Halfway Gone

The following morning, Kim forced herself to turn up at school. It was simple – she just needed a distraction from the devastating news she’d been told earlier that morning, and since then, she’d gotten no sleep. She was still in shock, and as soon as Kim’s sneakers landed on the school grounds, everyone began to stare at her.

It seemed as though everyone already knew about Rosie’s death. It was funny how news traveled fast.

Kim tried to shake off the stares of sympathy that were coming from the students around her. She hated being stared at, which only made her walk faster through the hallway of the school.

“You have my condolences,” a random sophomore frowned.

Even though Kim did not know who she was, Kim still acknowledged her since she seemed nice enough to be the first one to say something in the school instead of staring at her.

“Thank you,” Kim said as she continued walking to her first class of the day.

By the time Kim reached her first class of the day, everyone was already in the classroom waiting for the teacher, talking to one another. And when Kim reached the front door, the students in the classroom immediately stopped talking and all stared at Kim with sympathy in their eyes.

Kim moved quickly to her seat, and sat down, suddenly realising that the spot next to her wasn’t going to be filled today; the spot next to her belonged to Rosie. So who was going to replace it?

When class finally started, Kim’s Mathematics teacher, Mrs Griffiths was also considerate to her in class. Usually, Mrs Griffiths was strict teacher who frequently set a load of work to get through the period, but today was different. This time, she did not give any work, and instead, let the class mourn.

When the bell rang for the last time of the day, Kim walked down the hallway to her locker, and as she did, she could hear the rumors circulating around about Rosie’s death from everyone who’d walked pass by her.

“I heard she died while running across the street-” one said.

“From a drug overdose – can you believe-?” another said.

“That doesn’t even seem like Rosie-” a third voice came.

The rumors continued as Kim slowly made her way to her locker. And surprisingly, the rumors about her friend’s death was surprisingly accurate. How had everyone gotten the details about Rosie’s death so quickly? Wasn’t it meant to be confidential? But it wasn’t until Kim overheard two freshmen talking that interested her.

“Apparently she tried to call that Kim girl like a million times that night-” the blonde freshman said.

“I heard that girl never picked up-” the freshman with jet black hair spoke.

Kim finally approached her locker and slowly spun the dial around to unlock her lock. As she did, she quickly remembered what the police officer had told her that very morning about how Rosie had dialed Kim’s number numerous of times before the police found her body.

And it was only then when Kim suddenly realized – if Rosie actually did dial Kim’s number then her mobile phone would be filled up with missed calls. Suddenly, Kim wished she’d remembered to take her phone home with her yesterday after school instead of accidentally leaving it in her locker.

Finally, Kim pulled the lock open and unhooked the locker from the door, immediately swinging the locker door wide open. She picked up her phone and pressed the center button as the phone lit up. Strange, there were no missed calls from the night before. Kim then clicked the correct buttons to get into the ‘missed calls’ section, and still, there were no missed calls from the night before. So why would the police lie about Rosie calling Kim’s number on the night she passed away? How come-

“Kim,” a low voice came softly, interjecting the girl’s thoughts.

Kim placed her phone into her pocket, pushing the thought aside for now. She craned her neck at the masculine figure at her side, and forced herself to pull on a warm smile.

“Nick,” she said, nodding her head once at him before turning her attention back to her locker to place a History book into her bag.

“How are you holding up?” he asked.

Kim paused in her actions for a moment then turned to look up at Nick. She deliberated for a moment, quickly deciding not to lie and say that she was fine. Instead, she looked up at him and frowned as tears formed around her eyes. “They came to my house this morning…” Kim stopped halfway realizing she couldn’t go on, and quickly wiped the tears away.

Nick nodded, knowing what Kim was going to say next. “Same here,” he responded.

After all, Kim Creed was Rosie’s best friend and Nick Jonas was Rosie’s boyfriend. He knew exactly how she felt. They were both connected to each other. It was simple.

They needed each other.