The Girl

It was a normal day for everyone except her. She was the girl whose life I thought I saved.

Maria was her name. Maria and I have been best friends since we were born. That’s because when my mom was in the hospital giving birth to me, Maria’s mom was in the next room over giving birth to Maria. Our friendship started with our parents. My mom, Heather, and Maria's mom, Cindy, both went through their first pregnancies together. They met at the hospital when they were there for their ultrasounds. Quickly they became friends, best friends actually. Just about every single day they were together no matter what. Well it was like that, until my parents left the hospital for the first time with me. We consumed their lives, they never had time to hang out with one another. Slowly, their friendship grew apart. Except for when we grew older. We could take care of ourselves a little more, so they reconnected and introduced Maria and I to each other. Just like they did, we became just like sisters instantly.
A few years in our lives went by and Maria started acting strange. I slowly started to notice her not wanting to do anything anymore, and every day she just seemed sadder and sadder. Now at this point I was starting to get very nervous for her so I went to tell her mom. She was very good about it. A couple months went by and she was diagnosed with depression. For my whole life I was by her side helping her with everything that she was going through. I was her only friend because most of the people in her class think she is “weird” or “abnormal”.
We got older, went to college and grew apart just like our parents did. Every day of my life since I left her to go to college, I felt sick. I felt sick because I couldn’t stand the thought of her being alone without me to comfort her. I told her to text me whenever she needed me. Still to this day, December 14th, she hasn’t texted me yet. Normally, Maria would text me at least once a day. I was getting worried, but I was just thinking of the positive side. Until December 20th when I got the call. It was her mom calling on her phone.
“Hello?” worriedly spoke Cindy.
“Hey! I haven’t talked to you in forever!” I said with excitement.
“This isn’t Maria, this is Cindy.”
“Oh.”
My brain filled with a thousand questions; Where is she? What is she doing? What did she do? Is she in trouble? Suddenly, Cindy started crying.
“Um…can I ask you for help?” asked Cindy.
“Yes of course, anything.”
The next few words that came out of her mouth, I never thought I would hear in my life.
“Maria has not been feeling well lately, all she does is sit in her room and cry.”
“Should I come over?”
“I think so, you should come talk to her because she won’t talk to me.”
“Alright, I will be over there tomorrow.”
The rest of that night I just sat on my bed and cried. This was one of the reasons I didn’t want to go far for college, I just needed to be there for her. 
The next morning arrived and I was up and dressed before the sun rose. I jumped in my car and raced to my hometown. I only live 2 hours away. When I arrived, I went to the local drug store to get her some flowers and candy. After, I called Cindy. I told her how I arrived and that I was on their street. She said that she was going to meet me outside because she had to discuss something with me first. When I arrived, I jumped out of the car and gave Cindy a big hug. She explained to me how Maria has just not been herself lately, and how she won’t talk to her. The whole reason she called me down was to have me comfort her and to find out what’s wrong because she will only talk to me. 
 After Cindy and I talked for a little while, I went inside with my flowers and candy, and I slowly made my way down the hallway. Now normally I could hear her talking on the phone, or I could hear the tv playing loudly in her room. Silence. That's all I could hear. My stomach was turning. I found myself standing still outside her room, afraid to go in. Somehow, I found the guts to open her door. Slowly, I turned the knob. As I peered inside, I noticed that she wasn’t in her room, but the window in her room had been opened. I called to Cindy, and she came running down to her room. She told me to go around everywhere and look for her, especially my college.
“My college?” I asked.
“Yes, I think you should look there first because she has been mentioning your name and college a lot lately.” Cindy suggested.
“Alright, I’ll go look. I will call you if I find her.”
“Okay, thank you very much.”
As I took off in my car, a feeling of extreme sadness and doubt hit me. I just started crying out of the blue. I didn’t know why, but I did have a feeling that something was about to go completely wrong. For the whole car ride my stomach felt like 1000 knives were stabbing into it. I couldn’t stop the pain; it wasn’t going away.
I was about to turn into my part of campus when I heard sirens. That’s all I heard. Just people yelling and sirens screaming. My head was dizzy, and my heart was pounding. Everything that I heard and saw was a blur. I jumped out of my car and ran over to the cop cars and ambulances.
“Wha-What’s happening?!” I said worriedly.
“Some girl, that doesn’t go to this school is up in room 334 trying to jump.”
“Wait! That’s my room and I know who that is. Let me go up there and talk to her.”
“Miss, you can’t do that.”
“Sir, I need to. She is my best friend and I know her better than anyone. She is all I have and I need to go up there and talk to her.”
I didn’t even listen to what the cop had to say. I just ran.
I opened my door without any hesitation.
“Maria stop.”
“No, I can’t. I need to. I needed you, and you weren’t there for me.”
“Maria, I had to go to college. I’m so sorry, if you wanted to talk about this before I left, I would’ve gladly sat down and talked about it with you.”
“I just figured that you had no time.”
“I just came from your house. I was going to surprise you with candy and flowers. I also was going to spend the next week with you, and I wasn’t planning on going to class next week because I was going to hang out with you.”
“Oh,” said Maria.
“So if you jump we will never get to spend another second together, but if you let me help you get down we can spend as much time as you need together. Some nights you can stay here if you want. I will forever and always be here for you Maria; I will do whatever it takes.”
“No. I can't anymore. I’m so sorry. I love you with all my heart, tell my mom I love her also.”
She jumped.
Black. Pitch-black walls were surrounding me. Silence. Nothing but silence is all I heard. No cop cars or ambulances. Nothing. I could hardly breathe; it was hard to feel my heart thumping against my chest. I felt like I was in a tiny square box with nothing in it but me. All of a sudden, I heard a voice.
“Hello?”
I swear it sounded exactly like Maria’s.
“Maria, is that you??” I answered.
“Yes, it is.”
“Wait, what is happening? I thought you jumped, died, and went to heaven.”
“I did,” she said calmly, “and you came with me.”