Chapter Three

Ada’s ears were ringing. Suddenly she felt someone grab her arm.

“Are you okay?” Ewan’s voice questioned, concerned. He placed his hand on the side of her face, caressing the bruise that started to form.

She couldn’t do anything but stare at him as her throat started to burn. There was blood covering his hands and splattered on his face. Ada’s eyes start to roam.

“Don’t look.” He says, getting in front of her line of sight.

The police had already made it inside and had Jessie in handcuffs. They must’ve rushed inside as soon as the gun went off. Before she knew what was happening or how to process everything, Ewan was torn away from her as both were escorted out of the building and unable to speak or see each other.

After a one night stay at the hospital, Ada was allowed to go home with a couple of stitches in her right arm, some cuts and bruises, and a horrendous headache that was accompanied by aches and pains throughout her body. The police were constantly visiting her while she was in the hospital. The store clerk who was also a college student and a 17-year-old who would have been starting his senior year of high school named Jason were both murdered that night in the store and Ada was the unfortunate victim who witnessed it all.

One gunman, four hostages, and two survivors; the most high-profile case in the community; which of course meant that every news media outlet wanted an interview with the victims. Ada wasn’t sure if Ewan ever received any calls or if he was being harassed by the media as much as she was, but she knew that she wanted nothing to do with it. She wanted nothing more than to forget about everything that happened.

The first night back home Ada’s mother put her on lockdown, not that she wanted to go anywhere anyway. She couldn’t sleep at all when she was at the hospital. Every time the door opened from police, her mother, or doctors and nurses, Ada believed Jessie would be there to finish what he had started. She hoped that once she got home, things would be better, but being home didn’t make her problems better either.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Tanya asks her daughter with concern.

“I’m just tired,” Ada responded. “I think I’m just gonna go to my room and try to rest.”

Tanya hugs her daughter.

Ada starts to feel tightness in her chest from her mother’s touch and lightly steps out of the hug.

“Well, I’m gonna be here if you need anything. My boss told me under the circumstances he’ll let me stay home with you for a couple of days.”

Ada stares at her mom in surprise. “You’re taking time off work?” This was unlike her mother. “Can you afford to do that?” Some worry started to fill within her.

“Don’t worry about it, honey,” Tanya replied. “I’ll switch some things around. You just focus on feeling better, okay?”

Her daughter nods in response and walks to her bedroom.

The room was still littered with open candy wrappers, old soda cans, and other trash from her movie marathon night with Emma. While inside her small, quiet, purple bedroom, she started to feel uneasy. It was too quiet.

As she lay in her bed staring at the ceiling, everything from that night started to run through her mind. She turned over, staring at the wall, trying to think of anything other than that horrible night. But she started to feel panicked. The walls of her bedroom appeared to be closing in on her as her ears started ringing and she could hear her heartbeat.

Every little bump or knock would make her jump in fright.

Her mother knocked on her bedroom door and cracked it open. “Are you asleep?” Tanya questioned. “Are you okay?” She asked rushing to her daughter’s bedside. “Calm down, sweetie.” Her mother said, touching her.

Ada recoils from her mother, trying to find her voice.

Tanya appeared hurt by her daughter reacting to her presence in this manner.

“I-I-I’m fine.” Ada stammered. “N-need to take a bath.” She was finally able to choke out before bolting to the bathroom and locking herself inside. Splashing her face with cold water from the sink, Ada stared at herself in the mirror.

What is happening to me? She thought to herself.

A knock at the bathroom door made her jump with fright and a squeak to escape her lips.

“Is everything all right?” Tanya’s voice bellowed from the other side of the door.

“Yeah, mom. I’m fine.”

“Emma wanted to know if you would for her to stay over tonight. Maybe it would help you get your mind off things?”

“No, I’ll be okay, mom,” Ada called out. “I just want to try and get some rest.”

After her mother was expected to go back to work, these incidents were even worse for Ada. Every little noise would scare her. She would wander around the house alone and scared as she checked to make sure every door and window was locked. Every hour her routine was the same thing; making sure she was alone and the house was still locked uptight.

Ada felt silly, because of this, and thought that she should be used to everything by now since a few days had passed. But, every hour as she roamed her house, her breath would catch in her throat as her heart raced and pains would shoot through her chest.

Sleep was also a novelty for her to come by. When she did manage to fall asleep, she would wake up sweating and nauseated from the nightmares of Jessie. Every time she closed her eyes she was back in the store with Jessie. Instead of sleeping at night, she stays up drawing, reading, and watching movies to pass the time.

