Title: Words of Destruction

by Balticbard

Email: balticbard@yahoo.com

Disclaimer; Popular is copyrighted to Touchstone; just for entertainment.

Warning; angst, suicide. Don't read it if it bothers you.

It was another boring, gray day at Kennedy Highschool. The hours seemed to drag by, making the day weigh on the hearts of both the faculty, and the student population. On this very bleak day, two best friends walked along the narrow halls of the school, arm in arm, speaking in hushed tones, pouring their hearts out to each other.

"Did you see those two?" Samantha McPherson, a stunning, 17 year old, voluptuous brunette with long, wild hair, glowing eyes, and full lips asked in a plaintive whine, "it just turned my stomach to see how gross they were acting at lunch with their lovey dovey show!"

"Yeah! I know!" Harrison John, tall, lanky, pretty boy agreed fiercely, "they were just showing off again!"

"I swear that bitch McQueen is usually so cold she could freeze anything that gets too close to her! But when she gets around Josh, she turns almost human...pure sap and mush...she just loves to show off...to rub it in!" Samantha cursed in a low, yet passionate manner.

"Hey! Don't blame Brooke, Sam!" Harrison declared, for the thought of Brooke McQueen, the school's golden queen made him feel dreamy and giddy at once, "Josh Ford makes her act that way!"

"You're defending HER!" Sam exclaimed angrily as her heart became flooded with jealousy, "you're doing it again! you're always sticking up for her!" Samantha put down her book bag, "well...I'm just sick and tired of it!" the girl put her hands on her hips, and faced her taller friend defiantly.

"Well..." Harrison sputtered, "you're defending HIM!" the boy replied with equal wrath, "and I don't like it a damn bit either!" Harrison glared down at his dark beauty from his six foot advantage.

"You're in love with Brooke!" the girl declared loudly, fiercely.

"Keep your voice down," Harrison chided, "and don't accuse me, Sam. I know that you're in love with Josh Ford!"

"Am not!" the petulant girl replied with a pout of her ruby lips.

"Are too!" the persistent boy countered, his own crimson lips set in a thin, stubborn line.

"All right!" Sam said quickly as she turned away from Harrison, "so what! You love Brooke!" Samantha couldn't mask her obvious displeasure and jealousy anymore.

"So you love Josh," Harrison replied as the scowl on his face grew darker.

"Then I don't want to be your friend anymore!" the girl said firmly, her voice tinged with resentment.

"I don't want to be yours either!" the boy said angrily, as his heart fell to his feet, wounded in both pride and unrecognized love.

"Fine! I don't care!"

"Fine!"

But just as quickly as anger had beset the pair, it left within the blink of Harrison's eyes as he smiled warmly, eager to reconciliate with his "almost soulmate," his beautiful Samantha, "aaaww...c'mon Sammy...why are we fighting? Huh?"

"You started it!" the girl whined in her most childlike manner as she crossed her pale arms, stomped her foot, and then POUTED!

"Tellya what, Sam...truce!" Harrison held his hand out to the girl.

"Well...I don't know," Sam hesitated.

"Please?" Harrison made puppy dog eyes at the girl, "we shouldn't be fighting ever! Who else would we talk to about our unrequited loves too?"

"So true," Sam admitted pensively.

"Besides...we're the best buds. Right Sammy?"

"Yeah. I guess so," Sam agreed with a conciliatory story.

"Great!" Harrison replied as he stepped closer to Sam, and threw his arms around her.

At that very instant, Harrison spotted Kennedy High's most popular couple, and the cause of contention between him, and his Samantha; Brooke McQueen, tall, beautiful, blond, head cheerleader of the Glamazons, Kennedy's cheerleading squad, and Josh Ford, tall, handsome, muscular captain, and star player of the football team. The famous couple were walking hand in hand toward Harrison, and where he stood with Sam, "OH NO!" the boy cried mentally in desperation. Harrison didn't want Brooke to notice that he was hopelessly in love with her, "what will I do?"

