ALEX "Please tell me she isn't always like this?" I asked as I glanced at Jay and then stared in amazement as Kristen continued to talk a mile a minute into her cell phone. This blond was really starting to get on my nerves. How could Ellie be friends with a person like this? They were exact opposites, but then again, I hadn't seen Ellie in a little over a year. A lot could change in that period of time.

Jay just smirked from his spot on the floor. Uhgg. I had no idea how I was going to deal with this for another second.

"Remind you of anyone?" Jay asked that stupid smirk still plastered on his smug face.

Paige. I knew that was who he was talking about instantly. They were just too similar it was strange that I hadn't seen it before. I guess I was just trying to forget.

I glared at him and turned my attention back to the blond. Who the heck was she even talking to? It was almost ten but seeing as I hadn't had much sleep the night before I was a little grouchy.

"Will you ever shut up!? Aren't you here for Ellie? Who the hell are you even talking to?" I had finally lost it. She snapped her cell phone shut and glared at me.

"Of course I'm here for Ellie, I'm just trying to save both our jobs. She hasn't been to work in over three days. Our boss is just a little bit curious as to where she has been? He's actually thrilled to have his two best journalists decide not to go to work today. In fact he's decided to promote us both and give us a huge bonus for not showing up." Ahh, so that's why they're both friends. The biting sarcasms was exactly as I remembered, at least that hadn't changed.

"She's not going back. To work, or even Annapolis Royal as a matter of fact. We were going to leave …"He glanced around the room until his eyes found a small calendar hanging on the wall behind the welcome desk. "…well, today actually. To go back to Toronto." Jay said finished slowly and looked at the both of us calmly.

"What!? Why not? Jarrett's gone; no one has seen him around town all morning. Why would she have to leave? It's your fault isn't it? I knew you were bad news since you stepped foot in our town, you little-" Kristen had stepped right over to where Jay sat and towered over him, He stood up and cut her off.

"My fault!?" He asked with a smile that blatantly said it was most ridiculous accusation he had ever heard.

"My fault? It isn't my fault that she is lying in a hospital bed right now! It isn't my fault that she nearly died! It was a mutual decision between the both of us to leave! We both wanted a more familiar scene. A place with the same problems and same people." He was pissed. That was quite obvious. Jay never was one to just sit back when he was blamed for something he didn't do. Especially when it could hurt something he cared about, or in this case someone.

It was probably a good time to step in.

"Back to your corners you two. It's time to calm down and relax. Ellie will be fine. Kristen, none of this is Jay's fault, the only person you can blame is that ass of a boyfriend who did this to her in the first place. Jay, there is nothing you could of done. Now all we can do is wait and be hopeful, for Ellie's sake." Wow, I never thought I would be the voice of reason. But at least I stopped them from killing each other.

"Purple socks." Kristen said out of nowhere some time later after we had all calmed down a bit. Purple what?

KRISTEN

"Purple socks." I repeated myself and sunk down onto the grimy linoleum floor. How could I have been so stupid?

"What?" Jay asked with a look of confusion. He was so stupid sometimes. Then again, what I had said made no sense at all.

"When Ellie first started dating Jarrett I asked her if there was anything about him that could get me a promotion. She said he had a pair of purple socks. When Ellie and I first became friends, we decided to come up with some kind of code that something was seriously wrong we couldn't talk about it. It was Ellie's idea. She said she had been screwed over so many times, no matter where she went, it was bound to happen again. She also said she didn't want the whole town to know about it so it had be something that no one else would guess. We decided on the color purple. I could tell she was holding something back from me, she's not the best liar, but what she said never registered until now. This is my entire fault." There was my conclusion. I could have stopped all this, but I was too caught up in my own life to care about what was happening in my best friend's.

"God, I'm so self-centered." I didn't realize I had said this out loud until Jay piped in.

"You just realize this now princess?" He asked a haughty look on his face.

