Cassidy Martinez's Story

If there is an afterlife, a god, a heaven or hell, I wonder where you are Sarah. I wonder if you know about how many people miss you. I wonder if they'd feel the same if they knew the truth about everything you did...

Cassidy's eyes watered as she crossed her arms over her chest, sniffing hard and blinking her eyes in an attempt to clear away the tears. Man, how she wished she could have done something. Sure, that night, things were pretty rough. Cassidy had discovered something about the late Ms. Kaplan that would be sure to make people second-guess everything the girl had ever done. But Sarah had been desperate, they both had, obviously. And because Cassidy hadn't been sensitive to Sarah's pain and predicament...the girl was now dead.

Maybe it really was all Cassidy's fault.

She felt a warmth at her left shoulder, the light whiff of cologne brushing against her senses. Taking a moment to compose herself, she looked to Alex with a watery smile, reaching to gently touch the back of his arm before slipping her hand into his. She squeezed his fingers comfortingly, taking the liberty of laying her cheek against his shoulder, drawing on his comfort, and sharing comfort in return. It was nice to have him here. He didn't think she was responsible, and he'd been a support system , a close friend, a text-buddy when her parents started forcing her to go to counseling. In fact, she had an appointment for that the following afternoon.

"This is going to be a rough year." she told him quietly, her lips pursing. Glancing around at the myriad of students staring at the pair, she sighed through her nose, then took her head from off of his shoulder. Her hand remained in his, however, unless he showed signs that he didn't want to hold her hand. She would get that. She had become somewhat of a pariah.

"Wanna come back later tonight?" she asked him. "When there aren't as many people?"

Cassidy did her best to give Alex an encouraging smile. What good was her comfort to him? He was hurting as much as she was. It surprised her that he was even remotely interested in letting her get as close as she was.

She supposed everyone reacted to grief differently. He was leaning on her, she on him. She hoped that, after all was said and done, after the grief had dissipated to remembering the good times, then they'd still be able to get this close...maybe closer.

She squeezed his hand, ignoring the fact that he was looking to the others as the others watched the pair. She ignored the fact that he was putting on his false smile, the illusion of peaceful acceptance, and knew that he was merely doing it for the sake of the others. She'd seen the real Alex, and he'd seen the real Cassidy. Felt nice, knowing that she didn't have to pretend with him.

She was about to open her mouth to say something when her pocket vibrated with a text message. Alex's pocket vibrated at the same time hers did.

Furrowing her brow in confusion, she reached into her pocket to retrieve her cell phone, flipping it open and hitting the icon that opened the message for her to read. Unknown number.

Her eyes widened.

There, in glaring white letters, were the words 'I'M STILL HERE!!!'.

"The hell?" she whispered, releasing Alex's hand and looking back at the sender. An unknown number. It probably didn't matter at all. But that didn't mean it didn't send a chill down her spine as she read it.

Little did she know that everyone who knew Sarah Kaplan was receiving a text message at the same time, with the same haunting message, and from deep within the woods that surrounded Archer's, someone snapped their cell-phone shut, with a 'MESSAGE SENT' indicator flashing across the screen.

They smiled.

Alex almost ignored the text, but since Cassidy's had rung at the same time, and when she looked she had gasped, he guessed it was strange. But why would they get the same text?

He reached into his pocket, pulling out his large, square phone and pushing the button to awaken it. The screen read 'New Message', and bellow it in all caps, 'I'M STILL HERE'. A gasp escaped Alex's lips. Who? Could it be? But it couldn't, could it?

But if it was her, if it really truly was from her he would be overjoyed. Confused, and scared and curious, but overjoyed. Alex's eyes fluttered onto Cassidy, giving her a quizical look and turning his phone so she could see the message, seeing other students staring at them still, trying to make out the text.

Ale lightly took Cassidy's arm in his hand, pulling her a few feet away from everyone's eyes. A few other students came up to them in a group, trying to talk to them, but he shooed them away, looking deeply at Cassidy. Had she gotten the same text? From an unknown number?

Ok, so, realistically, what was the likelihood of all of this?