"What's wrong, Harrison?" Sam asked, "you okay?"

Brooke and Josh, Kennedy High's golden couple, consecutively voted prom queen and king for the last two years consecutively, made their way slowly down the crowded school halls toward their next classes. Everyone around the stunning couple stepped quickly out of their way to let Brooke and Josh pass, then stood to stare at them with wonder and pleasure.

Meanwhile...

"Harrison? Earth to bird brain!" Sam almost yelled at her absent minded partner, "are you there? What are you looking at?"

Without another word, and with a wave of sudden energy, tall Harrison turned Sam around, wrapped his long arms around her, dipped her backwards, then proceeded to kiss the beguiling girl senseless.

Josh Ford's mellow expression turned mischievous when he looked ahead, and noticed Harrison kissing Samantha passionately on the lips a la movie star fashion, amid a wave of cheers, jeers and whistles and cat calls, "hey! Look at that!" Josh pointed to the now obvious romantic scene ahead with his firm hand, "cool! I'm gonna watch!"

"Oh," Brooke turned her attention toward the now indiscreet couple, and frowned as a stab of jealousy pierced her usually cold, calm heart, "how utterly distasteful!"

"Aaawww...come on, Brooke! Let's go watch them!" Josh attempted to encourage the girl. Deep inside, the handsome boy had a secret fetish for voyeurism, "please...huh?" the young man tried in vain to get his frigid, cold, future wife interested in the more earthy passions being displayed nearby.

Despite her outward coldness, her haughty expression, Brooke was indeed moved by the sight of what seemed to be two lovers kissing; one of them being her reluctant arch-nemesis, Samantha, "I'm not interested in seeing those losers making bigger fools of themselves than they already are!" But inwardly, Brooke was not only extremely jealous, she was also heartbroken at the sight of Harrison and Sam kissing, "I wish that it was me!"

"You're no fun at all, Brooke!" Josh complained, suddenly wishing that he could swap his cold, blond consort for the voluptuous brunette Samantha.

"Stop acting like a total jerk, Josh!" Brooke discreetly scolded her model boyfriend, "just shut up, and let's get going, or we'll be late for English Lit!"

"Yes dear," Josh surrendered weakly, helplessly and reluctantly, thus hastening his step to keep up with his regal girlfriend, and painfully tearing his eyes away from darkly beautiful Sam.

Meanwhile a startled Samantha recovered her thought processes, and swiftly pushed Harrison brusquely away from her, "what the hell are you doing?"

"Brooke and Josh were coming toward us!" Harrison explained to his very discontented friend.

"And that's the reason that you man-handled me, Harrison?" Sam touched her pale fingers to her swollen lips.

"I wanted Brooke to see that I'm not pining away for her!" Harrison said, as he recalled the many times that cold Brooke had rejected his numerous advances toward her.

"So..." Sam began, "now...because of your macho pride, Josh will think that I'm your damn ho! Now he won't even touch me for a one night stand!" Sam yelled angrily.

"But..."

"I don't appreciate being your Brooke-substitute!" Sam exploded in rage as her pale hand connected with the boy's cheek in a resounding slap. Then Sam turned, and hurried off in tears.

"Please! Sam...wait!" the repentant boy cried as he pursued the slighted girl with great haste down the hall, "I'm sorry!"

Meanwhile, haughty, cold Brooke was seated next to Josh in their mutual English Literature class. Josh was too caught up in a secret fantasy of a certain, little, blond cheerleader named Nicole Julian (Brooke's on and off best friend, and occasional sidekick), doing a private strip-tease for him, so that he didn't notice his companion's unexpected moodiness.

