Your best friend (Olivia, we'll name her) gets up in the morning, dreading the school day ahead of her. After you passed, she haven't had much luck making new friends. Everyone is awkward around her; they know how close you two were.
"Hey," she says to Emily, another girl you were close with, as she gets on the bus.
"Hey," Emily responds.
Ever since you've been gone, even they are a bit awkward around each other. You're just not there to pick up where they've left off. Silence thickens now.
Getting off, Olivia heads to homeroom. Your empty seat sends a fresh wave of pain through her heart.
"Olivia," Kristen says (you never got along well) "You really need to get over yourself soon. It's been like... A week."
Olivia responds with, "Just leave me alone. You don't understand."
Once again, she wishes you were here to remind her that Kristen's opinion doesn't matter. You were always there for her.
~~~~~
Your mom sits in your room, looking through a old picture album. It's two in the afternoon, but she just woke up. Her slumber was filled with nightmares of your pale face when she found you lying on the bathroom floor, pill bottles scattered around you.
She's crying now, looking through your clothes, folding them for the tenth time this week. She thinks about all the signs she missed, wondering how she could have been so blind. She never knew the effect that her words had on you, but it's clear as day now.
Your step-father comes in and rubs her shoulders, letting her gather support from him. Even though you weren't his by blood, he thought of you as family. He loved you just as much as your mother did, even though they didn't show it as well as they would have liked.
~~~~~~
Will, a classmate of yours, thinks quietly to himself.
Why did she kill herself? Was it my fault? How could I not have noticed that something was horribly wrong?
He's gone to school with you since kindergarten. About the fifth grade, he developed a little crush on you and it's spiraled out of control since then. He's never had the confidence to admit it to you, and now he'll never get the chance.
Locked in his bathroom, he clutches a razor in his hands, dangerously close to his wrist.
~~~~~~
