The girl with the blue umbrella||✔

Seven

I couldn't stop thinking of what my friends had told me. I wasn't alone. I knew I had to remember that day. Perhaps, I could find something that would help to know the location of Layla.

When I got home that day, I was ready to dig into my head. I laid back on the sofa in my living room. I refused to go next door because I didn't want Mrs. Goldy to witness what might happen. Things may get ugly, I may cry and she would just end up worrying about me and it's bad for her health.

I took Layla's book and began to scroll though it. I turned to the page where she wrote how she first met me. I began to recall some certain things about that day.

We were in seventh grade and she had just moved here. She didn't really have any friends and barely said anything to anyone. At first I thought she was shy but I never thought to ask her. As I walked through the hallway with a huge smile on my face as usual, countless students high five me and told me high. I was popular right from time.

While walking backwards, I bumped into a very small figure, making everything in her binder spill out. No one gave her a second glance and she struggled to gather all her documents together and put them back. I bent to help her gather them together since it was partly my fault that it was scattered everywhere.

As I stretched my hand to hand it to her, she flinched and eyed it warily. I shot her a reassuring smile and said, "I'm sorry about that. It's okay."

She then returned my gesture with beautiful, genuine one. She collected it from me and placed it back in her binder. I helped her up from the floor, wanting to ask what her name was but the bell rang. She scurried away from me and merged with the crowd. I was left standing there with one question.

"Who is that girl?"

I was on the track team in middle school. I wasn't the best but I was a very good runner. During our practice, dark clouds began to gather up, leaving everyone feeling blue because we were all pumped about that day's practice. After a quick run and a shower, I waited for my mom to come and pick me up. She made me take a large blue umbrella with me because the weather forecast said it might rain that day and it was about to happen. I waited some time for her to arrive but she never did.

My mom was never that late and I kept waiting for her to arrive. While waiting, I looked around to see a girl, shivering in the rain because she was drenched in water. It was the same girl from before. I quickly rushed to her side and put my umbrella over her for the both of us to use. She looked up, surprised that the rain had stopped falling on her. She hugged herself tightly and gave me a small smile through her chattering teeth.

Just as I was about to talk to her, the new phone that my dad gave me began to ring. I picked it up and received the news that made me want to forget this memory all together.
My dad called, telling me that my mother had gotten into a car accident and was hospitalized because she had a seizure and heart attack while driving. She was lucky to survive it. The moment he told me to find my way to the hospital, I left the umbrella behind with her, and ran as fast as I could to the hospital, in the rain.

When I got there, my mom was unconscious and pale. My dad couldn't even look me in the face. She had various types of gadgets connected to her and she just laid there, unmoving. I kept wondering why she wasn't moving, how could allow all these types of things to be put inside her. Didn't it hurt? Surely she had to wake up to remove them.
Or maybe it's a prank. Yes that's what it must have been. There is no way my mom is just lying there, not moving, because she was in an accident. I refused to believe it.

I thought it was a joke. But the look on my Father's face said otherwise. My mother laying on the hospital bed was just the beginning of so many problems that were yet to come.

I closed the book and stopped recalling everything. It was just too much for me. I couldn't take it. The pain was just too much weight to carry right now.

I received a text from Jaime informing me check out the website made for Layla's bullying and that a new video had been uploaded.
I was wary of doing that but he told me that it was very important and he wasn't joking around.

Whatever it was, left him on edge and it also left me feeling queasy and uneasy. I couldn't pinpoint what it was exactly that he wanted me to watch in a bullying website. The last ones I saw, made me almost lose my mind. I'm not sure what the 'important' one would do right now.

After mustering enough courage, I logged into the website and what the new video held, made me lose my shit.

••••••••••
Y'all! Did you notice that this was the first time that Martin cussed?

Thoughts?

Ayeesha💥