(no subject)
in response to the justprompts suggestion, "ran off the road"
In grade school, Gemma and Bekki are always partners in class and when their teachers take them to the park nearby, they always hold hands when they cross the street. They spin around on the merry-go-round and fly high on the swings and when they're done they walk back to school together, hands intertwined.
In junior high, Gemma and Bekki go walking after school, giggling, their arms linked, each with one earbud in, listening to the Beatles or the soundtrack to Rocky Horror and talking about the things any junior high girls talk about. They don't go anywhere because there's nowhere to go, or at least nowhere in walking distance, that their parents would allow.
It's high school now, and Bekki is home alone after school. Most Monday afternoons she'd walk home with Gemma, but she had a math test to make up. She's sitting around, watching trashy fashion TV shows and drinking diet Coke like any afternoon, when the phone rings.
And then the phone rings.
It's Gemma's mom - Gemma's in the hospital - got hit by a car while she was walking home - she's unconscious, comatose - Bekki hangs up promising to pray for her, promising to visit, and runs to the bathroom to throw up.
No.
This can't be happening.
When her parents come home from work they find her curled up on the living room floor, her cheeks streaked with mascara tears, her expression vacant. They promise they'll drive her to visit right after school tomorrow. "Maybe Carley will want to come, too," they say, mentioning Bekki's other best friend, the third in their triumvirate. As if it was a social call.
"I'm not going to school tomorrow," Bekki mutters.