‘Shh' we sat with her as she cried softly again as Justin wrapped his arms round her. We all felt differently. I clung to Josh scared, so scared if I was ever to lose him I wouldn't know what to do. Her cries quietened and she sighed softly wiping the last of her tears.
‘Thank you guys' she whispered smiling.
‘Don't you ever thank us we are just happy to know your okay' Justin told her placing a hand under her chin.
‘I'm sorry' she apologised looking down.
‘Don't be. Though Justin over here was freaking out weren't you curly' I said winking and pretending to nudge him. He blushed trying his best to deny it but he gave in putting his hands up saying
‘Alright alright'
‘I'm just going to change' Jen announced standing up with the help of Justin we stood up and walked out of the area with trees and back to the long garden.
‘Can I offer you any drinks, food?'
‘We're fine thanks' she looked to the rest of us and we nodded agreeing with Justin now was not the time to be worrying about our stomachs. We walked back to the house, Jen walked upstairs and we stood round the kitchen. We looked up to Anita entering. She filled a plate with the food that was set up and almost finished.
‘Are you guys okay? I saw the looks on your faces, I was just going to tell you that Jen was fine when I was wanted. Sorry you had that thought in your head'.
‘It's fine'
‘I guess she didn't tell you about her mother then' Anita questioned we shook our heads and waited for her to tell us what this was all about.
‘It's her anniversary, the anniversary for her murder'
‘Murder' I gasped
‘Jennifer was murdered, Jeniqua was just 13 years old'. Anita sighed letting her eyes drop to the floor. ‘They never found the killer'
‘What!" we cried
‘I know. It haunted this town for years and most could just never get over her death. Jeniqua was affected the most, it was her 13th birthday her mom had planned a special day for her. She was killed on her way back here from picking up the birthday cake. Jeniqua found the cake smashed and her mother' Anita wiped away the small tears.
‘Jeniqua' I repeated
‘Oh yes' Anita nodded shaking her head
‘Who would do such a thing?' Justin cried
‘Nobody knows, Jennifer always helped round the community, it shocked many we just simply didn't understand'.
‘Wait hold on a second, she died on her birthday Jeniqua is 20 today' J.C figured out.
‘Yes we get so caught up in all this we usually don't do anything, I'm sorry were you planning on going out?' she asked.
‘To a restaurant' Justin mumbled.
‘Well that would be nice she hasn't had a birthday cake since she was 12'. Anita left us in the kitchen thoughts going through our mind about the woman upstairs and what she must be going through. We looked at each other. Nobody knew what to say, we would never think that Jeniqua would have gone through that. We thought she was quiet shy just never had come out of her box but this...
‘Sorry I took so long'. She stopped looking at our faces ‘I've had those looks for years, I guess you know. Well say something' she almost cried silence was probably a killer.
‘Jeniqua happy birthday' I said smiling holding my arms out to her for a hug. We pulled away.
‘I do understand, really I do, I'm used to it. So what were we going to do?'
‘Eat out and hang about' she frowned then nodded
‘Well lest do this hang'
We headed out, it was her birthday so what we found out shouldn't stop it we were going to make the most of it.
‘Happy birthday to ya' we sang. Jeniqua stared at the cake her eyes filled with tears of sadness but still joy, we understood and we knew it would take time.
