Ella and Lottie

Dark Day

Chapter 7 Lottie

Ella hadn't been in since Monday. I texted her a billion times ranging from "Hey Ell, you feeling okay? Worried about you. :( " to "I've texted you so many times that if you are not dead you might be soon!"

I was getting worried. She hadn't texted me and I was checking every five seconds lately. On Thursday I had had enough of that silent treatment. After school, I went over to her house directly from the school. I was planning on slamming open the door but my hand wasn't on the handle when she answered the door. All my anger and everything I was planning to say got forgotten at the sight of her like this.

She looked small. I mean smaller than usual she seemed to have retreated into herself. She had dark purple-blue bags under her tear-stained eyes. Her skin shone pale white and her cheeks were sunken. She was wearing a large t-shirt that hung loosely on her narrow shoulders making her look like a small child. It sported several stains and smelt like she hadn't changed since I last saw her. A large plaster with a spot of blood seeping through covered her bruise. Her bare feet shifted nervously causing her blue nightie to ripple like a wave. Her small hands were clenched so tightly that her knuckles turned white and stuck out like small hills. Her head hung down like it weighed down and it took obvious effort to lift it. When she lifted her exhausted tear-filled eyes to meet mine the corners of her mouth struggled to form a smile. She looked so different it made my brow furrow in concern for her.

"Ella, what are you doing at the door you'll catch a cold," her mum's concerned voice drifted down the stairs. Footsteps thudded down the stairs just as I stepped inside. "Oh, Lottie! I mean Charlotte," Ella's mum's painfully cheerful voice greeted me. She fussed over me taking my coat and shooing Ella upstairs to put proper clothes on.

"How is she? I mean?" I did a waving arm motion that I hoped conveyed my meaning. I struggled to keep my voice level but it seemed to crack regardless.

"It hit her harder this time. She just mopes around the house. I think she feels like there is something wrong with her, like she deserves what these horrible people do to her. And I feel so guilty that I used to be the cause of her self-hate. Oh, and she was doing so well. She had you and her friends and was talking to Megan. No, not again," Ella's mum collapsed, her hands tearing at her hair. I nodded slowly. I vaguely remembered when Ella went through her last dark period when she got outed as gay. But she hadn't been friends with me then. Yes, I know I said we had been friends since like, well forever but like any long we went through periods of having other friends and this was one of them.

I sunk into my memories. It was a month before the incident.

"Knock, Knock?" Ella sang at my door doing our little routine.

"Who's there?" I whispered into the door frame.

"Luke," she giggled.

"Luke who?" I asked. Hmm, this was a new one.

"Luke through the peephole and find out!"

"Ooooo! Good one, Ells," I stood on my tiptoes to look down at Ella. I let her in. "You have been thinking up new ones!" I accused her.

"Guilty as charged," Ella held her hands up.

"So are you here just to beguile me with your new jokes or ..."

"Beguile? And yeah pretty much and I was bored and you aren't boring soo..."

"I pride myself on being not boring." I do miss being ten.

"So can I stay and play," Ella's eyes wide, eager.

"Umm..." I fumbled, disliking letting Ella down.