Gone

9.

"What if Taylor is still alive?" I asked the girls randomly. I heard a sigh come from Kelsey.

"You're seeing things, dude..." Kelsey told me, shutting down my actual thoughts.

"No, I'm not. It's a thought. What if she's actually alive?"

"She's not Kassidy, and the sooner you can move on, the easier letting her go will be..." Kelsey began tearing up again.

"But I'm serious!" They no longer paid attention to what I had to say. The night grew darker as the sun was no longer in sight of the window across the hall. Maybe they were right... Maybe Taylor was truly gone?

The next morning came around, and this time, that filthy cigarette smoker woke us up.

"And Bryson, fix this lightbulb," he told Bryson in the hallway, opening the room door. He turned his head and glared at us in the room. "Feed Kassidy. Kevin will feed Chloe and Kelsey." I felt fear for Kevin to make Chloe and Kelsey's meals. He could possibly poison one of them, and then there goes another one of my friends. We watched him leave the doorway, as silence remained in the room. Before I knew it, I fell asleep again from boredom. But this time, Bryson woke me up.

"Kassidy.." he whispered, "Wake up." I opened my eyes to see him just inches from my face. "Here's your oatmeal.." he said, handing me the bowl and slowly leaving the room. Kevin eventually came into the room to hand the girls two cans of green beans and walked out.

"I wish they'd give us coloring books or something..." I sighed, playing with the rope tied around my waist.

"Yeah, that makes sense," Kelsey replied, overloaded with sarcasm.

"I've just never been this bored before.."

"I have..." Chloe told us.

"When?"

"I tried sneaking out one night, and my step-dad caught me. So my parents took my phone and had me sleep in the garage. It was summertime, so I wasn't cold." Thinking back to earlier in our friendship, I thought about how many countless times Chloe had mentioned how her parents would say one thing then contradict themselves and how many times I would usually disbelieve her. Instead, now I kind of realize she was probably telling the truth.

"I remember once, my dad took me to my grandma's house, and she made me practice math problems to get my math grade up to an A. So I ended up sitting at her kitchen table for like 3 hours," Kelsey laughed.

"Your grandma is so strict," I added, laughing along with Chloe and Kelsey.

"Exactly dude, she tries to be a 'mom figure' for me, since my mom was never around. She won't get any of my hints that it annoys me."

"I think it's weird how neither of our parents gets along with each other," Chloe thought aloud. At this moment, of us talking, I felt safer than I had in weeks or days.

"I miss our friends.." I spoke, beginning to feel like I was about to cry.

"I miss them too, Kassidy, but we have to stick through this, together." Hearing Kelsey saying those words, made me bring my attention to her.

"What made you say that?" I asked her, wide-eyed.

"I just thought, and I opened my mouth."

"You've just been kind of negative, the whole time we've been here," I told her concernedly.

"I'm just honestly tired of being here, and I don't want to see either one of you end up dead like Taylor. I love you guys..." I could hear her begin to tear up, and as she said those three words, which I have never heard her speak, I began to tear up as well.

"I love you guys too," I said back, urging me to hug them.

"I always try to make you guys smile because it pains me to see you damaged... which we're all sort of damaged anyway. But that's why I do it because I love you guys too..." I always knew Chloe had a reason for her immature antics.

The three of us spent hours in the room talking about what we did as small children when Bryson awkwardly came into the room holding a small box with a light bulb in it, and a chair to stand on. We watched him place the chair directly under the lightbulb, and as he took out the old one, he accidentally dropped it, which ended up shattering on the floor.

"What the hell?!" Kelsey screamed, immediately covering her mouth. Seconds later, Lukas came in to see what happened.

"What'd you do?" Lukas asked, appearing to be annoyed.

"Nothing Lukas just dropped the old lightbulb."

"Well clean it up, I'm leaving in a bit." Thoughts crossed my mind of why Lukas was leaving so much, and where could he be going? I would tend to keep these thoughts to myself though. So, Bryson finished cleaning up the broken pieces of the light bulb, and soon we got our next meal. Bryson handed me and the other girls corn in a can, and then we had the same thing for dinner. Eventually, we talked about the memories we had at Homecoming Freshman and Sophomore year until we fell asleep one by one with Chloe first, then Kelsey, and finally me.