thirty three

                                    

                                          
Giselle and Everleigh, sadly, went home the next morning. It was overall pretty heartbreaking. Though I was so grateful for David's gift, half of me wished they would've stayed in Houston. I experienced friendship again, and in just a few days, it was gone. I was left with only David.
                          
That's why it was so alarming to me when David wasn't at school on a random Thursday in February. He pretty much told me everything, and we had been hanging out nearly every day (not having sex... most of the time) for a couple weeks now, so I assumed when he went missing one day, he'd let me know. He didn't.
                          
I held back on asking where he was, fearing looking crazy and nosy Alex texting David she's a psycho, you need to end it while you can, but at lunch, I just had to. I couldn't wait. David hadn't responded to two of my texts, and I wasn't about to triple text. If anyone knew, it was Alex or Gabbie. The mood completely died when I asked, "Do you guys know where David is?" 
                          
"He didn't tell you?" it was Corinna who spoke up after realizing everyone else had adopted a vow of silence in the last ten seconds. "Today is the anniversary of Talulah's death." 
                          
I raised my eyebrows in shock, shock at the subject matter and at the fact that he didn't tell me. "So where is he?"
                          
Corinna glanced at Alex, who said, "Home, probably."
                          
"Is Sam coming home this weekend?"
                          
"Sam and John always go to the lake house," Alex sighed. "David... doesn't. He stays home." 
                          
"So he's home alone right now?" I confirmed.
                          
"He likes to be alone," Scott tried to explain, but I wasn't really listening. No one liked to be alone thinking about their dead mom, no matter how much they try to pretend they did. "He doesn't like people to see him hurt." 
                          
"That's bullshit," I rolled my eyes, sealing my bag of goldfish back up and chucking it into my bookbag. "He's leaving his family when they need him most because he doesn't want to be vulnerable? He's ridiculous." 
                          
"Where are you going?" Todd asked as I stood, slinging my bag over my shoulder.
                          
"Where do you think I'm going?" I countered, rolling my eyes as they all called after me, warning me against it. Obviously, if David seemed genuinely upset, I wasn't going to yell at him about not being with his family, but if he was playing Fortnite or watching a movie, someone needed to put him in his place, and it appeared I was the only one ballsy enough to do so.
                          
I went home to change first, fearing what I might allow myself to do if I was in a skirt in front of David. Some loose gray joggers and a plain black shirt were much more suitable for the occasion. He couldn't wow me out of my joggers. I wouldn't let him.
                          
I was almost out the door when my grandma stopped me, my pill bottle rattling in her hands. "Mona, dear, can we talk for a second?" 
                          
"Are those mine?" I sighed, clearly already knowing they were and what she wanted to talk to me about.
                          
"You haven't taken your Prozac in almost a week, dear," Grammy sighed, passing me the pill bottle. "I'm worried about you." 
                          
"Are you counting them?" I frowned, tucking the bottle into my purse so I wouldn't have to look at them. "I haven't been taking them because I don't want to rely on medicine to make me happy. I don't want to be doped up for the rest of my life."
                          
"It's not doped up, as you so eloquently put it, if it's just making your brain preform like everyone else's," she sighed in response, her hands falling to her hips in a motherly, stern manner. "We don't want to see you hurt, Mona. We love you."