The next day was worse than I could have imagined. Despite how tired and hungry I was I couldn’t get myself to eat or drink anything. Even in my classes and at lunch when Heather and Skylar tried to ask if I was okay I couldn’t respond. I only nodded yes, and tried to smile. But I knew my weak attempts would do nothing to satisfy them. All throughout first period Heather prompted me to get her to tell her what was wrong, and I couldn’t even do anything to pretend I was alright, but by lunch I had realized it would be better if I could at least try to show them I was okay.
I still hadn’t gotten over what my parents had said by lunch though, which made smiling and talking all that much harder. I also knew my bad sleeping, eating, and drinking habits probably also had something to do with my depressed mood, and inability to concentrate. Last night I had looked up the effects of not sleeping, and the results seemed to be quite accurate. At lunch, I remember trying to distract my friends by asking about things like how their weekend was, and complaining about math class. I tried to act like I would have before I found out about my parents.
At first, they seemed to believe it, but later in lunch I guess I couldn’t keep up the act. They had just started to get suspicious again when the bell rang. I let out a huge sigh of relief at this. I was tired of pretending I was okay, but I knew I couldn’t tell anyone my secrets. For all I knew the police had bugged the school. After all, they did seem pretty desperate to catch me. I trudged to fourth period, my stomach grumbling in hunger, and my heavy backpack seeming to weigh me down. I made it through and sat down in my seat. I shrugged off my backpack and zipped up my sweatshirt.
I was looking around the classroom for the teacher. The bell had just rung, signifying that class was about to start, but the teacher hadn’t yet come in. This wasn’t unusual. She was probably just talking with another teacher in the hallway. I watched the door to the classroom open and a person walk inside. To my surprise, it wasn’t the teacher. It was the police officer who’d been so set on finding me.
He walked into the classroom and came up right behind me. “Robin.” he snarls. I close my eyes.
“Please no!” I scream, “I didn’t do it!” I waited for the cold metal of handcuffs binding my wrists together, but it didn’t come. I slowly open my eyes and look around the classroom. The police officer is no longer there, and the teacher is. The entire class is looking at me and gives me strange looks. The teacher comes over to me. “Olivia, are you alright?”
I look up at her, “Yes. I’m sorry.”
“Alright then. Let’s pay attention.” I nod my head quickly. I could have blown my cover. I let out a sigh of relief, but I know the day isn’t over yet. Luckily I survived my last few periods without any more hallucinations.
After school, I don’t know where to go. I didn’t want to go anywhere except home, and I knew going there wouldn’t be a good idea. I start to cross the street, the way I do every day to get to the park when I feel a tap on my shoulder. My mind barely registers though. I slowly turn around to find Skylar behind me. “Olivia, please. I know something’s wrong.”
“Skylar. I’ve told you already. I’m fine.” I said this somewhat unconvincingly though. The exhaustion was really starting to get to me. I’m already starting to hallucinate and my awareness has gone down severely. If I don’t get some good sleep soon, the outcome won’t be good.
“Olivia,” Skylar tries again, “I can help you, but you need to tell me what’s been going on. We’re friends. Friends help each other. Please. Please let me help you.” I barely even have the energy to argue with her anymore. So I nod my head yes. Skylar nods as well and then leads me away from the crosswalk. We stopped in front of the white car I saw her get into before. She knocks on the window, and her mom rolls it down.
“Mom.” Skylar starts, “Olivia needs to come home with us.” I was surprised by the fact that Skylar’s mom didn’t even question this. It might have been because the dark circles beneath my eyes were clearly visible now, but whatever the reason I was glad I didn’t have to explain myself. Skylar got in first and I followed her. We sat in the backseat together and drove in silence to Skylar’s house. It wasn’t very far away. Just a few minutes, but twice I found myself blinking awake after dozing off.
When we got there Skylar’s mom beckoned for me to sit on the couch in their living room. Skylar came and sat on the couch with me, and her mom sat in a chair across from us. I leaned back in the cushions. It was soft and warm, and I was cold and tired and hungry. They were both staring at me and I thought maybe I should say something, but luckily Skylar broke the silence before I had to.
“So Olivia, are you going to tell us what’s been going on today?” she asks gently. She was kind but persistent, and stubborn. I didn’t really want to tell her now, especially in front of her mom. Skylar had made friends with Olivia, but she hadn’t made friends with me. Olivia was just a lie, and it would be hard to take that lie back. I shook my head and pulled my knees to my chest, burying my head in my knees. Skylar gently rubbed my back, “It’s okay. We’re friends. You can tell me anything.”
“That’s the thing, Skylar. You were never friends with me. You were only friends with Olivia.” I look up and say.
“What do you mean?” Skylar and her mom both look intrigued, and they’re waiting for more. I look from Skylar’s mom back to Skylar and then back again. I know there’s no going back now, so I gulp and explain everything.
“My name isn’t Olivia Reed.” They both gasp in surprise.
“What is it then?”
“Robin Fisher.” Another gasp, and then silence.
Finally, Skylar dares to speak again, “You mean the one on TV.” I nod. “The one who killed that man?” I nod again, but then realize that wasn’t what I meant.
“I mean I’m the person who the police think murdered Henry Dales. I didn’t actually do it!” They nod, so I continue talking. “It all started when I was in my room the night before the first day of school. My parents had gone out for their anniversary dinner, and they promised to be back by 9:30, but it was 10:00. I wasn’t worried, though, I was going to get ready for bed. Then I heard this thumping at the door. I walked closer to the noise, and suddenly the door flew open and hit me.”