Brooke was much too preoccupied with her inner brooding to bother with what was going on around her. The golden girl kept replaying the sight of Sam and Harrison kissing in her mind. Brooke shook her head slowly as the ache in her heart grew until it began to fester into rage and resentment, "why not me?" the blond girl thought herself so much more superior, a far better match both intellectually and emotionally, "I'm pretty...and smart. I have lots of money. I just can't understand it! Why not me?" Brooke glanced over at her idiotic, bland, colorless boyfriend, and her scowl became darker, "its just not fair!" the girl's personal pride had been deeply wounded, "I should be the one!" But all of Brooke's moping couldn't change the undeniable fact that she wasn't the favorite of her secret love and obsession, "I wish it was me!" the girl was close to tears.

Later in the day, between third and fourth period classes, Harrison and Samantha crossed paths once more. In truth, Harrison had deliberately gone out of his way to wait for Sam by her locker, hoping to see his wayward sidekick again to apologize.

A determined Harrison waited about ten minutes by Samantha's locker until he saw her come up to him, her dark eyes glaring up at him with deep anger.

"What are you doing here?" the girl asked acidly, "get out of my way. I need to open my locker to get my books for my next class!"

Harrison removed himself discreetly from the girl's locker, "I come in peace, Sammy!" the boy said with a smile as he looked down at his brunette, "will you forgive me? Please?" he looked hopefully at her.

"Why should I? You've ruined my chances with Josh!" the girl snapped quickly.

"Maybe I helped you, Sam."

"What do you mean, Harrison?"

"Josh is a stuck up jerk, Sam. Guys like him only notice a girl when she belongs to somebody else!"

"You really think so? He might have noticed me?" Sam felt a twinge of hope rise in her desperate, lovesick heart.

"Sure he did!" Harrison added quickly, encouragingly, "you are really hot, Sammy. I think I saw him looking at you when I was kissing you!"

"Well..." Sam's beautiful face brightened considerably.

"Am I forgiven?" Harrison asked softly, as he gazed down almost in a rapture at his best friend's almost unreal beauty, and almost falling in love with her despite his stubborn, lingering passion for cold beauty, Brooke.

"Okay," Sam admonished, her tender heart no longer able to bear a grudge, or resist Harrison's warm, boyish smile, "I forgive you."

"That's my Sammy!" Harrison hugged his beloved sidekick, "let's not fight anymore. Let's not talk about Brooke and Josh anymore!"

"Promise!" Sam replied as she leaned into Harrison, and hugged him back.

"Can't you two losers control yourselves?"

Both Harrison and Samantha separated, then turned to see tall, lanky Brooke in her cheerleading outfit standing a few feet away from them, glaring disapprovingly at them.

"Oh...um..." Harrison was so nervous in the presence of his lady love that words failed him.

"Same old, stupid jerk, Harrison!" Brooke exclaimed, "how did you ever manage to get this far in school, you brain dead, jack ass?"

Harrison had always loved Brooke dearly, despite the obvious fact that she openly despised him, and was meant to be Josh's future wife, "hi, Brooke," the boy said chirpily as he blushed.

"She puts you down, and you're still glad to see her, Harrison?" Samantha was not pleased by her best friend's blandness toward her enemy, "no wonder she steps all over you! You deserve it! You really are a jerk after all!"

"Oh! The rat fink journalist has some backbone!" Brooke was spewing almost pure, raw venom as she now turned to face her worst enemy and rival, Samantha.

"I won't let you push me around, Brooke! You don't intimidate or impress me like you do to Harrison!" Samantha was almost the same constitution as molten lava.

"The feeling is mutual, McPherson!" Brooke retaliated, "seeing your face everyday turns my stomach!"

"Same here, McQueen! I just want to puke when I see you!"

"Uh...I have to go now!" Harrison exclaimed nervously as he fled the field of war.

"Same old coward!" Brooke sneered as she saw the boy leave.

"Stop talking about him that way!" Sam shouted in her best friend's defence.

"Seeing either one of you is enough to ruin my day!" Brooke declared fervently, "but seeing you is worst than seeing him!"

