Two weeks later, Charlotte woke up from a coma, confused as to what had happened and why she was in Hospital. On her bedside, there stood her mother and Charlene’s mother. They were happy to see her open her eyes, but they had bad news for her. Charlene’s mother told her she had killed her friend. They told her Charlene was dead and she was responsible. But why was she to blame? How could it be because she wasn’t the one who had driven? She couldn’t get the answers.

Charlene’s mother had opened a case on her, and the police were waiting for her to recover before they could arrest her. She was later discharged from hospital and was given a period of two weeks before she could attend court. She explained that Keith was responsible, but her story wasn’t making sense because by the time of the accident, Keith was at the party. Kind explained that when the others phoned to say there was an accident on the freeway, Keith was at the party. But how? Charlotte got more confused. She asked if she could speak to Keith.

Keith came to her place and explained to her that he was supposed to be the one driving them, but when they left the party to go to the car, he got a call from his parents asking him to come straight home since it was late, and so they organised Evans to drive them. Keith hardly got transport to take him home, so he had to wait until Evans came back. A few hours later, Evans came back to the party without the car and with the sad news about Charlene’s death.

Charlotte had not seen who exactly was driving by the time they left the party because she had passed out. She only remembered Keith and Kind carrying them to the car. Now the story had taken another twist, and therefore Charlotte asked if he could see Evans so they could talk and get her to understand the matter. Evans was already in K.Z.N and was the only witness to the whole matter, and so he had been summoned to be back in Gauteng by the court date.

After weeks passed, Evans came back to Gauteng on the court date, and that was when Charlotte saw this boy. She could tell it wasn’t her first time seeing him. She sobbed. Evans took to the witness stand and explained it all.

‘’We left the party heading for Charlene’s house, which I didn’t know, but had been given directions by Nathan. I had at some point gotten lost and so had to wake Charlotte for proper directions, and though she looked dead blank, she was of useful help, up until she asked if I could pull over so she could relieve herself. She kept calling me Keith, and I just thought she was drunk and never bothered to tell her who I was. We all got out of the car. As we were heading back to the car, she somewhat came back to her senses and realised that I wasn’t Keith, and she thought I was hijacking them and taking advantage of their drunkenness. She never knew me at all as much as I never knew her. She rushed and pushed me from the car, got onto the steering wheel and drove off at high-speed before she hit a post and killed her best-friend.’’

When the judge turned to Charlotte, she was in tears, as she had also remembered how it all happened. Evans was indeed telling the truth. She was found guilty of capable homicide and was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment.

Tell us: Do you think Charlotte deserved to go to prison?