Lost Girls

“I’m not sure what to do anymore.” I said, “Faith barley eats, she only leaves the house unless it’s to go to work. Whenever I go over there she’s just laying down staring at the wall.”

“We need to do something.” Zoey said, “She’s been like this for almost a month.”

“Can you blame her though?” Penny asked.

The three of us were sitting in my living room. I had invited Penny and Zoey over to figure out how we could help Faith.

“No. I don’t.” I said quietly.

This whole situation would have been bad just on its own but what happened right after Mike died made it 1000 times worse. Once Faith left the hospital, she called me and told me what had happened. Penny, Zoey, and I rushed to her apartment to comfort her. She was devastated but we all agreed she would get through this with time. It wasn’t until a few days later that things just started going up in flames. Faith called Sarah, Mike’s little sister, to get information about his funeral but Sarah didn’t answer her phone.

Eventually, Mike’s obituary was posted online with information about the funeral and visitation. The visitation was closed to family only. When Faith showed up the morning of the funeral, Maggie had her escorted out of the funeral home by the police and told her that if she saw her again that day she’d have her arrested and file a restraining order for her and her entire family. It caused a huge scene at Mike’s funeral and Faith told us that Sarah and Claire just stood and watched as this all went down.

Since then, Faith has been completely detached from everything around her and everyone. Penny, Zoey and I have tried so many things to try and get her out of the house. We offered to take her to see Mike’s grave and have our own little funeral for him but Faith refused.

I had gone to Faith’s apartment that morning, before Zoey and Penny met me at my place, and it was obvious she was getting worse, not better. I took Sasha outside and cleaned the dishes in the sink, I also tried to get Faith to shower and go for a walk but she just rolled over to the other side of her bed and said nothing. I opened the curtains in her bedroom so she’d at least get some sunshine before I left.

“We can’t force her to do anything.” Penny said, “She has to do it on her own. Maybe she’ll get better with more time. For now she IS functioning. She’s getting herself to work.”

“She hasn’t made any positive progress in a month.” Zoey pointed out, “The other day, I went over there and she was clutching one of his sweatshirts. It had been clear she’d been crying but she wouldn’t talk to me about it.”

“So, what can we do for her?” I asked.

“I don’t think there’s anything we CAN do for her right now. She’s grieving in her own way. I don’t know how I’d be able to function if Dan died let alone if I had been barred from his funeral.” Penny said.

“We just need to keep going over there and taking care of her. Letting her know we’re here for her.” Zoey said.

I didn’t like that plan. There had to be something more for us to do. And I was sure there was but it was risky. It could either completely destroy my friendship with Faith and make things worse for her or it could help her exponentially. I just wasn’t sure if I was ready to take such a risk. I looked at Penny and Zoey and thought about telling them what I had planned but decided it was best not to involve them, that way they had deniability if things hit the fan.

No. This was something I was going to have to do on my own.