Hopelessly Devoted

Chapter 12

“In local news, two bodies were found last night at Fenway Park just at the edge of the forest. Both bodies died from gunshot wounds: one to the chest, and the other to the head. Police inspection has concluded that the young boy shot in the chest was Joshua Abehart, a seventeen-year-old student from Rochester High School who was M.V.P. of his football team. Police say that evidence concludes that the other boy shot him, followed by shooting himself in the head. The killer’s identity is still in question. No files have been found on him, although reports state he looked remarkably like his victim, Joshua Abehart. The family has stated that in spite of the likeness, they were not related. Until further information, the gunman has been labelled unidentified.

“And onto the weather report - ”

Isabella turned off the radio in her bedroom, creating a death-like silence. The memory of the night before was scalded onto her brain. Josh Abehart’s pleading, the gunshot, Josh apologizing to her with the gun to his head... His last words “I love you more than anything” still rang in her ears. He loved her so much, and she had to lead him to his suicide. If only she could turn back time, she would go back to stop herself from telling him she hated him. If only she could turn back time... She chuckled. She’d change everything.

It had hurt her to leave the two bodies alone that night. She hadn’t wanted to be caught; how could she explain what the situation was to the police? Yet in a way, she wanted to lock herself up and never see the light of day again. She deserved it, and even more, she would never be able to live her life normally afterwards.

When had she come home, she collapsed onto the floor. She dragged herself into the bedroom, shutting the rest of life away as usual. That was what sent Josh to killing Josh Abehart, all her periods of depression. If she hadn’t been so goddam emotional, maybe... just maybe...

All night she continued to cry and mourn, beating herself down emotionally, “ifs” floating around her. Images from the scene in the park flashed in her head, preventing her from falling asleep. During the night she thought she saw either Josh Abehart or his clone in the corner of the room, calling out to her. She ate nothing the next day, only sulked and listened to the radio, waiting to hear news from what the police knew. She heard mentions of the incident on radio stations here and there, but only during the six o’clock news program on 101.7 FM did she hear the full report.

It hurt to hear Josh only spoken of as an unidentified killer. He was so much more than that. He was beautiful; a sweet, lovable, angelic being created from her own hands. He was not a bad person, only a very good person who fell into making bad choices.

She stared sadly at the view of her room. No decor hung around her room anymore, except for the poster of Grease above her bed. How opposite her life had been to the movie! If only she could have been Sandy and have fallen in love the normal way. What an idiot she was!

After she laid limp on her bed in thought for a good half hour, she decided to pop in the Grease soundtrack. She opened the stereo, slid the CD into the tray and skipped through the tracks until she got to “Hopelessly Devoted to You”. Bitter memories came along with the song - it was while it played that the cloning idea appeared to her - but she felt like it was necessary to listen to the song to help her meditate. The beat and rhythm streamed into the interiors of the room, followed by the words.

“...I'm not the first to know, there's just no gettin' over you... Hello, I'm just a fool who's willing to sit around and wait for you... But baby can't you see there's nothing else for me to do? I'm hopelessly devoted to you...”

How true the lyrics were. She was such a fool to wait around for Josh Abehart to miraculously fall in love with her. It was an idiotic idea. If she hadn’t been so hopelessly devoted to her crush, everything wouldn’t have gone so out of hand.

In the corner of her eye she saw her yearbook that had been thrown violently onto the floor. She crept over to the corner, and with one hand picked it up. She brought the yearbook over to her bed, and lying down with her hand holding her head, she flipped through the pages.

“But now there's no where to hide, since you pushed my heart aside...”

She looked over all those comments telling her she was so smart. In reality, she wasn’t smart at all. She wouldn’t have gotten so hung over Josh Abehart if she was so smart, and then no one would have died. She landed on the Grade 11 student pictures, with Josh Abehart in the first row. Seeing his face again brought tears to her eyes. He was a handsome guy with a promising athletic career, and she’d ruined that all for him. Poor guy...

She turned to the next page, looking upon the faces of all her classmates. She wondered what they’d think of her if they knew what she’d done behind all their backs. They’d hate her to death, hate her even more than she made them hate Lydia. That fight between her and Lydia seemed so ridiculous now.

“I'm outta my head, hopelessly devoted to you... Hopelessly devoted to you...”

She turned to the last page of Grade 11 photos. In the second row she found a recognizable face: Kyle Villavios. She remembered him from a while back, a boy in her elementary school. He even lived a couple of blocks down the street. He was in none of her classes, she couldn’t believe she’d forgotten about him.

“Hopelessly devoted to you... hopelessly devoted to you...”

She studied his boyish good looks: messy and long yet sexy chocolate brown hair, rosy cheeks, and a broad pearly white smile. His skin glowed with a healthy Mediterranean tan, with no imperfection in sight. Better yet, she couldn’t get over how beautiful his lovely green eyes were...

A/N: Well that's the end of that! Thank you SO MUCH to anyone who read this story and reviewed.