When You Put It That Way... Nah, I Still Hate You.- Prologue

Jamie was pronounced dead at the scene of the crime. The cause of the crash was that she was driving under the influence. The other driver-they did an autopsy-was also driving under the influence. He-it was a male-did not survive either.

Don't worry about Kevin's party. He was free and clear when the cops came. Once Tyler had announced that he had called the police, Kevin along with three other guys sprinted back to the house and took all the alcohol that there was and walked into the forest towards the little river that sat amongst the trees and poured all it out.

Linda had been the only sane person that night so she took on the reponsibility of calling Jamie's parents and telling them where they were and what had just happened. I had still been in Seth's arms when Linda had called. Linda was about fourty yards away from me and I could hear the shrilling scream of Jamie's mother on the other line of the phone. This only made matters worse for me.

Linda, Megan, Penny, Seth and I had all went to the hospital. Seth and I got into my car and drove down to the hospital, everyone else following us. I was too messed up to drive; I could barely buckle my belt (which Seth had to do for me after I managed to try and snap it over me).

Once at the hospital, there was a whole gathering of people: Seth and I, Megan, Linda, Penny, Jamie's worried parents, mine and Seth's parents and so many other people that you would of thought that it was a wedding reception.

"Mom." I whispered out as soon as Seth and I walked through the sliding doors that lead into the hospital. I let go of Seth's hand and ran down the hall towards my parents.

"Oh, Annabel! We were so worried." My mother whispered as she and I hugged each other. I started to lightly sob into her neck. I looked up at her; he facial expression worried.

"Jamie's dead." I whispered out towards her. Just then my mother started crying and pulled me closer towards her. Seth slowly made his way towards the crowd.

"Are you alright, son?" Chuck asked Seth. Seth shook his head and massaged the back of his neck with his right hand. I glanced through my mother's hair to see Seth. He looked liked he was in control of himself, but I wasn't sure about how he felt on the inside.

"Annie!" Maria, Jamie's mother, called me as she swished over to my side. Her eyes were darting all over the place. "What happened Annie? What did you see?" She begged me to speak. I could only open my mouth.

"Maria," My father said soothingly, "let's just see what the doctors have to say. She might come out of this." As he finished, he turned and looked at me. I could tell that he knew that it was over by the way his eyes gave off that apologetic look. He was only trying to comfort Maria. But wouldn't comforting Maria only make it worse? Wasn't it just as bad as lying?

I left my mother and went over to Linda, Megan, Penny and a few other girls that were Jamie's friends. They were all teary-eyed just like I was. No one said anything; we all looked from one another, watching as all of our tears streamed out of our eyes. They must of knew that it was too late, too. Everyone knew except Jamie's parents. But if I was put in the position of Jamie's mother, I think I would also be trying to hope for the best; pushing all the negatives far out of my mind.

We all stood and waited for the doctor to come out of the opperateing room. The ambulance didn't let anyone ride in the back with Jamie, so no one knew what she looked like and how bad the crash had been. After about fifteen minutes a doctor and a young redheaded nurse came out of the room. Immediately, Jamie's parents were the first at the doctor's side.

"Is she alright? Is she alive?" Jamie's mother asked the doctor. We all stood back, watching the doctor's expression; grife-strucken. He looked down at the floor for a second before looking into the eyes of Maria.

"I'm so sorry, Mrs. Westly," the polite and quiet doctor said to Maria. "Jamie did not survive. It seems that she died at the scene of the crash."

"Nooooo!!! Oh, God, no!!!" Maria whailed out, slowly slipping towards the ground. Jack, her husband and Jamie's father, grabbed Maria by the elbows before she collapsed to the floor. I stood there, my sobs loud, but not as loud as Maria. I buried my face into my hands and turned around and buried myself in my father's chest. His arms embraced me and he stroked my back as I cried.

"There was nothing we could do," the doctor continued. "We tried for ten minutes straight to get her heart beating again, but it was no use. It never started up." He sounded so sincere. I heard Maria whailing out, calling for Jamie to come back to her. Saying, "Oh, God! My baby! My Jamie's gone!"

"I'm so sorry, Jamie." I whispered into my father's chest.

That was the worst night of my life. It's all my fault that Jamie was dead. If I had hadn't hugged Seth at the party then none of this would of happened. Jamie would be alive and laughing with me. She and I did practically everything together. She was my best friend. I had known her the longest. Now she was dead and all I had were pictures and fading memories of her.


Sunday, Monday and Tuesday passed and it felt that each day ran into the next. It felt that all three days were just one big, long, painful neverending day. My mother had to force me out of my bed Monday and Tuesday to go to school. I had begged her to let me stay home, but for some reason she didn't want me at home moping around. Well I was just going to mope around at school so it really didn't matter.

It didn't feel like I had taken a shower, gotten dressed or even drove to school. I was on auto pilot. You're there, but you're not. Do you understand what I mean?

"Hey, Annabel." Seth said to me as I got out of my car Wednesday for school. I turned to look at him; my expression and eyes blank. I didn't mean to look at him like he was a stranger. It's just that everything seemed strange to me, different now that Jamie was gone. But the least I could do was give him a smile, even if I didn't know if I meant it or not. It's the least I could do because of what he had done for me. For Pete's sake, he'd beaten up Josh for me! I owed him my respect.

"Hi, Seth." I said. My own voice sounded weird to me. I had't talked much in the past three days. If anyone asked me something, I'd just usually nod my head. With Seth, he actually asked questions that you needed to give a whole complete sentence as your answer. And he also strated conversations that were made for two people. So there was no way out of speaking when Seth was around.

"How do you feel? Doing any better?" Seth asked me as we walked across the parking lot towards the entrance of the school.

