Friends at night

Chapter 4, The questions

Another five days have passed, the whole Jessica suicide case has cooled down a bit. Her friend hasn't been attending the school since, I believe she is still at home, trying to overcome the shock of the loss. The mood wasn't so heavy at school, but it's like the students are trying to avoid the subject. Anytime it would be mentioned, everyone would just go silent.

Anyways, Sherly is getting a tiny bit more sleep, her energy seems to be rising every day. The poor girl was exhausted for the past days, she needs a break. The classes seemed to go by slowly, the teacher seems to take more time than usual to give his lesson. It took forever for lunchbreak to arrive, I was anticipating the moment I could sit back against the tree and eat my lunch with Sherly.

I am starting to get used to her presence even though it hasn't been so long. Since the first day she tried to look in my sketchbook, she always came over and sat with me, asking me quite a few questions or chatting about things that happened in her classes or her family. Now I know I'm not the only one in this school with a strong love for succulents. She told me about the one her big brother, Jonathan, gave her for her 10th birthday.  She also admitted that she gave it a name, Jojo.

I was happy to hear about it and I showed her pictures I took of my little succulents. She seemed happy to see the tiny variety I have. "They all look so soft! Jonathan got me a pincushion cactus, it's considered a succulent." I remember she said. Honestly, I kind of wanted a pincushion cactus, I thought they were adorable. They have small pink flowers that grow at the end of certain branches, making it look like tiny flower crowns.

Anyways, we both met up under our usual tree. She pulled out her phone and started to play some pop music on her phone speaker, not too loud so it wouldn't be literal ear rape. I munched on my sandwich and pulled out my sketchbook, opening it to a random page. I started to write about the incident that happened at the bottom of the page. over the writing, I started to sketch out the scene I had in my mind according to the information. 

I was far from being the best at sketching, but I do admit that I am decent. I heard Sherly move around a bit before I felt her head near my shoulder. She didn't ask anything, only watched me draw. I think it must have scared her when she saw me drawing another figure near her body, I could feel her breathing pattern speed up.

"So you don't believe it's suicide?" She asked me quietly. I lightly shook my head, pointing at her neck in my drawing. " Even if she was desperate to do so, no one would be stupid enough to stab their own throat. " She said as I nodded along. " Let's not forget the fact she was almost completely drained from her blood,"  I added. We both stared at the sketch, reading the lines I copied from the news.

"What if... What if she was attacked by an animal?" Sherly suggested. I shook my head. "There would be more damage to the corpse. Authorities would have known." Not only that, but there is no deadly animal at the creek. We don't have much wildlife because of the town, the option of her getting a clean cut to her neck because of an animal was practically impossible. 

" When you come to think of it..." Sherly started, pointing the wound I drew in the sketch of Jessica's body. " How could she have made a perfectly clean cut to her neck and knowing exactly where her artery was and emptying herself almost fully of her blood in such a short lapse of time." The thought made us both quiet for a small lapse of time, Sherly was the first to snap us back to reality.

"Maybe she looked it up and marked her neck before doing it?" She said, going back to considering the suicide option. Maybe it's best if I don't question it much with her around. With what she said, I am starting to believe that someone wanted to harm her. I closed my sketchbook quietly and went back to eating my ham sandwich.

A basketball rolled to our feet, only just realizing that it was heading towards us. I and Sherly stared at each other in confusion, looking back in the direction it came from. A black-haired boy was running towards us while waving his hand lightly. I instantly recognized him as Jackson.