Long Gone

Chapter 2- Gone

Ava walked into school and as she was making her way down the corridor, she could see all the eyes peering at her.

' Do they know what happened? Maybe it was real after all, maybe I wasn't dreaming'

Feeling disturbed by the stares, Ava hurries to the girl's restroom. Locking herself in one of the stalls, she heard several girls entering. She sat on top of the seat hoping she wouldn't be noticed and remains quiet. Ava listens in to what the girls begin to talk about.

"I feel so sorry for her, she must be really upset," Claire said sympathetically.

"Well, duh. What do you expect her to be? To be honest I never liked those two in the first place. I don't care what happens to them," Aaliyah said coldly.

Aaliyah's comment angered Ava.

'How could she say that so calmly? Typical her.'

Aaliyah is the most popular girl at school and her parents are very rich. She has two friends that follow her around everywhere like puppies and they do all what she wants.

"That's a bit rude, isn't it? A person just died; how can you say that with no emotion?" Abby stated.

"What did you just say to me!? If you care about her so much then go hang out with her, I don't care I don't need you anyway... So, what are you waiting for, are you going to stay here or are you going to that little fat pig whatever her name is," Aaliyah yelled.

"No, I-I'll stay with you. I-I'm sorry," Abby apologized.

"You better be," Aaliyah muttered.

'How dare she say that. And why does she treat them so badly? One day I will just-'

Ava's hand slipped and toppled the toilet roll over making a noise. She quickly covered her mouth and stayed as still as possible.

"Hello? Is anybody there?" Aaliyah called,

"If you don't come out, I'll make sure my Daddy sues you for being a pervert or eavesdropping on my conversation."

Still, Ava made no sound.

"Come on Aaliyah, it's probably one of the vents that pushed something over," Abby insisted.

They all took their stuff and walked out of the bathroom. Ava puffed a breath of relief. She didn't know what to do but she had a class in 10 minutes and sitting in the toilet wasn't going got help her. Something kept bothering her about Aaliyah. She felt like she had done something, but she didn't know what.

Soon after class, the bell rang, and it was time for lunch. Ava went to get her lunch and sat at the furthest table in the canteen. She usually sat with Annie and they talked about everything. None of them bothered to make more friends because they were happy with each other but now Ava seemed to be regretting that decision. She started eating without paying attention to anyone around her when a group of students came up to her and sat at her table.

She looked up to see that most of them were from her class. She immediately locked eyes with the boy in front of her. She raised her eyebrows as a sign to tell them what they were doing. One of the guys spoke,

" Hey, we saw that you were alone, and we just wanted to see whether you needed any company," he said with a small smile plastered on his face.

Ava still kept her gaze on his eyes until she looked around to see the others.

"That's not why you're here,"

"Sorry?"

"That's not the reason you came over here,"

He looked at his friends and sighed.

"Okay, okay. We're here because we just wanted to apologize about what's going on. I know you must miss her very much - we all do. But we can't imagine the pain you must be in, so we came over here because you were alone, and I-WE didn't want you to feel alone..."

"I-I'm sorry Noah,"

She quickly grabbed her stuff and ran out of school and went home.

'I can't do this. I can't betray Annie like this.'

Noah was Ava's crush. She has liked him for 2 years. Noah had brown hair with streaks of blonde in it. He always had his hair messy and had a shirt wrapped around his waist. He wasn't as popular, but he had a good amount of friends. Annie knew about it and she encouraged her to go make friends with him, but Ava was scared that she would eventually hurt Annie if she hung out with him. Ava and Noah have been friends but not as close. Ava didn't want to get too close to him because he was friends with Aaliyah.

She opened the door and ran upstairs locking her room. Her brother was at school and her mom was at work so she had time to herself. She sat on her bed and thought of what she could do next. A few minutes later she stood up she saw a book on her nightstand.

She walked over to it and opened it. She saw pictures of her and Annie when they were younger at the roller-skating park. She smiled to herself as she flipped through the pages to see all the memories they had throughout their friendship. A tear freely flowed down her cheek. She quickly wiped the tear and closed the book, put it on her bed and ran out of the house. She walked to the nearby florist store.

She grabbed a bunch of roses and tulips and walked to the cemetery. She didn't want to go to the cemetery because she still believed that she was alive. That she was just in hiding maybe because she was in danger. But Ava couldn't live with herself knowing she didn't visit her best friend's grave.

She reached Annie's grave. She looked at it carefully and noticed that something seemed different but she couldn't figure out what it was. She looked at it more carefully but she still couldn't get what was different so she just brushed off the thought. She knelt and removed the dead flowers that were laying on the grave and replaced them with the new ones that she bought. She stood up and just looked at it, shedding a tear from her tear-filled eyes.