"It's not your fault either. Ellie's always sarcastic, it's hard to tell when she's trying to tell you something, secret code word or not." Alex piped in. I could tell she didn't like me either but she was better at hiding it than Jay. Then again, Jay wouldn't even bother in trying to hide how he's feeling.

JAY

"Should we call anyone else? You know, her parents, siblings?" Kristen asked some time later; this day just continued to drag on and on.

"Only child." I responded and pushed my hat down to the brim of my nose trying to block her out.

"Parents are dead." Alex added. At this I pushed my hat back up and gave her a questioning glance. They're dead?

"Oh, no wonder. She never mentioned her family." Kristen said. I was still confused; I thought only her dad died.

"I thought only her dad was dead?" I questioned when Alex never noticed my glance.

"Her mom died of Alcohol poisoning only a few hours after she heard of Ellie's dad's death. Ellie called me and told me what happened. That was the last I heard from her, or even about her until Marco called to ask if I knew where she went." Alex said solemnly and bent her head down as if she was recalling the phone call.

"Who's Marco? Maybe we should call him? He might want to know what's going on." Kristen said.

"That's probably not such a good id-" I started but Alex cut me off.

"No, she's right. Marco was Ellie's best friend for over five years. He doesn't even know we know where she is, let alone that she is in a hospital." She sounded like she was finished but noticed my grimace and added, "Jay, just because he hates you because you called him a fag and made cracks about him about a million times doesn't mean he doesn't have the right to know what's happening."

At that moment the same nurse from earlier stepped into the room and disrupted our almost argument.

"Ellie Nash is awake now if you would like to see her. She's in room 204 right down the hall there." She pointed to a dimmed hall that ended with an emergency exit, and then went to sit behind a large metal reference desk.

"Well, it looks like we can ask her opinion on this." I said. I then stood up and headed swiftly to the room that the nurse had pointed out. Alex and Kristen followed slowly behind me. They waited outside the room as I entered cautiously.

The sight before me almost made me gasp. There was Ellie, her left eye covered with a bandage, left arm in a cast, and multiple cuts and bruises all over her body. She looked so broken and beaten down. And she was, physically, but she looked it emotionally as well.

"Hey, how are you doing?" I asked and gently placed my hand on her cheek.

"Oh, alright I guess. Just a little drowsy, must be the drugs." She said and glanced curiously at my hand on her face. I removed it swiftly; maybe now wasn't the best time to spill my heart out to her.

I adjusted my hat and glanced around the plain white room trying to think of something to say.

"Alex is here. She flew in this morning. Oh, and Kristen." She noticed how my tone changed with Kristen's name and she laughed, but then scrunched up her face in pain. I watched her curiously as her pained expression slowly returned to normal. It killed me to her in this much pain, but there was nothing I could do, and that hurt even more.

The girls took the mentioning of their names as a cue to enter the room.

ELLIE

Why was Jay acting so weird around me? And what was with his hand on my face?

"You look like crap El. What were the three types of men I told you not to date? Oh yeah, musicians, reporters, and fishermen. See, this is what happens when you don't trust me." I smiled as Alex walked in and sat on the edge of my bed. She rolled her eyes in mock aggravation at me and then slightly smiled. You could always trust Alex to lighten the mood.

"Hey. I'm really sorry about not noticing what was going on. I never trusted Jarrett from the beginning. I should have-" I stopped her before she continued; she could go on and on forever.

"Listen, it's no one's fault. This could have happened to anyone. Let's just get out of here as soon as possible." I then noticed Kristen's pained expression, and then I knew it was because she thought I was ditching her.

"Kristen, you should come with us. You were always more of a city girl. Toronto would be good for you. For one thing, you would definitely get paid more."

"Okay." She said and I knew it took everything in her to have only a one word answer.

"Tomorrow then." I said and smiled at all of my friends around me. People actually cared about me, and it gave me the best feeling I had ever felt in my entire life.

"Really? I remember you saying this sometime before and we never actually left." Jay questioned, his signature smirk smiling at me from the far corner of the room.

"Really."

And it was the truth.