June 28, 2009 (36)
11:00 a.m.
Evalynne's House


For the last four days, I'd been hanging out with Cole and Kristy, and not thinking about Ash. Well, trying not to at least. But it was so hard. I actually hadn't heard from Ash in the last four days. I hadn't seen him once, he hadn't called me, nothing. And his silence was so loud to me.

I tried to just clear him out of my mind. In fact, it was probably a good thing that he wasn't trying to make up with me. But I was worried. I didn't know why, but I felt like something had to be wrong if he hadn't said a word to me since last Tuesday. And today was Saturday.

"Oh my gosh, today's Saturday," I murmured under my breath. Today I was going to meet Cole and Kristy at Sadie's at ten-thirty. I glanced at the digital clock on my bedside table. It was ten-thirty right now.

There was nothing wrong with being fashionably late, right?

I hurriedly, pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, jogging down the two flights of stairs in my house and slipping on my black flip-flops.

"Where are you off to?" Mom asked me. She was sitting at the kitchen table, sipping a mug of coffee and reading the newest Jodi Picoult novel.

"I'm meeting Cole and Kristy at Sadie's." I informed her. "And I'm late!"

"Have fun!" she called out after me as I scurried out the front door. I climbed into my car and drove to Sadie's, making sure to stay at the speed limit of thirty miles per hour. When I arrived, I hopped out of my car and ambled inside of the restaurant, spotting my two friends right away.

"Hey," I said as I approached their table and took a seat. "What's the matter?" I asked, noting their grim faces.

Instead of answering me, Kristy pulled a newspaper out of her lap and slid it across the table so that I could read it. She pointed to a small article in the right-hand corner of it and I read.
Local Coma Patient Struggles For Life

Lori Mongolia, a local coma patient, is currently struggling for her life at St. Edwards Hospital in southern Westchester. Dr. James Velasquez has reported that she has been tested with the Glasgow Coma Scale, and is a six on the scale. She's also been given an MRI and the results didn't turn out so good. It turns out, she has developed Alzheimer's Disease. However, this disease has been ranked as moderately severe. Let’s just hope she’s able to wake up from this coma soon.


That was it. Just one small paragraph describing mildly about her having Alzheimer's Disease. But even though it was so small, it meant so much. Ash's mom had Alzheimer's all because of me. I slid the paper back over to Kristy, maintaining an emotionless face.

“She’s going to die.” I stated, not wanting to believe it. But I knew she would. I knew I killed her.

“You can’t be sure of that.” Kristy replied.

“Stop trying to act so optimistic. I already know that she’s going to die, so you don’t have to lie to my face.” I snapped.

“Baby,” Cole said, slipping an arm around my shoulder in comfort. I placed my head in the crook of his neck and his shoulder. And it fit perfectly, like that one last missing puzzle piece you needed to complete the puzzle. “Everything will be ok. Even if she does end up dying.”

“How will things be ok if she’s dead?” I demanded.

“Well everything happens for a reason. So maybe it was just her time to go. It was such a huge coincidence that she was in the accident in the first place. Maybe this was just fate. Maybe it was meant to happen.” he replied, sounding incredibly insightful. And he was. That was one of the things I really loved about Cole.

Unlike Ash, he had his mind made up about almost everything. He didn’t go lying and hiding things from me and changing his opinion and thoughts on things. And the thought that he would always stay the same relieved me, because I knew he would never change his mind about me. I knew he would never leave me.

“You’re right.” I told him. “Everything happens for a reason.”

But if everything happened for a reason, then why did Ash happen? What was the point of having my heart ripped out my chest and then having it slowly put back together by Cole? To teach me not to be so naïve about guys? To make me realize how lucky I was to have Cole?

To make me understand what it feels like to fall in love.

The bell over the front door of Sadie’s rang, a notification that someone had just walked inside. And when I turned my head to see who it was, I scowled at the sight of Julianne.

“Kristy, Evalynne, Cole,” Julianne greeted us as she approached our table.

