She kept walking towards me with her new friend. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I couldn’t believe she would actually do that to me. She stopped in front of me and murmured “sorry.” “Sorry doesn’t help,” I squeaked, trying to sound confident. She looked down, refusing to look at my boiling stare. Then she finally spoke. “So, Raven. This is Jasper,” She said, staring intently at the concrete. “Yeah, I’m aware.” At this point, I wasn’t sure what to do. She knows me. She knows I want to kill Jasper. He ruined my entire life. I shook my head and pinched myself multiple times in my pocket. This is a dream. Not real. Not real. I have had problems with hallucinations before. I have had hallucinations ever since Jasper stabbed my heart with a dagger. I was sure this wasn’t real. Absolutely sure. So why was I not snapping out of it? I fell backwards. All I remember was seeing Robin’s shocked and crying face above me, then, nothing. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I woke up in a familiar place. Robin’s house. I was lying on the bed that I usually sleep on whenever I went there. A cute little green twin bed with flowers. It was Robin’s little sister’s bed, before she drowned. I always thought that it was quite odd that she would put me on this bed. I had only seen Heather once, but she seemed healthy. Just a week later, she drowned in Lake Simmons. “Hey, honey, are you okay?” I heard a distinct voice echo in the hallway. “Yeah, thanks,” I responded. Robin’s mom, Ms. Marley, walked in with some green tea and a roast beef sandwich. Whenever Robin and I slept over, it was always at her house. They were practically rich. They had a three story house with a basement and a pool. All I had was a dinky little apartment with two bedrooms, a kitchen, and half a living room. Only one bathroom, too. My room, or me and my brother’s room, has two beds as far from each other as possible. I hate the smell of him and he hates the messiness of me. I guess we’ve got our own problems. “So, Robin just wanted to come in and say something to you.” She looked at me sympathetically and I smiled weakly back. Robin walked in with her hands behind her back. She kept looking back into the hallway. “Jasper, I know you’re there, you can come in.” I said bitterly. Jasper walked in and stood beside Robin. They both had the same guilty face. “Go ahead, tell me how you are so sorry and you apologize.” I uttered. “Well, yeah. We are sorry. But we got some news.” Robin remarked. They looked at each other and nodded. I widened my eyes in boredness and used my face to tell them to get on with it. They seemed unwilling. How bad could it be? What are they going to say? “You failed your French test,” or “Hey, that girl said that your shoes are ugly.” I’ve taken worse. Robin sniffed and Jasper shuffled. I munched on my sandwich and sipped my tea. “So, when you passed out, We got a text from your phone.” Robin mumbled. “So you were looking through my phone while I was unconscious. Wow. How nice of you.” I said sarcastically. I didn’t want her to look through my phone. I wouldn’t have minded yesterday. Not even in eighth period today. But now I do. “The text was from your brother.” Jasper added. So he looked at my phone too. Do these people have no respect for personal property? But, my brother rarely texts me. The longest text I have gotten from him was “What do you want to eat?” “Continue.” I said testily. “Your mom and your dad died in a car crash.” I spit out all of the green tea that was in my mouth, and nearly fell out of my bed. “What kind of sick joke are you pulling? ‘Cause it isn’t funny.” Jasper and Robin exchanged glances again.
Continued: “I’m not in the mood for apologizing and sobbing right now.” I said weakly. I assumed it was Robin, but I was too disgruntled to know for sure. “It’s okay. It’s Priscilla, Robin’s mom.” Priscilla. Cool name, sort of 1800’s like. I didn’t know Mrs. Marley had such an interesting first name. I turned around slowly, and withheld myself from looking into her eyes. I could see in my blurry vision that she was worried and concerned. “Oh, you poor baby.” She walked closer to me and I couldn’t help but run into her arms. I didn’t cry. I never cried. Still, it was weird to think of anyone who wouldn’t cry when their parents died. Yup, that’s me. Weird. “Hi.” I squeaked. I couldn’t manage to say anymore. I didn’t actually think that my parents were dead at first. I thought it was some dense prank. As the realization set in, my body became numb. Priscilla started humming and swaying, trying to calm me down, and it worked. Mostly. I was still extremely upset. Both of my parents just died, of course I’m upset. We just stood there while she hummed, taking a moment to take a deep breath. She let go, and I sank down into the plush loveseat. The back of my shirt was soaked. "She cried," I thought. Priscilla seemed very sympathetic, and also young. Thirty-six years old with a seventeen year old daughter. Robin was older than me by seven months. I was born in October, and she was born in May. Complete opposites. She wiped her eyes and shook her sleeves. I stared pointlessly at her walking to the kitchen. She looked as if she was limping. “Are you ok?” I asked dully. She turned around and raised her eyebrow. “Are you ok?” She attempted to sound amusing, but quickly realized it wasn’t the time. I drew myself up out of the soft seat and steadily ambled towards the kitchen. I heard footsteps above me, and saw Robin and Jasper striding down the stairs. They walked briskly to the door and opened it. Priscilla was watching the two as well. “Hi! Er- it’s not really the time right now, maybe come by later? I can call you!” Robin said with a forced smile. I leaned my heavy head to look at who was standing at the door, and found that it was one of Robin’s neighbor friends. The girl saw me and waved. “I didn’t see you there! Hi! I’m Atlas! What’s your name?” She jumped up and down excitedly. I gave her a silent poker face and she turned her head in confusion. “Atlas, uh, this is Raven. She isn’t feeling too well right now, but when she is feeling up to it, you can formally meet. Later.” Robin said with a believable grin. Atlas nodded and jumped away. I rotated my head back to the TV with one thought in my mind. I don’t remember a time when I was as happy as that. “Sorry about that, Raven. I didn’t know she was coming over.” I didn’t bother to look at Robin to answer. “Sorry doesn’t really matter right now.” I said gloomily.
