I'm currently sitting in class doing a LOT of missed school work. Sarah was supposed to be helping me. But, she decided to flirt with an uncomfortable Jason who's looking to me for help.
This fucking sucks…
Though my mind wasn't too preoccupied with the weird display in front of me. Rather I was far more concerned with something else. Someone else.
Jennifer.
From what Saya told me, she overheard some of the teachers talking about how Jennifer tried to take her life. Why is that? No one knows. Except for maybe…
"Look at you! You're so smart!" Sarah was ruffling Jason's hair. She was being far more aggressive in her flirting than usual.
I'm not mad.
Though I think I know the reason why she's being so overt.
There were bags underneath her eyes, her hair was a disheveled mess, and she gave off a slight smell of alcohol.
It turns out that she and Jennifer are very close. She even showed us a picture of them on the track team in college before she teared up and ran out of the classroom, only to return 15 minutes later with red eyes.
As I watched the awkward exchange between Jason and Sarah. A sudden thought popped into my head. "…Have you talked to Jennifer?"
There was a moment of silence as Sarah stared at me. Her eyes started tearing up and her mouth flapped open like a fish out of water.
Before she was able to burst into tears, she stood up and rushed out of the classroom.
I stood up and tapped Jason on the shoulder. When I did, he threw me a nasty look. "Just follow me."
I rushed out of the classroom after Sarah with Jason in tow.
We chased after her until she ran into an empty classroom.
Shortly after we rushed into the room right after her. When we stepped into the room, we found her sprawled out on a sofa dry heaving with a sweater covering her face.
I briefly scanned the room. Noting a couch, one window with a white curtain, a storage cabinet, a small desk with a computer in the corner, and a small table with four chairs.
I didn't know we had this room here?
I looked at Jason and he looked confused as well.
I walked over to the table and grabbed a chair and sat right next to Sarah. I grabbed one of her hands and held it in my own hand. For some reason this caused her to cry even harder.
A sour taste lingered in my mouth as I sat there in silence.
Eventually Jason sat down at the table right next to me. He looked confused, but didn't say anything, only occasionally throwing me weird looks.
After a while, Sarah calmed down and stopped crying. She blew her nose into her sweater and sniffled.
"Thank you Jason." Sarah announced as she sat up.
Once Sarah removed her sweater from in front of her face, her eyes nearly popped out of her head. She made eye contact with me, then looked at our intertwining hands, finally realizing that I was the one holding her hands and not Jason.
"Oh…" Sarah's face turned red and she averted her eyes as she quickly snatched her hand away.
There was an awkward silence as we all sat in the room alone. I could see things weren't going well.
"I.. umm.." I glanced at Jason. "We heard about Jennifer. Sorry."
Sarah started tearing up again, but she took a deep breath before regaining her composure. "Thank you."
Sarah sniffled as she blew her nose into her sweater again.
Jason tapped me on the arm, and when I turned to look at him he gave me a questioning look.
I gave him a look before I brushed him off. "Have you.. Heard from her?"
"I.. haven't." Sarah responded with a sad tone. "She's back home, but she won't answer my calls. And she won't answer the door either."
My heart skipped a beat, and I felt sweat rolling down my cheek. "Do you think.."
"No.. I…I don't know…" Sarah struggled to answer and shifted in her seat uncomfortably. "She's been having a hard time, but I didn't know." Her voice cracked and her eyes watered up again. "Why didn't she tell me?"
"They never do..." Something that I didn't want to think, something I didn't want to remember. Something that I wanted to forget came bubbling to the surface. I clenched my fist and gritted my teeth as I forced it back down. "Where is her family? Or what about her other friends?"
"She doesn't have any." Sarah looked as if she didn't want to say it, but continued nonetheless. "And I'm her only friend."
Considering her personality, I'm not too surprised by the lack of friends. But, her not having any family? That's.. Surprising for sure.
I looked between Jason and I before I made a decision. "How about if we tried to get a hold of her?"
"What?" Sarah and Jason asked in unison.
I looked at Jason, hopefully conveying my attention.
Sarah frowned. "No. that's-"
"Better than hoping that she's okay and hasn't tried again?" I interjected.
Sarah opened her mouth to respond, but appeared to have been struggling to come up with something to respond with.
"I..we want to help." Sarah appeared to be thinking it over. I grabbed her hands one more time, peering deep into her eyes. "Please?"
Sarah looked down at her lap. After what seemed like an eternity, she quietly nodded her head.
A wave of relief washed over me as a bead of sweat rolled off of the side of my face.
I'm going to save you this time.