I'm Gone But You're Still Here

Chapter 15

"Hey," Olive caught sight of Valerie in the congested hallway. She froze in her tracks, hearing Olive's voice ring in her ears. "Hi." Valerie spread a smile on her lips with little effort. "Off to class?" Valerie nodded, presenting cheerfulness. "Can i walk you?" Curiousity soaking Olive's voice.

What were those pills for?

Valerie was distracted by blistering thoughts of days before. The conversation with Olive's father was interesting, bland answers and unclear statements.

Her hand grasped around the small plastic container, shaking its contents around gently. "Olive...!" her soft voice called, being sure to only alert Olive and not any unwanted company. "Olive-" Her foot landed with a low crackle, "What the hell?" Craning her neck downwards, she lifted her foot, examining the bottom and the floor beneath it. She bent down, pinching a now grainy cracked pill that's split open. A confused grunt echoed as she analyzed the pill, furrowing her eyebrows together to deepen her emotion. "Why is there so many everywhere..?" Her eyes tilted upward to reveal the floor spotted with mysterious colored pills, their containers nowhere in sight. Her daze was interrupted by footsteps. "Valerie?" a confused voice asked. Valerie looked up to reveal David, standing there with surprise and guilt. "Where's Olive?" she asked cautiously. "She's out..." Although Valerie had some suspicions, she chose to go along. "I see." her eyes trailed down to the speckled floor. David knew what was going to happen next and he didn't seem to have the energy to make any wild exscuse; just enough to wiggle away. "Those were from me... I tripped while taking my meds this morning," His smile was convincing but not enough to win Valerie over. "I see..." Although, there were various colors and shapes, they all couldn't have possibly been from the same bottle. "They're from me, i swear it!" Why was he being so defensive? She hasn't even asked anything yet? "I didn't-...Well, I'll just go call Olive, see where she is."
"No!"

"No?"

"...Wouldn't want to disturb her would we?" The act of covering up for Olive was exhausting, after today he wasn't sure he could keep up with his lies. "She's my friend, I'm sure she'll be alright with me calling her." David simply shook his head slightly, then nodded. "Be careful," Valerie, caught off guard, nodded and slowly walked to the door, dialing Olive frantically.

"Valerie?" Olive looked at her friend with blank eyes. "Oh, my bad, zoned out for a bit there!" Olive didn't take much into consideration and merely shrugged it off, heading to her class.

Be careful.

Valerie was plegged with this all day. What's that supposed to mean? Why should i be careful? Despite her efforts to avoid questions, they continued to pop up around her brain. Oh, Olive. She was tempted to ask Olive but didn't want to intrude, she could have two possible reactions, and from what she saw a few weeks ago Valerie wasn't sure she could handle either of them. One, being that Olive completely becomes defensive, much like David did. Another, could be she doesn't say much of anything and shuts down on her. Valerie wasn't certain about those unanswered phone calls, the idea of not having her phone with her seemed completely bogus. Add that to the conversation with David and Valerie had quite a situation on her hands.