“$10.50.” 

Macy looked up from her phone with a frightened look as the bartender set her drink down in front of her. She reached for her purse and pulled out a twenty-dollar bill, “Of course, sorry about that.” The bartender smiled and gave her change and she nervously swirled her drink. She was waiting for her friends. Well, friends might be a generous term. After 10 years, they would finally face each other again. She was excited to see some of them, like Sofia and Dhruv, but was dreading her reunion with Lahela. She wondered why she even decided to come to a reunion planned by her ex-boyfriend, but Ethan made the situation sound serious, and she figured it was better to go than not. The dinner wasn’t until 6, but Macy was sitting at the bar by 5:30 so she could prepare herself with her favorite, a vodka with grapefruit juice. It wasn’t the best drink, but when you’re allergic to cranberries, what else can you do? She sipped on her drink, which tasted different– she chalked it up to nerves–while she looked around the restaurant. She had never been before, but it felt odd that such an upscale place would be so empty on a Saturday night. She heard the door open and looked over her shoulder to see Dhruv walk in.

Dhruv shuddered as he removed his coat and approached Macy. Macy Jones, looking perfect as always. Brunette hair that seemed to glow, manicured nails, and an outfit that you could tell was expensive. If Dhruv had met her on the street or in a bar, he would definitely have approached her. But knowing what he did, he could only ever see her as a friend, a sister. As he walked up to her she stood up and the two embraced for a long time. They both regretted not staying in touch, but considering the circumstances, it felt necessary. He sat down next to her and ordered a drink.

 “Wow, Macy, you look great. I mean, wow. What have you been up to?” 

She playfully tapped his shoulder and responded, “I’m an investment banker in Chicago. Work’s good. I mean it's boring, but it pays well. Oh! I just got engaged! His name is Brian and I think you would love him.”

Dhruv smiled a genuine smile, “That’s great Mace. You really deserve the best.” He looked down at his watch as he continued, “Ten years later and these idiots still don’t know how to be on time.” Macy laughed and took another swig of her drink and realized this night might not be as bad as she thought it would be.

Just as Dhruv began talking about his job, the door was pushed open once again and Macy’s smile dropped instantly. She felt a tightness in her chest and the panic set in, but quickly calmed herself down with the breathing exercises her therapist taught her. She downed her drink in a single gulp and motioned to the bartender for another one. 

Lahela approached the group and immediately hugged Dhruv. She knew Macy was there but took her time catching up with Dhruv before even acknowledging her presence. Lahela knew that despite everything, it was good to know that at least some people were able to make good lives for themselves and move on from the nonsense of their college days. Lahela moved on too, but she was haunted by the mistakes of her past. The conversation lulled as the girls refused to even make eye contact. Finally, Macy looked up from the bar with a small hello and Lahela returned it with the same awkwardness. 

As though she could sense the tension, Sofia walked in with a cheerful, glowy smile. Sofia was probably the only other universally liked “member” of the group. Sofia started telling them about the work she was doing in her laboratory when finally Ethan walked in. He had the same arrogant look on his face he carried throughout college, but what else could you expect from a London-raised, hedge fund manager? His deep voice had a mysterious and somewhat uncomfortable tone that matched the similarly weird atmosphere of the restaurant. He ushered them into a private dining room and the group nervously chattered as the anticipation of the impromptu meeting grew. As they sat down, Ethan remained standing at the head of the table. 

“Thank you all for coming together so quickly. I know you’re probably wondering why I needed to meet with you so urgently. But first, a toast.” They all raised their drinks as Ethan continued, “To college, to friends, to us.” Dhruv and Sofia looked at each other with an uneasy look but still let out a slight chuckle to ease the tensions in the room. Ethan had always been the odd one out, but this felt more obscure than their college days. As Dhruv opened his mouth to probe Ethan, they were interrupted by a loud thunk as Macy’s head hit the table.

THUMP!!

The noise was shocking, so much so that Dhruv jumped a little, but thankfully, nobody noticed. To his right was Macy, slumped in her seat, with her head smashed against the plate that was placed in front of her. Her drink had fallen out of her hand and landed on the floor, allowing the smell to infuse the room. Lahela and Sofia rushed to her side as Dhruv picked the glass up. The once smooth surface now shattered, causing shards of glass to fall everywhere as he smelled the glass.

“Oh my god.”

Sofia began rambling as tears pooled in her eyes. “What just happened? Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. Is she breathing? She’s not breathing! I’m going to jail. We’re going to jail. Macy, this isn’t funny. Wake up. Macy. Mace. MACY. What are we going to do? Oh my god, we need to call the po—”

“Sofia. You need to relax. I know you’re upset, we all are, but this won’t get us anywhere. Take a deep breath and go stand over there.” Lahela rubbed her arm as she spoke and helped her move out of the way. Dhruv looked at them, still holding the glass, as drops of blood dripped from his fingertips. Around him, Ethan stood by himself staring at Macy, Lahela hovered over her body, unsure what to do, and Sofia sobbed, the high-pitched squeaks filling the silence of the room.

