“Ahhhhh!” Violet yelled staring at the imperfection that was suddenly glared all over the mirror. She touched her once flawless complexion, her fingers stroking the red mess that now consumed her skin. The face that had once been her token to fame was now ruined. The bumps that covered her now swollen cheeks appeared as big as tomatoes, and her nose, that was the worst part. Her nose was swollen, bruised and distorted. Tears started to come out of her eyes. They rolled down her cheeks, like bowling balls down a lane. Her career had suddenly slipped out of her grasp, and floated away. In an instant, that once raw emotion turned to fury. She was not going to let this happen, not to her anyways. She was Violet Crysmin, the trendy teen model. She was going to march down to that plastic-surgeons office and demand to know what had happened to her once unblemished face. But what if someone saw her? What if one of those greedy paparazzi people snapped her picture for the rest of the world to see? Something had to be done, but what that something was, she didn’t quite know yet.

She just needed somewhere to stay for a little while. Her family was too busy using the money that Violet had earned to finance there annual trip to Germany. Her agent was off on business, and her publicist was miles away, at her home in Alaska. And then of course there was her manager Jane, who to be honest was just in it for the money, there was no way she could stay with her. She had no one to turn to. No where to stay. It isn’t like she could rent a room at a hotel, where people could just snap her picture as easily as they could if she was walking the streets of New York. It’s like the paparazzi just waited until something bad happened to her, then show it to the whole world so that she could drowned in her own pool of embarrassment. This was it, her life was officially ruined.

That was when she thought of it. Sam. It was her last hope. Surely she would be in town. Surely she would be willing to help. Surely she would be able to forgive and forget. That’s what best friends do… right?

Her fingers trembled as she dialed the numbers. After all those years of being able to dial her number from memory in a second or two, she actually didn’t remember what the number was. Between all of the addresses she had to go for photo shoots, the numbers of her manager, publicist, and agent it had all been jumbled up into one big mess. She looked through her phonebook for Sam’s name and when she found it, paused for a second. What was she supposed to say? That she was sorry that she hadn’t called for the last year? Sorry that she couldn’t make it to Sam’s sweet sixteen party that the two of them had been planning for years and years? Sorry that their friendship had virtually ended when she became a celebrity? She hoped for the best, and pressed call.

It was around 6:00 when Sam’s car pulled up. It was pretty good timing considering it was on such a short notice. Violet carefully put her overly large (and overly expensive) sunglasses over her eyes, wrapped a grey knit scarf around the remaining part of her face, and slipped on a baseball cap and trench coat as she swiftly traveled down the flight of stairs leading down from her condo to her doorway. She quickly ran out the door down the driveway, keeping her covered eyes directly on the silver 4-door Nissan that awaited her. She narrowly missed the paparazzi, but as soon as she got to the door, they began to swarm. She flung open the door of the passenger seat and leaped in with her matching designer purse, suitcase, and carry-on. She slammed the door shut tightly while Sam put the car in reverse. The car lurched back in reverse, and they slowly backed out of the driveway skirting the people crowding around it. The speed of the car picked up as the pair sped down the road to Sam’s house in New Hampshire.

“How bad is it?” Sam finally spoke, breaking the awkward silence that had gone on for what seemed like eternity. Violet slowly unraveled her scarf and slipped her sunglasses off and looked at herself in the rearview mirror. There wasn’t really a nice way of putting her appearances, it was plainly awful. She turned to Sam, waiting anxiously for her response. “It really isn’t that bad.” said Sam, examining Violets face. “Oh please” said Violet “you don’t have to lie.” “All I am saying is that it could have been worse” said Sam, changing the radio station. Sam had always like classical jazz music, from back in the old days. It was that kind of music that put people to sleep, and it was definitely doing that to Violet. She closed her eyes, the purr of the car slowly drowning out all of the other noises, and slowly drifted to sleep.