"No. I'm not doing any better. Thanks for trying, though." I said, giving him a weak smile. Seth surprisingly did not say anything more. He just walked closely by my side through the parking lot and towards our lockers.

People were still looking at me, still giving me their sympathy even though it had been four days. This just made everything ten times worse. Even in class. Eveyrone just became suddenly quiet when I walked into English or History or Math. It felt like I was the new kid.

"Hi, Annie." Megan and Linda said at the same time as the walked over towards them. I turned towards them and we eached hugged each other. Linda and Megan were just as bad off as I was. They were just as weak as I was.

"Hey, guys. You alright?" I asked them, my voice choking up. Megan gave me a quarter smile and nodded her head, looking down at the floor. Linda looked up at the tiled cieling.

"How are you holding up?" Megan asked me after a second of silence. I sighed and shrugged.

"No too good. It's still there. It's something I can't forget." I said to Megan. She nodded, agreeing and understanding what I meant.

"It's going to be alirhgt. We'll get through this. The three of us will be okay." Megan assure Linda and I. Linda took her eyes off the ceiling and looked over at Megan. I looked at Linda and Megan looked at me.

"I hope so, Megs." Linda said. Megan turned her head towards Linda and nodded her head.

"We will. We've got each other still." Megan then smiled at both of us. I tried to give her a smile, but it didn't quite reach my eyes. Linda and Megan then left to go to homeroom and I returned to my locker.

"If you need anything," Seth said suddenly. I jumped at his voice. "Sorry." He smiled at me.

"It's okay," I assured him, shutting my locker once I got my books. "What were you saying?"

"I was just saying if you need anything, I'm here. As a friend." Seth told me. He seemed to of had to force out the word 'friend.' I didn't pay much attention to it, though. I looked at him for a few seconds, not really comprehending what he had said. Then I gave him one nod and tried to smile for Seth.

"Thank you." I smiled. Seth gave me a soft smile and we walked side by side to homeroom.


School-again-was hard, but it seemed that a fraction of it, a part of it, was starting to get better, starting to make sense the more I went back. At least something's were familiar because everything else was a jumble of uncertainties.

Seth had been by my side the whole day at school, one: he's in every single class of mine, but he was there even more than he had been before (if that's possible for Seth because he usually was stalking me around the school all day).

When I got home my mother's car was in the driveway. This was odd because it was only quarter to three and she didn't get home until three thirty. Seth gave me one last smile before he stepped into his house. I smiled back at him and walked up the lawn towards the front door.

I had been surprised when Seth told me that he hadn't gotten grounded for going to the party Saturday. He said that his parents were pleased that he had taken responsibility; driving to the hospital. So I guess Seth could do something right for once.

"Hello, Annabel." My mother smiled at me in the entryway as soon as I had opend the door. I gave her a tiny 'hello' and dropped my backpack onto the ground, kicking my shoes off.

"There was a letter for you that came in the mail today." My mom called out to me as she headed into the kitchen. I raised my eyebrows and followed her out into the kitchen.

"Really?" I said, interested.

"Mm-hmm." My mom said, handing me the ivory enevelope. She hadn't opened it, for it was still tightly sealed. The address said it was from Jack and Maria Westly. My heart dropped and I knew what it was. I looked up at my mom and she apparently did, too.

Without saying anything, I opened the envelope and pulled out a light purple card. On the front it said:

To Ms. Fenton.

I opened the card and inside it read:

Please come join us this Saturday evening to celebrate the life of Jamie. We hope to see you there. Best wishes,
Jack and Maria.

Fowell's Funeral Parlor
1368 Peach Street
Time: 7:00 p.m.

I started at the card for a long moment, tears had already stared to fall out of my eyes and ran down my cheeks. Jamie's funeral.

"What is it?" My momasked breaking the silenece. I looked up at her before speaking.

"It's an invitation to Jamie's funeral this Saturday." I answered my mother. She nodded and gave me a warm smile. I said no more as I took the card and my backpack up the stairs.

My room was about the only thing that looked the same to me (probably because I spent most of my time up there now). I tossed my backpack in the corner by my dresser and pinned up the invitation on my bulleting board that hung over my desk.

Seth leaned against his window sill, looking into my room. I opened up my window and let the cool January breeze wash in through my room. Seth smiled.

"Hey." He said, cheerfully. I gave him a wave. He looked around outside and then looked down at the ground. I stood there and continued to stare at him. Soon enough he looked back up at me, flipping his hair out of his face.

"Did you get one?" Seth quetioned me, holding up the same light purple colored card. I felt a lump rise in my throat as I nodded. Seth nodded and looked at the card.

"Are you going?" I called out to him, my voice craking and hoarce. He looked surpsrised that I had spoken.

"Yeah, I guess. You'll be there, right?" He asked me.

"Yeah."

"Then I'm going." Seth said. Despite everything that had happened in the past four days, I still had it in me to blush. Seth was the only one that could make me blush.

"I don't know if I'm going to be alright there. I think I'm going to break down and start sobbing." I said.

"I'll be there. That should help you." Seth smirked at me. And for the first time in four days, I let out a laugh. It sounded a little hysterical so I quickly stopped. When I looked back at Seth he was giving me that friendly smile of his that had made it's way into my heart.

"It's going to be alright, Annie." Seth assured me. I nodded as he left his window for his mother was calling his name. He shut his window up, giving me one last wave and smile before leaving his room. After a few seconds I shut my own window up and took a seat on my bed.

I replayed the words that Seth had just said to me and a smile came across my face. For some reason, I believed Seth. I believed Seth that everything was going to be alright. Silly of me to think that because from here on out things were only about to get much, much worse.