An Excerpt of Short Story "Indifferent"
- realshepower
- Sep 17, 2019
- 3 min read
By Dena Elerian
Since Bianca died, life changed for me. It was like a tsunami had wiped out an entire town and I was the sole survivor left to rebuild and start over again. Therapy has been helping a little but it’s only part of my rebuilding.
The one thing to ensure that my friend Bianca’s death was not in vain is to make sure that no one in my community ever would be pushed to do what she did. I never wanted to face a tsunami again.
Bianca became a statistic the month of August. It has been a few years now, but it seems like yesterday. It was the week before classes started up again. She had walked to the top of a parking garage and climbed on top of the ledge. She didn’t die from the fall but died on the way to the hospital. It would take a year of investigation for them to truly discover what had motivated herto commit suicide.
When it initially happened, there wasn’t a suicide note or even a cryptic “goodbye” text. So, without knowing the true reason for why she did it, I would be left with just memories that still haunt my dreams every night. I wish she would have told me more.
Bianca and I were sophomores when the bullying started. The bullies were named Ashley, Tamba, Bambi, Tiffany, and my old friend Travis. One of the reasons why I constantly try to reach out to him is because if he is truly sorry for what happened to Bianca, he would go to a club meeting at least once. The group would usually torment her when neither school personnel nor I were around. I did witness their bullying and harassment sometimes, however. Travis usually ganged up with one of the other girls since he rarely picked on Bianca by himself.
Travis and I have a strange history. We used to be friends in elementary school together. We hung out in art class, then any time we could be together, and we helped each other out. At some point, he drew away from me. He became more interested in sports than in art class. I’d ask him to hang out with me and he’d refuse then tell me he had to go. He seemed to lose his sensitive side and then he somehow became who he is today. I sometimes have some hope for him, but most of the time I know better. Travis was the only one who wasn’t convicted to jail time. His family had the better lawyers, I assume. That and the only saving grace he has is that he revealed that his female friends were the ones involved in the cyberbullying & telling Bianca to “go kill herself”. He insisted that he was “encouraged to tease Bianca” and “sometimes forced to, even when he got tired of it”. He insisted and swore under oath that he’d never tell someone to kill themselves. He also testified in court that he had “never meant to make her suffer” and he thought she was “a sweetheart”. That last statement stood with me long after the trial ended.
I confronted him about his statement in court when we had returned to school only months after the trial.
“Why did you bully Bianca if you thought she was a ‘sweetheart’?!”
He was silent.
I stormed up to him, ready to attack him.
“Answer me!” I demanded.
There were crowds of people surrounding us now.
“Listen. Bianca was a sweet girl but let’s face it now: she was a coward.”
“I should have stood up for her,” Travis frowned, “I should have never let it get as far as it did.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“Bianca she was…” Travis softly spoke, “She is…I…”
“Telling me won’t make any difference,” I blurted.