"You disgust me too, McQueen!" Sam's temper exploded, "I don't want to see you either!"

It didn't help in anyway that Sam's widowed mother, Jane, had recently married Brooke's divorced father, Mike only six months before, and that now the two girls, bitter enemies, were also reluctant step-sisters living in the same house.

"I wish you just disappeared forever, McPherson!" Brooke replied, now enraged, "you're everywhere now! In MY house! In MY bathroom! In MY school!"

Sam didn't reply at first, but stood staring at Brooke with eyes filled with rage mingled with pain. Finally Sam found her voice, "I don't want to be anywhere near you...anywhere that you are, McQueen! You can take your things and go to HELL!" Then, Samantha turned, and walked quickly in the opposite direction.

Brooke watched Sam leave, and for a minute wondered if perhaps she had gone too far in her insults to the girl. For a brief moment, Brooke thought of following Sam, and apologizing. But the moment passed quickly for the secretly wounded, resentful Brooke, who just shrugged, turned away, then walked to her next class without any further thought to Sam.

The remaining school day ended, but unhappily for Brooke, who had to stay in the library to do an extra two hours of overdue homework, "at least Josh is gone!" Brooke felt a great sense of relief to be free from her pasty-faced fiancee for at least the evening. Brooke finished her assignments, and gathered up her books with the intention of leaving when her cellphone rang. Brooke fished her cellphone out of her pocket, clicked it open, "Yeah?"

"Brooke?" a worried voice sounded on the other end.

"Hi, Jane," Brooke cheerfully greeted her step-mom.

"Brooke...have you seen Sam lately?"

"I saw Sam during the day, Jane. But I haven't seen her since then. What's going on?"

"She hasn't come home yet, Brooke. School ended about two or three hours ago, and she's not here yet. Sam always comes home directly after school, and she's always on time. I'm worried."

"Maybe Sam is over at Harrison's house, Jane."

"You think so? I haven't called any of her friends yet."

"Well," Brooke said nonchalantly, "if anyone should know where Sam is, it should be Harrison. They're awfully close...and I think they might even be going steady."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, Jane. I think that those two are in love!" Brooke said, a bit too forcefully, to angrily.

"Are you alright, Brooke?"

"Yeah. I'm fine, Jane. Why do you ask?"

"You almost sounded jealous for a minute there," Jane replied with a sigh.

"No...um...I'm just tired of so much homework."

"Okay, Brooke."

"Jane?"

"Yes?"

"I almost forgot to ask you," Brooke continued, "Nicole asked me for a sleep over at her house. May I spend the night over at her house, Jane?"

"I can't see why not," Jane replied, "but wait while I ask your dad just to make sure."

Brooke waited while Jane called out to the girl's father, Mike. The echo of her father's voice sounded in the distance, in the background, but Brooke heard it register on her cellphone. Then, Brooke heard Jane's voice again.

"Your dad says its okay, Brooke. Just come home early tomorrow morning."

"Thanks, Jane," Brooke was absolutely ecstatic.

"Okay," Jane replied in an amused tone.

"Jane..."

"Yes, Brooke?"

"Don't worry about Sam. She'll be home soon. She just gets moody sometimes, and needs some time to herself."

"I hope you're right, Brooke. I just can't shake the feeling that something just isn't right."

"Well..." Brooke felt odd because she didn't know how to comfort and reassure Jane. The blond girl wasn't close to her step-mother yet. Brooke wasn't close to anyone. She didn't know how to let anyone close to her. Brooke would readily agree that what people thought about her was absolutely true; she really was as cold and repressed as everyone thought she was, "why should I pretend to be anything else?" the girl thought to herself, "see you tomorrow, Jane."

"Yes, Brooke," Jane replied, a bit sadly though, "goodbye."

