Watched You Go

The Last Time Things were Good

They say when tragedy is about to strike, you feel like something is off. I'm not sure if thats true at all, however it sure as hell wasn't true for Ivy. That Tuesday felt no different from the rest. Ivy got ready to see her best friend Bernadette that night like she did every Tuesday night. She went to their normal diner and booth at the same time they always go. Bernadette is known for being a little late, so Ivy didn't think much of it all when the first twenty minutes passed. However, after half an hour went by she tried calling Bernadette since she never replied to her text saying she was there.
    After forty five minutes passed, Ivy called Bernadettes boss, Charles, who was Ivys old boyfriend. Charles told her Bernadette never showed up to work that day. The waitress Sandy came by for the third time, at this point even she was getting worried. She was an older woman with 70s styled blonde hair, and looked forward to seeing the girls every Tuesday. Sandy became fond of both of these women since they've been coming to the diner since they were 16 and could drive.
    While both Sandy and Ivy were discussing their concerns, they both realized how quiet the diner had become. They both looked up to see everyone standing with their eyes glued to the T.V. Neither Sandy nor Ivy could see past their heads, and the volume is always muted with subtitles. It wasn't until Ivy saw her phone ring that she began to understand. Her boyfriend Alex was calling, and he never called or texted her on Tuesday nights when she was out with Bernadette.
    "Alex?" Ivy said in a panicked tone. The entire room looked at her, some confused and others who either knew her and Bernadette from being regulars themselves, or just from town had sympathy written all over their face.
"Ivy," he began with sadness filling his voice, "Baby, please come home right now."
"Alex what's going on?" She asked choking back her tears. Ivy didn't know why she was crying, she just knew something awful happened and was scared.
"I will tell you once your home, just please hurry," even Alex sounded scared.
Ivy quickly grabbed her pocket book and stood up while trying to get a good look at the screen. The other customers moved out of the way for her to see. There was a photo of a beautiful young woman with her wavy light brown hair, chocolate brown eyes, and a kind smile staring back at her. Under the photo it said Missing. Bernadette was missing.

    When Ivy got home, she saw Alex pacing anxiously by the phone. When he heard the front door close behind her he ran up to her and picked her up giving her a bear hug. "I am so sorry Ivy," he said with his voice breaking, "do you have any idea what could have happened?"
    Ivy was practically limp in his arms. She just felt... numb. She couldn't think of a reason as to why Bernadette would disappear. She couldn't think of someone who could ever be angry enough at her to harm her. Bernadette is as uncommon as her name. She is the kindest person you could ever meet, and incredibly loyal to her friends. She was the type of girl who wouldn't hurt a fly, unless the fly was bothering one of her friends.
When Alex finally put his girlfriend down, he smoothed her straight blonde hair and tucked it behind her ears so he could cup her face with both of his hands. He stared into her blue eyes that had a tint of green in them, searching for any emotion in them. Ivy just stared back into his light brown eyes, she was completely void of emotion.
Alex expected her to be an absolute mess since Ivy and Bernadette had been friends since childhood. Alex knew Bernadette since freshman year of high school. She introduced them to each other thinking they would be the perfect couple. They began dating their sophomore year of high school, and are known around town for being high school sweethearts. The town was surprised when they lasted in college since they lived three hours away from each other for four years, but it didn't even seem like a challenge for them. They both graduated from college and moved in together last year. Everything was going perfect for them. 
Ivy was now staring at Alex in a trance, but once she broke it she looked around confused, not remembering where she was. "I'm going to bed" she said, her voice was very small.
"Have you eaten?" Alex asked not letting go of her face.
"I'm not hungry," Ivy said staring at the direction of their bedroom.
"You haven't eaten in hours, please just eat something small to have in your stomach," Alex pleaded.
"I don't think I am able to keep it down," Ivy responded, her voice still light.
Alex let go of her face deciding it was best to give her some room. "I'm sure B is fine hun," Alex said, the optimism in his voice was too forced.
"No, I think B is in some real trouble," Ivy said while walking into their bedroom.
She walked into their bathroom which is in their bedroom and in a daze put toothpaste in her toothbrush and turned on the faucet. Ivy stared at herself in the mirror for awhile unmoving, it was like she was looking at herself from somebody else's perspective. This just didn't feel real. Without even brushing her teeth or changing out of her ripped jeans or purple sweater, Ivy just turned off the lights and went to bed. She still felt like all of this was a dream.

