Gone
    “I am 17 years old. My name is Nessa Santiago and I’m a senior at John May High School.”
    “Hello Nessa, I’m going to ask you a few questions now if you don’t mind.”
    A few. Those two words never mean two or three. A few. Try fifteen or twenty thousand! But I didn’t mind because I was on an interview to my dream school. I never would’ve thought I’d be sitting here, in front of the one person that determined if I went to Intel College. The number one ranked school for softball. I’ve had dreams about this place, and now I’m really, truly here.
   I walked out of the door of Intel and walked over to my boyfriend’s car, Carl. No, his name isn’t Carl, he named his car Carl. My boyfriends name is Jackson. Carl got his name from Jacksons favorite TV show The Carlton’s. Jackson and I have been dating for 2 years and we’re the “it” couple now that Jessica and John broke up.
   “Hey, Babe. How’d it go?”
   “All right, I guess. I don’t know what they’re thinking right now. Maybe they have already forgotten about me. Anyway, how’s Carl?” Carl broke down yesterday and by the smell, I don’t think he was doing very well.
   “Oh, he’s doing fine!” he looked at me, smiling from ear to ear.
   “That’s good. I need you to drop me off at Mennace Hospital, please.”
   “Okay sure thing honey bun. Why?”
   I ignored him. The thing is, my best friend has stage 3 cancer. She hasn’t told anyone, but I’m sure people will start jumping to conclusions sooner or later. Mary, my best friend, has had cancer for a year now. She misses school a lot, so I try to see her when I can.
   We drive past Jolly’s, a candy store that we’d go to after school. I look at it and see a flashback of us walking out of the store with our rainbow flavored lollipops.
   “Nes?”
   I snap back into reality. “Yeah?”
   “We’re here.”
   “Oh, thanks,” I say getting out of the beat up red truck, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
   Still nervous about my interview, I walk in the front doors of Mennace. All I see is white. The chairs, walls, floor, even the doctors’ clothes. I walk to the front desk.
   “I’m here to see Mary Lawing.”
   The lady smiles. She has braces. I was supposed to get braces. My mom was going to take me to the orthodontist, but then we found out how much money our new house would cost, so I never got them.
   “Ma’am? Are you okay?”
   I snap back into reality, again. I’ve been zoning out a lot since I found out that Mary’s cancer is worse than ever.
   “Um-yes. Sorry. What room?”
   “345. Take this to get to the 3rd floor.” It was a yellow square shaped piece of paper that was labeled ELEVATOR.
   Mary was doing well for about 4 months. Last week is when we found out that the cancer was back and I haven’t been to the hospital yet. She was usually on floor 2 during her stays at the hospital, but now she’s on floor 3. I wonder why.
   When I got to Mary’s floor, I saw doctors scattering everywhere. They were going the same direction I was. I started pacing faster. I heard her name. I broke out into a run.
   Room 345. I opened the door to see doctors and nurses and people I’ve never met. I’ve met all of Mary’s doctors. Why don’t I recognize any of these doctors in here? I saw people talking, but I didn’t hear anything. My heart rate is increasing, I can feel it. I couldn’t get words out of my mouth.
   “…dead…”
   That’s all I heard. Dead. I closed my eyes.
   I’m gone. I haven’t answered my phone, I haven’t done anything in over a week. I have nobody. I’m an only child, my dad left when I was 3, my mom is always at work, and my best friend, she’s…dead.
   “I’ll be at school tomorrow, I promise,” I tell Jackson over the phone. It was a lie, though. I lost the only person that I could trust. I didn’t want to go back to school. I didn’t want to have to answer all of the questions and say thank you to all of the “I’m sorry’s” that people don’t really mean. I don’t want to go back to my snobby boyfriend who only cares about popularity and cars. The drama, the fake friends, the rude teachers, I don’t want to go back to any of it, but I have to.
  
   The mail hasn’t been checked since the last time my mom checked it, and nobody knows when that was. I forgot all about my dream school. I forgot about everything, but it’s not time to worry about the mail, I need to go to school. I need to see people, interact with them.
   I walk into school and all I see is people staring. People looking at me with sympathy, some looking at me with hate. Why? Maybe they thought I was using this to get sympathy? I wasn’t though, this losing my best friend thing wasn’t planned.
   The first day wasn’t bad. I tied knots that need to be tied, I said thank you to all of the “I’m sorry’s,” and now it was time to check the mail. It was time to see if I got into my dream college.
   Once I got home, I put my stuff in the house and walked to the mailbox. I put the key in and unlocked it. There were magazines, flyers, letters from relatives, and my letter, my letter from Intel College. I take it out and open it.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
   I sat up. I look around the room. I’m in my room. It was a dream. None of it was true. I looked at my clock that read 6:45. My best friend isn’t dead. I have to go see her. I can’t wait another second.
   I get in my car and race over to Mary’s house. I ring the door bell. Mary’s mom opens the door with a drowsy look on her face.
   “Hello Mrs.Lawing. Is Mary here?”
   “No. I’m sorry, Nessa. Mary died in her sleep last night. When they did an autopsy, the cancer was everywhere in her head, in her legs, there’s nothing they could do.” she stopped, crying. And I cried with her. Her daughter, my best friend, she really is dead.