'Why?'
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'Why would you do this?'
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'Why would you do this to me? What have I ever done wrong to you, Alice?'
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~2 hours ago~
"What's up, Alice? You've been awfully quiet today." Ae-rin asked.
"Oh, you noticed." Alice mockingly said.
"Of course. You're my best friend. Obviously, I would."
"Well, I got to know something. Adam was following you around still."
"Yeah, I've asked him to stop multiple times now. After some point, I started to avoid him."
"He still has his eyes on you, huh?"
"I couldn't care less, honestly. You like him, and that makes his following even more frustrating. You should tell him already."
"You have no idea how others would think about me if I did?"
"Well, it doesn't matter, you know. If you like him, you like him. What do others have to say in that?"
"He had been after you for the last 3 months…What would others have in it, you say, huh?"
Ae-rin stopped on her track, hearing her 'friend's' sudden change in tone.
"WhAt ExAcTlY Do YoU ThInK I Am WitH YoU FoR HUH?!!! I WanT EveRthiNg YoU HaVe, AlL ThE aTTenTioN YoU GeT!!"
Ae-rin took a few steps back from her. She had never seen her like that. Alice's voice distorted into something unrecognizable. And what she was saying was going over Ae-rin's head. They had both been 'best friends' for over 2 years in college. Whether it be her academic records, her athletic achievements, her well-off background, or her gorgeous looks, she gained everyone's attention rather quickly. It's the same for her college too. But once she got to know that her 'friend' had a fascination with Adam, she tried to set him up with her. But he was reluctant to give up even after multiple rejections. However, whatever that mess was didn't explain Alice's words right now.
"What do you mean by that, Alice?"
"WHAT I MEANT!!! IT'S BEEN FREAKING 3 MONTHS AND STILL EACH AND EVERY DAY!!! I AM RIGHT THERE BESIDE YOU, AND YET ADAM DOESN'T EVEN BET AN EYE ON ME!! IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT YOU!!"
Ae-rin didn't understand what possessed her 'friend'. She was so sweet to her before.
After Ae-rin's mother passed away from a rare disease, her father didn't seem bothered. After a few months, her father brought a younger lady with a child of around Ae-rin's age and declared the lady to be his new wife. Money can buy words out of anyone's mouth, but Ae-rin was too young to understand that then. So, when a random lady suddenly appeared out of nowhere in her house and was said to be her new mother, she couldn't understand why nobody said anything about it. Growing up in a household where she figured no one was there to call her own, she kept to herself with her storybooks and her inner world until she found a bit of hope meeting Alice. Someone she could look up to when things all sort of got messed up in her home, someone she could take care of when they would be going through something in their lives.
But was it so much for Aerin to ask to have people to care for and be cared for?
"Alice, what's gotten into you? Calm down."
"CALM DOWN??!! WHO'RE YOU TO TELL ME TO CALM DOWN!!! YOU THINK, HUH??!! YOU ARE SO SPECIAL, SO AWESOME, MAKING EVERYONE DANCE AROUND HOWEVER YOU LIKE!!! YOU THINK I WAS WITH YOU BECAUSE I CARE!!! OH HELL NAH!!! YOU WERE A TRASH TO ME BEFORE, AND YOU ARE A TRASH TO ME NOW!! THE ONLY MISTAKE I DID WAS TO THINK YOU WOULD BE OF SOME USE TO ME!!!! BUT NOO!! YOU ARE MORE USELESS THAN TRASH!! OH, YOU THOUGHT I CARED ABOUT YOU!! ALL OF YOUR NONSENSE BULLSHIT OF A TALK ABOUT YOUR STEPMOM AND STEP-SISTER AND YOUR DAD MADE ME SAD?!! THAT'S WHAT YOU THOUGHT??!! YOU GOT DEAD BRAINCELL FROM YOUR DEAD MO-"
Ae-rin had had enough. She slapped Alice so hard that she stumbled on the sidewalk, a rare thing for a calm, patient person like her.
She was shaking in anger and in disbelief. 'What? She is saying all this for a guy? No. No, no. She isn't. Was I really that blind in my loneliness? I was being used, wasn't I? Was she just here for the damn spotlight? Shi-'
Aerin takes a deep, shaky breath. "Never come near me again. I thought of you as my friend, and this was all it was worth to you, huh? I don't want to see you ever again…"
Even though tears didn't stop falling from Ae-rin's eyes, she still said it all without breaking her voice. She didn't stay there for even a second longer. Once she knew she was far enough, she stopped to let the weight of her heart off. She cried and cried; her face was all swollen. She knew no one would care even a little about her back home, so she didn't bother going back.
She was so lost in her thoughts, that she didn't notice the rain. When she finally did, she looked up to look at the clouded sky only to feel the sharp bang on her head… a pipe? A rod?... Ae-rin doesn't know. She couldn't keep herself on her feet and collapsed onto the road. Through her very blurry vision, worse from the rain, she could still make out Alice's figure before she fell into complete darkness…
When Ae-rin came back to her senses, she figured her whole body was beaten up badly, to the point she couldn't move anything to resist the other girl's movement. All Ae-rin could tell was that Alice was dragging her along the concrete of the pavement. And then she felt getting lifted in the air and onto a steel plane.
'Oh, I see… so that's how it ends, huh? I hope I wasn't much of a pain for anyone. Well, my going would be a good thing for many, at least.'
Before her paralyzed body, along with her belongings, was pushed from the bridge, falling into the water….
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*slash* *slash*
The last thing Ae-rin could make out was her books splattered around in the water… including the storybook…
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'I can't breathe… I… can't move… wait, I can?'
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What?
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