Even though when Ivy was conscious and had no thoughts, her dream was the opposite. She remembered what happened last Tuesday, the last Tuesday when everything was normal.
That day Ivy showed up at the same time she normally does wearing a sky blue long sleeve shirt and black leggings. Bernadette showed up fifteen minutes late which wasn't unusual for her. Normally Bernadette was happy and cheerful when she came in, but something was different about that night. When Sandy came over to chat with the girls before taking their order, Bernadette just sat their silently until Sandy had asked what was wrong.
Bernadette put on a sad smile and just said "marriage problems."
Sandy gave her an empathetic smile and pat on the shoulder and said, "Its okay hunny, every marriage has its ups and downs, you guys will make it through this." Only people who were close with Bernadette could call her B and Sandy earned the right to do so many years ago but still acts motherly towards her.
"I don't think we will this time Sandy, but thank you," Bernadette never took the sad smile off of her face until Sandy said she will get their usual drinks and left.
"Hey, what's going on?" Ivy asked leaning over the table to touch Bernadettes hand.
"I swear the second we divorce all I'm going to hear from anybody is 'Well, you shouldn't have gotten married at such a young age. If you listened to everyone you would be happy and not divorced. No one will want a girl who is divorced.' I'll definitely get that lecture from my mother," Bernadette said with a humorless laugh and eye roll, leaning back against the booth crossing her arms over her chest.
Bernadette got married at 19 to a thirty year old man named Seth. He is very rich and dazzling. He has black hair with enchanting blue eyes and can make any girl swoon, especially with his sharp jawline. The relationship between Bernadette and Seth had never really been healthy. Seth could get any girl he wanted, both he and Bernadette knew that. The entire town knew that, which is why everyone was so surprised he chose her. She was very pretty, don't misunderstand, but looks wise nothing about her really stood out. One of the few secrets in their marriage that Ivy knew about was Seth threatened to leave her if she didn't marry him, and Bernadette decided to because he made her feel special. Until now.
"Whoa who said anything about divorce?" Ivy asked taken aback.
"Me. I'm going to divorce him."
    "What why? You love him!" Ivy wasn't even concerned about her voice carrying over because the diner was loud as usual and everything sounds like a jumble.
    "He's cheating on me," Bernadette said, disbelief filled her voice and and she laughed as she said it like even she couldn't believe he would do such a thing.
    "You caught him with another woman?" Ivy exclaimed, shocked herself. She didn't know much about their marriage, but she did know they did have more than their fair share if problems. But she still couldn't believe Seth was having an affair since he seems like such a religious man.
    Bernadette looked down almost ashamed, "no, I haven't caught him with anyone."
    "Then how do you know he's cheating?" She asked confused.
    "I swear its more than a gut instinct. I found out he bought some jewelry because the money was missing from our joint account. At first I thought it was for me, but six months went by, more jewelry was bought and never given to me. I also know around that time he started going on runs, but I'm telling you Seth would rather have his mother move in with us before he would ever consider doing cardio. And, when he comes back there's barley any sweat on his clothes, but they smell like my perfume."
    "So...you've been going through his dirty laundry and noticed his clothes smell like your perfume?" Ivy said skeptical.
    "I think he bought his mistress my perfume to wear so I wouldn't smell a difference. But why would his gym clothes smell like my perfume and not body odor? And, he's been coming home from work later each night, once again smelling like my perfume. Also, I found lipstick on his collar and noticed the shade was slightly off from my lipstick."
    "Okay, that makes sense. But he's obviously going to deny it and lie to you."
    "I know, I have no evidence to prove this. Even his phone is clean. But I know that he is cheating on me, and I'm going to call him out on it. At some point this week. Ill tell you how it goes next Tuesday," Bernadette said.
    "I'm dying to hear it," Ivy said, "and if you guys do separate, obviously feel free to move in with me and Alex so you don't have to live with your mother."
    "Thank you so much Ivy, it means a lot. But I won't intrude on you two. I've been saving up over the months so I'm going to move into a small apartment," Bernadette told her.
    The rest of the night flew by and was just normal conversation and Ivy ended up forgetting the entire thing, but when Ivy woke up the morning after her friend went missing, she recalled it all.