Julie felt different.
When she woke up this morning, she felt different. She didn’t wake up with a smile on her face, nor did she look out the window and see a beautiful view of the suburbia.
Instead, she rubbed her eyes and dragged herself out of the bed.
Once she was in the bathroom, she looked at herself. Her face wasn’t shining with a morning glow; she was only staring at an almost-dead face in the mirror.
She decided to ignore it and trudged on with her morning routine.
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She felt like an outcast in school that day. No one bothered to look at her or notice her; not even her friends. But she wouldn’t let anyone see her sadness. She merely shrugged it off and went on.
On normal days, her friends would greet her and huddle up by the quadrangle and talk. They’d share stories, jokes, and things like that. Next, she tries to catch her crush’s attention, which does happen, and gives him a smile or a wave.
At lunch, she decided to sit on another table, rather than with her friends. She picked on her food and watched the students laugh and play with their food.
“At least they’re happy.” She muttered.
She wasn’t really feeling like eating, so she went outside to the field, and sat on the bleachers. She felt nothing; not even the heat of sun.
It was quite depressing. She loved the feel of the sun touching her face.
Maybe I’m just sick. It’ll pass. She thought to herself. She tied her hair in a ponytail and relished the sun.
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When Chemistry came, she hugged her book, and searched for a vacant stool to sit on. She saw her friends huddled up on one counter, talking and giggling.
She smiled, hoping that they would notice her. One of her friends, Jaja, turned her head and saw her.
Julie smiled and waved, but Jaja only shrugged and turned back around.
Julie frowned; were her friends mad at her? She didn’t do anything wrong.
She started to feel angry rather than sad. She decided to skip school and go home, since nobody bothered to notice her, anyways.
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She rode on her bike and zoomed home, and used the ladder at the back of the house to crawl in her bedroom window.
She sighed, plopped her bag down on the floor and leaped to her bed.
What was wrong with her today? She shook her head, refusing her tears to fall.
She decided to go downstairs and talk to her mother. But when she was about to enter the living room, she heard her parents crying.
“Oscar…” Her mother sobbed. “Why?...”
“I don’t know, Marie… I don’t know…” Her dad replied.
She decided to step in the living room, and then she noticed the newspaper on the coffee table.
She was horrified when she read the headline.
Julie Ronsen found dead at her home; possible suicide is the lead.
She just realized…
…She was dead.