Skylar’s mom looked taken aback by this, “Are you alright? You could have been seriously hurt!”
“I’m okay,” I assure her. “I got up and I found the police in my house ready to arrest me. They started to issue my rights. They had the handcuffs and everything.” I stopped to look down. I was ashamed to admit the next part.
“It’s okay,” Skylar reassures me, “Keep going.” So I do.
“But I was scared, and I knew I didn’t do it, so I ran.”
“You what?” Skylar’s mom asks.
“I ran.”
“You ran from the police?”
“Yes.” I looked down at my shoes. Skylar’s mom now seems upset with herself for making me feel bad.
“It’s okay, I just wasn’t expecting that.”
“Kay, how about this guys,” Skylar intervenes. “We let Olivia-- I mean Robin-- finish her entire story, and then we ask questions later?” Her mom nods in agreement, and so do I. So I continue on. I explain right up until the weekend.
Skylar and her mom had gone on a rollercoaster of emotions while I told my story, but now they looked extremely empathetic. “I’m so sorry,” Skylar told me. Her mom went to the kitchen and started some hot water boiling so she could make me tea. I was grateful for this, as my throat was burning from lack of water, and from all this talking. But I also knew I would need to finish my story.
“I didn’t finish yet,” I said weakly.
“You mean there’s more?” They ask. I nod sadly. And then I tell them.
“Last night I couldn’t fall asleep, so I took a walk around the neighborhood. Before I knew it, I had come across my house. I didn’t plan on going in, so I just circled around the back to get back to the park, but then I heard my parents talking in their room. I ducked under the window and listened to their conversation. I heard my mom say that she couldn’t believe the police hadn’t caught me yet, but my dad told her he knew they would soon.”
It was at this point that the tears started to form in my eyes. “Then Mom, she asked Dad… She asked if they did the right thing turning me in, and he said…” I had to choke the words out, and the tears fell freely down my face. I used the back of my hand to wipe them away, and then continued. “Dad told her that they only did what was best for everyone. Including me.”
After this, I couldn’t say anything else. The tears were coming to quickly now, and all I could do was let them fall. Skylar’s mom brought me tea, but I shook my head. “Come on,” she said. I shook my head again. “Stop, you’re dehydrated.” I wiped away the tears and took the mug. After I drank it I did feel better. My hands were damp, and I rubbed them on my pants to dry them. I was still tired and hungry, but Luckily Skylar and her mom seemed to realize this.
They found some spaghetti in their fridge and heated it up for dinner. We ate on the couch under blankets, while they tried to comfort me. I hated the attention though. You would think that telling someone would have made me feel better like somehow a weight had been lifted off my shoulders, but instead, it felt like someone had added weight. Now that more people were in on my secret, it was more people to have to worry about telling the police.
“We won’t tell the police,” Skylar says, reading my thoughts. I look up at her, my eyes are red from crying, and my face tired. All I could manage was a small nod. “Hey, come here,” she tells me. I let my head rest on her shoulder, and my eyelids droop sleepily.
“Why don’t you take her up to your room? So she can actually sleep.” Skylar’s mom tells Skylar.
I sit up abruptly, “Oh no. You don’t have to. I mean, I can go back to the park. They both looked at me.
“You really think, after what you’ve just told us,” Skylar says, “That we’re going to let you go sleep in the park?”
I shrug, “Maybe.” They both laugh in response, and then Skylar leads me up the stairs, and into her room. It was painted blue, with fluffy blankets and pillows on her bed, and bookshelves on the walls. She had a white desk with a few small succulents on it, and a little rug in the corner of the room. She beckoned for me to sit on her bed, so I do. She picks up a hairbrush from her desk and sits on the bed behind me. Then she gently picks out each of the tangles.
My hair had grown uncontrollably messy during the time that I had lived on my own, as the one thing I had forgotten to pack was a hairbrush. I had tried to hide this by braiding my hair and putting it in ponytails, and buns, but Skylar had seen right through this. After she finished I had only seemed to have grown more tired. “Alright Robin. You need to sleep.”
“I’m okay Skylar.”
She gave me a look. “Okay Okay.” I gave in and then crawled off the bed to the floor.
“What are you doing?”
“Umm,” I asked, now uncertain. “Getting some sleep?”
“Usually when people sleep they do it in the bed.”
“Yes, but that bed is yours.”
She laughs at this. “You really think I’m going to make you sleep on the floor?” I shrug, my cheeks now blushing. “Hey come on.” she gestures for me to join her on her bed. I do. Then she puts her arm around me. “This must be really hard for you.”
“It is,” I admit, “But I’ll be okay.”
“Robin, you don’t have to be.” I nod, not wanting to say anything else. Then I let the exhaustion take over. I lean my head on Skylar’s shoulder and let her sit there with me. We stay that way for a little longer until Skylar decides It’s time for bed. She shuffles along the bed so she can look at me. I try to turn away, not wanting her to see the tears that had started falling down my face. I quickly wipe them away and then turn back to her.
“Let’s get some sleep,” she says. I could tell she noticed that I had been crying, but I was thankful she hadn’t pressed the issue. She helped me under the covers of her bed, and I immediately felt the exhaustion set in. She left for a minute and then came back in with a sleeping bag. she set it up on the floor.
“Skylar,” I say, and she looks up at me, “You know, I really don’t mind sleeping on the floor, it’s already going to be a big upgrade from the park.” She laughs, and responds, “No way Robin, you need this, so just go with it, okay?”
“Fine,” I admit, knowing she’s probably right, and then I snuggle deeper under the covers of Skylar’s bed. As soon as my head hits the pillow, I’m asleep.