Even though she tried to occupy her time with various activities, her mind couldn’t stop wandering back to Jessie, but most importantly, Ewan, her hero. She didn’t get to talk to him after the incident. She had no way of contacting him, to even thank him for what he did.

She often wonders if he has the same troubles she has now.

Ada couldn’t even escape into the TV because the event from that night is all that would play. Even during commercial breaks, the news would break in for a few minutes to discuss it further.

“Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it?” Tanya questions her daughter with concern one day as they watched television together in the living room. “It may help to talk to someone. If not me or Emma, then maybe a therapist?”

“No, mom. I’m fine, honestly.” Ada replied, trying her best and failing to reassure her mom.

To Ada’s surprise, her mother was so overwhelmed with guilt and fear, that she didn’t lecture Ada or punish her for being at the gas station that late at night. Her mother wasn’t happy about it, and yes, there was a lot of anger about her daughter’s actions, but overall, Tanya was just relieved her child was safe.

Tanya let out a defeated sigh. “Then how about you eat some dinner? You have hardly touched any of your food since.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Well, you still need to eat even if you don’t feel hungry.”

“Coming on the six o’clock news,” the TV news anchor broke through their conversation. “an exclusive interview with Emma Harp. The girl who valiantly called 9-1-1 while her best friend, Ada Mitchell, was held hostage inside a local gas station with three others.”

"What the—" Ada began, enraged.

Tanya hurriedly turned off the television. "Now Ada—"

“I am going to kill her!” she continued, fuming.

“Calm down, honey,” Tanya replied feeling frazzled.

“She knows damn well she has no right!”

“We don’t know why Emma did that, but honey, you know she wouldn’t do it unless she has good reason to.” Tanya continued, trying to keep her daughter calm.

“What could possibly be a good reason? I told her that I wanted nothing to do with all this attention!”

“Honey,” Tanya began in a calm and caring voice. “I’m not saying what she did was right or fair, but Emma isn’t the type to do something unless it’s for a specific purpose. She’s your best friend. I’m sure she didn’t talk to them just to intentionally hurt you.”

“No, a best friend does NOT do this.”

“Well if the attention is put on her, then isn’t that a good thing?” Tanya countered.

“No,” Ada stated incredulously. “Because she is still attracting unwanted attention to me. Emma is talking about me. She is trying to make herself important and appear to be the victim when she was outside safe. She wasn’t the one who had a gun pointed in her face! She didn’t have to see a person die! She wasn’t the one that was almost raped!”

Tanya looked at her daughter in horror. She knew that her daughter was locked inside the store with a gunman, but she didn’t know that her daughter had a gun in her face, nor did she know that Luke was standing in front of her as he died, or that there was a possibility that her daughter could have been raped.

Ada let out a sigh as tears started to form in her eyes. She didn’t intend on telling her mother about all of that. Feeling sick at her stomach, Ada gets up off the couch. “I think I’m gonna go up to bed.”

Tanya’s eyes fill with tears. She starts to reach for her daughter, to hug her but then sits back down remembering how her daughter flinched away from her.

*******

Emma tried contacting Ada every day since her interview. Tanya would answer the phone and make up some excuse as to why her daughter wouldn’t answer Emma’s calls.

“Ada, she wants to apologize and explain why she spoke to them.”

“I don’t have any interest in hearing it.” Ada responds as she continues reading her book as she shuffles her breakfast around on her plate, trying to make it appear that she was “eating.”

Tanya stared at her dumbfounded. “What are you going to do when she tries talking to you at school today?” She answered, taking a sip of her coffee.

“I don’t know,” Ada replied with aggravation.

The first day of school was rough for Ada. She stares at the massive, pristine two-story private school, Schifter Academy, which she has attended since Pre-K. A school where everyone appears to be a carbon copy of one another in their matching uniforms and strict dress code. Everyone had to wear button-down white shirts while the boys wore navy blue dress pants and the girls wore navy blue plaid skirts.

The entire student body was standing outside the building, some off in the grass in their circles, talking; others were standing on the many concrete steps which led up to the school; some were standing with their friends on the sidewalk of the property. All of whom were waiting for the bell to ring to signal them inside to start their school day.

Exhaustion consumed Ada before she even set foot on campus. In the past week, she believes she only slept for maybe five hours total.

She slowly starts to walk through the crowd of peers that were staring at her. All of the students were gawking at her as if she were an alien lifeform casually strolling amongst them. She was climbing up the front steps, as she heard a voice start shouting behind her.

