LiviieMarie

HERES MY SUBMISSION! I'm so excited! And I'm really proud of this so I hope you like it!
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Excuse me?

Where am I?

Can someone please tell me where I . . .

I can't remember . . .

What's happening?

There was a loud buzz noise. Then a high pitch sound. And another buzz. My chest burned and my whole body felt achey. There was a fast beeping sound.

What's going on?

"Will he be okay?! Why isn't he waking up?!"

"Will you please get out of here?!"

"Please, You have to stand back. We're going everything we can!"

"James!"

Im here. I-

What happened?

{6 hours earlier}

"It's not something I'm exactly open about, I guess," I was saying to my friend, and also my roommate, who was sitting on my kitchen counter. Her hair was tousled from having scratched her head over and over for the latest minutes our conversation. "But you?" She scratched yet again the head that couldn't be wrapped around my confession. "You're gay?" She huffed and looked to the side. "I just . . . You don't seem the type."
"Type?" I raised an eyebrow, taking out a carton of milk. "You mean the sterotype? Gee. Thanks for the love and acceptance." I drank straight out of the carton. It annoys the shit out of her but "why waste a cup" is my logic. I screwed the lid back on and put it back. Luckily she was took distracted too distracted disgusted. "Why are you so shocked? I thought you'd be chill. You weren't this surprised when Ashley came out as bi."
"That was different. She wasn't living with me. I see you everyday. Why didn't I ever notice?" She leaned over and touched her finger tips to her forehead. The tone in her voice was like she was beating herself up. Her eyes were down toward her lap but flicking around as she processed.
"Now you know. And anyway, Yeah. So I'll be back around 9 ish is my guess. Do you think you can have my back in case it's a total flop? Like make something up to come get me?" I went the mirror to straighten the collar of my brand new shirt. This guy, he was my coworker for a while until I was promoted. But I had a crush on him and my only reason for not making a move before now was because I didn't want to be dating anyone I worked closely with. Now that I was in a whole other department, he was fair game.
In the mirror, I saw my roommate perk up finally with a smile. "Definitely. Text me and tell me if he's a complete weirdo. I got your back." She winked playfully at me and gave my a thumbs up to which I smiled and turned around. "Great." I grabbed my coat that was draped over the back of our couch and flung it over my shoulders in one quick motion.
"James," I heard her small voice behind me. I turned around and she slid down from the counter, looking seriously at the ground. "Just be careful."
Her brown puppy dog eyes looked up at me and the corner of my mouth lifted along with my had to pat her head. "Of course," I said softly, "I'll see you later, Maddie."

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"Does anyone know what happened to this poor guy? This head injury is . . . catastrophic," woman in a white coat and scrubs said, flipping through the chart on her clipboard.

"The police have a few people in for questioning. They were there at the crime scene brawling it out from what I hear," an intern of hers spoke up in a soft voice.

The doctor looked up from her papers and into her patients room where he lay in a comma, one that she didn't think he would come out of any time soon.
"Poor guy. I hope whoever did this to him gets put away for murder. Because it looks like he won't me waking up. And that very well might as well be killing him."

{5 1/2 hours earlier}

My first impression of Donavan, when I very first met him, was that he was odd. He had a quirky way of doing everything, like carrying a conversation, which he often didn't to my knowledge. He was quite most of the time and kept to his awkward self.
There was no doubt he was cute; nice jawline, boyish features. But the thing that really got me was that goofy smile of his when he actually did talk with people. There was something innocent and yet mysterious about it.

When I first showed up to our date that I was surprised he'd agreed to, I at once took not of his quirky fashion sense. It was so out of the ordinary, so him. I loved it. He had on a baggy set of turquoise pants and a white shirt with a splattered paint design. Over that he had on a yellow sweater and scarf around his neck that didn't show one bit of his neck. I knew about his strange fashion choices when picking suits for work but never had I seen his casual wear. "You look really cute," I complimented, sitting across from him at our table for two.

