What She Left Behind

Chapter 5

The next day, Hanna seemed really weird and awkward. She wouldn't look me in the eye, and barely talked all day. I asked around, but still nobody knew anything at all about what happened. I decided to try the girl Jill again.

"Hey Jill. It's me, Courtney. The girl you talked to the other day?" I started, hoping she would remember me. It was during my free period, and Hanna had a class, so I was all good.

"Hi Courtney! What's up?" She responded.

"Well, you know how I asked you about Dylan and Hanna the other day? I was wondering if you knew anything else about what happened."

She looked at me funny, then looked like she was going to start asking questions. Instead, she just said, "What do you want to know?"

"Everything," I replied. "Tell me everything you know."

"Okay," she began, then started telling me. It turns out that she and Dylan were really good friends until about the time he and Hanna started dating, maybe before that. All of sudden, Dylan stopped talking to her. He wouldn't return any of her calls or texts, and avoided her like the plague at school. He started only talking to Cody and Hanna. His parents called Jill, worried about him. She couldn't tell them anything; he wasn't talking to her. Jill found out that he and Hanna were having some problems, so she tried to help. Dylan turned a little crazy toward her, getting mad for no reason and saying she was the problem, not him or Hanna. Jill had no idea what he was talking about, since she wasn't involved with their relationship except to try to help. And, she told me that when he got mad, it was scary. He would scream and sometimes throw things. Hanna didn't want to worry me, so she talked to Jill, thinking she could help. Jill had no idea what to do, so she suggested to Hanna that they break up before Dylan started getting really mad and scary. When Hanna tried to, Dylan got extremely mad. Hanna got out, but Dylan still hasn't forgiven her or talked about it since. Nobody knows about this, Hanna tried to keep it a secret to protect herself and Dylan. That's why she didn't tell me, she didn't want to scare me or hurt me.

"Hanna and I think something really hard for him was going on in his family or something. I just don't know for sure because he never talked to me," Jill finished sadly. "He won't even look at me anymore or acknowledge I exist."

I pause for a minute or two, letting it sink in. It was a huge suprise for me. I can't even begin to image what Hanna is going through. I understood why she never wanted to talk about it, though I really wish she told me. I didn't know if I should talk to Hanna about it. "Tonight," I thought. Not right now, in the middle of school, where anybody could hear and where it would be the worst place for Hanna to freak out.

"Thank you so much," I tell Jill, who was awkwardly standing there.

"Anything to help," she replied, then left to her next class.

The rest of the school day went by in a blur. All I could think about was what had happened between the two. That night, after I finished my homework, I went over to Hanna's to talk to her. I didn't text her first; we always just go over to each other's house randomly. When I got there, I let myself in; it was unlocked. Hanna wasn't downstairs, which was weird because after school she usually stays downstairs to get a snack and do homework. I went up the stairs, calling her name.

"Hanna? Hanna, are you here?" I got no response. "Hanna?" I asked as I pushed her bedroom door open. It took me a minute to fully register what I was seeing. Took me only a few seconds after it registered to sink to my knees, sobbing, screaming, fumbling for my phone to call 911. I knew why Hanna wasn't answering me, knew why she wouldn't ever talk to me again.

My best friend was lying in the middle of her bedroom carpet, blood around her, not breathing. Dead.