Brooke gave no further thought to anything as her teenage zeal took hold of her, erasing all other concerns from her mind. An extremely gushing Brooke left the school library with her bookbag, got into her car, then drove to Nicole's house where she spent the night with her best friend. The girls chatted endlessly about make-up and fashion, cheerleading moves and tournaments, the hottest new actors, the newest movies. The girls watched some rented videos, devoured huge amounts of junk food, fixed each other's hair and nails. In all, the two girls did silly, teenage things, and enjoyed themselves immensely. After a few hours of nonsense, Brooke and Nicole were thoroughly exhausted, and went to sleep together in Nicole's king size bed.

Brooke had slept like a baby for what seemed to be endless hours, until the ringing of the telephone on Nicole's night stand woke her and Nicole up at about six in the morning.

"What?" Nicole snapped angrily into the receiver after picking it up, and putting it to her ear. The little blond suddenly went pale after she heard the voice on the other end, "oh...Mr. McQueen...I'm so very sorry. I'll put Brooke on right away!" Then, Nicole hastily handed the receiver to Brooke.

"Dad?" Brooke was still half asleep.

"Brooke...come home immediately," Mike, Brooke's dad, commanded.

"Sure, dad," Brooke said, somewhat reluctantly to end her fun, then more seriously, "is something wrong, daddy?"

"Yes," Mike replied, his voice restrained, grave, low, "we need you here!"

"I'm getting dressed right away, dad. I'll be home as quickly as I can."

"Good."

"Dad?"

"Yes, Brooke?"

"What happened?"

"Sam's been found," Mike said curtly, "look...I can't say anymore right now. Just get over here, Brooke. I need you to help me with Jane."

"Okay, dad." Then Brooke hung up the phone.

"What happened, Brooke?" Nicole asked as she watched Brooke get up from the bed, and begin to dress, "do you have to go?"

"Yeah, Nic," Brooke said as she slipped her jeans on, then her socks as quickly as she could, "its about Sam."

"Oh. Her again?" Nicole deeply disliked Samantha.

"I think its serious," Brooke said as she put her T-shirt on, "I have to go."

"Okay."

"Thanks for inviting me over, Nic. I had the best time," Brooke smiled warmly, her cheeks flushed, which was a sight no one ever saw, and a side of her that she guarded deeply, displaying only to her closest friend, Nicole.

"We'll do this again soon, Brooke," Nicole replied with an equally engaging smile.

"Sure."

"Great."

Brooke left Nicole's house, got into her car, then drove home in the light of the rising sun. When the girl got to her house, and parked in front, she noticed a police car parked on the curb, a few feet away from her driveway. Brooke felt a sudden coldness grip her heart as she rushed into her house. The blond had a feeling of morbid foreboding as she went into the living room of her home to see two, uniformed police officers speaking quietly to her father, Mike. Brooke also noticed that Harrison, and his mother, Robin were there. Robin was sitting on the couch, hugging and comforting Jane, Brooke's mom, who seemed to be crying and sobbing.

"What's going on?" Brooke asked in absolute confusion, as she looked around her, "where's Sam? Didn't she finally get home yesterday?"

"Brooke," Harrison was walking up to the blond girl.

"What happened? What are you doing here, Harrison? "Brooke's voice rose in pitch as fear inexplicably slipped into her heart to accompany the coldness already present there, "where's Sam? I want to see her."

"Sam..." Harrison chocked out, as tears streamed from his dark eyes, "she...she's..."

"Tell me what's going on!" Brooke yelled as she balled up her fists, "where's Sam? I want to see her RIGHT NOW!"

"Sam isn't ever coming back," Harrison sniffed.

"What do you mean?" Brooke was enraged, "Sam always comes back!" Desperation seeped into the girl's voice, "she's as stubborn as a rock! Of course she's coming back!" Brooke had begun to tremble, to understand, "she'd never miss a chance to fight and argue with me! Its...its her favorite sport...upsetting me!" Brooke laughed nervously, "I can't get rid...of her!" The girl's eyesight had begun to blur, as thick tears began to run down her pale cheeks, "of course she's coming back."

