"Why would I do that?" Jessica snorted. She seemed to be wide awake. At this hour? What was she doing?

"Please? I'll do anything. I need Elly."

"Anything?"

"Yes, within reason,"

"Make sure she lives." I was silent for a minute. How did she know?

"I plan on it."

"Okay. Write it down. 555-328-3215"

"Thank you so much Jessica. I owe you one," I said and hung up. I dialed the number I wrote on the nearest notepad and gave it a try.

"Why are so many people calling me?!" Elly's voice yell through the phone on the third ring.

"Elly? It's Shawn. Becca's at the hospital. I-"

"What?! What happened?"

"Just, give me JJ's number. I'll meet you at Western Rose Hospital. I need his number," I spoke with a calming tone.

"Yeah, okay. JJ's number is 555-867-5309. I'll see you in ten."

"I'm at gate two by the way."

"Kk. I'll be there."

I sighed and hung up. I was shaking, thinking about Becca's screams. They echoed in my head on repeat. I dialed JJ's number and he picked up on the fourth ring.

"Hello?"

"JJ? It's Shawn. Becca's at the hospital-"

"What?!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll explain when you get here. Western Rose Hospital. Gate two. Asap," I hung up. He needed to get here soon.

I ripped the paper into tiny shreds when Elly arrived at the same time as JJ. Gilinsky showed up as well. After I explained what happened, Elly spoke up.

"That's weird. Why did she call you first? I don't have any missed calls from her. Just from those stupid scams."

"Yeah. Me too. Wasn't she mad at you the other day?" JJ asked. "She seemed pretty pissed with you."

"Yeah, I know. I'm just as surprised as you are," I said. Elly sat down next to the chair I previously sat in. JJ and Gilinsky sat next to the other side of me.

"We should tell him," Elly said.

"No. It's not right without Becca," JJ argued. Gilinsky was on his phone, not paying much attention.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Come on. She brought it up with him during gym. Zoey was in the same class, and she told me what happened after school," Elly was shaking.

"Whatever, you tell him. If Becca's mad, it's not my fault," JJ folded his arms.

Elly turned towards me.

"I'm going to tell you Becca's story. Now, mind you, this shouldn't change how you feel about her or give you any mixed signs, okay? She'd want you to know.

"So, in seventh grade, Becca moved here from New York. She was really sad that she left because she loved the big city. She always gushed about it. Sometimes, we'd go down to Seattle just for the week, so she could feel like home again.

"She never liked it at that middle school. Nobody did. She had the worst teachers and nothing there was helpful. She was actually depressed for a while.

"Anyway, JJ and I had the same classes with her. She was always quiet and sat in the back. JJ and I were already friends at the time, and G here always hung with us at times.

"Jessica in middle school was the same Jessica as now. Venomous and conniving. But, Becca fell for it. Jessica and Becca were best friends. Jessica made Becca to who she was. She was on the Junior Cheerleading team. It was always Jessica and Becca. That's all you would ever hear in the halls. They were the schools 'Kardashians' you could say.

"One day, they team had a sleepover. Becca didn't tell me with until a few years ago, actually. Well, Jessica body shamed Becca, you could say. Jessica noticed that Becca needed a bigger sized uniform, and thought that would be bad for the 'image' of the skinny team. But, Becca was so skinny already, that her own Mother thought she was anorexic.

"She gave Becca laxatives, as a present. Becca took them. She became bulimic for a about half a year." Elly sniffed. She was crying at the thought. I could almost cry myself for being so blind to all of this.

"It wasn't until the end of the year JJ and I noticed something with Jessica and Becca. We were always aware of them. We knew how Jessica was.

"We had a plan. We followed Becca. All day. She went into the girls bathroom, and-" Elly paused. I could see the tears in her eyes. One rolled down her cheek. One after another, after another.

"She was lying there. Nothing but rags and bones," JJ said. His face was red, as if he just saw it again. His hand scratched his chin, as if he was trying to cover his whimpering mouth.

JJ started to tell the story now.

"We told her we'd be her friends. We promised her that we would take care of her the right way. We bet that we could fix her.

"And we tried. We actually became really close. Jessica was furious we took her away, and she would call Becca terrible things. She still body shames her, but we've put up a wall.

"We love Becca so much. I didn't think she would trust us this much, or even let us in. But, we were all she had left.

"When you came to school not even a week ago, she knew that Jessica would try and make you on her side. She had many attempts before, and we took them before she did. All the guys are our table? Guess who they fell for?

"Anyway, Becca was so mad at herself for not getting to you first. She would write down her anger in a red notebook after school on the bleachers. She wouldn't let us see it. But, you just happened to be there, so she took matters into her own hands. She tried to warn you about Jessica, but you already fell."

I had tears in my eyes. All of us did. Gilinsky got up half way through the story to take a breather. I put my head in my hands, resting my elbows on my knees, crying. I couldn't hold it in anymore. It was like a wall I built up was tumbling down.

"It was all my fault. I shouldn't have even talked to Jessica," I sobbed. My palms started to flood. I didn't know I could cry this much.

"It's not," Elly said. She put her hand in my hunched back, rubbing up and down.

"Becca told me something once," JJ spoke up, filling the silence. "'The best part about life is that you can love anyone you want. The worst part is, so can everyone else,'" JJ murmured to himself. His face was still red, trying to be calm, but failing miserably.

"Gilinsky always gets mad when I tell that story. Mostly because he had a huge crush on Jessica in elementary school," Elly chuckled to herself. "Don't think he doesn't care about this. He just doesn't like showing his emotions."

We all sat there, crying our hearts out for Becca. Carts rolled down the hall and machines beeped, but I still had a question.

"What was she doing on a motorcycle at one in the morning?"