Mathew Knowles, Betty Cooper, Mary-Jane Adams, Nick Storm, and Layla Naidoo have been friends for exactly twelve years. Their parents went to school together, and they are also friends. Mathew’s party was coming up, and Betty did not want to go to it because she had a bad feeling about it. They all forced her to go, and she finally agreed. She still had a bad feeling about it, but she had no choice because she had already agreed to go.

It was a fun party, and there were people smoking and drinking alcohol. Mathew, for instance, was one of them. Betty was talking to Nick. As time went on, she wanted to go home, but Nick asked her to stay a bit longer, and after some time, she finally agreed to stay.

When Betty went looking for Jane because she wanted to speak to her, she just stood there when she found her, shocked. Where she was standing, Layla had a knife in one hand and Jane’s lifeless body in the other.

Betty just stood there, horrified. After a while, Layla handed her the blooded knife. “She’s dead Betty! I killed her, I killed her!” Layla said.

Everything happened very fast afterwards. One moment, Layla was with Betty, and the next she just vanished into thin air. Before Betty knew it, people were shouting “murderer, murderer!” at her. Betty tried telling them that she did not do it, that it was Layla who had done it, but even though Nick believed her, not everyone did. The police arrived soon after that, and Betty was later sentenced to six years imprisonment for a crime she did not commit.

“This can’t be happening to me. It’s all a nightmare, and I’ll soon wake up from it. Hopefully,” Betty thought to herself.

***

When Betty went to her cell, she was afraid of what might happen to her life. During the process, they asked her many questions she could not answer. “What did Jane ever do to you, Betty, huh?” the officer asked.

“You have the wrong person! Mary-Jane was my best friend, why would I do that? She was like a sister to me! Please officer, I’m innocent!” Betty said, instead of responding to the question. She then started crying. “You may even ask Nick Storm. He was with me, we were inside talking the whole time, I swear.”

“Mr Storm is testifying against you!” the officer said, laughing.

“How is he testifying against me when I was with him?” Betty thought to herself in shock.

Everything was like a nightmare. Betty thought that if she called her parents and explained everything, everything would be okay. Her bail hearing was the following day, and she knew that she needed witnesses as soon as possible.

Betty’s mother got her the best lawyer money could buy. When they arrived at court, Betty saw her parents, and she was glad that the nightmare was coming to an end, not knowing that it was only the beginning. Several people came to testify against her, and everything happened very fast.

Finally, it was Betty’s turn to testify. She was scared, but that was her life that people were talking about, so she told them everything from memory about how they ended up there. When it was her lawyer’s time to speak, he told everyone that had a new set of evidence. When that happened, Betty was thrilled, but not too thrilled. She did not know what type of lies might be hidden in the tape, so, instead of panicking, they all waited.

When Betty heard that she was innocent, and that Layla was guilty all the time, (even though nobody believed her), she thought that she was dreaming. “This is all a dream! A dream I will soon wake up from! I’m finally free!” she kept saying.

From that day on, Betty Cooper decided not to have friends anymore. “How come?” people would ask and she would just laugh and reply, “Did you see where they got me?”

***

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