A blush lit up his cheeks and he squirmed a bit in his seat. "Thank you. I think you look great as well. I mean you just look so cool. Like someone really popular. Which you are! Everyone likes you around the office. You're like the Queen Bee." Donavan was clearly very nervous, fidgeting with his sweater buttons as I chuckled. I loved that everything about he did was him just being him. There was no act he was putting on, he was just like that.

"Don't make fun of me," he snapped, bringing me out of my thoughts. I was a little surprised to see him angry. He had a bitter expression and was glaring down at the table.
"Oh no I wasn't laughing to mock you. It's just," I smiled a little and leaned on the table, "you're so genuinely cute. I like it a lot."

As if set off by a switch, he peeked up and smiled. "Thats really nice of you. I'm glad you would say something nice about me. I mean because no one ever really thinks that stuff about me." He was back with that flattered little smile on his face, looking down and finding something new to fidget with.

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"Miss Madison McAllister," the officer said as he slid a chair out from the opposite end of the table she sat on. She wasn't taken to a dark room. She wasn't cuffed. She was just take there "to talk" as they said. Sipping her coffee, she looked up at him. "Yes, sir. That's me." She let out small sigh. No one has called her Madison except her parents, and the last time she spoke to them was months ago. Not counting the phone call she had to make to tell them that her roommate had gotten beaten on the head and that's why she wouldn't be answering her phone.

"May I record this? For evidence." The officer set down a recorder in the middle of the table as Maddie shook her head. "No. That's fine."

He pressed record.

"Miss Madison McAllister, where were you tonight when James came home?" The officer inquired.

"I was in the living room, sir. I was watching TV," Maddie answered calmly.

"Was he with someone?" The officer looked at a few papers, as if reading to find any information he might have missed or needed to confirm.

"Yes, sir. He was with Donavan. They came stumbling in the apartment drunk."

2 1/2 hours earlier

"Andddddddd watching the ships
That go saaaaaaaiiilliiiin'," Donavan and I sang at the top of our lungs. We didn't know the whole song, Just sections. Mostly because the two of us had only heard the song in the end credits of Finding Nemo. I'm not sure how the topic got to children's movies but we agreed that we'd always loved that song.

"I can't believe what a good time I had with you," Donavan slurred, "I thought you would end up not liking me."

I shook my head, dizzy in my drunken stupor, I said, "No way. I'm totally like in love with you." I grinned giddily and felt warm fuzziness in my stomach.

I soon found out, that feeling in my stomach doesn't feel quite as pleasant when traveling up my throat. Clutching the counter top, my body rejection the amour of alcohol intake over the past two hours or so and ejected it into the kitchen sink.

"UGH! James!" Maddie shouted behind me. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm living. How 'bout you?" I answer sassily, still stopped over the sink of vomit as Donavan pat my back.

"Why did you bring him back? And didn't you say you were coming back at 9? It's like 11!" Maddie folded her arms and looked at my back with her eyebrows furrowed. I know because I could feel her concerned stare on my spine, though my senses might have been out of touch.
"Sorry, mom. I lost track of time," I used yet another sassy remark and found the strength to stand up right.

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"And so for a while I sobered them up with water and bread. But . . . Donavan was making me a little nervous. The guy was acting weird even when he wasn't so drunk." Maddie said, running her hand up her forearm.

"Weird how?"

"Well, he . . . He kept giving me strange looks. And he wouldn't talk directly to me. And he kept asking James questions about me living there. It was like . . . he didn't want me there . . ." Maddie' voice trailed off and for a long moment in the tape, everything is silent.

"Miss McAllister," the officer finally spoke up. "Please continue if you can." His voice was soft and understanding.

" . . . Yes. When I announced that I was going to try to sleep, Donavan was making plans to go to the liquor store."

1 1/2 hours earlier

"Do you need anything specific? Does Maddie want anything?" Donavan asked, looking at me. As our eyes met he smiled shyly. I winked back before looking to Maddie who was being a buzz kill and pulling on her bathrobe. "No," Maddie said dryly, without saying much of anything else.