"Brooke," Harrison opened his arms as he stepped up to the anxious girl, "Sam...is...dead!"

"WHAT?" Brooke's voice wavered on the verge of a painful wail, "no," the girl's sobs had begun, "that can't be true...she...she's indestructible! Nothing can ever happen to her! She's Sam...she...she..."

"It's true. Sam is dead," Harrison replied.

"No," the girl was distraught as Harrison hugged her. But then Brooke rebelled as she pushed the boy roughly away from her, "no...no!" She shook her head wildly, madly, "that's not true. She's playing a trick on me. She's hiding! She just wants to get me back for the argument we had yesterday," Brooke babbled helplessly, "yes...that's it! She's just mad at me...that's all!"

"She's gone," Harrison said solemnly, as he stood watching something he would have considered impossible at any other time; Brooke was literally falling apart before his very eyes.

"NO!" Brooke screamed as a sudden hatred for the world and everyone in it surfaced in her wounded heart, "you're LYING!"

"I am NOT!" Harrison yelled back at the girl.

"You are!" Brooke went crazy, lunged at Harrison, and began to pummel him repeatedly with her fists, "you're lying! Sam isn't dead!"

When he saw the scene between Brooke and Harrison, Mike excused himself from the two police officers that he had been speaking to. Then, Mike rushed over to Brooke, and took his daughter in his arms. Brooke squirmed violently, and fought against her father's embrace, but Mike held on tightly to her until the girl became a helpless, wailing bundle.

"Its alright, hun," Mike comforted his golden girl, "its alright."

"How?" Brooke managed to choke out amid her almost convulsive sobs, "how?"

"Suicide," Mike replied quietly, "the cops found Sam in the cemetery last night, lying on her dead father's grave. She had slit her wrists with a razor blade, and bled to death."

Brooke's response to her father's words was a long, heart-rending, painful wail.

Harrison, who had been watching both father and daughter, winced noticeably at Mike's description of Samantha's sordid death. The boy still couldn't bear the memory of the images he recalled seeing in the pictures that the police officers had taken of Sam's corpse. Added to the morbid, visual gallery in Harrison's mind of Sam, was the recent, heart breaking sight of Jane breaking down as she leafed threw the gory pictures of a defunct Sam lying in a pool of her own blood.

"Stop crying right now, Brooke!" Mike commanded gently as he cupped his daughter's face in his large hands, "tears won't bring Sam back. She's gone. Now I need you to be strong for Jane."

"Yes, daddy," Brooke replied amid sniffles and hiccups.

"I have to go back to talk to the police," Mike continued, "there are still a lot of details to straighten out."

"I know, dad," Brooke said a bit more calmly now, "I won't cry anymore."

Mike nodded, and squeezed his daughters shoulders gently, reassuringly, "good girl. I know that I can depend on you!" Then, Mike turned, and walked to the waiting police officers.

Harrison had taken to staring intently at Brooke, while his heart made a gut wrenching, painful discovery at that very instant; he had never really been in love with golden, cold Brooke. Harrison had always been really in love with the gorgeous, moody, stubborn Samantha. But it was too late now for Harrison, who would miss his best friend, his sidekick for the rest of his life. For many years after that, Harrison would wake up in the middle of the night, sweaty, nervous, almost in tears from a dream about Sam, his missing soulmate. For many years, Harrison would feel a strange emptiness in his life, and an unfulfilled longing for his overlooked love, his tragically missed chance to be happy with Sam for the rest of his life, "do you want to see the pictures of Sam?" Harrison asked suddenly as he still stared at the weeping Brooke.

"What?" the girl looked at him as if he was a strange insect, "are you kidding? Why would I want to see her that way?"

"Oh..." Harrison felt a sudden, deep hatred for Brooke, "why not? I mean...you hated Sam. It should give you an orgasm just to see her all bloody and dead!"

