Two weeks have passed since that conversation happened. Cat is always her same bubbly self and I have no reason to believe that things are any worse than they were before. I tell Lane that I spoke to my friend and it was all a big misunderstanding. She had been playing with a friend's new kitten. The oldest excuse in the book, but he seemed to believe it, which I'm surprised at since I suck at lying.
Jade, Beck, Robbie, Andre and I are sitting at our usual table in the Asphalt Café, our school's outdoor lunch room. Cat is at school today, but she didn't show up to lunch.
"Does anyone know where Cat is?" I ask the rest of the group.
"No, but she probably just got held up somewhere" Beck tells me.
"Or distracted by something shiny" Jade offers sarcastically.
"She may be sick. She seemed off today. I don't know, but maybe someone should check the bathroom to make sure she's not puking or something" Robbie says, sounding slightly concerned.
"I'll go" I say as I stand up from the table.
"I'm going too. I don't want to miss a good puke show" Jade says, also standing up from the table.
"You're disgusting" Andre tells Jade, who shoots him a look suggesting that she was proud of the 'compliment' he just gave her.
Jade and I make our way to the bathroom. All of the stalls are open, except for the last one which is shut and locked. I head over to it, peeking under to see whose feet are in there. I recognize Cat's pink and purple sneakers.
"Hey, Cat, are you okay?" I ask, leaning towards the door. There's no answer. "Cat…?" I ask again. Still no answer.
"Are you sure that's her in there, Vega?" Jade says annoyed as if I were wasting her time.
"Yes, I saw her sneakers. Cat, open up, it's Tori and Jade" I say, this time knocking on the stall door.
"She knows who it is, dummy. Move" Jade says as she pushes me aside. "Cat, open this door or else!"
No longer able to tame my fears, I drop to my knees to look under the door, this time I can clearly see that Cat is in the stall.
"Vega, what are you doing?" Jade exclaims disgusted, as if she's never done anything gross in her life.
But I ignore her comment, because I see something else in the stall with Cat. There's a pool of blood on the window sill that is on the wall of this last stall. Cat's tiny left wrist is sitting in the pool of blood, her head is leaning up against the wall, and her eyes are shut. Her right arm is limply on her lap, a razor lying in the limp fingers of her right hand.
"Jade, go get help!" I yell as I crawl under the stall door to unlock it.
"What? What's wrong?" she asks, suddenly scared, not annoyed. I throw the stall door open and her jaw drops. She stands there speechless as I check Cat for a pulse.
"Get help!" I shout again, this time she runs out of the bathroom, returning a few minutes later with Lane, who is already on the phone with an ambulance.
I hear the announcement. Code green is shouted over the intercom. Everyone knows that this means there is a medical emergency and no one can leave where they are until it is over. What happens next seems to all happen in a blur. The nurse and a few other faculty members rush in, paper towels are pressed to Cat's wrist in an attempt to stop the bleeding and she's laid on the floor so that they can perform CPR until the ambulance get's here.
Jade and I are standing off to the side, frozen with fear. We're both crying and holding on to each other, staring at our friend lying lifeless on the bathroom floor. Her red velvet colored hair looks like a pool of blood behind her head. I wonder now what exactly inspired this hair color of hers.