The Day I Met Diane

Chapter 9 - It's Never Over

Diane Jones

- U up?

- Yes, Di! What's the problem?

- I'm crying. Again.

"I'll murder him. I'll slaughter him in cold blood!"

James and Diane had been dating for some time now. November was the first month, things went smoothly. They were crazy for each other and every little smile was "omg that's the cutest thing ever". December was different. While they were at school everything was lovely, but as the holidays started, the lovebirds drifted apart. Diane went to Austria with her family and James stayed home. He made sure to be there at the airport as she left, but strangely was never there when his phone rang. "He must be sleeping", "Maybe he is not home", Diane told herself, as she struggled not to worry.

January was intense. As the group went back to school, and everybody welcomed being together again with large smiles, James felt uneasy and unstable. He wasn't as close with Steve. To be fair, he barely talked anymore. Diane asked him what was going on. Sometimes he would tell her off easily, sometimes he would be genuinely rude. She tried to be there for him, but lately she only seemed like his fuck buddy, as if she was only there to satisfy him, not his girlfriend.

By February, the "telling her off easily" was gone. If Diane already cried her fair share in January, by February she was an emotional wreck. She barely talked to the group anymore, neither of them did. They would spend the breaks making out or fighting. Either way, no one ever saw them. James and Diane stopped going to the nerd cave... they stopped being themselves. It's almost like they had become complete opposites of what they once had been. The only moments where the girls would hear from Diane, and sadly, they weren't few, was when Diane went home and bursted in tears, texting her friends for emotional support.

She was afraid of James now. She feared his enraged moments and his out of character sulking. She loved him, or someone he had been more like, and could not cut him from her life. After all, he had become her life. She didn't even remember what it was like to feel like doing something, doing it and feeling happy about it.

Four months had gone by, four months of this relationship. Never, in those four months, did seeing them together become easier for Ella. In fact, it had become torture for her to even see Diane. She could, sometimes, swear she saw bruises on her body. It was horrible. Horrible knowing she could not convince the girl she liked to see what was going on, to go back to living a decent life, a life she was worthy and deserving of. Ella felt her sanity, her emotions crumble before this situation. She didn't know how to act, how to process, how to think, how to be. She was being engulfed by this situation that looked more like a haunting tsunami with the force of a thousand Greek gods. She knew she had to be there for her friend but every text was pain. Diane cried and Ella cried, and her tears turned into anger. It was a cycle, a cycle that seemed like it would never be over. The question was how long she would be able to go without punching James in the face.

Diane Jones

- I'll punch him.

- Its not he's fault. He is hurting.

- He may be hurting but he is also hurting you. He's our friend, if he has a problem he should talk to us! Not beat you!

- He is NOT beating me!

- Do not lie to me Diane. Don't lie to me because of him!

- I am not lying to you!

At that moment, Ella flipped. She would not allow this bullshit to go any longer. She put on her shoes and went across the street. She knocked on Diane's door and she opened. Ella pulled her arm towards her and shoved Diane against the wall. She pulled her sleeve up to show bruises, black, purple and red. Ella looked Diane in the eye, put her other hand on her cheek.

"If you're not lying to me... you're lying to yourself!"

A tear fell out of Ella's eye and rolled down her cheek. Diane was crying now as well. They were millimeters away from each other, their faces almost touching, their breaths colliding mid way. None of them knew what to do. Crazy thoughts were passing through Ella's head. She wanted to do it, she wanted to kiss her. She wanted her lips to touch hers, to share with her one sweet moment of calm and vulnerability.

This wasn't like Ella. She was the nice girl, the cautious and rational girl who never did anything she wasn't supposed to. She didn't usually act on impulse or whim... This time it was different. She knew what she wanted and she wanted to save the girl she liked - no! - she loved. She wanted to be with her, she wanted to be able to tell her how she felt. But in that moment, no words could come out. It was just her and Diane, brown and hazel eyes piercing into each other. The tension was palpable but so was the emotion.

Diane was just as shocked as Ella by her behaviour. This nice girl, this shy small human being that was all sweetness and care, she was being driven by something else now. She felt something else run through her, like energy threw a current. She grabbed Ella's waist and switched places with her. It was now Ella who was against the wall, pinned not by Diane's arms, but by the sheer tension in the air. For a moment, Diane felt like she could do anything, like whatever she wanted that girl, she would be there, willing to do anything. For a moment she saw herself kissing her, breaking that sassy persona that simply covers her shyness and seeing the real untapped power of Ella. She was leaning in, ready, earning this new type of freedom she felt Ella would give her. But she stopped. She couldn't, she could not leave him, he gave her meaning. She would not know who to be with Ella, she would be nothing! This girl, whom she thought was her friend, was trying to strip her of her identity? She would have Diane betray her boyfriend and ruin her own life to satisfy her lust?

"I was wrong about you, Ella Carter. There is evil in you. You do not care about others! You care about yourself. James was your friend. I was your friend. And you do this... You try to ruin me! You're a chaotic force, a selfish girl who thinks she has so many friends, she is so loved. But you are nothing! Who do you have? You think Margot, Steve, Connor, you think they will stay by your side much longer? They will se right through you, Ella. And when they do, you will be all alone! Just like you would have me be. GO AWAY, AND NEVER COME BACK! DROP DEAD AND ROT IN A DITCH, ELLA CARTER"

Diane was red. Ella was white. Ella's heart had fallen to her feet and Diane's heart was pounding with anger and fear. Diane staggered back, ran inside and closed the door.

Ella fell to her feet. She rose up, but started uncontrollably sobbing. She made her way to the lobby of the building and proceeded to leave it. The tears were all over her face, she could barely see anything past them.

"Is she right? She thinks... It can't be... I can't be! No! I love her, all I wanted was to protect her! Why!? I'm a monster...The cycle of pain, all of it, it was my pain, I focused on the way I felt...Now I know, this pain, this cycle... It truly is unending! The pain is never over, it's never over... and now it will never be!"

Ella was blind from her tears, deaf from the screams inside her head. She stepped onto the road, just as a car came through. The car hit the girl's torso like a wave hits the cliff, her body made a sound a body should not make. She hit the ground, the panicked driver could not stop he's car. He drove right over the girl's left leg. Will, who was walking home from school, saw the whole thing happen.

"ELLA!!! ELLA! WAKE UP! SOMEONE HELP PLEASE! MY SISTER! HEEEEELP!"

The boy screamed in agony. His sister, he's beloved big sister, was bleeding all over he's jeans. She wouldn't wake up. Now matter how much he screamed or slapped her, no matter how many fits he threw, he could not get what he wanted. An ambulance arrived almost at the same second his parents did. Everybody on that street was horrified.

Phoebe came down from the apartment, realising something was up. It was her sister, that bloody person being loaded into the ambulance. It couldn't be over, they said it would never be over. They were sister's, bound by blood and soul. But now that same blood sat on the middle of the road.

Mrs. Carter accompanied her daughter on the ambulance. Mr. Carter drove the car and the other two to the hospital. This would be a very long afternoon for the Carter family.