His grandmother Clara passed away suddenly from a massive stroke a year before Jared met Pat. He was devastated over her death. He slumped into a deep depression and stopped going to the church that he and his grandmother attended all his life. They tried to reach out to him, but he avoided them.

Jared met Derrick in high school, and they became very close friends. After graduation, they stayed in contact with each other, hanging out every chance they got. Derrick was like a brother to him. They had so much in common.

In his 2nd year of college, Derrick became a devoted Christian. He loved sharing his faith with anyone who would listen to him. He was very concerned about Jared, as he watched him slump into a deep spirit of depression, he began ministering to him continually and finally talked him into coming to church with him. That is where Jared met Pat. The minute Jared laid eyes on her he fell in love with her. Pat played a little hard to get because she wanted to make sure he wasn't playing games with her, inwardly she prayed he didn't give up on her because she really liked him. She had her eyes on him from the moment he walked into the church.

Derrick introduced them, and he saw the sparks flying between the two of them.

Jared smiled to himself as he thought about her, remembering the hard time Pat gave him before she finally decided to go on a date with him. They laughed about it later when he asked her why she had given him such a hard time.

"Because, I didn't want you to think I was that easy to get!" She'd explained.

He laughed

"Oh really? Believe me when I tell you, I wasn't giving up on you that easily!" Pat smiled.

"And believe me when I tell you, I wasn't going to let you give up on me."

They both laughed. He and Pat had their entire lives ahead of them. They'd made so many plans together and now it was all gone. Vanished as though it never was.

Jared's mind was racing. He positioned himself comfortably on his couch and decided he would crush the tablets, to make it easier for him to swallow, to allow it to get into his bloodstream much quicker. He wondered how long it would take for someone to find his dead body in the cramped cottage.

He took a deep breath and poured himself a glass of vodka that he'd purchased earlier that day. He emptied the lethal dosage of the Opioids on a wooden chopping board, crushing the tablets into a fine powdery substance. He put it in a small plastic cup so that he could swallow it in one gulp and flush it down quickly with the vodka.

Once again, he picked up Pat's picture, stared at it for a minute, kissed it and then gently put the picture back on the end table. With trembling hands and a racing heart, he opened the bottle of Vodka. He picked up the plastic cup containing the powdery tablets, closed his eyes and took a deep breath.