The crimson water crept along the white ground. Amber lay there watching it, fascinated by her own serenity.

“Help me Amber!” Jimmy cried. She stood there motionless, watching the current sweep him away. Then slowly he began sinking beneath the waves. He stared into her eyes, pleading with her, begging her to save him. Amber didn’t call for help, she didn’t throw him the rope. She just watched him go under, as if an invisible force was preventing her from coming to his rescue. She watched as Jimmy’s life slipped away into the depths of the ocean. “I’M SORRY”
Amber was sweating from head to toe. She had that nightmare again. The same one that has been haunting her ever since her best friend died. Jimmy had drowned that summer, it was now September and the dream still invaded her subconscious preventing her from ever sleeping peacefully. She would often wake to the sound of herself screaming. Screaming to a person departed from this world.

Tomorrow was Jimmy’s birthday, 24th of September. He would be 17. It seems so unfair that someone as smart and funny as him should die. He was such fun to be around, he brought sunshine to the lives of everyone who knew him. Why is it that people like him die young yet murderers and rapists live? It seems like a cruel joke.
Amber wasn’t sure how she was going to cope with tomorrow. She hadn’t been coping at all since his death and tomorrow would be the hardest day of all. Her mum had tried to send her to counselling but Amber didn’t want to go. She spent the whole session staring at the floor; she didn’t even utter a word. I guess she can be stubborn.
Ever since Jimmy’s death Amber had become something of a hermit. Dwelling in her room only coming out to eat and to go to school. Over the last month she had been getting better. Her mum was less worried and some of her friends thought she was getting back to her old self. They didn’t know that just below the surface she was crying, pleading for help.

Amber slowly got out of bed and walked to the bathroom. She splashed her face with cold water and headed downstairs to the kitchen. There was a note on the fridge from her mum. ‘Gone to Margaret’s house for the day I’ll be back around 5. Love you. Mum’. Left alone again. Amber’s mum seemed to be out so much these days. Which meant Amber had been spending a lot of time on her own.
It was 10 o’clock and Amber was starving. She opened the fridge and took out two green apples. That should be enough to keep her going for a while. She shoved one apple in her jumper pocket and took a bite out of the other as she headed back up the stairs to her room.
She lifted up her blind to the sun shining in a clear blue sky. She slipped off her pyjama pants and threw them in the wash basket. She picked up her favourite jeans off the floor and put them on. Trying to do the buttons up with one hand as she held her apple in the other. After struggling for a minute she held the half-eaten apple between her teeth as she did up her jeans the easier way.

Walking along the path the wind in her hair Amber was feeling at peace with herself for the first time in ages. As she looked towards the ocean a wave of despair came over her. Tears began streaming down her face as once again she mourned the loss of her friend. What she wouldn’t give too see his smiling face again, to have his laughter brighten up her day. How could she have gone from such a bright, bubbly, outgoing person to one who wanted to pass the time in her room alone? How can one person have such an affect on someone’s life?
As Amber walked along she came to a park where she and Jimmy had come to sit and talk many times before. She wandered over to a big oak tree and sat on the grass beneath it. The shade was cool and refreshing. She sat and thought about all the times they had spent together. She and Jimmy had been such a team. Amber laughed out loud recalling some of the stupid things he’d said and done. There was always laughter when he was around. Then she remembered the fact that she could never see him again. That he’d been snatched from the world and was never coming back. She leaned back against the trunk of the huge tree, tears of sorrow clouding her vision, thoughts of despair clouding her mind.
Amber glanced at her watch and through her tears she could make out that it said 1:00. Realising shed been gone for almost 3 hours she decided to head home.

Amber closed the front door behind her and walked into the kitchen. She re-read the note her mother had left her and wrote one in reply ‘Hey mum, gone to see Jimmy. Love you. Amber’. She headed upstairs and into her room. She kicked off her shoes and went to her cupboards. She removed three things: her diary, a lighter and her pocket-knife. Placing the knife in her pocket and holding the other two items in her left hand, she grabbed her deodorant off of her dresser and went back to the kitchen.
Amber took the lid off her deodorant can and began to spray it all over her diary. Placing it in the fireplace she held the lighter to it and watched it go up in flames. She left the lighter and the deodorant there and went back upstairs to her bathroom.

Slumped against the wall, on the white tiles, Amber’s blood flowed from her wrists. She smiled as her life trickled away. “I’ll be there soon Jimmy.”