Trace

"Jude."
"Yea?"
"Look at me."
I sigh and turn back to Ellie, hands shoved in my pockets as the tingling grows more intense. She stares eerily into my face, her skin blanching as her lower lip begins to quiver.
"What's wrong," I swallow.
"Why are you bleeding?" She whispers.
My brow furrows and Ellie slowly reaches up, pressing two fingers gingerly against the right corner of my mouth. Her touch is deliberate but fearful and as she withdraws her hand, she raises her fingertips now stained satin red.

~~~Ellie Rusan is used to the fact that she's never been the life of the party. But the one person she'd always felt safe with was Jude. In their final year of high school, both Ellie and Jude struggle to cope with the uncertainty that lies ahead, and once more Ellie recognizes the familiar sting of losing a close friendship. There are questions left unanswered and wounds raw from betrayal as Jude chooses to leave Ellie behind. But after a fatal accident, Jude is erased from Ellie's life forever. Or so she thought.~~~