FOR TWO DAYS, everyone was talking about Ella's attempted suicide at school. The rumors were scathing and unbelievable.
One rumor said she was pregnant and tried to abort it, another rumor was that she had been caught having an affair with a teacher.

Who even thought of these things?

I was getting frustrated. Ella and I may have drifted apart but I knew she wouldn't do all those things they were saying about her.
I only wished I had done better to get her to talk to me.

"Earth to Jade," David snapped his fingers in front of my face startling me.

"What?"

"Do you want coach to maul you?" he pointed to the school park.

We were having P.E and I was sitting at the bleachers watching the others stretch. Coach wasn't in sight, meaning he was on his way.
The man had a furious temper and I didn't want to be on the cross line when he came.

I got up and followed David to where we usually stretched out.

After class, David suggested that we go and wait for Grace to finish her soccer training but there was something else on my mind.

"Would you mind accompanying me to a friend's?" I asked him.

"Sure. Where does he live?"

"She, actually. A few blocks from here"

"Oh ok. Come on. Let's go and meet your lady friend," he winked and threw his arm around me.

"I doubt we are even friends," I threw his arm off me and laughed.

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I had gone to Ella's house twice. Once, for a school rehearsal we had during middle school and another time when I went to give her a book she left in class.
Her parents had been very strict and she had a little sister who was around six years old.

That was four years ago. Who knew what had changed then. Something must have changed if Ella had tried to kill herself.
Thinking back to those times, I didn't even know what happened to our friendship. I guess we had drifted apart.

About 10 minutes later, Dave and I got to the Ella's house. It was a two story building painted white and cream.
As we climbed to the porch, the sound of classical music coming from the house hit me.

Looks like Ella's parents haven't changed, I thought.

David looked at me and I shrugged.
I knocked twice on the door and waited. Ella's mom opened and looked at us. She was a tall, elegant woman with a short brown hair and caramel colored skin.

"Yes? How may I help you?" she asked looking at us from head to toe.

"We're friends of Ella, ma'am. We wanted to check up on her," I said with a smile that I hoped didn't looked forced. I didn't want her to turn us away.

"She's not supposed to see anyone but I think some company will be good for her," she pushed the door wider to let us in.

"She's upstairs in her room. Take a right turn and look for the door with the bite me sticker on it," she told us.

Bite me. I nearly laughed right there. Ella's sense of humor still had some hope.

The door with the bite me sticker was slightly ajar when we climbed the stairs. I didn't want to intrude on Ella in case she wanted to be alone.

"What if she wants to be alone?" I whispered to David.

"This is just a friendly visit, right? What's going on?"

I'd forgotten to tell David this Ella was the same Ella who had apparently tried to commit suicide.

"This is the Ella everyone's talking about in school" I explained.

"Suicide girl? That explains her mom's stiffness," David whispered back.

"I can hear you guys out there!" Ella shouted from her room.

"And my mom is always stiff," she continued,?not caring that her mom could hear her.

She continued,
"Are you guys going to come in or keep talking about me out there?"

Embarrassed, I knocked on the door lightly and we entered. She was lying on her bed staring at the ceiling.
Her room was immaculately clean with a desk full of textbooks and a chair beside it.
The closet was painted with different colors like a mosaic and the room had lemony smell and painted white and pink.

"Heya Ella," I said to her.

"Heya to you too Jade," she replied still looking at the ceiling.

"So did you really try to kill yourself?" David asked bluntly and I wished the ground would just swallow us.

I punched him and shook my head but he just shrugged his shoulders.

"No I did not try to-," Ella got up from her bed to face us but stopped mid-sentence when she locked eyes with David.

The two of them stared at each other for so long that I thought that time had frozen and I was the only one who could move.

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Hope you guys liked this chapter! Do you think Ella really tried to kill herself? And why did she and David keep staring at themselves? Love at first sight?