We all will lose people eventually, some due I'm a young photographer who really want to hear some advice so tell me what you think!to death, some due to time. “Three’s a crowd,” That saying never applied for me, Juliana, and my best friends Malia and Elena made my life seem so simple and fun. The made me the person I am today. It all started in preschool. We were probably the most complex 3 and 4 year olds to ever exist. Malia had OCD before it became a fad, she would cry if her letters weren’t the same size when she was just learning to write, Its insane i know but she hasn’t changed a bit sense, carrying a perfectly clean white ruler everywhere she goes with seven little stickers in rainbow order so she can make sure her letters match. Then there is Elena, she probably caused most of Malia’s insane rants but she knew what she wanted in life and no one could stop her. The only thing that could come in between her and her dreams was her family. They meant the world to her, I never knew why, they scared her to death no one still has proof, unless you count cigar burns and bruises on her collar bones as proof. If you ever asked her what happened it was always the same story. 

“Dude another bruise,” Malia said as she sighed and reached for her arm.

“Im clumsy, I dropped my violin again,” she would always say as she motioned her arms over her collar bone showing how the series of unfortunate events occurred.

“Dude be more careful” I’d always tell her, it was easier to agree than argue.

“I got to go to class guys, bye,” Malia said as she waved and went down the hall in the opposite direction as us. She had to be to every class exactly 15 minutes earlier or her whole day would seem to come to an end.

“Speaking of class, ready for our big speech?”

“Speech, what speech, when, why, I can’t I will tota--,” I began to rant.

“Shhh my little butterfly, its tomorrow for spanish I’d figure you forgot.” My nickname was butterfly because Malia’s name means calm wave, and Elena is short for a goddess, so I needed something i guess.

“Not--cool--Elena”

“Lo siento pequena mariposa”

“Stop, you know I’m failing that class”

“Puedo ayudarle”

“ENGLISH, I can’t understand you!”

"Sorry my butterfly, I'll stop"

"One day I'll grow out of that name"

"Yea right, it's how we go together, your a butterfly, Malia is calm waves and I'm a dead person" we laughed as we walked down the hall that splits our classes.

“Speaking of dead I have to go and retake a math test,or my mom and dad may kill me,” with one more giggle and hug Elena walks off and leaves my in the empty depths of the hallways.

The rest of the day went by as a blur it was oddly a quick and easy day. I stayed after classes to retake my math test and had to skip lunch so the only time I got to see Elena and Malia was after school. We walk home everyday together we've been doing it since we were like 7. Today was different though. Elena had just turned 16 and got her license. 

"Hope in guys"

"The house is ten minutes that way," Malia says as she points her finger down the street.

"I know but it's a three minute drive…"

Unable to fight the facts we all get in Elena's new Toyota and head off. She said her parents just haven't it to her for her birthday. My only question was did they give it to her as a gift or as a reward for never exposing the horrible way they treat her.

"Uhh traffic on this road sucks I just wanna go through" Elena says on the verge to road raging everyone within a 2 mile radius. 

"So much for that five minute drive" Malia says with a laugh. After waiting for another minute traffic still doesn't lighten up.

"I would rather die than stay in this spot for five more seconds" Elena says with her words slightly getting louder each time.

Within the next few minutes we finally are let through and Elena drops us off with a hug and a "see you tomorrow". I sat at home with not much to do that whole day, Elena and Malia both had plans so I was all alone. I turned on the TV for some white noise as I looked through my phone for what seemed to be centuries. All of a sudden every device in the house got a loud buzz. Nothing ever happened in this town, crime rate is nonexistent and we honestly didn't know how to react. I flipped over not phone and it was a mass message from Malia

"CHANNEL 4"

"What are they selling something you want?!"

"Not funny Juliana, channel 4"

"What is it?"

"Less questions, more watching, channel 4"

Malia was never like this so I quickly stopped joking around and flipped to channel 4,

"Welcome to channel 2, The weather is 93° bright and sunny."

"Nope"

"Bienvenidos y Buenos días" 

"Nope"

"Welcome to channel 4 news toda--"

"Nope, wait yes"

"Today the town is in mourning of a 16 year old girl, Elena Palensky was declared dead today after a fatal drunk driving incident,"  I wanted to throw up, it wasn't real, it couldn't be. 

"The saddest part of this story is who was the drunk driver? Well it was Elana's father" Pictures of Mr. Palensky flooded the screen, him and her, him and his wife. His mugshot. 

"He is now being tried for reckless driving and attempted murder, he admitted that he knew his daughter was in the car in front of him and he continued to drink after seeing the possible danger," 

I was angry, I wanted to cry, scream and throw something at his head the whole time. It's not real, it's not real. That's all I could believe. If only I knew the anger would have just begun. As I pulled out my phone hundreds, thousands of kids from school posted "R.i.p. Elena, we loved you," I didn't know half of them, or any of them. They didn't know Elena, yet they all spoke of her death. The rest of that evening went as slow as possible.

"That was a day I'll never forget," I stated in tears as Malia held me close.

"Thanks for sharing Ms. Juliana, saying what put you here makes it better, that's how we can begin to fix it." 

Therapy, it's been 6 weeks, 2 days and 4 hours since I learned the news and this is where it puts me.