-Chapter Three-

Staring in the mirror, she watched as her blue hair was tangled into a ponytail, her side bangs covering her left eye. Her black skinny jeans went along with her black sweatshirt and her black converse, her make up being as dark as she could possibly make it. Walking over to her dresser, she picked up a charm bracelet for her ankle that was made by Daniel. Bending down, she lifted the bottom of her jeans on her right ankle a little above the ankle, wrapping the charm bracelet around her ankle before pulling the bottom of the jeans over it, covering it as she stood. Turning, she saw her mother waiting at the door, dressed in a black dress that went a little below her knees, two thin spaghetti straps covering her shoulders.
"Are you ready?" Her mother asked, hands held together as they were holding onto her stomach, waiting for her to answer.
"There really isn't a way to be ready for this, is there," She said, looking at her reflection before turning back to her mother, whispering, "Waking up one day, not knowing that it's the day your best friend will pass away and you will be forced to know you are the reason why he's dead."
"It wasn't your fault, Ellie," Walking over, she wrapped her arms around Elise as she cried into her mother's shoulder, her mother gently finding her ear to whisper, "It wasn't your fault."

Holding the white rose, she listened to Daniel's mother finish her sentence before she would go up. Each word was inspirational, the sound of the way she said them swaying the crowd that was in the seats back and forth, many crying. When she finally finished, Elise walked up to the stage, leaning into the mic as a tear dropped, seeing half the school in the audience, including Scott and Stiles.
"There really is no way to say goodbye correctly when you know that you've lost your best friend- The one who sat through the lame jokes you made or the childish games you played. Nine years of laughing, crying, smiling, listening, talking, playing, sleeping, birthday parties, games, car rides, vacations, and staying together can't prepare you for what you're about to lose. Sometimes I like to think that he's still with me, standing beside me as he watches me sleep and wake up every day, but I know that he's not. When I go for a walk in the woods or look at the pictures of us together, I like to think that he's next to me, smiling, as if we we're doing it together, looking, seeing, breathing, but we're not. Sometimes when I was upset or sad or disappointed, he'd sing a song to me, the one that he first sang to me. I'd like to sing it to you, if you'd like, and I know that he would love what song I want to play. He loved everything I did, and I loved everything he did." Sighing, she rubbed a tear from her cheek as she went off stage to get her guitar from her mother who was waiting for her.
Standing back on stage in a stool, the mic in front of her, she began to play, doing her best on the guitar as it wasn't meant to be acoustic, but it had to be. At least for now.
"She is everywhere I go, everyone I see. Winter's gone and I still can't sleep. Summer's on the way, at least that's what they say, but these clouds won't leave. Walk away, barely breathing as I'm lying on the floor. Take my heart as you're leaving. I don't need it anymore," Speeding up on the guitar, her voice became a little stronger and louder as she continued. "This is the memory. This is the curse of having too much time to think about it. It's killing me. This is the last time. This is my forgiveness. This is endless."
Slowing down on the guitar, she went on to the next part of the song, singing softly, "Now spring has brought the rain, but I still see your face and I can not escape the past. Creeping up inside, reminding me that I can never bring you back. This is the memory. This is the curse of having too much time to think about it. It's killing me. This is the last time. This is my forgiveness. This is endless. This is endless, this is endless, this is endless. Someone help me 'cause the memory convinced itself to tear me apart, and it's gonna succeed before long. This is the memory. This is the curse of having too much time to think about it. It's killing me. This is the last time. This is my forgiveness. This is endless. This is endless."
"Someone help me 'cause the memory convinced itself to tear me apart and it's gonna succeed before long. This is endless. She is everywhere I go, everyone I see, but these clouds won't leave," Ending the song, she sat the guitar down next to her before going back up to the mic, closing her eyes. "There is this one memory when we were sitting on the bench last year, laughing at stupid old jokes and my mother came outside. She walked over to us while we were laughing and she was crying, but trying to hold it in. I- I didn't know what was wrong at the time, but I just didn't like the expression on her face. She asked if Daniel could go away for a few minutes while she talked to me. I thought that my dog had died or something, but it wasn't even close to the pain I'd soon feel in that moment. Funny how it seemed like just yesterday I was eight, holding them in my hands and now they can't bug me, or talk to me, or sing to me, or laugh with me, or anything because they are gone. I had eight years to get to know them, and I didn't. Eight years to know what they liked or who they were, and I didn't. Eight years, and now they are gone. Don't tell me I don't know what losing someone is like because I've lost everyone that I could talk to- my grandfather, my young siblings, and now my best friend. It's an awful feeling when you are suddenly alone in the world, all alone by yourself, and someone tells you that you'll find a new friend, make a new relationship, but they don't understand you don't want one. You can never talk, laugh, tell jokes, play, go on vacations, sleep, car rides, birthday parties, games, cry, or stay together with anyone like you had with that one person. Never."
"In order to know my story, you have to know their's." Standing up, she held the rose in one hand as she walked back over to her seat, her guitar held tightly in another hand as she sat down, the silence flowing in the wind before the announcement was made to go over and say goodbye.
There was no way to say goodbye.
From waiting to see Daniel to being next to him, she held the rose tightly in her right hand before putting it next to his grave, rubbing her hand over his engraving before standing up. It seemed like only seconds when the coffin was lowering into the ground, her grabbing a fist full of dirt before tossing it in, a new feeling of closure washing over her as she stared into the grave. Looking off in the distance, a figure stood by a tree, her blinking as the figure disappeared, her suddenly closing her eyes again as she collapsed to the ground, knees together on her right as she fell next to the grave, her arms on her right side as she laid on the dirt, gasps going around as her mother screamed her name, running over to her.
Trying to walk her up, the scene replayed her mind.
Looking over.
Turning around to see her daughter fall to the ground.
Her daughter wouldn't wake up.
She just...
wouldn't.

