Ch. 3

"Hi this is Rachel, I'm not able to answer the phone right now, so please leave a message at the tone. Thanks." beep.

'Hi Rachel, it's Jason. I really need your help. Please pick up. Love you babe, bye.'

'Hi Rachel, Jason again. Where are you? Can you meet me at the wharf? Thanks. Bye.'

'Hi Rachel. Please come. I've been waiting for you for an hour now. Bye."

"Hi, Rachel, Jason again. I've given up. I love you. You made my life brighter for that year we were together. I'm so sorry. Check out New York for me, will ya? I'm so sorry. I just can't handle life anymore. Thanks for all the good times. I'm sorry."

***

Rachel unlocked the door to her house, jangling her keys like she usually did so her mom wouldn't freak out and call the cops, saying that her house was being robbed. That had happened once, and it was a fiasco, because then the police found out her mom had been popping pills, and she had to go to prison for three months. When she came back out, she was worse. She used more, and didn't care about anything except her pills. Somedays, she didn't even recognize Rachel. But today wasn't one of those days.

"You're late. School was over half an hour ago." she said.

"Sorry, mom. I forgot. I was talking to. . .Jason about going to New York." Rachel replied.

"No. And that's our final answer."

"Great. Thanks." said Rachel, slinging her bag down on the kitchen table. "By the way, not that you would know, but where is my phone? I didn't see it this morning."

"Oh I took it so that I could contact Durrain."

"Well can I have it back please? I'm supposed to meet Jason later this afternoon."

"Here you go." she said, tossing the phone in such a way that Rachel had to lunge to catch it before it hit the floor. Durrain was her mom's dealer, and how her mom contacted him, she had no idea. She suspected that her mom just took her phone to spite her, but she didn't know. Logging in to her online banking account, she checked her balance. Out of the 5,000 dollars she had made, only 850 remained. She quickly closed the withdrawal slot. Hoping to stop her step-father form withdrawing more of her cash.

Running upstairs, she tossed her school bag on the floor of her room, and checked for her messages. None from Jason. That was odd. He usually sent a good morning text, which was so sweet, but there wasn't even that. Rachel felt a chill of fear. Something was wrong. Looking at her missed calls, she clicked to hear the voicemails, and hearing his voice, nearly bolted upright. Why would he call her? He was one to text, not to call. She was just about to listen to the next one, when Jason's mom called her. Scared now, Rachel picked up.

"Hi, Mrs. Mcauley. How's it going?"

"Do you know where Jason is? He hasn't come ack and the principal just called to say that he wasn't in school today." her voice sounded tearful, as if she had been crying.

"No. I don't know where he is. He left me a couple of voicemails though, so maybe I can call you back once I listen to them?"

"All right," Mrs. Mcauley took a shaky breath. "Thank you, Rachel. Have a good day."

"Bye."

"Bye."

Rachel closed the phone app, and went to her voicemail again. As she listened to each one, her heart sank lower and lower. It couldn't be. Jason. Jason! He would never. . .

Commit suicide?