The Soul Reason of Living-Chapter 1

Gloria woke up to the sound of someone pounding on her door. She groaned and massaged her temple. She still hadn’t gotten over the terrible headache from the night before. This was only making it all worse.

“What?” she screamed as she crawled out of bed. Opening the bedroom door she saw her mother, Melissa standing in the hall, her face wet with tears. Gloria’s heart sunk. Obviously something catastrophic had happened. Her mother rarely cried.

“Your friend, Ann,” Gloria’s mother choked out. “She’s—she died.”

Gloria couldn’t breathe. It couldn’t be true, it just couldn’t be. Ann was one of Gloria’s closest friends. How could she just be gone like that? Gloria hadn’t been in this town for more than half a year, and the one true friend she had made was, gone?

She tried to speak as her mother pulled her into a hug.The tears that refused to come sat backed up behind her soft green eyes. She felt a hand run through her dark black hair, only making her want to cry more. But the tears wouldn’t come. They simply sat there, refusing to fall.

“She was found in the woods, a knife sticking out of her chest. She was stabbed.” Melissa explained in a calm voice.

Gloria backed out of her mother’s grasp and ran back into her room, slamming the door. Sitting on the bed, she picked up a picture of her and Ann standing on a pier, ready to jump. It had been a chilly day, but the girls were determined to jump into the clear, blue, crystal water. The water had never looked so inviting. The girls were both looking down, a hint of fear lingering on their faces. They gripped hands tightly.

Ann was wearing her favorite coat, the one with large blue polka dots. She wore it everywhere; to work, to school, to soccer games, to church. Her denim skinny jeans didn’t seem like they could even attempt to block out the cool November breeze, but she had insisted on wearing them. Ann’s golden hair was blown behind her by the wind and her

round blue eyes stared down at the water, determination filling them. She was taller than Gloria by a few inches.

Gloria smiled a bit as she remembered that day. It had been the day after they had won the state semi-finals game against Northern High School. They were scheduled to play the Mustangs from Gillwood High for the state finals the next day, but it snowed quite heavily and the soccer field was covered. So the soccer game had to be rescheduled. Because of

this, Coach had given them an extra day off which the girls took full advantage of.

Ann’s mother had surprised the girls with a visit to the Ocean View Fishing Pier in Norfolk. It took them nearly two hours to get from Ann’s tiny home in Richmond to one of the best fishing piers in Virginia. Ann loved to fish, but Gloria didn’t enjoy it as much. But because she was friends with Ann, she always went fishing with her. They could go again, after they

win states…

But they can’t. Why? Because Ann was dead, gone, onto a better place.

The tears began to fall, splattering the picture of the two friends. The picture fell on top of the pink comforter and Gloria threw her face into her pillow. She cried for hours, ignoring the knocks on her door. Haley, one of the girls from the soccer team, called, but Gloria didn’t pick up. The answering machine took the call, playing back Haley’s sad voice asking if Gloria wanted to come talk. Haley had also been quite close with Ann.

Gloria took the day off, not wanting to face everyone at school. She wandered around her room, finding everything that reminded her of Ann and put it in a box. If she couldn’t have Ann with her, why keep things that only reminded her she wasn’t there? It didn’t make sense to make herself upset all over again.

The day went by without Gloria noticing. Her mother finally pulled her out of the room around dinner time so she could eat. The meal consisted of pizza, salad and bread sticks, Gloria’s favorite. But she couldn’t enjoy it, not without Ann there. It was the same meal they always ate when they had sleepovers.

“Honey, are you doing okay?” Melissa asked. Gloria simply shook her head and cried into her salad. Melissa reached for her daughter, wrapped her arms around her and sung a soft tune in her ear.

“Everything is going to be okay,” she told her daughter. “You’ll see.”

Gloria only shook her head. She knew her mother was just trying to make her feel better, but it couldn’t be done. Ann was gone, and with her she took Gloria’s will to do anything.