Opening her eyes, the sound of talking overlapped her thinking as a pair of arms wrapped over to her, sobbing in her ear to figure out her mother was holding her. Looking over her mother's shoulder, she saw a nurse talking to a doctor outside the door, discussing her as she heard, "Elise's condition is unknown. There was no reason for her to collapse like that."
"Wha-" Pulling her mother to look at her, she began to ask what had happened. "What are they talking about, mom? My 'condition?'"
"What is the last thing you remember?" Her mother asked, sitting on the edge of her bed next to her as she looked into her eyes.
"A figure was off in the distance. I- I was standing over Daniel's grave and I thought I saw him. I thought I saw Daniel." She explained to her mother, remembering how his hair was up, just a little spiky, but not as much as she remembered.
"You don't remember collapsing?" Her mother questioned, seeing a look of fear and surprise on Elise's face which made her stop.
"I remember the figure. I only remember the figure." She felt her mother wrap her arms around her again, her doing the same as she held tightly.

Laying down, she rested her head on her pillow, looking at the ceiling before hearing a knock at the door, Scott and Stiles outside her room. Blinking, she clenched her sheets that were on her, opening her mouth as she mumbled, "Why are you here?"
"We wanted to see if you were okay," Scott said, walking inside as Stiles followed, sitting in the chair next to the bed as Stiles sat in the one beside him. "Are you?"
"In a hospital bed, best friend dead, with an unknown condition," Turning her head towards them, she whispered softly, "Nowhere close to fine. Fine is so far away that it doesn't exist anymore."
"My mother's a nurse her, in case you didn't know, and she told me that it's not that bad," Leaning forward, Scott continued as he said, "You'll be alright."
"No, I won't be alright. I'm never going to be alright. You say that like it's true, but it's not. How can you possibly be alright when your life is disappearing before you eyes," Turning her head towards the window, she closed her eyes, looking back to Scott as she said, "I see no reason to talk, to life, to breath. Everyone is gone."
"How would you feel if your younger siblings, if you had any, died, or your grandfather died," Looking from Scott to Stiles, she didn't blink as she stared into Stile's eyes before turning her head towards Scott, swaying it a little before continuing. "Or your best friend died?"
"Please," Turning around, she looked at the floor as she whispered to them, "Leave me alone. No one can bring any of them back."
Her eyes closed as the sound of whispering filled the room before footsteps took it's place, the door shutting to confirm them leaving.
She was officially all alone.