Summary: This follows the life of Scott Barringer in the few months before Horizon when everything goes completely out of control.

Warnings: Language, drug use, mentions of child abuse.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for Jason and Rachel). Don't sue please:D

((New characters))

Jason Howard: 17 years old. He is tall and skinny with naturally messy hair. Parents are divorced and he lives with his father who is verbally and physically abusive. He is friends with Scott and Rachel.

Rachel Blackwell: 16 years old. She is tall and thin with short black hair. She moved in next door to Scott about a year ago and they've become good friends over. She doesn't know exactly what is going on at home with Scott, but seems to be one of the few to see through the mask that he puts up.

Chapter 1
Thursday Night

"Lets go do something. Someone's gotta be having a party somewhere," Scott said, a cigarette hanging from his lips. Him, Jason and Rachel were hanging out in Jason's basement. It was only Thursday night, but Jason's dad wasn't home so they had the whole house to themselves.

"It's Thursday, dumbass. No one is going to be having a party. Not a good one anyway." Rachel said, throwing a pillow at Scott and successfully hitting him in the face.

"Why don't we just hang here? We could watch a movie or something." Jason suggested. "It's supposed to storm later anyway."

"So? The party is inside." Scott said, throwing the pillow back at Rachel.

"Or, we could just throw our own party." Jason said with a smirk as he held up a bag of white powder and tossed it to Scott. Just then they heard a car drive into the driveway.

"Shit! My dad's wasn't supposed to get back until late!" Jason said. "You guys gotta get out of here... If he sees you here he'll..." He didn't finish his statement.

"It's cool, we'll sneak out." Scott said, somewhat sympathetically. He knew all the crap that Jason's dad did to him and knew that if they got caught here it would be extremely bad for him.

They made it out the front door just as Jason's dad came in through the back door. Scott felt bad leaving him, but there really wasn't anything that they could do. Scott had tried to help him out a few times, but it just seemed to make the beatings worse.

"Where do you wanna go?" Scott asked as they walked down the street. In was almost dark and the clouds were threatening to pour out any minute.

"We should just go home. It's gonna start raining any second." Rachel said as they continued walking in the direction of their houses. Luckily, they didn't live too far from Jason's house.

"So how are things? At home, I mean..." Rachel asked. She worried about Scott. She could tell that he was hiding something. He would hardly admit it to anyone, but she could see the pain in his eyes.

"You know..." Scott said. "Same as always, I guess." He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't really want to talk about it."

"Ok." Rachel said sadly.

They walked the rest of the way home in silence. They reached Scott's house first, but Scott kept walking.

"Um, where are you going?" Rachel asked, a little confused, as she stopped walking in front of her house. "Your house is that way," she added, pointing a finger behind her.

"Yeah, I know." Scott said, taking sudden interest in the concrete. "I can't go in there."

"Oh..." She said. She wasn't sure why he didn't want to go home, but she decided not to push the subject any further. "Where are you going to go?"

"I don't know. I figured I could walk around. Kill some time."

"You can't stay out here. It's going to rain."

"Well I can't go in there." He said, referring to his house. She could tell he was getting annoyed.

"Come over to my house. You can stay for a while... If you want."

Scott smiled. "Your parents wouldn't care?"

"Please, my parents love you. Besides, we'll just tell them we're studying or something." She also smiled. "Come on." She grabbed his hand and led him into the house.

After saying hi to her parents, the two headed upstairs to Rachel's room.

"That was easy. Your parents must really trust you." Scott said, lying on his back on her bed and putting his hands behind his head. He wished his family were more like Rachel's...

"Yeah, something like that." Rachel replied as she lay down next to Scott.

They stayed like that for a while, not saying much, but both enjoying each other's company. Rachel was slipping in and out of sleep when she felt Scott sit up. She watched him as he ran his hands through his hair and then took out the bag of cocaine that Jason gave him earlier.

"What are you doing?" Rachel asked. She glanced at the clock and saw that it was already past midnight. Her parents must have fallen asleep or something, otherwise they would've made Scott go home by now.

"What does it look like?"

"It looks like you're running away from your problems."

"Don't start with that, Rachel. It's not like I'm a junkie or anything," Scott said as he poured some of the powder onto her desk and divided it into two lines. He took out a dollar bill from his pocket and rolled it up, using it to sniff up both lines of cocaine.

"I just don't see why you do that stuff. I mean, these are supposed to be the 'best years of our lives'. I would at least want to remember it..."

"Try being me and then we'll talk." Scott said as he wiped his nose as tilted his head back, closing his eyes tightly.

Rachel sighed. She knew there was no point in arguing with him while he was high.

"Just make sure you clean that stuff up. If my parents find that stuffthey'll crucify me." She said seriously. She watched Scott wipe of the desk with his hand.

"Look, it's as good as new." He said before standing up. "I better get home before my dad calls a search party." He walked to the door and opened it. Pausing before leaving he added, "Thanks, Rach... for everything." He gave her a small smile and then left. She wished he would stop using. Whatever it was that was hurting him, she hoped he would get help fast, before he ended up hurting himself even worse.