Are you okay?

"Hey, watch it!" I mutter, glaring at the bad undercut of the guy in front of me. Ugh, typical Monday, though of course it wouldn't be High School without a bunch of football guys shoving me straight into the wall. These freshmen really have no idea how to walk around other people.

"Are you okay?" A voice asks from behind me, and as I turn around I see a girl about my age standing there. She was the kind of girl with pale skin and blonde hair that you'd think would make her look like a washed out saltine, but it really just made her dark green eyes all the more striking. I stared at her, and even though I should know everyone in our high school, we do only have around 500 people here, I don't think I've ever seen her before. Weird.

Shaking myself out of my thoughts, I asked, "Sorry, what did you say?"

I noted the faint amused tilt to her head, long blonde hair sweeping over a shoulder as she hummed, "I just asked if you were okay. Those big football guys almost knocked you over!"

"Ha, I feel like that happens every day," I laugh, "You're the first one to ever say anything though." With this the girl gets almost an inquisitive look in her eye. I add, "Want to walk with me to Eighth period?"

She beams at me and strides forwards, saying exuberantly, "I'd love to!"

Over the course of the next few days, I learn that this mysterious girl is named Gladys, and she tells me that we actually share five of the same classes. Within the week, Gladys walks with me nearly every day, and I've come to enjoy spending time with her. After a month or so has passed, I feel like she's become one of my closest friends.

One day as I'm waiting in the library for Gladys, I feel my nose start to run. Absentmindedly I wipe it on my hand, only to pull it away and realize its bleeding. Ew. Now I have blood all over myself, and I have to go inside our musty, underfunded school library to find a tissue somewhere. I swear, some of the books here must be hundreds of years old. A few minutes later I'm in the midst of shoving Kleenex up my nose when the librarian waves me over with a tight smile on her face.

"Good morning, do you have any books to return? You have quite a few that are overdue," the librarian says hawkishly, adjusting her glasses and peering at me.

"Uh, I actually don't think I've checked out a single book this year, sorry," I say haltingly, glancing around for Gladys to pull me out of this awkward situation.

She sighs dramatically, shaking her head. "You know lying won't help you dear, I saw you here just yesterday reading those books on spirits and possession. Please bring the books in when you get the chance," she says, waving her hand dismissively.

Extremely confused, I get out of the library as quickly as possible, rushing to get to class before the bell rings. I have no idea what that librarian was talking about. I've never checked out a book from the school library before, so the librarian really must be mistaking me for someone else. I mean, what else could be going on, I just so happened to forget days at a time where I suddenly decided to read a bunch of weird books? Ha, yeah right.

By the time I make it to English the teacher has nearly started the lecture. Through muscle memory I begin to pull out my notes, but I pause when I see them. When did we start this unit? There are pages of notes in my own handwriting, but I have no recollection of any of them.

Just then I see Gladys across the room. I hope she isn't mad that I didn't wait for her, but as I wave across the room she gives me a small smile back. As the teacher starts explaining a new concept, I dutifully take new notes, simultaneously reading over the ones I could have sworn I didn't write.

By the end of the day I have a pounding headache, which may be connected to the fact that in all of my classes I have no memory of the past few topics we've supposedly learned about. On the other hand, I do have the corresponding notes and assignments already finished, so maybe I just have a bad memory?

When I finally get off of the bus I'm feeling a bit dizzy, and as I get to my house it's all I can do to get up the stairs and into my bedroom before falling straight onto my bed. Hopefully everything can be sorted out in the morning.

I wake up blearily to the alarm that reminds me of a dying bird with pneumonia, and rub my eyes. I groan and roll over to check my phone, but I can't find it anywhere. What the? I hear pounding footsteps on the stairs and then my mom pounds aggressively on my bedroom door.

"What!" I yell, my head starting to throb again.

"Young lady, we are not done talking about last night." She says, glaring at me with her hands on her hips.

I blink up at her. "What are you talking about? I literally got here right after the bus dropped me off! And where's my phone? Did you take it?

"Now don't act like you don't remember getting home at a quarter to midnight last night, without even letting us know where you'd gone!" My mom accuses, jabbing a finger in my direction, "Your father and I were worried sick about you, and now you have the nerve to act as though nothing has happened??"

I shake my head, confused, and tired. With the start of a migraine clouding my thoughts, and the pure emotional instability of being yelled at first thing in the morning, I end up bursting into tears. I've never seen my mom upset like this before, and the worst part is that I have no idea what she's talking about.

She visibly softens, saying, "Oh sweetie, I know you probably just made a mistake, but we do need to have consequences. For the next few weeks I'm going to drive you to school and back, and we are taking your phone as a punishment." Sighing, my mom adds, "I also scheduled a doctors appointment for all of these headaches you've been having, so I'll come get you around one o'clock during school today, okay?"

I nod, wiping my eyes, and she goes back downstairs calling over her shoulder, "Now eat your breakfast, we're leaving in thirty minutes!"

That morning of school goes by in a haze, my jumbled thoughts walking the same circles though my head for hours on end. What is going on? Why does my head hurt so much? Why can't I remember anything? My nose starts bleeding again during second period, and I can't get it to stop for more than five minutes at a time for the rest of the day. Gladys and all of my other friends are nowhere to be found, and I could almost scream in frustration. I feel like I'm going crazy, and I really just need a friendly face to talk to.

By fourth period, I give up on trying to keep up with class and I just ask to go to the nurses office. While I'm walking through the commons area, I see Gladys staring out the windows while sitting alone at a table. I could nearly cry with relief, I ran over to her so fast.

"Hey, are you okay?" She asks, reaching a hand out to rest on my shoulder. Oddly, before she touches me she looks at her hand and jerks it back towards her chest. I reach out anyways and grab her hand in mine, heaving a breath in to tell her everything, but then the world goes dark.

The next thing I remember is waking up in a bright room with the scent of antiseptic in my nose and a beeping monitor attached to my chest. I attempt to raise a hand to my head but it seizes up and all I can feel is stabbing agony. It's as though every muscle in my body unanimously decides to shred themselves into prices. Eventually the worst of the pain passes and I can make out the sound of soft sobs coming from the foot of my bed.

"G-gladys?" I choke out through a bone dry throat.

She turns a tear-streaked face to meet my eyes, crying quietly, "I never meant for this to happen. Please, you have to believe me, I never wanted to hurt you."

I blink against the harsh light, my brain struggling valiantly to orient myself. "Wh-What?"

"It was an accident the first time, I swear, we just brushed each other in the hallway! But, oh, I forgot what it felt like for people to see me, to be able to talk to someone outside of my own head. You, you were a start, but I wanted more." Gladys looks away with regret.

"Please, Gladys, what do you mean? What's happening to me?" My voice cracks, and my hands begin to shake. This can't be real, this can't be real, this can't be real, I think, feeling myself begin to spiral.

She stands abruptly but turns to look at me head on. "I did what I had to do. I was going crazy all alone. I did what I had to do in order for you to see me, but then when I realized I could become you..." A crazed gleam enters her eyes, and she frantically continues, "When we touch, see, I can become you. But your body isn't strong enough, its breaking down when you keep pushing me out, you need to just stop and then you'll be fine!" She lunges and grasps my hand, and then-

-The world is dark, and I float in an empty abyss. I can still hear crazed mutterings, saying, screaming distantly enraged, "No, no, NO, she was supposed to be THE ONE, why did she DIE!" But even though this voice sounds mad, I know it really doesn't matter anymore.

The world is so much more peaceful when you're dead.

Yes, I feel just fine.