Chapter 2: Worlds collapse at her feet disgust

That year a lot happened to Annabelle. Her best friend and sister, almost, of eighteen years, stopped being friends with her. Persuaded by the flashy lights and so called freedom of teenage-hood, she traded boring, safe Annabelle in for sluts and thugs. Maybe it is hard for you to understand why it impacted her in such a way but, if you only knew what kind of rock-hard friendship her and Katherine had, and how much they both had been through together even at their young ages, you would know that pain and horror that befell Annabelle, when her only real support and love crumbled with one tap. The rock that would never in a million years waver did.

She also lost her brother, who had moved far away to Spain to explore and start a new life with his new wife.

Her grandmother died after suffering for four long years and what hit home the most was that as she wept, and wept and wept for this tragedy, there was no Katherine. There was no friend to hold her head up and say it's all right, you've got me, and I'm here. She was left to cry all on her own, on her best, in school bathrooms, wherever she could be alone, and no one, not even her best friend and sister came to help, she was gone.

Her father became depressed over the loss of his mother and grew more distant, and as all these people moved away from her, abandoning her on this island that she was stuck on, she started dating Chris, a shy humble boy who seemed absolutely perfect for Annabelle only one thing, he wasn't. He soon lost interest in her crying and sorrowful face and dumped her, a few days before her grandmother died.

At that moment she understood what darkness felt like. She could taste it. The betrayal and loneliness and sense of abandonment were completely tangible and she hated it and tried to smash it like glass but it only closed in more. She soon couldn't remember a time when her big brown eyes weren't droopy and red, when she didn't hate the sun for its happiness.

But then came Liz. And like in movies when the main character find luck so suddenly that you would never believe it could happen, and are almost disappointed that they didn't give instructions on how to get out of this mess, Liz came rolling up in her dirty white hippie van, the headlights breaking through the darkness and making Annabelle smile as if it wasn't a dirty old car but goodness itself, coming right down to help her up, and dust herself off.

They met in a bookstore, both looking at the same feminism book and soon began to talk about it. They were like twins but perfectly matched twins at that. Liz was loud and boisterous and wouldn't leave Annabelle alone for two seconds that was exactly what she needed. After being completely abandoned by everyone she knew, it was a sure thing that one of her symptoms would be an incurable need for immense attention. Annabelle was shy and had a phobia of strangers, but Liz took care of that. She was tall and wiry, with short black hair straightened in the front and always spiked in the back, and she wore thin rectangular glasses that made her look like a librarian from hell.

They met almost every other day after that discussing everything; they were so similar it was amazing. Finally when it got to the point of telling her all the things that had gone on, they found out another startling detail about their friendship, something it seemed they had stumbled on without knowing.