Dizzy Hurricane

“There’s this really cute guy at my school, you just have to see him!” She squeals. “I just walked right up to his table at lunch and planted myself there.”

“Oh, a little bold, are we?” I giggle and listen closely as Ally gushes about her crush at school.

This is her first one since she’s been back to school. It was funny, hearing this actually. She was usually the one pushing me to be more outgoing and to chase after any guy I wanted, and here she is, telling me about this experience like it’s the best she’s done so far. If she only knew.

“Yeah, I know,” she says breathlessly. “Anyway, so I sat down and all his little friends stared at me like I was crazy or something. So I said hi and he said,” She puts on her best boy voice, “’Hey Aaliyah.’” She changes back to her own voice, “and I kind of leaped inside. I mean, how cool is that, that he already known my name?” She sounds proud about this.

I chuckle, “I’m sure he’s just a friend or classmate that you talked to before your accident. What’s his name? I’m sure I could tell you about him. Was it that Matt guy? There has been a couple pf times when you mentioned how attractive he was.”

“Oh, he’s a cutie too,” she said thoughtfully, “but no. This guy’s name is Max. I feel like I’ve known him for a while, is he my friend?”

“Whoa whoa wait, Max, as in Max Schneider?”

“Yeah, that’s him! Guess you know about him then. My friend Paige, the one with the blonde hair, she told me to avoid him, but he’s just so cool. The way he strides down the halls like he’s Mr. Coolguy or something, he’s just so…”

I start blocking her out after a while. There’s no way Ally doesn’t remember him. Max of all people to like? I guess that concussion didn’t mess with her taste in guys. ‘Is he my friend?’ Far from it. I start to come back to the conversation, and she’s blathering away about her encounter with him.

“Doesn’t he sound great?” she sighs dreamily. Ack.

“No,” I say flatly.

“Huh?”

“Ally, your Paige friend is right; Max is not the kind of guy you want to be hanging out with.”

“What, why?” She sounded concerned.

“Let’s just say you guys have some history that no one would want you to relive,” I sigh, “don’t reconnect with him, I’m warning you,” I say sternly, the soften my voice, “okay?”

She groans, “Well alright.” Then she gasps, “do you think he could be the one who..”

She trails off, making me anxious.

“The guy who what?”

“You know,” she pauses, and then whispers, “the person who did this to me.”

“Did what to you?”

“Hello, the whole reason why I ended up in the hospital, with this stupid rope burn.”

“What do you mean? Do you think he did something to trigger you into-” I stop abruptly, not wanting to bring it up.

“Into what? What are you talking about?”

“Suicide, Ally, you tried to kill yourself, remember?”

“Ha, noooooo,” she scoffed, “it was a murder attempt to make it look that way, remember? Why would you think that? I have no reason to want to commit suicide, I seem to have an awesome family and friend, a job, maybe I should get a pet…” she mumbles to herself, “but anyway, things are going good. What made you think I tried to kill myself?”

“Because that’s what happened, Ally. Someone didn’t try to-”

“Yes!” She shouts. “I may have lost some memory but I do not make things up. The officer and doctor told me what happened, Naomi. Someone is out to get me! I need to know if it’s him!”

“Ally…” I say distractedly, “that’s not what they told me.”

“What? That weird. Why wouldn’t they tell you?”

“I don’t know,” I say, getting upset.

Okay. Something is off here.

“They told that to Lizzy and Kellin too, I figured everyone knew about it.”

“I guess not,” I mumble. “Whatever, just remember what I told you about that boy, okay? For all we know it could have been him.”

“No problem. I’ll avoid him at all costs,” she says firmly.

“Well, I’ll get back to you later, alright? I have some work to do, bye. Text me if anything.”

“Okay, bye!”

She hangs up and I sigh heavily, contemplating whether I should approach Lizzy and Kellin on the matter or just ignore it. How could I ignore it though? All of us were left with the impression that Ally went and tried to kill herself again, when in fact the evidence shows that it was someone else who tried to do this to her? Why would they hide that from us? It’s selfish!

Here I was, thinking that Ally really wanted to end it all, for good this time. She couldn’t. We were just patching up our friendship and things were getting a little steady. I mean she still had her mood swings, but for the most part she was okay. Kind of.

I still need to know the truth. They need to confirm it to me. If its true and that’s what actually happened, then the person who did this is still out there, and they can find out that Ally is back home and try to do it again. She’s not safe there!

“Hey babe,” Vic sings as he walks into my room.

“Hey,” I say dismissively. “Do you know what happened to Ally? About the accident?”

“Um, yeah,” he says closing the door behind him. “She became unstable and tried to-” he stutters, “do away with herself, again.” He looks at me suspiciously, “why?”

“Because that’s not what actually happened.”

I could feel the anger bubbling up in me this is an unusual feeling for me, too. I don’t get angry much; maybe sometimes in cooking class when I’m trying to concentrate on an intricate project and Dana is talking her head off, or when an occasional girl tries to talk to my Victor. But this falls into the category as well.

“What do you mean?” he says, his eyebrows furrowing.

It’s so cute when he does that little confused face of his. But now is not the time to think about how cute he is.

“We had the wrong impression this whole time,” I mumble to myself, “for the past month we thought that she tried to do that to herself. It not true, Vic. Someone did that to her. We’re all just sitting around, living our lives like nothing happened. Oh, just another day where dramatic, attention-seeking Ally tried to kill herself, no big deal. Well it is a big deal!” Tears start trickling down my face and Vic rushes to my side. I look at him and frown, “don’t you see, Vic? They’re holding it back from us. For whatever reason, were not supposed to know what really happened to Ally. But we were going to find out sooner or later!” He tries shushing me and hugs me tight to stop me from shaking, but I’m too worked up now. “I’m really worried about her. We have to do something.”

“Okay, okay. What though?” he asks, sharing my concern. “Maybe they didn’t want to tell us to not make us paranoid or something. We can’t just spread it around. Maybe we could talk to the headmaster about it, he may be able to give you a leave, and I could come visit during the weekends. If that’s what you want to do.”

“Yeah, that sounds fine to me, except that if anyone should be doing it, it should be Lizzy. Why hasn’t she made arrangement for Ally to stay somewhere else or something? Doesn’t she care-”

“Don’t say that, Naomi,” Vic says, cutting me off. “It may look like nothing is being done but Lizzy loves her sister. We don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes, so don’t assume she’s not trying. I believe that she would have this under control.” I notice a hint of uncertainty in his eyes before he continues, “But you’re right, JT may write Lizzy off to go with her instead. It doesn’t hurt to try though.”

“Alright,” I sigh, wiping my eyes, “just, just don’t let go of me, okay?”

“I would never do that,” he says, kissing me on my forehead. I’m so glad I have him to hold me all together at a time like this. I really don’t know who could be more perfect for me than he is. “We’ll get through this. Soon enough, Ally will be fine and we’ll be back to normal. Hopefully.”