The world circled Jolene in slow motion. Every piece was falling down. Her armour, her body. She was loosing herself. Every day passed with a careless glance. The people she liked, they didn't feel the same way. She didn't have someone to talk to. There were restricted conversations with the people from her classes. They were stiff and held no meaning behind them. No one passed a caring glance, so how could she know that they would care.
That girl who bullied her, her words passed in a blur. It was her old friend, Jemma. She went and bullied Jolene to a pulp. Every emotion was seeping through the pores in Jolene's skin.
Two weeks after that Jemma stood in front of a casket with fake tears pouring down her face. Every caring word that echoed from her mouth was fake. As innocent as this act seemed, Jemma was the opposite. She was forced to care about the bullying at her school. She was apologizing for her actions, but don't you think it's a little too late?
From the crowd, every tear that was shed by a family member was real. Her brother sat in shock, unable to blink at the sudden realization about Jolene. He could touch her hand on his lap, holding his weak and shaking palm. If she was here she would feel the pulse of his beating heart. She would feel, see all this, but she's not here. He still believes.
The woman who hasn't seen Jolene in ten years still cares. The time babysitting, it payed off. She's a mom now. She would have been hopeless without taking care of the six year old, now grown up. She payed all respect to this family. She felt she didn't belong here, but she did.
A month later Jemma longed at the bleachers. She wanted her boyfriend back there sitting, watching her practice. But Jemma, she lost him to the hatred he had for her bullying Jolene. She just had to skip past that. She lost two friends now.
Jolene's brother was depressed, he couldn't shed one tear but he was following the actions Jolene did. He didn't want her to have to experience this. Jolene wouldn't want to either but she knew that it was better her than her brother. She loved him to infinity and beyond. He liked Toy Story too.
The woman lost her thoughts every day. She would be outside with a drink in her hand then suddenly one of her children would scream in her face. She hated that this happened to Jolene. She was one of her own. The woman thought of Jolene as hers. What if one of her children did that too? She couldn't bear the fact. She was getting too paranoid.
Three months after the incident there were no clubs, no friends, no school. The principal found evidence. Jolene was bullied by Jemma Wakins. It was in the headlines. The police, they forced her door open, and found her with pictures of Jolene everywhere. Her hair, her life, sanity, it was messed up. They questioned whether they should put her in a psychiatric ward. She wasn't accepted.
Jolene's brother shed his first tear since the day. He went to school in a cloudy haze. He had no words to be said, none said to him. His grade five teacher dismissed it as a phase. He was in class, the voice of Jolene fading away within the teachers dragging voice. Before he knew it his desk was being splattered with salt water. Her voice was gone. He had no hope.
The woman hid from her children. She couldn't face the idea of them doing what Jolene did. Her marriage, there wasn't anything. There was just a strange man living in her house. The counsellor she had dismissed every panicked look. There was no easy way out for her. She just sat in her bed, trying to overcome every situation in her head.
All four of them, they all disappeared into oblivion.
Jemma went to the hospital with no one. She's still alive, she doesn't want to be.
The boy, Max, he locked himself in Jolene's room and let himself bleed out.
The woman, Fiona, she fell limp from too many sleeping pills.
Fiona and Max are gone. The one who caused all this destruction, she's lost but still here. She still deserves to be here along with Max, Fiona and lastly Jolene.
