Halfway Gone

The next few days passed by very slowly. It was dull as Kim was still grieving over her best friend. But it wasn’t until the third period on a Tuesday morning during her study period, where she was spending her time at the school library completing an English essay she should have completed a week ago, when Kim was approached by one of her classmates in her History class.

Kim swore she would have already completed her English essay a week ago, but ever since what happened with Rosie, the teachers gave extensions to everyone who was in the same class as Rosie.

“I’m really sorry about Rosie,” the classmate, Ivy Clark frowned as she approached the dark haired blonde.

Kim looked up from her English essay and laid her eyes on the young lady in front of her.

“Thanks,” she said softly, forcing the smile. It’d still hurt to say her name. The hole was still there.

“It’s unfortunate about the drug overdose,” Ivy said, a little loudly, causing a few heads turn towards their direction. “I mean, I never knew she was into that kind of thing. She seemed more like those less-of-a-party-girl type, you know?”

The blonde didn’t exactly know what her classmate had actually meant, and instead, nodded slowly and repetitively as she began to fidget with her biro.

“I just never knew she was one of those station rats-”

“She was never one of those station rats!” Kim hissed, referring to her best friend, and snapped her exercise book shut, realizing she’d finished writing her essay a while ago. “In fact, for your information, Ivy, she hated those station rats.” She stood up, and collected her belongings, and walked out of the library.

“Wait, Kim!” Ivy shouted as she chased the blonde. “Please – I didn’t mean it that way. I just… Look I’m really sorry, okay? I know she hated those station rats-”

Kim stopped and turned around to face her classmate, interjecting her. “But that still doesn’t give you the right to talk about her like that,” she snapped. “It’s an offence to her, saying stuff like that about her – and to think she’s not even here to ever know what you said about her!”

“But that’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” Ivy said.

The blonde raised an eyebrow in confusion. “What?” she asked, cautiously.

“Rosie,” Ivy answered, as she nervously ran her hand through her dark brown locks. “Don’t you find it weird that Rosie just suddenly dropped dead from a drug overdose, yet she was refused to take drugs no matter what? Or those bruises on Rosie’s neck – and the police still filed her death as a suicide?”

It hadn’t even occurred to Kim how Ivy had even known about the bruises on Rosie’s neck since the whole school was only told about the drug overdose. Instead, Kim’s head was trying to find the answer to Ivy’s question.

“Haven’t you realized, Kim?” the brunette spoke after a moment of silence. “The police are corrupted.”

“Wait, how do you know that?”

“My dad’s a lawyer,” she explained. “Cases like these – the police force mark as suicide because the force believes they can deal with the city, when really; they can’t, so they lie about each case. But there are some cases that make it to court, but that’s only if you prove the case is worthy enough bring to court. You have to make the case like its some big deal.”

Kim frowned. “I haven’t got anything though.”

“You’re lucky I bought this up then,” Ivy smiled and pulled out a small notepad and read off it. “I’ve been doing some research myself. About a week before Rosie’s parents left for overseas, an anonymous caller rang the household in the late hours of the night, and threatened Mr Fowler over some business deal. According to the phone call though, Mr Fowler was pretty much shouting by the end, and the threat was aimed at his wife.”

Kim shrugged, not knowing where Ivy was going with this. “Well what do you want me to do about this?”

Ivy looked up from the notepad and snapped it shut before handing it to the blonde. “Start there,” she said. “This phone call might be linked with Rosie’s death.”

It was only then when Kim got it, and it was much to her surprise. How could she have not of seen this coming? Ivy wanted Kim to look into Rosie’s death.

“Why are you doing this Ivy?” Kim asked as she pocketed the notepad she’d just received.

“Look at it this way, Kim,” she said. “I know what you’re going through, and if something like this happens to me, I know you’ve got my back.”

Kim thanked the dark haired girl before turning back round, wondering only about one thing. How come Rosie never told her about this phone call? She used to talk about her father all the time, from him getting threats to praises from different people, so how come Rosie didn’t tell her this time? What was different? What happened to best friends telling each other everything?