Unforgettable (OLD COPY DISCONTINUED)

Chapter 7

"Kara, hey, I'm here, can you tell me what happened?"

I look up to see that Tessa is sitting next to me on a metal bench.

The entire natatorium has miraculously emptied, though I don't remember watching people leave. All I remember is that my competitor was dead on the shower floor and that I had screamed before some of the faculty for Greenwood had shown up, Mrs. Aimes and Mrs. Litt among them as they led me out of the locker room and called the police.

I had been moved out here as the police and first responders arrived, the people who were here to watch the swim-meet vanishing as I eventually sat down on the bench. I somehow ended up with a shock blanket wrapped around me, the aluminum foil-like material crinkling noisily as I wrap it more tightly around myself.

"It was him," I whisper as everything from today comes rushing back.

Luke was here, it was him, it could have only been him.

"Who?" Tessa asks as she gives me a strange look.

I stop talking when I hear a set of footsteps approaching us and I glance up to see that my mother is walking over.

"Luke, he did this, he did this to her, he killed her," I reach up and cover my mouth as I try to slow my breathing that is coming out in gasps, "oh my god, he killed her."

"Honey, Luke is in a juvenile detention center, he's not getting out anytime soon," my mother says in a low voice as she puts a hand on my shoulder.

"I saw him," I explain as I shrug off her hand.

"What do you mean?" Tessa interrupts, her eyes widening with alarm.

"I saw him at the mall! I saw him here at the meet! He's going to kill me too," I can't stop my hands from shaking as I bring them up to knot them in my hair, my swim-cap having disappeared at one time but I don't remember where I put it.

They aren't going to listen, they don't believe you.

"Kara, just, calm down, the police are almost done," I dare to look up at her to see that she's watching me, "they should be able to tell us what happened," she adds quietly from her place beside me.

"They need to shut this place down, why did they let everyone leave?" I snap, "He's probably gotten away by now!"

Tessa gives me a long, silent look as Astrid suddenly walks around one of the bleachers and pauses in approaching us. Her eyes are dark and hollow as her mouth opens to ask a question, but stops as she continues to walk toward us.

"They're ruling it as a suicide," she says in a voice that is just above a whisper, one that doesn't echo in the natatorium.

"How?" I rasp, "I saw Luke here and followed him, I heard that girl screaming from inside the locker room."

"Kara," Astrid puts up a hand as she motions for me to stop talking, "her wrists were cut."

"So he made her do it," I protest as my vision blackens around the edges, like I'm suddenly looking through a tube as my chest tightens.

"He's locked up, just listen to us," Astrid says as frustration seems to get the better of her.

"Kara," another voice interrupts and I look up to see that Indigo has walked over to us.

Her face is a mask of indifference as she silently grabs me by the hand and leads me for the doors as my bare feet scuff on the floor. We emerge onto the sidewalk as she heads for a bench that is just outside of a line of yellow police tape that has been strung up.

The tape is being blown in a light breeze, the rhythmic snapping of the plastic keeping me in the here and now as I start for the bench.

"Kara, you have to let Luke's betrayal go," Indigo says as she lets go of me and gestures for me to sit down on the bench.

"I can't," I whisper as I sit down on the edge of the granite bench, the cold biting through my swimsuit as it grounds me. "Don't you understand?"

"You can let it go and you will, it's hurting you to hold onto it," she urges me as she crosses her arms, "you have to move on."

"I'm not holding onto it he's-."

"Just shut up!" she snaps at me. "Just this once, just shut up and listen to me."

I stop talking as her voice echoes over the silent grounds, shock washing over me as I stare back at her. There is anger in her face, transforming it into a place that is made of sharp angles and eyes that I don't want to look into. Her face crumbles after a moment, her lips quivering as she turns away quickly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't...I don't mean that, it's just...you're worrying us Kara," she explains in a quaking voice as she turns around to face me, "I don't want you to be labeled insane and locked away, you have so much to live for right now."

Her eyes are so wide and green and in that moment they remind me of our mother's.

I have to keep this to myself, I can't rely on them to help me, I realize as I feel a rush of hopelessness.

"Okay," I tell her softly, "I'll try to move on."

Relief fills her face to the brim as a few, stray tears trickle down her cheek. She leans down and wraps me in a hug, her arms strong but I feel no warmth in the gesture.

You have to figure this out by yourself, I tell myself silently as I return the hug, with or without their help.