Dear Ocean Sky

Chapter 14 | Alex

It had been two weeks since that day in rehearsal where Alex and Kata started talking. They now walked down the hall together after ILA, discussing some of the details for their project.

"So I'll make the graph for the business plan tonight with Damini and you'll finish up the pitch script with Zoe?" Kata asked. Alex nodded.

"We'll send y'all the script when we're done so you can make any changes you want," Alex said, but Kata didn't seem to be paying attention. She was shooting eye daggers at something farther down the hallway. Alex soon saw that this something was Hunter and the blond girl that had told him off the other week.

"Who's that?" Alex asked softly. Kata seemed slightly surprised by the question, and about a week ago Kata wouldn't have known what she meant by her inquiring, but Kata was starting to pick up on what Alex meant by her few-worded questions.

"That's Katie- um Kate." she caught herself, knowing that Kate didn't like to be called Katie anymore. Alex looked at her thoughtfully. There was more that Kata wasn't saying. Kata glanced over at Alex. It was amazing how she could get Kata to talk by saying nothing at all. "She's my- well, we used to be really close, and we're still friends, but it's not the same."

Kata looked down at her feet, and Alex studied her for a second before nudging the other girl with her shoulder. Kata looked up and Alex gave her a small smile. "Friends drift apart and it sucks. That really sucks." Alex paused, looking at Kata. "If she and you aren't as close as you used to be then that's her loss." Because you're awesome. Alex thought, but she bit her tongue before saying so. It was true, Kata was awesome, but Alex didn't allow herself to say things like that to people. If she said that she cared about people or that she enjoyed their company, or even if she told them how awesome they were, then it made that fact so much more real, and when she lost them it hurt that much more.

Kata gave Alex a grateful smile. "Thanks, Alex," she said. The two girls stopped in front of Alex's locker. "I guess I'll see you in advisory?" Kata said, not wanting to go to orchestra. Alex looked at her in confusion.

"We're not in the same Monday advisory class though."

"Yeah I know, but we have advisory in the library today for suicide prevention," Kata answered. Alex took a sharp breath in, but Kata didn't seem to notice. "Oh crap I gotta go, I'm going to be late." Kata rushed, looking at the clock. She dashed off and was promptly told by a teacher to stop running. That left Alex to figure out how she was going to survive advisory.

***

P.E., lunch, and history passed slowly, Alex's stomach-churning throughout all of them. She desperately wanted an excuse to get out of going to the library, but she had never been a good liar. She knew she could ask her mom to pick her up, but she thought that would be a little ridiculous, and she would feel guilty for taking her mom away from work. In the end, Alex found her feet carrying her to the library against her will, and she was just hoping that she would make it through the lesson.

When Alex stepped into the room, the projector screen was pulled down and on it in big red letters read: "Suicide Prevention: If you see something, say something." Alex felt her stomach drop to the floor as she swallowed hard. She looked around for someone she knew, hoping they could keep her distracted, but the room was so packed that she couldn't pick anyone out of the crowd.

A few more people filed in behind Alex so she moved farther into the room and when she saw no open chairs, she sat criss-cross on the ground.
The bell rang but it was almost impossible to hear over the noise of all the students packed into the library. A teacher went up to the front of the room to quiet everyone down, then she started talking about the fact that this was a very serious and important lesson so everyone needed to be respectful and pay attention.