“Were here” said Sam, pulling into the driveway to her house. Her mother and father were away promoting their new invention in Oklahoma, leaving Violet and Sam the house to themselves. Violet groggily got all of her stuff out of the car, and walked it up the doorway. Sam unlocked the front door and they both went in, putting all of Violet’s stuff in Sam’s bedroom. They both changed into her pajamas and brushed their teeth, hardly speaking a word to each other. “This brings back some memories” said Violet, trying to start a conversation. “Surprised you remember them” said Sam, suddenly turning fierce and cold. “What?” said Violet turning around to look at Sam. “Well, you’re so busy with all your celebrity stuff; I am surprised you even remembered who I was.” Violet was tired, irritable, and not in the mood for Sam’s comebacks. “Well I did” she said harshly “happy?” It had only been an hour, and the girls had already gotten into an argument. “No, I am not.” said Sam “I hope you don’t think it is okay for you to take advantage of me like this. You haven’t contacted me in a year, and you think you can just ask favors from me left and right. That is not okay.” Sam said, her voice starting to rise. “Look, I don’t know what your problem is, but I thought that maybe you could find that thing that you used to have…a heart. I guess I was wrong.” Sam stared at her coldly, with dark, hard eyes. “Don’t you dare insult me after I have done this big of a favor for you.” she said, her body language showing obvious signs of tense anger. ” “Well fine” said Violet. “Let me just get out of your house then. I thought I could count on you, but I guess I was wrong.” Violet ran out of the house and onto the street, surprising even herself from her quick reaction to Sam’s comments. Violet had forgotten how to handle Sam’s obnoxious comebacks because of the lack of time they had spent together, and it hadn’t helped that Violet’s manager had handled all of her conflicts for her. She walked out to the street when suddenly, a taxi drove by. She signaled the taxi and got in the car, hiding her face while she paid the taxi driver the $20 bill that was in her back pocket. When the taxi man asked him where to take her, she told him to just drive around for a little while. Violet’s face was invisible thanks to the darkness of the night. As they drove, Violet thought about what she was going to do next. She thought about what she was going to do from here, and how she was going to get her face fixed. She hoped that she could look better then she did before, but at the moment, that seemed almost impossible judging by the current state of her complexion. Would anyone notice anything different about her face? What if she was all over the newspapers for her nose job? It was all supposed to be kept a secret, but how could she keep it a secret now? Then of course there was the small detail about how Sam felt about all of this. She was starting to feel bad about the way she had treated her earlier. She got out her phone and began to text Sam. “I’m” she typed “sor……
CRASH!

It all happened too fast. When I got the text, I was just confused. It was when she didn’t return for another hour that really worried me. She couldn’t have gotten home by herself without any of the press seeing her. And knowing Violet, she was not about to let that happen. So I got in my car and drove around for a little bit, looking around all of the streets for Violet’s bright red hair. That’s when I saw it. It was all staring me right in the face, the police car, the ambulance, the ‘crime scene investigation” tape. I had this overwhelming feeling that something was definitely wrong. I pulled over and parked my car, and ran to the police cars. The police officer told me that there had been a car wreck killing 2 people. What turned out to be fortuitous later on, the crash was so bad that they could not tell the identity’s of either person. But I did. I knew who it was. That was when the decision was made.

At the time, it sounded like a great idea. No one else knew what had happened to Violet. For all that they knew, she was just tired of the spotlight, and wanted to get away for a little while. So who was I to selfishly keep the secret to myself? Plus, think about all the money I would get! I would be a millionaire in a matter of minutes if I sold the story to the press. This was the deal of a lifetime, and I was not about to let it pass me by. Frankly, I think Violet deserved it. She never cared about anyone but herself, and even when we were “friends” she was always superior to me, no matter what. She needed a wake up call, except… she never woke up.

I didn’t expect for everything else to turn out like it did. I didn’t ask the paparazzi to suddenly follow my every move, and realize my soccer talents. Just last week I was a regular girl, and now, I have become a celebrity athlete! It was all so surreal. The parties, the photo shoots and everything else that was already planned for me to go to. I now had my own manager, agent, and best of all… I didn’t even have to take that history exam on Thursday.

That’s when the guilt started to come. It suddenly hit me, like a tornado to a house. The decision seemed completely practical at the time, but now, I was starting to have some second thoughts. What would Violet be doing right now if she was still here? Would she even be happy for her? Probably not. But, she couldn’t go back in time and change her decision now. She was stuck with it. For the rest of her life.

After that realization, it was just becoming too much to handle for Sam. The guilt was eating her alive. She had become a prisoner in her own foolish decision. She had to paint on that fake smile when she went out, but inside, she was no where close to feeling like smiling. She couldn’t hold it all in any longer. She was about to burst, and it was going to be ugly.

To ease some of her nagging frustration, Sam decided to go to the park where she and Violet used to hang out. She covered her face with her big sunglasses, hooded sweatshirt, and baseball cap. She walked to the par nonchalantly, nobody yet noticing who she was. When she arrived at the park, she immediately began talking. “I’m sorry” she said “I know what I did was wrong. I should have acted more like a friend then I was. I never ever wanted anything like this to happen to you, even if I was still mad at you. Please, please forgive me.”

Rapidly, a black SUV swerved out of control, crashing into the distracted Sam, the impact killing her. Pedestrians started getting out their cell phones and dialing 911, rushing over to help any victims they could. One of them picked up the license plate of the car, which had been thrown off of it during the incident. It read



UR NOT 4GIVN