My eyes read the first text he’d sent me, and I had to read it three times before it sunk in. Oh…oh, fuck.
“I have to go,” I said, my heart in my throat for the worst possible reason.
“Kelsey, I—”
I said nothing, taking off in a run. Now would be a good time for me to whip out a skateboard and skate my way across campus, making the journey a lot faster. Alas, I was not that well-balanced. It took everything in me to ignore Levi and his shouting as I ran as fast as I could through campus, heading to the dorm. I nearly tripped myself on the sidewalk when I opened up a new message and sent it to Mel.
Please, respond. Please, please, please.
She didn’t.
Shit.
I called her, and the call went straight to voicemail, which either meant her phone was off or it was broken. Either way, not good. Either way, I had to get back to the dorm as fast as possible to make sure she was okay.
That fucktard Dean didn’t release the same video of me guzzling down Levi’s cum like some greedy cumslut. No, apparently he had one of Mel and Levi, and he personally sent it to all of his contacts, along with posting it on every single site he was on. And his email contacts, too. Who the fuck used email nowadays?
Ah, that was beside the point. I just had to get back.
I had to make sure she was okay.
She had to be alright. She blocked Dean’s number. She wouldn’t get a text from him. Maybe I was overexaggerating and she didn’t see it. She’d once told me she wasn’t friends with anyone on campus, so she wouldn’t see it on any of the sites.
Maybe that was just me wishing. I guessed I’d find out soon enough.
My feet took me at a rapid pace throughout campus, practically flinging me through the darkness like some Olympic sprinter. I could barely breathe by the time I was back at the dorm—I’d also had to slow my pace about halfway through campus. I wasn’t the most athletic girl around. Me and gym class never really got along. I was so out of shape it wasn’t funny.
I hit the button between the elevators, and watched to see which one was coming down. I stood before the door, pushing past the students that were on the elevator before they had the chance to get out once the door opened. I hit three, and when another student called for me to hold the elevator, I didn’t.
Couldn’t waste any more time than I already did, sitting in that library, trying to actually be a good student and do my work.
Nothing good ever came from trying, apparently. Nothing but shit.
Shit, shit, and more shit.
Man, I would’ve sworn the elevator freaking stopped time. From the moment I got on to the moment it finally opened on the third floor, it felt like eons. Years had gone by in that elevator, aging my soul. Still out of breath, I sprinted to our room as fast as I could.
Didn’t know why, but I couldn’t shake the uneasy, ominous feeling dwelling in my gut. It was like, deep down, I knew something wasn’t right.
She couldn’t handle this. She wasn’t strong. Mel had been teetering on the edge of despair this whole time, and I’d been too wrapped up in myself and my own problems to pay attention to her, to be a good friend, like I should’ve been.
I tried the knob, but it was locked and—
Wait a damned second. I had the key to this fucking lock.
I dug the key out of my hoodie’s pocket, trying to hurry the fuck up as I struggled to fit the key into the lock. If there was someone you could count on under pressure, it sure as shit wasn’t me.
It took me about a dozen tries, but finally the key slid into the lock and I was able to turn the handle and push inside. If there was one time when I really didn’t want to be right, it was now. If there was one day when I really wished I could press the rewind button and redo, it was today.
Mel was on the floor between the two beds, her limbs splayed out awkwardly around her, as if she’d been sitting on the side of her bed and had fallen off. Her head was tilted to the side, her eyes closed. Her skin, which was already pale as ash, looked ghostly now.
“No,” I whispered, running to her. I threw my bag aside as I dashed to her still frame, dropping to my knees beside her. “No, no, no. Mel, are you in there?” I shook her shoulders, kneeling over her, but the only movement in her body was from me. I lowered my head to her face, putting my ear near her nose.
It was faint, but I felt a teeny, weeny breath on my ear.
Still alive. Still alive, thank God.
“What the fuck did you do, Mel?” I asked an unconscious girl as I grabbed my phone out of my back pocket. Before I could call an ambulance, I spotted an orange bottle that had rolled under her bed.
Pills.
Fuck. Where the hell did she even get those? No, now wasn’t the time to wonder about that. Now was the time to freak the fuck out until I knew she’d be okay, until I knew this wasn’t going to be the last night of Mel’s life.
My own breathing came up short, erratic; it was like I couldn’t get enough air in my lungs as I stared down at her motionless body. Her chest barely moved when she breathed; I didn’t know how much time she had left.
I dialed my