“Ada, wait up!” Emma barks from behind.

She turns to look at Emma, stone-faced as she tries to justify her actions.

“Look, I’m sorry about the whole interview thing.” She starts apologetically. "I know that you didn’t want the whole media attention thing. I get it, but you have to understand—"

“I don’t have to understand anything.” Ada started angrily. “I told you I wanted nothing to do with any of this!”

“Just because you don’t want to talk about it doesn’t mean no one else can!” Emma retorts with ferocity.

“You don’t know what the hell went on in there. You have no idea the shit I went through and the things I had to see.”

“Of course I don’t know! You won’t talk about it to anyone!”

“Thankfully I didn’t because it would’ve been all over the evening news!”

Emma stares at her friend guiltily.

“You had no right to talk to anyone,” Ada states, glaring at her with intensity. “Of course, you can never stand when the attention isn’t on you.”

“That’s not what I was doing!” Emma retorts in astonishment. “That interview brought in a lot of money that my family desperately needed! Are you really so selfish with your perfect life that you won’t allow someone else to earn a little from your silence? You won’t talk, so they went to someone they could convince would!”

Ada let out a sigh. “Oh my God, do you seriously think that justifies your actions?” She continued. “Well, if you really think that I am selfish with a perfect life then I guess there is honestly no point in talking to you at all.” She huffs as she starts to make her way into the school.

“I’m not done talking to you!” Emma responds angrily, grabbing Ada’s left arm.

Ada feels as if she just had the wind knocked out of her from Emma’s touch. “Don’t touch me!” She screams while swinging a punch, catching Emma in the cheek. A mix of emotion came from the onlookers; some gasped in shock, while others laughed.

Emma lay on the ground, staring at Ada with hurt and anger. A dumbfounded look plastered to her face.

Ada stands over her, rage burning in her eyes as she calmly says, “If you see me, walk the other way.” Her nostrils flared. “Do not talk to me and do not try to contact me in any way. I do not want to see your face ever again.”

She walks back down the steps, crossing the street with everyone leering at her. Ada calls her mom as she continues home. Unsurprisingly, Tanya doesn’t answer. It’s rare if Ada can get ahold of her when she isn’t in her vicinity, so she decides to leave a voicemail.

“Hey mom, I’m calling to let you know I’m not at school. I’ll tell you about it when you get home. Sorry, I love you.” Ada hangs up and continues her walk home alone.

As she started to calm down, the anger she felt melt away, but her breathing started to become erratic and pain started in her chest, she felt like she was having a heart attack.

Once she made it home, she went to the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face. Just as she started to feel semi-normal, her mother burst through the front door in a huff.

“Why did your school call me about a fight with Emma, of all people!? And that you walked off campus without permission?”

"Look, what I did—I lost my temper when I punched Emma, I’m sorry, but—"

“You punched her?” Tanya’s voice hit a high decibel in complete amazement.

Ada looked down. “Yes.” She replied with a small voice.

“What is going on with you?” Her mother questioned absentmindedly. “No, I don’t mean that,” she retorts while waving her hand when she noticed the look on Ada’s face. “I just meant that it’s the first day of school. How do you go in and get into so much trouble before the school day even starts?”

“Well, it’s not like that was my intention,” Ada states as she slumps down on the couch. “Before I even walked onto campus, everyone was staring at me like I was some sort of freak or something. And then Emma started on how her family has nothing and how our lives are so perfect. I just lost control of my temper.”

Tanya’s expression softened. “I know you know better, which is why I’m not exactly mad. I mean, I am disappointed, but what are you gonna do? You have to go to school.”

Ada let out a defeated sigh as she thought for a moment. “What if I were to go to public school instead?” She questions excitedly.

“Wait, no. Ada, the school you are going to right now is the best one in the state.”

“Yeah, and I’ve been going there since I was in Pre-K. It’s not like I’m exchanging schools because the work is too difficult; my grades are a reflection of that.”

Tanya looks at her daughter skeptically. “I don’t know, Ada. You can’t run away from all of your problems.”

“But this would be perfect!” Ada replied in excitement. “You won’t have to work all the time to pay for my tuition.”

Her mother was not very happy about this explanation. “Ada, do you seriously think I care whether I have to pay for your education?”

She looks at her mother pleadingly. “Mom, would you honestly want me to stay at a school where I was an outcast? Where everyone stares at me funny for being a part of a horrible event that I had no control over?”

Tanya let out an exasperated sigh. “I’ll think about it.”

“That’s all I ask.” Ada pleaded.