"You...are a monster!" Brooke said in a low voice, as she focused her reddened eyes on the boy who stood before her, "how can you say those things to me?"

"Why are you crying for Sam anyway?" Harrison asked as he stepped close to Brooke once more, "you hated her. You wanted her to go away! Well, Brooke...you got your damn wish now! Sam's gone forever! So why the hell are you crying? You should be celebrating!"

"Is that what you think? That I hated Sam?"

"Yes. I do," the tall boy replied staunchly, firm in his beliefs.

"But if I did," the girl said almost absently, "you don't know why I did," Brooke had taken to staring down at the carpeted floor of her living room.

"Oh? You had a reason?" Harrison was truly amazed at Brooke's reasoning, "so...what was it?"

"Because she was with you!" Brooke admitted weakly.

"So that means..." Harrison's eyes shot open in surprise, and his heartbeat quickened, "you were jealous! You...love me?"

Brooke began to laugh bitterly, "you...moron!" the golden girl shook her head, and tried to compose herself, "I just couldn't bear to see the two of you together...because...because..."

"Yeah?" Harrison was in deep anticipation of what he believed to be his long awaited, long dreamed of declaration of Brooke's love for him.

"I'm in love with Sam!" Brooke declared breathlessly.

"WHAT?" Harrison's brain almost exploded in abject horror and shock at the sound of Brooke's words, "you love Sam? No...wait...that can't be possible!" the boy struggled to make sense of his now, reeling universe, "you treated her like shit! You were always fighting with her, picking on her!" Harrison was almost hyperventilating, "you always went out of your way to abuse her! How could you be in love with her? It just doesn't make any sense at all!"

"I couldn't stand to see Sam with you instead of me!" Brooke confessed calmly, as she wrung her long, slender hands, "I just couldn't bear to think that she loved you and not me! I was just so angry all of the time because I couldn't have her!" Brooke was extremely nervous and fragile at that moment as she bared her soul to Harrison.

"But we were just friends!" Harrison exclaimed quickly.

"You were?" now it was Brooke's turn to be overwhelmed by surprise, "she wasn't with you?"

"No," Harrison said curtly, "I was too busy thinking that I loved you. But it was her that I loved all of the time!"

"Then..." Brooke said slowly, as she began to cry silently, "I had a chance with her."

"No way!" Harrison interjected quickly, angrily, resentfully, "Sam was straight! She never would've wanted you! Sam was in love with Josh."

"Sam had a crush on Josh," Brooke corrected, "but she never really loved him at all."

"Well...yeah," Harrison reluctantly admitted.

"I had a chance with her!" Brooke repeated firmly with all of her heart.

"NO!" Harrison exclaimed angrily, "never! Sam never would've wanted you!"

Brooke's expression changed from pain to one of haughty sarcasm, "you don't know that!"

"Yes I do!" Harrison said forcefully.

Brooke smirked haughtily at the fierce, young man, "it doesn't matter to me what you think," Brooke was now chillingly calm, her pretty face impassive, "I would have made Sam love me."

"No!"

"It doesn't matter anymore, Harrison!" the girl said curtly, "Sam is mine."

"Stop that, Brooke! Sam was MY friend! Not yours!"

"Sam is in my heart!" Brooke exclaimed, "she's my love! I'll carry her in my heart forever! She was always mine...meant for me! Just for me!"

"Now I'm absolutely sure that you're insane, McQueen!" Harrison said with a cruel sneer on his face.

Brooke had a strange, faraway look in her eyes as she turned around, and walked out of the front door of the house.

"Where are you going, Brooke?" Harrison asked as he followed Brooke, and stood in the doorway of the McQueen residence.

"I'm going to find Sammy," Brooke mumbled to herself.

"What did you just say, McQueen? I didn't hear you!"

But Brooke didn't answer Harrison, or turn around. The girl walked to her car, got in, and drove quickly away.

Mike came up to stand beside Harrison, "where is Brooke going?"

