In Another Life

Unfolded

Jessica's P.O.V
    I drop to my knees, the letter crinkling in my clenched fist. I sob loudly.
      Soon I can hear my parents footsteps coming closer, closer and then right past Diane's door, and to mine.
"Jessica? Jess Hun?" I can hear my mom call into my empty bedroom.
I move back so I'm leaning against Diane's bed, still staring at Diane's suicide note.
"Jessica?" My mom's worried tone startles me. I look up.
"Mom." I can feel my bottom lip quivering.
"Oh, Hun." Her eyes begins to tear up as she comes to sit next to me.
"Mom." I burst into messy, uncontrollable sobs.

      I wake up in the morning laying next to my mom on Diane's bed. I'm still holding the note to my chest.
     I try to get up quietly so not to wake up mom. A loud creak rings out. My mom moves and sighs in her sleep. I run over to Diane's desk and stuff the letter into a drawer.
"Daine?" My mom asks, in a voice that says, 'i just woke up.',
"No mom." I say, sitting down beside her on the bed,"just me." My mom sniffs and gets up.
"Sorry Hun." She says, half smiling at me.  I smile back at her.
"Sorry." I say.
"Don't be Hun." She says, wrapping me into a hug and sobbing into my shoulder.
"I think I have to show you something." I say, pulling away from her.
"Okay." She rubs her eyes and sniffs.
"Um." I pause, thinking hard about if I should really show her.
"Well..." She says, sitting up straighter. I stand up, and walk to Diane's desk. I slowly open the drawer and pull out the letter. I can here my mom pull in a breath behind me.
"Is that?" I can hear the tears in her voice, the tremble. I don't answer, I just turn around and hand her the terrible letter. She starts crying.
"I don't know if I'm ready to read this." She says, handing the letter back to me.
"I understand." I take back the letter, and put it back I the drawer.

Diane's P.O.V
I watch from my closet. The dreadful, sad scene between my favourite person and my mom.
    My mom thrusts my handwritten letter into Jessica's hands,and Jessica puts it away. I can tell that she's almost as relived as I feel.
     I walk toward the door, trying not to hit anything on my way out. Jessica looks right at me and smiles. Can she see me? Did I make a noise?
    I stand still, and stare back at her. She looks away, and turns back to our mom.
"Daine loved you you know." She sits down next to my mom, causing my old, 16 year old bed to groan.
"I know. And she never knew how much I loved her." She wipes her face and smiles at Jessica. "And I'm afraid you don't know how much I love you." Mom places a hand over Jessica's hand. Jess pulls away.
Mom doesn't say anything, but she does look shocked.
"Sorry mom." Jessica says. "I don't really know."
No Diane! What the hell are you doing?
"What the hell?" I say out loud. Mom jumps.
"Did you hear that?" She asks, her face pale as if she's seen a ghost. Which.... Maybe she has.
"No." Jessica says, a look of concern acrossed her face.
"It sounded like Diane." She says, suddenly jumping up from the bed.
"Mom. What?" Jessica jumps up with mom and follows her out my door.
"Mom, where are you going?" Diane calls out. I can hear footsteps down the stairs, something fall and shatter in the main room, and then the door close.
"What the fuck?" Jessica shouts.
"What's going on?" My dad wakes out of his room, the glasses on an angle and his hair sticking out in weird places.
"Sorry dad, mom just left." Jessica runs down the stairs, I follow her.
"Did she say where she was going?" My dad asks. He is too close for comfort.
"No. She thought she heard Diane's voice, the she just ran out of the house." Jessica bends down the pick up the glass flower vase mom knocked over on her mission to go wherever the hell she went.
"That's weird." Dad scratches his head.
'Ring Ring' my dad runs into the kitchen to pick up the phone.
"Wait, is this a joke?" My dad says into the phone.
"You can't be serious." He says.
"What?" Jessica says, already jogging into the kitchen.
"I'll be right there." Dad puts down the phone and runs out the door, not bothering to even put on shoes. Before he leaves, he turns around and says something that chills my bones.
"Your mom went to the church and is freaking out father Steve." With that, he slams the front door, causing the papers beside the door to fly every where.