“DHRUV, LOOK AT ME.” Lahela’s outburst snapped all of them out of the lull they had fallen into. “You need to come and check her pulse. You are the only one with a chance of helping her. Take a breath, focus, and come here.” She was right. Dhruv was the only one with medical training. He placed his fingers over her small, lifeless wrist, hoping to feel anything, even the weakest beat. Honestly, they all knew the second her head hit the table, she was dead, but they needed confirmation. Dhruv rose, without saying anything, walked to the other side of the room, and sat down on a chair. Everyone stared at him, hoping he would know what to do. A minute passed, and the deafening silence in the room grew louder and louder.

“Cranberries,” he spoke so softly they could barely hear. 

Sofia repeated, “Cranberries? What do you mean by cranberries?”
“Her drink. It smells like cranberries.” Everyone looked at Dhruv with confusion except Ethan. Ethan had almost a knowing look on his face despite his attempt to hide it. 

Dhruv’s voice hardened, “You don’t seem too surprised by that, Ethan.” Ethan slowly looked up while Lahela and Sofia looked back and forth between them, not sure what to make of the situation. 

“Are you kidding me? You really think I had something to do with this?”
Dhruv scoffed, “You’re the only person who didn’t react when I said her drink was made with cranberries. My guess is that you were the one who put them in there knowing she was allergic to them. Or at least, you paid someone to.” The boys started to walk closer to each other as they spoke, but Sofia got between them before it could escalate.

“Alright, let's put the testosterone away and focus on what we’re going to do. We need to get some help.” Sofia had finally calmed herself down and knew the tension between Ethan and Dhruv would only make matters worse. Lahela tried to push the door open, but it wouldn’t budge. Ethan walked over to her to help her but looked at them puzzled when he couldn’t get it open either.

“Why would this door be locked?” Ethan asked, looking more uncomfortable than they had ever seen him.
Dhruv looked at him with anger once again, “You’re the one who brought us here, you tell us!” 

“Look I know how it looks, but I swear I had nothing to do with this. How about we search the room for clues or a way out of here instead of just arguing with each other?” Dhruv looked at him with suspicion but reluctantly nodded his head. They all moved to a different part of the room and began looking for anything that could be remotely helpful.

After a few minutes, Sofia gasped, and they all immediately rushed over to her. She held up a bottle of cranberry extract. “If this bottle is in here, then that means that one of us did this to her, doesn’t it?” her voice cracking at the end of the sentence. They looked at each other for what felt like hours, not knowing what to do or what this meant. One of these four people had just committed a murder. Feelings of fear, discomfort, and anxiety overtook all of them in their own way. Thoughts of suspicion flooded all of their brains but nobody spoke as none of them wanted to be the first to point fingers. 

Ethan finally cleared his throat and said, “Let’s face it. Lahela, you hated her. After what she did to you in college, I’m surprised you waited this long.” Lahela looked shocked by the accusation while Dhruv and Sofia stared at each other, trying to determine if the other one believed Ethan.

“I’ll admit, she was not my favorite person. But we moved on, okay? I was mad at her for years for outing me to my parents. But I was able to smooth things over with them a few years ago so I left it in the past. And, I don’t know why I’m telling you this, but I wasn’t really the nicest person to her either. We were best friends before everything happened, so I was devastated when I found out what she had done. The same night I found out, I spent the night at her boyfriend’s place. The next morning she tried explaining that it was an accident, but I was too angry to listen to her. Now that you know everything, do you believe me?” Lahela looked at Sofia first knowing if anyone would take her side, it would likely be her. Sofia looked between her and Dhruv, struggling to make her decision. She wanted desperately to trust Lahela, or at the very least, not make her angrier if she was the killer so Sofia nodded, “I believe her. Even Macy had told me that she wanted to move on from everything that had happened.” 

“What if somebody is trying to frame one of us? What if their entire plan is to make us doubt and turn on each other so that we can’t figure out who they are?” Dhruv suggested. Ethan nodded, but Lahela’s face soured and she frantically shook her head.

“Why would anybody go through so much trouble to kill Macy? Even more so, why would they go to the lengths of blaming it on us? She wasn’t important enough and neither were we.” Lahela walked away from the other three and sat down. Her head dropped between her knees and she struggled to think of what they should do next. Suddenly, she shot up. “Ethan, why did you call us here in the first place? None of us would be here if it wasn’t for you. Macy would be here if you didn’t make us come here.” She walked closer to him as she spoke. Her voice got increasingly louder. She spoke with so much confidence that even Sofia and Dhruv walked slightly behind her. Ethan now cornered both physically and verbally, threw his hands up by his head and waved them urgently.

