Good Luck with Your Finals!

I reached to my nightstand attempting to turn off my alarm, but still half asleep
from studying the night before. I turned off my alarm and opened my phone,
greeting me with a wallpaper, of myself and a girl next to me. The date read 25th
of November, 7:26 AM. I saw a notification on messenger, "Good Luck with Your
Finals! -Ava Artrett. Sent 12:00 AM" Ava's been my childhood friend for as long as
I can remember, and for just as long I've had feelings for her that I've just never
been able to express. We first met a few years back.

I was sitting outside the classroom writing stories for my enjoyment, isolating
myself from everyone else until she approached me.

"Hey, watcha doing," she said peering over, shadowing my book and pencil. I
sat silent for a bit, looking up at her.

"Hellooooo? Can you talk, or are you one of those people who can't?" She asked

"Huh? Ah! No no, I can talk, I was just startled," I exclaimed.

"What are you writing?" She said grabbing the book from my hands. "Ooooo a
narrative?"

"Hey wait!" I snatched the book back.

"Awwww I wanted to read," she pouted.

I looked at the desperation, read all over her face. For the rest of our break, we
just talked endlessly.

"He dies!? Why's the ending so sad?" She asked

"I just think happy endings are hard, to be fulfilling with as you'll always wonder
what the characters are doing after that, but with a sad ending, you'll know
exactly where the characters end up," I explained to her.

"I don't think so. Everyone loves a happy ending. How would you feel if your life
resulted in a sad ending?"

I looked at her and thought for a bit. "If that's what fate has in store for me then
so be it."

"That's boring, you should live a happy life, especially considering you have
something you want to do in the future."
I never thought about writing as a future career, only a small hobby, but her
kind words directed me on that path in the near future. The bell rang as we both
packed up our things and headed to class.

"Oh by the way my name's Ava, Ava Artrett, what's yours?" She asked

"I'm Liam Ocott."

"Nice to meet you, Liam," she said raising her hand to me.

Since that day we ended up talking every day at school, getting to know each
other better. After about a year I fell in love with her, but never said anything or
acted in any way that would suggest it. Eventually, I ended up moving to a
different school but kept in touch over social media. I told myself that if I passed
the final exams, I'd work on finishing a story I've been writing for about a year or
two. Once I gave her the final copy I'd tell her how I feel. Seeing her message
made me anxious, so I didn't check our conversation and accidentally left my
phone behind.

I walked through the school gate and into the library where I normally wait for
classes to start, all the students were inside, on their phones discussing
amongst each other. I sat down at the normal table, I sat down at a table with a
new friend I made, when I came to this school named Jared.

"Hey, Liam have you heard the news?"

"No? What's happened?" I asked. It seemed everyone was talking about the
same thing then.

"A student committed suicide, it's all over the news."

"A student? From our school?"

"No someone from a different school. I think it's your old school? You might
know them."

"Who is it?"

"Uh gimme a second I'm still scrolling. I've got it. High school student, Ava
Artrett has been found in her apartment complex, hung by a noose."

The instant he said Ava Artrett, I couldn't believe anything. My body froze and all
I wanted to do was cry, as I tried to convince myself, that I was dreaming. My
knees felt weak as I almost stumbled over. My entire body started shaking, and
my eyes couldn't close themselves as they began to flood and leak tears down
onto the table.

"Hey, Liam are you ok?" Jaren asked putting his hand on my shoulder.
I couldn't get out any words, only exhales combined with sobbing.

"Good riddance, that bitch was always so annoying!" Shouted Dina.

Dina was another girl from my old school, but she was the polar opposite of Ava.
She was a delinquent, a bully to everyone who didn't agree with her. At our old
school, Ava was one of the only people to stand up to her.

My gaze turned and was fixed upon her.

"Like really, anyone who went to that school would've known how annoying she
was, always such a goody-two-shoes!"

I got up from the table and began walking towards her.

"Like omg, you guys don't even understand, how bad it was for me, such an
annoying, irritating, lonely, bit-" Before Dina could finish her sentence, I swung
and punched her in the face, sending her to the floor.

"Hey what's your problem ass-" I looked down to her, as I gritted my teeth and
clenched my fist. Her body started to tremble as her mouth and eyes gaped at
me.
I grabbed her by the collar and raised her from the floor. "How... How could you
say that! A girl you once knew committed suicide, potentially by your influence,
and you have the audacity to call her a bitch and say good riddance! Go to hell!"
I raised my fist preparing to punch her once more.

"Liam!" Jared grabbed my arm and stopped me from doing anything worse. I
turned and saw that his body was also trembling, in fear. I looked around to see
everyone staring, some hiding behind each other. I let go of Dina and ran out of
the library through the school gate. I stood outside and leaned over hands on
my knees as tears dropped to the ground. My hands began to clench into fists as
I just screamed and yelled.

I ended up at home laying in my bed, blinds down as I sobbed in darkness. I left

my room and entered my kitchen, grabbing a safety rope from under my sink. I
went back into my room and tied the rope into a noose, rapping the other end
around my ceiling fan. I looked at the noose, and started crying, into it.

I heard the message notification on my phone and turned to see. It was a

message from Jared. "Hey, are you ok?" I noticed that under the notification still
read Ava's message, but this time I noticed it saying 1 more message
underneath it. I unlocked my phone and read the full convo to see Ava's final
message.

"Hey, Liam. I know you're probably still studying for your exams or sleeping as
of right now, but I just wanted to say some things as our last goodbye. I've been
overwhelmed with severe stress, anxiety and depression. Ever since you left, the
school's never been enjoyable, the only thing that's been keeping me going this
far is our small conversations online. I just wanted to thank you for everything
though. Back when we met, I was pretty lonely, and even after I made such a
bold approach on you, you accepted me and befriended me nonetheless. It's
unfortunate to say that I don't think I can handle the way things are at the
moment, so this is the last you'll ever hear from me, but before I go, I need to tell
you one more thing. The years we spent were some of the best years of my life,
reading your stories, studying together, whether it was a boring task or not I still
enjoyed every last second because you were with me. Even when I'm gone I still
have so much faith that you'll be ok. I have faith that you'll be a world-renowned
writer, and that you'll live a happy life, and please don't prove me wrong. So
before I go I just wanted to say..." I read the final 3 words, and my eyes were
overwhelmed with tears, as I placed my phone down and just cried and cried
and cried. I looked back up to my phone and read them once more. "I love you."