She's Gone and I'm Lost

anniversary one-shot

January 2nd, 2015 | 7:02 pm

Will knew something was wrong.

There was no way to explain it other than the fact that there was a feeling in his gut that certainly suggested that something was off. Maybe it was the fact that his older brother had made him breakfast that morning, which he never ever did. Or maybe it was because the birds weren't particularly cheery that morning, the silence hanging around his house for the entirety of the day. But something was different and Will didn't like it.

He sat in his room, basking in nervous apprehension, as he waited for something to happen. His foot tapped on the floor in sharp intervals, his eyes darted around the room. Scanning the space around him, he found nothing altered. Just as Will was about to give up on his search for anomalies, he heard a sound that echoed throughout the once quiet room.

His cell phone was ringing.

With this excuse to do something, Will sprung from his chair. He grabbed his phone off the table and glanced down at the screen.

Danika.

A smile lit up Will's face as he saw that name. The last time he had talked to her over the phone was December 21st (not that he was counting or anything) and she hadn't exactly been in the best condition. It was midnight and Will was half asleep, but he remembered her words as clear as day, 'Alex killed herself.' Her voice was shaky but her words exposed the truth, deep and painful. Will had always known, ever since he caught word of her death, the bitter and dark truth. Since the beginning, he had known the real reason why Alex was buried beneath the ground. And Danika had finally realized as well.

Since then, Will had tried to be comforting. He tried to talk to her at school, he even invited her to sit with him at lunch, but she always refused. Not that he blamed her. Why would a gorgeous girl like Danika want to be with someone like him?

So, with a smile plastered across his face, Will swiped his finger across the screen to answer the call.

"Hello?" he asked, pretending that he didn't already know who was on the other line.

There was a pause before she spoke, but finally she said, "I'm sorry, Will." Her voice was melancholy and he could hear the sincerity in her tone.

That was the precise moment when the smile fled from Will's face.

"What? What's wrong?" he asked. His grip on the phone tightened as his heart began to race. Please be okay. Please be okay. Please be okay.

"Everything, Will. Everything is falling apart." With that, Danika hung up.

Even though he knew it was too late, Will still tried to speak to her. "Danika? Where are you? Please be okay. Please be okay." He fumbled for the knob on his bedroom door and raced through the house. He faintly heard one of his brother's voices in the background, but he couldn't make out what they said. At the moment, it didn't matter. Danika was what mattered.

He made it to his car in a hurried frenzy, yanking open the door and climbing inside. As he drove from his home, he called Danika. She didn't answer, so he called again.

And again.

And again.

"Please be okay. Please be okay. Please be okay."

After what seemed like hours, but in reality was only minutes, Will made it to Danika's house. He feverishly knocked on the door. After a minute, a little girl with blonde hair, who must have been Stella, opened the door with a frown on her face.