Death by Charlie [discontinued]

Prologue

Kelsey Briggs was what you called "free." Didn't conform to society standards, wasn't afraid to speak up despite the punishment. It was safe to say that she wasn't the most popular, but she had enough friends that everybody knew her as "Big Mouth." It wasn't so much an insult as much as a compliment, and it meant something special to her that people came to her to speak the words they were too afraid to say. Too ashamed to admit.
So, it was Kelsey to spoke up for them.
"One day that mouth of yours will get you in trouble," her mother said one afternoon. "And I won't be there to save you when you need me the most."

"I know," Kelsey replied boldly. "Except that day will never happen. Because I don't need saving--I fend for myself."

"Oh, Kels. Everybody needs saving one time, doesn't matter when doesn't matter how."

"But I'm different. If I get myself in that situation, I'll dig myself out like I always do. I don't need saving."

Except she was wrong. She did need saving, and when that happened her mother wasn't there to save her. Because her mother assumed Kelsey didn't need it, didn't want it so she didn't give it to her. And that's exactly how Kelsey Briggs ended up dead, floating in Creer Lake, lifeless.
And it was shook the school, for never did they think a student of theirs so young could die so soon. And the people there never thought for a moment Kelsey couldn't handle things. But that day, when Kelsey herself couldn't see it, was showing her moment of weakness and when she needed saving the most, she didn't get it.

And I'm here, Charlie Joells, to tell you how it happened. I was her best friend and I saved her when nobody else would. I was her protector, and I was the one who dug her out of the deep hole she got herself in. And to think that all it took was one day of me not being there, a whole 364 days of saving her ass, to have her wind up dead in a lake not far from her house.

I'm not writing this for closure, not for acceptance, not for peace. I'm doing this so the truth will set her free, because that's what she would have wanted anyway.