"She just needs to be alone for a while, Mr. McQueen," Harrison replied.

"I suppose so," Mike added, "come inside, Harrison. Your mom wants to talk to you."

"Yessir," Harrison followed Mike back into the house.

When Mike and Harrison were almost through the door of the house, they heard the terrible sound of a car crashing, then an explosion that seemed to come from down the block. When Mike and Harrison ran out to the driveway, they both saw Brooke's car in flames, wrecked in front of a large tree that was on the side of the road.

Mike felt something like a cold hand of panic grip his heart as he pushed Harrison to the ground, and began to run to the corner, "BROOKE!" Mike screamed at the top of his voice, knowing that his daughter was very possibly dead, "BROOKE!" his voice was filled with pain, with tears, with terror.

Harrison fell on the ground, and watched Mike race down the street, yelling Brooke's name over and over again. The two police officers that were inside the house now ran out of the front door, and followed Mike down the street. Harrison calmly got back up on his feet, brushed himself off, then went inside to the living room where his mom was still comforting Jane. Harrison's mother, Robin got up from the sofa, and went to stand beside her son.

"What happened, Harrison? What was that terrible sound that I heard just now?

"Something has happened to Brooke," Harrison replied nonchalantly, "I think that she's dead." Resentful Harrison had no pity for his rival for Samantha's love.

"Oh my God!" Robin went pale, "oh no," the pretty woman rushed back to the sofa to sit next to Jane, to give the sobbing woman the news, and to comfort her.

Harrison simply shrugged, then just stood with his back against a wall, feeling numb inside. Harrison knew that he would miss Sam forever. But then, Harrison's thoughts turned bitter and angry as he recalled Brooke, "how could she even think that Sam would ever love HER?" Contempt for the lanky girl flooded Harrison's heart to replace the tender obsession and longing that he once felt for her, "Sammy wasn't gay!" the boy declared fiercely within himself.

Harrison suddenly felt the oddest sensation that made him look up toward the stairs. What Harrison saw next left him in a complete stupor; at the top of the stairs, the boy saw a somewhat blurry, yet recognizable figure, the sight of which made his heart skip a beat, "Sam?" Suddenly the boy's throat went dry, as his brain descended into absolute chaos over the fact that he was seeing a... "ghost? But ghosts don't exist!" Harrison shut his eyes several times, only to open, and still see the persistent vision each time, which remained against the entire barage of his disbelieving psyche. Finally Harrison surrendered, and allowed himself to be carried along, "Sammy!"

From the corner of his eye, Harrison saw another figure appear out of nothingness. Once more, this second figure, although blurry, was also recognizable, "damn...its Brooke! She's gone!" Now the boy was absolutely sure that the blond girl was dead after having deliberately crashed her car against the massive tree on the corner, "she did it on purpose...so that she could be with Sam!"

Brooke's specter ran up the stairs with arms extended at the same time that Sam's specter rushed down the same stairs to meet her. Harrison watched in a stupor as the two ghosts met in the middle of the stairs in a loving hug. Both ghosts seemed to become dim, shifted in shape, blurred, then seemed to become a single, dark silhouette that floated back up the stairs, then vanished down the hall.

Harrison was bereft of speech for several seconds, until her slowly recovered. Harrison just smiled, "so I guess I was wrong. Brooke got Sam all to herself after all." Harrison dug his hands into his pockets, and shook his dark head, "at least Sam won't be alone now."

"Harrison, come here!" Robin called to her son from the couch.

Harrison was startled at the shrill sound of his mom's voice, which shattered his tiny revelry of his two, favorite girls, "yeah, mom. I'm coming." Then, Harrison sighed, and obeyed his mother.

Words of Destruction

fill my soul,
filled with hatred,
dark, evil, bold.

Thoughts of death
invade my mind,
crippled with fear,
hope is rendered blind.

Feelings of sorrow
overwhelm my life,
dancing darkness
colors my tomorrow.

Words of destruction...