Summary: Jou is tired of his life--his father, the drinking, the lack of money, everything. He copes, but not in a way that anyone should try at home... Rated for things that you'll read about later! (Jou's POV)

I sit on my bed, curled up into a little ball. The pain is unbearable--the emotional pain as well as the physical pain.

I am tormented by everyone, everyone besides Zumi. But I don't really think that she likes me. She's probably just fooling around, to hurt me. Everyone else does, and why should this be any different?

It's not fair. My father drinks. That's about it, besides when he's beating me. His hobby is drinking about five beers and then consuming about three shots of hard liquor in less that 30 minutes, and then beating me up. It hurts, and it's constant. There's never been a time in my life when I haven't been covered in bruises, cuts, abrasions, and whatnot.

So I cut. It's the greatest release in the world, except for the fact that once, you get hooked, you can't stop. And it leaves bad scars... The scars are the worst part of it. I had to go into Serenity's make-up bag to get her foundation, so that I can cover them up. Back when I first started, Yugi found them on my left arm, and I told him it was from a cat attack. I think he believed me.

I uncurl my legs and sit up, a little too quickly. I feel dizzy, and against the will of my mind and body, stand and walk to my desk.

I open the drawer. Inside is a CD case, the type that hold four CD's in one page; inside there is definitely NOT CD's.

I unzip the case. I see my collection of rubber bands, gauze pads, medical tape, razor blades, and a blade that came with my pencil sharpener.

I take out a razor blade; it's clean as a whistle and it gleams in the light of my small desktop lamp.

The blade draws a thin line on my arm that's about two inches long. The blood doesn't rise out of the wound for a few seconds, but when it does, it doesn't stop.

I take a gauze pad and some medical tape and tape the gauze to my arm. I put a rubber band over the gauze, so it will put pressure on the wound. I then clean my blade and relpace everything that I took out, zip up the case, and put it back in my desk drawer.

I walk to my closet and pull out my old green jacket. It's starting to wear out, and I need a new one badly. But I guess that's the price I have to pay for being poor...

I walk out the front door of our half of the duplex, which is small enough to be a single house for a family of three, but it was cheap, and our family needed a place to stay. I'm heading to Yugi's, for he is the closest thing I have to a friend in this hellhole that everyone else calls "the world."

I knock on Yugi's door. It's a small apartment above the game shop, but it's only for Zumi and Yugi--their grandfather, Sogoraku, died of lung cancer last December. That was around the time that all this madness began.

Zumi comes to the door. It looks like she's been crying, as her mascara seems to be running.

"Hi, Joey. I need to talk to you once you get inside," she says, and her shoulders start to shake--she's crying again. I hope it's not over me...

I follow her inside and sit on the tiny couch. "What's wrong, Zumi? You've been crying," I say, my voice alarmingly calm.

She gets a mug - filled with green tea, which she drinks when upset - and sits beside me on the couch.

"Joey, I--I, er, know about your, um, problem. Your arms..." Her voice trails off, and her eyes well up with tears.

I look away. "What about my arms? No need to cry, they're just arms, Zumi."

Zumi reaches for my cheek and turns my head back to face her. "Joey, I know that you cut. And I'm prepared to help you stop. You see, I used to, and..." She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and rolled up her sleeves. On the inside of her arms were many cut marks, and a few eraser marks. She showed me the backs of her hands, which were covered on inch-long eraser marks.

As I looked at her arms, I reached out to touch one. "Zumi, when did you..."

"About a year ago. When I found out that Grandpa had terminal cancer. My whole world was crashing down, because my parents were long gone, and now Grandpa. He was the closest thing that I'd ever had to a parent, and he was slowly dying. I just stopped about six weeks ago," she almost-whispered.

I stared into her eyes in shock. "How did you find out?"

Zumi looked ashamed. "Well, when you asked me to go in your room and get your Duel Monsters deck the other day, I went into your drawer. I'd already had my suspicions, because you were acting like I had used to. Joey, forgive me for snooping, but I want you to get better. I've known you for eight years, and I really love you" Zumi said looking at the wad of tissue in her hand.

Someone walked into the store then ran upstairs. Zumi's eyes followed Kay as she walked into Yugi's room. I had a feeling Kay had said something to her with her mind. Zumi looked back at me, her eyes are still filled with pain. There was a thud from Yugi's room followed by two screams. Zumi gazed at the door as if in a trance.

"What was that?" I asked.

"I don't even wanna know" Zumi said.

Kay and Yugi came out of the room. Kay was wrapped in a pillowcase and Yugi was wrapped up in a sheet.

"ACK! I did not need to see my brother and giri-no-shimai dressed in various pieces of bedclothing! You guys need to go back to Bobo-land or wherever it is you came from!" Zumi yelled.

"Ryto. Anyways, you guys need to talk, obviously, so we'll leave you to, er, talk..." Kay said, and she and Yugi walked back into their room.

I looked at Zumi. "You do? Really, you really love me?" I asked, half sarcastically and half surprised, because at the moment, I was feeling both.

Zumi looked back into my eyes. I guess she'd heard the sarcasm in my voice, because she looked slightly annoyed. "Yes, Joey Wheeler. I've never felt this way about anyone before, and that tone of voice is not really the one you should use when the sister of your best friend in the world tells you that she loves you."

I felt a blush creeping up into my cheeks. "Well, I'm sorry. It's just that no one really cares about me, and--"

Zumi looked at me with an air of yes-they-do and said "Well, you're wrong. Sure, your dad might not, that's obvious, but I do. And Kay and Yugi do. We all love you, Joey. Some of us just do more than others, that's all..." She grabbed another tissue and continued her speech. "If you feel that no one cares about you at home, come stay here where people do."

I was taken by surprise at this comment. Not that I hadn't been before, but this was more surprising than anything that I'd heard today.

Kay was listening through Yugi's door to hear what Zumi and I were saying.

"Kay you know it's bad to listen to people's conversation" Yugi said sitting on the bed.

"Yugi, you are sooo right… Why listen when I can read their minds" Kay said about to go in a trance.

"That's not what I meant Kay" Yugi said smacking his forehead.

"I know… but that's why you love me!" Kay said with a big anime smile.