretty cool. We always go shopping together and get our nails done and she always helps me with my cheerleading routines when I need help. And now she’s pregnant and I just can’t wait! She’s due in four months and we already know that she’s having a girl. We decorated the nursery the other day and Dad even helped a little bit when he got home from work.

My best friend’s and I have so many other friends. We always get invited to the best parties. Sometimes Mari says we shouldn’t go, but who could blame us? We never have to buy our own vodka and we always end up home or somewhere else so none of us ever have to drive. I usually stay at Victor’s now, Dad trusts him to take care of me. Lately there’s been this car following me around. I’m pretty sure it’s just one of Dad’s work cars checking up on me. He cares about me so much, he wouldn’t want anything to happen to his oldest daughter. Especially since I’ve been helping Mandy so much. Their little baby is gonna need me so much when she gets older. I’ll have to teach her how to do her own makeup (Mandy has a lady that does hers every morning) and how to wash her hair right without tangling it up and of course, how to do a back handspring. That’ll put her way ahead of all her other cheerleading friends that she’ll have. I can’t wait until she’s older.”

She couldn’t believe she was talking to a dead animal about herself. She had really hit rock bottom, hadn’t she.