She read the message over a couple of times, looking between it and the number, and attempting to place any kind of familiarity. She noticed that Alex had flipped open his phone, acquiring a look of surprise that wasn't unlike her own. She saw confusion, and what looked like a spark of hope. She stared.

What was the honest likelihood of them receiving the same text message? Lo and behold, he flipped the phone around, showing her the message that mirrored the one on her phone. She was about to say something when he took her arm and drew her off to the side.

"Someone's playing a sick joke." she told him, understanding the look in his eyes almost immediately. "Really. Sarah..." her voice choked off, cheeks flushing for just a moment as a flash of Sarah as Cassidy had last seen her fluttered before her mind's eye. "Someone got a hold of all of our numbers and decided to send this out. It isn't funny, and I'm not going to give it any stock."

She said all of this even as another student, a girl that Cassidy vaguely recognized came walking up to the pair.

"Did one of you send this to me?" she asked with a lifted brow, her gum cracking between every other word. Cassidy shook her head, idly gesturing to her own phone.

"I got the same message. So did Alex." she replied with a shrug. The girl gave them both a look that said she didn't quite believe them, before lifting her shoulder in a shrug, deleting the message in the same motion, and turning to walk away. When Cassidy turned to look back to Alex, she thought she caught sight of another girl walking in the distance, someone Cassidy knew from a few classes they'd taken together.

She also knew that the other girl was her new room-mate.

"Tonight," she told Alex. "I'll meet you back here? After hours? We can just kind of..talk?" She searched his eyes for a moment before slipping her arms around his waist in a hug, then went off to go meet up with Ellie.

"Hey!" she called, slowing her jog and beginning to walk apace with the other girl. "I'm Cassidy. I think we're going to be rooming together, so I just...wanted to introduce myself before-hand..."

Headphones. Ellie was wearing them. Cassidy smiled a bit nervously and hoped that she wouldn't have to repeat herself.

It was that awkward moment where she knew that the person she was talking to was merely humoring her for no other reason than to humor her. When Cassidy looked at Ellie, all she could see was this stern, guarded look behind her eyes. It made the other girl nervous, especially since she didn’t know Ellie all that well.

Then, when it became really apparent that Ellie knew who she was, Cassidy felt that familiar surge of embarrassment for not having recognized this girl. Strike one, it seemed. She was about to open her mouth to speak, to say something to rectify her major social blunder, when Ellie suddenly asked her about the paper in English Comp.

“I did, actually.” She said with a slight lift to her brows. “And if I know Ms. Sweeney, it’d take hell and high water for her to decide to give us some kind of lee-way on homework.

It was true that she was Sarah Kaplan’s best friend at one point, but the last thing she wanted to do was talk about the dead girl too. There was so much drama behind the pair of them, stuff that the vast majority of people didn’t even know about. It made her nervous to dwell on it for too long. So, she didn’t. Her hand fished into her pocket when she remembered that text, flipping it open and scanning over the words.

Almost angrily, she hit the ‘delete’ button.

“Well, since I was an idiot and didn’t remember your name, can I make it up to you by getting you coffee before class starts?” Cassidy asked, giving Ellie a small, but genuine smile.

”Ladies.”

Oh, there was a voice she knew she wasn’t ready to hear.

Turning slightly, she watched as Johnathan approached, all self-important and confident like everyone knew he was. She licked her lips, her steps slowing as he approached, and lifted her hand in a slight wave.

“Hey John.” She said, offering him a nervous smile. “Um…Ellie and I were just heading off to class. Maybe..we could catch up later?”

Or never.

She looked around for Alex, realizing he’d disappeared to talk to someone else, and then shifted to look at Ellie. “Coffee then?”

Lifting an eyebrow, Ellie looked at Cassidy. Coffee? Ellie glanced back toward the room she would be sharing with Cassidy and shrugged. “Sure,” she agreed. Her agreement was not because she actually wanted to have coffee with the girl… but more because she didn’t want to go into their shared room just yet. There was nothing that made her feel more trapped than the small shared dormitory rooms… and always with a roommate that wanted to talk… or that pretended that Ellie didn’t even exist. Always that. No middle ground.

