Evelyn's Pendant

17.

"Lilly!" Evelyn screams. "Why can't you hear me anymore?" 

    I gasp as I jolt upright in my hard bed, not without a deep, radiating pain through my ribcage. The room is dark - I must have slept the whole day. I take a deep breath as I regain consciousness. Evelyn's screaming in my dream replays itself over in my head.

What did she mean by that? I was never able to hear her, besides in my dreams. I try to think back to when I last saw her - a lot of it is a blur now since it's been so long, but there is always something that will stick out to me from that moment: "I've been with you this whole time," she said to me while pointing at the pendant on my chest. "You having that necklace has kept me with you, watching every terrible decision you've been making over the past two years."

    I clutch onto my bare chest. I still don't have the necklace. Evie can't watch over me anymore without it.

    Suddenly, an orderly taps on my door and it creaks open. "Checks... Oh, you're awake," he says.

"Where's my nurse?"

"He's off for the night, do you need a different nurse, Lillian?"

I still try to regain my composure, my breathing is heavy. "No, just some water please."

The orderly leaves to get me water for my parched throat. I need to get that necklace back, whatever it takes. Or else I may never hear from Evie again.

By morning, it's time for another meeting with Katherine. With the pendant in mind - I ended up opening up to her a lot more than I ever thought I would. I started off with my family life; how Evie and I were best friends, my mother's miscarriage and depression, dad's alcoholism. I then went on about my teenage years, having Hannah as a best friend, how I started getting good at painting and how Evie became my personal art critic. I found myself laughing at some of the things Evie would say to me, then that would lead to tears. Once Katherine asked me about the accident, it was all just waterworks from there. It was like I was reliving the night where that girl found out at school in Seattle, and I had to retell my story twice to Mia and Asher. I hate repeating it, but if I can show Katherine that I can open up and hopefully find some way to show her that I can be trustworthy, eventually she has to give it back, right?

I then talked about my week in Seattle; the partying, the drug I was given to join the Dissidents and how it probably could have killed me.

Katherine interrupts me. "Hold on, Lillian," she sighs. "Why did you take drugs from people you barely knew?"

I wipe away the remainder of my tears and chuckle. "I know it sounds dumb, which it kinda was. But, I knew I could trust them. Plus - I just had a bad reaction to it. They all felt really bad."

"Uh-huh..." she mumbles. "Do you think any member of these so-called 'Dissidents' would deliberately harm you for some reason?"

"No," I say, defensively. "They're my friends."

"Lillian, you only knew them for a day when they gave you that pill," she says. "You can't immediately trust people like that."

I roll my eyes.

"This is what I tried telling you - you have to be a better judge on who you're trusting."

"You meant with my secret, it's not like I-!"

"You knew I meant that more generally," she says calmly. "You have to be smarter than that, especially with people who are new in your life."

"They wouldn't hurt me on purpose, they're not that kind of people."