“Hey, hey back off. Relax. I’ll explain, I’ll explain everything. But I need all of you to BACK OFF.” His last exclamation scared them –though none of them would admit it– and they stepped back to give him some space. “At this point, I doubt you’ll believe a word I say. But I brought everyone here to fix everything. I was tired of all of us barely talking and I just wanted my friends back. And I had some bad news to tell all of you, and I knew I would only be able to say it once.” He paused before he continued speaking. Meanwhile, Dhruv, Lahela, and Sofia all stared at each other. They had never seen Ethan like this. He was always the composed one, the one with the never-ending attitude. Either he was a phenomenal actor, or he actually wanted to bring the group together. Finally, he started again, “I have terminal brain cancer. I probably won’t make it past this year. I couldn’t imagine not resolving our issues before I, I, you know, so I called everyone here so we yell at each other, fight, do whatever necessary to figure it out.” Unexpectedly, Dhruv hugged him. He himself couldn’t believe the action, but he didn’t know what else to do. When he stepped back, tears had escaped his eyes. Lahela and Sofia gave him awkward, yet heartfelt, side hugs as tears fell from their eyes as well. All four of them stood there crying until Ethan laughed and said, “Alright, this is getting quite pathetic so let's wrap this up.” They all laughed and wiped their tears, but tension filled the room once again. They still didn’t know who killed Macy, and it felt like they were getting nowhere.

“Well, I might as well point out that only Dhruv and I are left as ‘suspects’.” Sofia used air quotes as she spoke, but it was true. They were now the only ones who hadn’t explained themselves. “I’ll go first, but I really don’t have much to tell. When I got here, Dhruv, Macy, and Lahela were already talking at the bar. Ethan got here not even five minutes after I did. We all walked in here together and Lahela and I were catching up right before Ethan made his big toast. There were already drinks in front of us, and I saw Macy take a sip of hers right as Ethan started talking. Next thing you know, her head hit the table. Also, for the record, I didn’t know she was allergic to cranberries, so if I was going to kill her, I wouldn’t have done it by lacing her drink.”
Lahela interjected, “She’s telling the truth. We walked in together while talking and saw Mace drink from her glass as Ethan started to speak. If it was Sofia, I would have seen her.”
Ethan nodded, and they all looked at Dhruv. He was the last one left. While deep down they didn’t think they had done it, they had nobody else to suspect. If not the three of them, then it had to be him. Dhruv, knowing he was about to be grilled, found a chair to sit down on and they stood in a semi-circle around him.

Ethan spoke first, “Look man, we don’t want to suspect you, but we kind of have no other choice. You were standing the closest to her and you got here before the rest of us did. You had the most time to poison her drink without any of us seeing it happen.”
Dhruv nodded. He didn’t blame them for thinking what they did. If the roles were reversed, he probably would have done the same. Unfortunately, Dhruv knew the only way they would believe him was if he told them everything. “I get it. Just let me explain before you jump to conclusions. Macy and I were always close, you guys all know that. We only began drifting apart after what happened between her and Lahela. I could tell she was remorseful but she didn’t try hard enough to make amends and I was angry at her for that. But before all of that, I was in love with her. Like insanely in love with her. She, of course, didn’t feel the same way. And to be honest, I don’t feel that way anymore either. But I would never kill her. I had no reason to. Of course, it hurt that she didn’t love me back romantically, but she loved me as her best friend, and that was enough. I don’t know if that’s enough to convince you, but that’s the truth.” The four of them didn’t speak for at least two minutes after Dhruv’s confession. Nobody knew what to say. They believed Dhruv, but that meant they still didn’t know who the killer was. “Look one of us is going to be blamed for this and with Ethan’s diagnosis, this is basically the last time we’ll ever see each other. I still don’t know which one of us killed her, if it was one of us, but maybe we could spend our last few moments together not accusing each other of murder. Yeah?”

Lahela agreed, “I mean we’re obviously not going to figure it out at this rate, so maybe Dhruv’s right. Maybe we can just enjoy being with each other one last time.

For the next twenty minutes, the four of them laughed as they told story after story from their college days. They reminisced on all of the stupid things they had done with each other and told each other where their lives had taken them in the last ten years. Despite their friend sitting dead just a few feet away from them, they focused on the good memories hoping it would drown out this bad one. 

Suddenly, Ethan began tearing up once more as the conversation lulled. They all knew why this was hard for him, and so they let the comfortable silence overtake the room.

“This is truly all I wanted from tonight, guys. I know I’ve been difficult in the past, but all I wanted to do tonight was make it up while I still could.” They chuckled at his words and looked around at each other. “That’s why I did this. I killed her for you.”

Silence crept into the room again, but it was no longer comfortable. Sofia asked, her voice trembling, “Y-You did this? You killed her?” 

“Of course I did. We never would have been able to confess these secrets to each other if there wasn’t a reason to. Yes, of course, I’m sad she had to die. But look at what her sacrifice did. Look at how close we are now. I can die knowing I have my best friends by my side.” Ethan spoke with an unsettling and unfamiliar smile on his face. His words hung heavy in the air as they thought about what he just confessed. The silence was only broken by the deafening police sirens that approached them. With Macy’s corpse rotting next to them, they stared at each other, not sure what to do or say, as their lives would now be forever changed.