“Tiara, we have to go!”
Tiara looked up to see Mario standing over her. When she tried to pull away from him, he jerked her arm harder. “It’s too late for Brandy, but we have to get out of here now. They came for you!”
They came for you! His words echoed in her head.
The bullets that were made for her had slaughtered Brandy instead. Tiara kissed her forehead.
“I’m so sorry, Brandy,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
“Come on, Tiara! Your dad’s men are in here, but I don’t know how much longer they can hold them off!”
Tiara finally listened to reason and laid Brandy’s body down gently. “I’ll come back for you,” Tiara promised and struggled to her feet.
The two of them ran as quickly as they could away from the gunfire. Tiara almost couldn’t stomach the sight of all the bodies of students she kept stumbling across. Some were still alive while others were dead in pools of blood.
“Ahh!” Mario yelled as a bullet grazed his arm.
“‘Mario!” Tiara cried out.
“I’m OK.” Mario winced at the wound. “It just grazed me. Keep going. My car is in the back of the building.”
They made it out of the building without any other occurrences and ran all the way to Mario’s red Corvette, hand in hand. He put the key in the ignition and floored the gas pedal all the way to Tiara’s house. Right before they got to the gate, Tiara asked Mario to pull over. She opened the passenger-side door and leaped out. Everything that was in her stomach came out instantly, and she tried to catch her breath.
“Hey, hey,” Mario rubbed her back.
He felt her long hair under his slender fingers as his hand went back and forth between her shoulder blades. He felt her heart thumping fast while she continued to take deep breaths. It wasn’t until then that he noticed that she was covered in blood, and her face was completely pale.
“Come on,” Mario said. “Let’s get you home. Your parents are probably really worried about you.”
Tiara nodded and shut her door. Mario drove up to the gate and saw an armed man standing there. He walked up to the driver’s-side window, and Mario rolled it down.
“Can you please tell Mr. Rogers that I have his daughter Tiara with me?”
The guard’s face changed, and he looked over into the passenger’s side. When he saw that it, in fact, was Tiara, he opened the gate up and waved them through. At the same time, he radioed to the house that Tiara was home. Tiara pointed out her house to Mario. He helped her out of the car and up the steps that led to the front door. Tiara pushed it open, and as soon as she stepped into the house, she was bombarded with a swarm of people around her.
“Oh my God, she’s been shot!” Stephanie shrieked when she saw Tiara covered in blood.
“No, Stephanie, it’s not my blood!” Tiara yelled out. “I’m okay; it’s not mine!”
“Oh, thank God! I was so worried!” Stephanie was the first person to embrace her. She pulled away and examined her with wide eyes. “Why—how are you covered in blood?”
“I-it’s not mine,” Tiara was able to get out. She wanted to say more, but she didn’t have the strength. She felt emotionally exhausted.
Cat came forward and pulled Tiara away from Stephanie to hug her daughter.
“I’m glad you’re OK, baby,” she said into Tiara’s ear as she embraced her daughter. “We got the call that somebody was shooting at the school, and we thought the worst. Your father is on his way back here now.”
Tiara pulled away and just nodded her head. She was numb all over. All she wanted to do was go to her room and sleep. Maybe when she woke up it would have all just been one horrible nightmare. Everyone around her began bombarding her with a million and one questions. The only voice she heard was Stephanie’s.
“If that isn’t your blood, Tiara, whose is it?”
Tiara’s eyes welled with tears all over again, and her bottom lip trembled. She opened her mouth to speak, but she couldn’t bring herself to say a word. The image of Brandy lying dead in the school’s cafeteria entered her head, and it was too much for her to bear in one day.
“I think she’s been through enough for one day,” Mario finally spoke up from behind them all.
All eyes turned to where the voice had come from.
“Who are you?” Cat asked. “What is he doing here?”
“My name is—”
“Tiara!” Blake Rogers’s voice boomed throughout the house when he pushed the door open and saw his daughter standing there.
He left his security guards outside of the house and rushed to swoop her up off of the ground. He held her tightly to him like she was just a baby and kissed her face. When he put her back down, he studied her from top to bottom.
“You have blood all over you,” he observed. “Are you OK?”
“It’s not my blood,” Tiara said, struggling with her speech. “It’s . . . It’s Brandy’s! She’s dead!”
She was finally able to say it, and Stephanie gasped. She had to take a seat. Stephanie then knew why Tiara’s face was so pale; her best friend had been murdered right before her eyes. From