They didn't seem to get along much. Which was strange, Maddie was friends with everyone. Maybe that was exactly what made them not mix. Don was too shy to be direct and initiate the friendship and Maddie was a social butterfly. Maybe she thought his eye contact avoiding was out of dislike. Maybe she didn't understand him.

I lead Donavan to the door, sliding my hand slowly and carefully into his. "Come back soon?" His adorable blush flooded his cheeks. "Quick as I can. Bye."

Before he could leave, I held on his hand and leaned over. "Promise," I asked quietly, our breath colliding as I looked in his eyes. So brown and deep, mysterious. Something about him intrigued me.
After a faint confirmation not, I kissed him.
Our first kiss was amazing.

Our second was . . . Definitely memorable.

For those of us who didn't get a brain injury from it.

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"And then what happened?"

Maddie shrugged. "So James went to his room and I decided to confront him about Donavan."

"Hey . . . Are you sure about him? He seems a little off?"

"I did what any good friend would do. I just thought maybe he didn't see it because he was infatuated with him or some crap"

"You're wrong, Maddie. He's amazing. Why don't you like him? Just because he's a little different?"

"And it turns out . . . I was right"

Donavan came back into my room in the middle of the argument. He looked between Maddie and I, clenching his jaw. Then he rushed over to me, lifting his hands.

"So How did he take the news?" The officer asked.

Maddie shrugged. "I didn't. He rejected anything I had to say and I end to bed. Then heard yelling and when I came back, James was bleeding all over the floor and . . . ."
Maddies voice was drowned by the tears that started to flood her eyes.

"Alright, ma'am. You don't have to continue. Thank you for your cooperation."

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Case 3; first degree murder; evidence; exhibit A
Fingerprints on the murder weapon; paper weight. Square shaped, made of marble with sharp edges. The only finger prints found were that of the victim, James Henry and Madison McAllister.

Evidence , exhibit B:

Press play.

"Mister Donavan Wyce, what happened when you came back into the room and found Miss McAllister and Mister Henry arguing?"

There was a shaky breath and the sound of it being let out. "Well . . . I kissed him. I felt like I needed to prove to him and her how much I liked him. And while we were kissing . . . The world disappeared. I forgot Maddie was there."

A sniffling sound and faint sobbing.

"I didn't even realize- We weren't even kissing a few seconds and she started beating him on the head with that . . . I don't know what it was. There was blood everywhere and I tried to pull her off him. And she started coming after me. She was INSANE. She was shouting about how it should have been her and he was wrong to pick me." Donavan sobbed loudly.

"If some neighbors hadn't called he cops earlier to complain about the noise, she might have killed me too . . ."

Evidence, exhibit C:
Confession
4 hours and 17 minutes into the tape

"Miss McAllister, I'm going to ask you this one more time. And if you don't answer, we're sending you I to a box where no one will every find you ore care what you have to say. Now I don't want that the happen but you've exhibited some behavior that makes me believe it's the only solution." The woman cleared throat. "Did you beat James Henry on the head with a paper weight?"

After hours of silence, she spoke. "We'd been living together for 3 months. . . . He'd never brought over any girls or mentioned anything. I thought . . .

"I thought he liked me

"But he didn't even like my gender." Her voice doesn't raise but it gets noticeably more intense.

"And all that night while he was gone, I know

"I KNOW!" A slam sound.

"THEY WERE LAUGHING AT ME! THEY WERE ALL LAUGHING AND TALKING ABOUT HOW I WAS A GIRL!! Ha HA!!! Look at MADDIE! She HAS A VAGINA!!!!"

She thrashed around and made thumping noises in her tantrum. The tension was so thick you could feel it in the recording. And then she was sobbing.

"I was never good enough
For reasons I had no control of
I wasn't even noticed
Nobody noticed

He never noticed."