“Julianne,” Kristy said. “Where’s you’re little clone?”

“Kelly’s not feeling well so she stayed home today.” she informed us. “But I decided to come visit you guys here anyways. I checked to see if you were home, but you weren’t so I figured you were here.”

“You came here to see us?” I asked in disbelief.

“Yep,” she said.

“Why?” Kristy asked.

“Oh no reason,” she replied, innocently. But then that evil, mischievous grin of hers spread across her face. “I just wanted to let Evalynne know that I just saw Ash and some girl at the park together.”

I felt my stomach drop. Why would he be talking with some other girl? “Who?” I inquired, before I could stop myself. I was jealous and now everyone else knew. I didn’t want to be jealous. I wanted to completely forget about Ash. But no matter how hard I tried to clear him out of my head, I still had his memory in my heart.

Cole’s eyes met mine for a moment and I could tell that he wasn’t very happy. I could tell that he knew I still had feelings for Ash.

“I don’t know.” Julianne remarked, sounding satisfied with herself. “Some short brunette.”

“Katrina,” I said, mostly to myself. “But he told me they were over!” Once again, my words had left my mouth before I could hold them back. I seriously needed to learn how to keep my mouth shut.

“Why do you care who he’s with?” Cole asked me, his voice stained. “You’re going out with me now.”

“I know that. I just thought…” I sighed, not finishing my sentence.

“You just thought what?” he demanded. Now everyone’s eyes were on me.

“I just thought they were over.” I uttered.

“Well it seems to me that you’re pretty upset that they aren’t.” Julianne scoffed.

I felt anger boiling up inside of me. Did Julianne live just to make my life miserable? “At least I can get a guy.”

“Excuse me?” she gasped. “In case you’ve forgotten, I was with Ash before too!”

“Yeah, for like two days.” I scoffed.

She clenched her fists and deadpanned me in rage. “Why would I want to date a psychopath anyways? I’m surprised you aren’t all bruised up after being with him for that long.”

I felt my heart begin to race. She called him a psychopath, she knew how violent he was. That could only mean one thing. She had to know that he killed his dad. But how? Could Kristy have told her when they were friends before?

“Just because he killed his dad, doesn’t mean he’s a psychopath. It was self-defense.” I told her.

Her mouth dropped open in complete and utter shock. “He killed his own father?” she asked, stunned.

“Uh, yeah.” I replied. “Isn’t that what you were referring too?”

“No! I was talking about how he punched Cole!”

Once again, I had accidentally let someone know about Ash’s father’s death. Just like how I told Cole. What was the matter with me? Why couldn’t I just keep my mouth shut? Would I ever learn to think before I speak?

No, probably not.


Later that night, I received a text message. It was from Ash. Meet me

That’s all it said, just ‘Meet me’. It didn’t say where or what time, although I was pretty sure I knew where he wanted to meet. Our tree. Or at least what used to be our tree until I scratched out our sacred little carving. The carving that I thought was especially for us, I thought it might of actually been Ash’s way of letting me know that he truly thought we would be together forever, I thought it meant something.

But apparently, so did his ex-girlfriend, Katrina. And apparently, he was at the park with her earlier today. And apparently, Ash wants to meet me tonight. Which could only mean one thing: an official break-up. Permanent closure. He wanted to tell me face-to-face just how over we were. He wanted to make sure I knew that he was back together with Katrina, because unlike me, she didn’t murder his mom in an attempt to kill herself. Unlike me, she wasn’t an insane, emotional wreck.

She was pretty even without make-up, she was sweet, she obviously was in love with Ash. She was my complete opposite. Which is why Ash chose her. He finally came to his senses and realized how much better she was for him. He finally realized what a waste of time it was dating me. He finally realized that our love really was just an illusion.

My phone buzzed in my hand, another text from Ash. 10:00

That was all he had to write. Now I knew that at ten o’clock, I would be at the park, under our tree, waiting for Ash to come and dump me. What a fun night.