I Need You

Dropping Out and The Truth

Now I have to live without you and it won't be easy. Life will surely give me lemons but I'll do what you always did, I'll make lemonade and live life.

School was hard. I couldn't pay attention and my grades were slipping. The teachers knew what I was going through and tried to exempt me from too many activities. At first, it made me snap at them and I never regretted it. I had ditched so many classes going to the woods to just be alone for a while. I'd cry sometimes, other times I'd just talk to Nicky.

My brothers noticed my grades slipping down and obviously told our parents cause I'm in the Principal's office signing a paper for dropping out of school. I felt a bit sad knowing Nicky would be disappointed. My dad held my hand as I slowly signed the certificate on the table. When I was done, I looked down in shame. The Principal, Principal Brian, snapped his fingers making me look up at him.

"Don't be ashamed of dropping out. It's hard losing someone and you're welcome back anytime."

I smiled and thanked him before going to clean out my locker. My day went to the car to wait for me. As I was cleaning my locker, Nicky's boyfriend, Charles, stopped by my locker.

"You can try to cope you know. It's hard for the rest of us but we're not dropping out." He said placing his hand on my shoulder. I shrugged his hand and faced him.

"I'm not as strong as the rest of you and I might never be and you should accept me for who I am! Everyone in this school but Nicky tries to change me and it's bloody hell annoying!" I yelled clenching my fists. Luckily, everyone was at the cafeteria. "Charles, thank you for being nice to me this past days but I know it was just a lie. You think Nicky isn't dead, don't you? You think I'm lying right?!"

He didn't answer. He just looked down. I saw the tears in his eyes and sighed. "It's hard to accept the truth cause it's always bitter but that's life. You fall and you crawl and you break and you take what you get. It's no use making it even more complicated than it already is by living in lies." I hugged him briefly before walking out to meet my dad.

Once I got home, I ditched my school things in the basement and went to my room to read Nicky's diary. It was mostly about me and I liked that. I laughed at the little jokes she made about me and I swear I could hear laughing too. All of a sudden, I felt the need to search up about Nicky's virus. She must've searched it up and written it in her diary. I flipped through and finally found it. It was something called 'NIDS'. I guess it was something similar to AIDS. I quickly got my laptop and searched it up.

The full meaning of NIDS was 'Neural Immune Deficiency Syndrome'. It was like AIDS but the Symptoms show when you get older. And what I found out next made my heart stop. NIDS could not be found in a human. It was given as a poison to humans and could be made. My hands tightened on the screen. My mind began to spin and my breathing got faster. It took me a few minutes before I fully processed every word there. Then it dawned on me and my blood began to boil; Nicky had been murdered.

I grabbed my laptop and ran to my brothers room. They were shocked at the way I barged in. I just showed them the page to read. They read it and looked at me in shock.

"You want to kill yourself?!"

I face palmed myself. "No you idiots! Nicky had NIDS!"

"She was murdered?!" They yelled jumping to their feets. I nodded and began to pace about the room. This was bad, really bad. If her parents find out...

"We know." I snapped my head to look at them standing at the door.

"And you didn't report this?!" I yelled at them. "Why?!"

"We would never be able to find out who did that to her. It's pointless trying to avenge her death Jayln. I'm sorry you had to find out like this. It's best we drop it." Dad said. Mum nodded in agreement but I wasn't budging. I just glared at them and pushed past them to get to my room. The only thing on my mind was why the fuck will someone hurt Nicky? Was the person jealous or crazy? I lay on my bed thinking of any possible person that could ever do such a thing to her. My mind was so jacked up with questions that my head began to pound. I wasn't in the mood to see anyone but I figured my mum would bring my food up so I just stated at the ceiling ignoring her as she sat at the end of my bed holding a plate of rice.

"Honey..."

"She was your damn daughter! Don't you want to know who hurt her?!"

Her mum patted the spot beside her. I reluctantly went to sit beside her. "Nicky hates revenge, you know that right?" I just grumbled. "Jayln, I respect that and so should you. Of course I'd like to know who and why they killed her but it'll not help in anyway so it's best to drop it."

"I'm not dropping it!" I hissed. "I respect Nicky and that's why I need to know who killed her and why! Just leave me mum, please."

She opened her mouth to protest but shut it and got up. She kissed my cheek before walking out. I lay on my bed and sighed. It was so heartbreaking knowing that someone out there was happy about Nicky's death. I needed to know who that was and why. So, I snuck out that night to the hospital. I met the receptionist and asked to see Dr. Luke. I remembered him as the one who had diagnosed her since it was in her diary. I told her it was about Nicky so she showed me his office.

"You must be Jayln Smith." He said getting up to shake my hand. "I'm Dr. Luke. Can I help you? Please, have a seat."

I sat down and went straight to the point. "I need to know when that NIDS was used to poison her and how."

"I'm afraid I can't unless I have a sample of her blood." He said shrugging. I dug into my pocket and placed a pack of Nicky's blood on the table. He gasped. "How...?"

"I stole it from the hospital where she donated blood to me when I was little." I said quickly. "Now, test it and tell me when and how by tomorrow. Can you do that?"

"Sure. You know you can get arrested for stealing this, right?"

"I don't care." I said coldly standing up. "Goodnight Dr. Luke."