Chapter 9: Found Her

I walked to my third class of the day, already feeling the effects of the weekend one me. Even if it's been a day or two since, I still had the same amount of poundingness that was caused by a hangover, had hit me and caused me to groan every two minutes or so .

I walked to the stairs earlier this morning and walked by them, the group that somehow people feared, and the group that I was somehow apart of. Jonah's glare could be felt miles away, Christina tried to smile but it quickly turned into another harsh glare. Daniel couldn't even look at me and Corbyn could barely give me the time of day. Jack smiled at me, but was tapped by Jonah to which he turned around to face the other way.

Walking through the halls Addison shot me dirty looks, and Ella was nowhere to be seen. This was the usual, glares and harsh thoughts were the only things that happened during an argument with these guys. It has never been easy being different from them, and they made that abundantly clear. It was immensely clear when we argued for the first time, though it wasn't me versus them, it was Addison versus them. It ultimately led to her turning her back on us for good. Small talk was present but nothing more.

Zach on the other hand stood by me proud. Which I appreciated. He was the only one, even from Corbyn, that shared my same perspective, and understood me well enough. We were the dynamic duo of closeness. I sat in the library once again revising my notes for an upcoming exam before some abruptly dragged me away.

"What is going on, Jack?" I asked as we were practically running towards the direction of the field.

"We found Ella!" He said out of breath.

"Where was she?" I asked. We were on top of the hill looking down towards the bleachers and I saw them all sitting with Ella in the middle, looking terrible. Her eyes were droopy and it seemed as if she wasn't feeling the best.

"I'm not sure but Manny found her, and he called us right away," He muttered as we continued speed walking towards the rest of them.

As we approached I could already hear Jonah's scolding, "Why on earth would you start using again?" He asked.

"I didn't start using it again! It was one time," she sighed out leaning back into the bleachers. "God you are worse than my father, Jonah," she sighed.

"Well I'm sorry that I care enough to actually tell you when your being completely brain dead, stupid-" He started before Corbyn stopped him,

"That's enough." he muttered,

"Ella, you have to know that he is just caring about your well being, and as for you Jonah-" He paused and looked at him, "She is old enough to take responsibility for whatever she chooses to do."

"Thank you-"

"Oh no miss," Christina said as she stared and crossed her arms, "This isn't the end of this." Ella just shot her hands up in the air, questioning this whole thing.

"Who gave you the drugs, then?" Addison asked.

I looked around and saw Daniel holding onto Manny's collar tightly as Gabe and Naomi were behind him.

"It wasn't Manny alright?" She sighed.

"But I saw him-" Jonah interjected.

"He had drugs but he refused to give me some. He said some shit about getting permission, like I'm a child." She had an annoyed look on her face.

"You were pretty drunk. I didn't want you to die because of me," he exclaimed.

"I wasn't gonna die, you idiot. It is nothing that I haven't done before." She scoffed,

"Clearly," Naomi smirked off as I turned to barely chuckle at her, and Gabe just nudged her.

"Hey that is not fair," She said, "This is the only time that you've all even heard about this situation, and you can't judge me for it." she pouted.

"We can judge you, since your friends judged us for doing this to you, even if you've clearly had a history of pulling shit like this," Naomi scoffed.

"What?! You blamed them for what happened?" She asked looking around at Jonah and Addison knowing that they were the ones that probably instigated this whole thing.

"We didn't know!" They said.

"Exactly! You all didn't know and yet you all probably started a fight with them,"

"How would you know that?" Zach asked.

"Manny had a big old bruise on his freaking face!" She exclaimed.

"Okay this is not the point." I said.

"Where did you get them then?" Daniel asked. "I spend so much time with you and its definitely news to me." He said.

"From Calvin," she mumbled as she sat back down.

"What?!" Jack exclaimed as he almost fell off the bleacher.

"Their back in town?" Zach asked. "Since, when?"

"Yeah for the whole semester apparently." She sighed.

"How did you even get them? I didn't see them at the party at all." Corbyn asked from beside her.

"They snuck in the back and were drinking with some of the freshmen. They left right when they gave the bags out," she leaned on her knees running her hands through her scalp.

"They? You mean Henry and Calvin? That they?" I asked.

"What-" Jonah started as he started to fume up once again.

"They were visiting us, and it just so happens that he had a few on hand. He didnt have any bad intentions-"

"He didn't have any bad intentions?" Jonah bursted out, "The fact that he visited us, and you were the only one that apparently saw them, and subsequently the only one who took something beside alcohol. Isn't that funny," he laughed. The crazy maniacal laugh that you hear when someone is on the brink of craziness.

"Why would you even consider putting yourself through this again?" Addison yelled at her in annoyance.

"Didn't you learn anything from the last time?" Christina exclaimed. "Are you really willing to sacrifice everything that you have for another hit?"

"I was just stressed alright," she huffed.

"From what? Finals? Grades? Swimming? Your family?" Jonah sighed out. "You don't need drugs every time something stressful is happening to you!" he exclaimed.

"It's something you can't even imagine," she glanced towards our direction and made eye contact with me and quickly averted them away. "It is something that hurt me so much, that I don't know what else to do except go back to this."

She took a pause before continuing, the tears appeared in her arms, "You can't blame me for wanting to feel happy again, even for just a minute."

"Then tell us what's going on!" Corbyn said. "You can't keep doing this to yourself, just because you feel as if you can't talk to us doesn't mean we're not willing to listen!"

"We're your friends for a reason," Jack reasoned.

"Friends aren't supposed to leave," She muttered, "You guys left me. But that's in the past and it's over."

"Then why don't you tell us anything anymore," I asked.

"I don't think I can. At least not right now. I have to go," she ran off as the rest of us stood still. Daniels' grip on Manny loosened as he backed away from us walking away slowly, along with Naomi and Gabe slowly looking back at me before I nodded them off to go and do what they needed to do.

"Nes, I'm sorry for being a jerk." Jonah mumbled. A part of me wanted to be selfish and tell him to go f himself, but another part of me understood. After all he had loved her for so long, he wouldn't want her to get used again, like before.

"It's fine." I forced a tight smile, "I have to go to class, see you guys later, I guess." I muttered as I walked up the steep hill path to go back to the school gates.

Looking back seeing everyone look the same as they did three years ago, suddenly all of our progress and growth just disappeared.

Just because they were back in town. And just because they were back to looking down on others.