Riiiiing
I hit the doorbell on Olive's door. No one answered.
Riiiing
I twisted the doorbell on her door, "Oh it's open"
Walking in I saw her mom on the couch watching some infomercial on the TV.
"Uh..,"
She shook her head and looked at me, "Uh yes..oh Fletcher, how did you get in here dear?"
I pointed to the door, "It was open,"
We both didn't say anything for a while
"Where is Olive? We have a project to work on," I said.
sighed, "I don't know…probably crying over her no-good father,"
I tensed, "Where is she?"
Immediately things started running through my mind. Olive had come to school one day with full, long sleeves. This was about 2 years ago, when she was 11 or 12. Passing by the nurses office, I saw Olive. She had her sleeves down and I could see little red marks. Olive glanced at me and then turned the other way.
Olive had to have some way to cope with her problems.
She had always had that messed up family. You know, the one where you would talk about them on a daily basis. I didn't listen. It was shit. I didn't need to know it. Frankly, I didn't care.
I ran up to her room and banged on the bathroom door.
"Olive?" I yelled.
I cursed under my breath and headed back downstairs and out the door.
I decided to check the park first.
I looked everywhere. By the picnic tables, the pond, and even pretty close to the woods.
Then I saw here next to a big oak tree. It seemed familiar to me…like those "Deja-vu" moment you get.
"Olive!" I called and jogged up to her.
She was scraping down a piece of tree trunk. It looked pretty sharp.
I grabbed it trying to get it out of her reach.
"No-NO! DON'T!" She screamed.
"Olive! Please don't do this!" I backed up against the tree holding it up in the air as she tried to wrestle me for it.
I threw it in the creek.
Tears rolled down her face as she buried her face in my shoulder and both of us plopped down on the grass.
"I can't do this.." She sobbed, "I hate my life!"
All I could do was sit there wiping the tears from her red cheeks.
**THE END**