As Ellie’s eyes moved over to Jonathan, she considered him for a moment. Despite the fact that he seemed to only have eyes for Cassidy, he had included Ellie in that plural greeting, hadn’t he? She looked between the two of them for a moment before taking a step back. “If you’d rather have coffee with him, it’s okay,” she muttered, tugging her sleeves down.

Blown him off. She’d blown him off. That was unacceptable. Completely unacceptable. Hiding his frown behind a confident grin, Jonathan positioned himself between Cassidy and the mostly empty hallway, resting a hand against the wall and leaning, taking up most of the corridor and effectively blocking her path. “Ah, Cassidy, I was wanting to speak with you.” His eyes never left her face. Instead, they bored into her own eyes, ignoring Ellie completely. “I wanted to offer my condolences. Nasty business, this stuff with Sarah. It just doesn’t make sense. You know, that night, I was walking through campus, and I swear I saw—“ He trailed off, shifting his eyes to Ellie before clearing his throat. “Well, I’ll tell you later what I saw.” His eyes lingered on the awkward redhead for a few moments before he straightened and removed his arm, allowing the two access to the corridor again, once more staring intently at Cassidy. “Please, come see me when you have a moment. There is something I would like to discuss with you.” One more pointed look to Ellie. “Alone.”

Cassidy nodded, but not necessarily because she wanted to go. She was willing to agree to just about anything if it meant getting Jonathan away from the pair of them. "You have my number." she told him, stepping back and glancing to Ellie.

"Uh, later."

She started to walk away, glancing at Ellie to make sure she was still following. As they walked, side-by-side, Cassidy kept her thoughts to herself, if only for a moment.

"Look...this isn't easy for either of us, but since we're sharing a dorm room we're going to have to establish a couple of things so we don't end up wanting to kill each other by the end of the semester." It wasn't hard to tell that Ellie was uncomfortable. Cassidy wasn't all that eager either. She would have preferred to be in a private room. "I mean, I'd like for us to be amiable, at least, but I won't bother you if you don't want to be."

She knew Ellie was the loner type, from what she'd gleaned from Sarah. In fact, Sarah hadn't much liked the girl, something that surprised Cassidy.

She couldn't help sensing that there had been mutual dislike.

Jonathan chuckled quietly. “Yes, I have your number,” he muttered, allowing his eyes to roam over Cassidy’s body as she walked away. “I definitely have your number.” As they disappeared around a corner, Jonathan ran a hand through his hair and turned to walk the other way, whistling to himself as he began planning.

Ellie fell into step beside Cassidy and dug her hands deep into her pockets, her shoulders hunched up as she listened. “Amiable,” she repeated, falling silent for a few steps. “Look, I’m not the type that enjoys slumber parties and gossiping and telling secrets and pillow fights and whatever else you normal girls do. It’s not my scene. I’m not looking for a friend, so don’t feel like you need to try to force yourself to like me. Previous roommates have found that pretending I don’t exist seems to work pretty well for them.”

"Well, I'm not going to ignore you, but I'm not going to paint your fingernails and play dress-up either."

She swallowed.

"Sometimes, it feels better knowing that there's someone out there to be lonely with."

She shifted her gaze to the ground, picking up a hand and running it through her hair. "But, like I said, wont' force anything on you."

A small snort escaped Ellie and she stared straight ahead as they walked. “Yeah. Like you’re lonely.” The scoff and disbelief was impossible to ignore.

A sudden flare of barely suppressed anger made her breath cut off in her throat.

"Oh, thank God. I thought I was going to have a boring room-mate who couldn't read my thoughts."

Rolling her jaw, she wordlessly stalked past Ellie, disappearing around the corner and on out of sight.

So much for the coffee date.

-----

Later on, Cassidy had her phone in-hand during class, shooting off a text to Alex that she felt was a necessary one to send.

Meeting up with Jon later since he asked. Going to the run down building. Meet us there around midnight so I don't have to suffer him by myself?

She breathed a sigh, sending the message and snapping the phone shut before tilting her head back against the back of her chair.