"Okay I need a volunteer." Taylor's science teacher announces to the class as he places two containers with liquid and cotton balls on the empty table next to her. Being in advanced earth science meant she didn't have any of her friends of siblings in the class leaving the seat next to her empty.

"Taylor, you're right here you can do it." The teacher decided as he continued to set up the experiment.

Taylor rolled her eyes, it was the eighth block of the day and there was only twenty minutes left of class, she had just been about to mentally check out of the class when her teacher decided he wanted her, the only kid who didn't volunteer, to be the one that helped with this experiment.

"Okay, pull up your sleeves." The teacher instructed.

Taylor just quickly shook her head, "What, why? No!" She said no more forcefully than she meant to but she just kept thinking back to the fresh scars from last night. She really didn't want to display her cut up arms to the entire class and her teacher for some stupid science grade. Plus she was pretty sure it was required for her teachers to report back to the vice principal or principal or someone if a teacher found out that a student had been cutting. And it wasn't even just her vice principal, it was her mother. Someone she couldn't disappoint with her weak need to cut.

"Taylor, could I talk to you real quick after class?" The teacher asked after Taylor had refused to pull up her sleeves and participate in the experiment.

"I, uh, I don't have long. I think my mom wants me to hurry so we can get home. Family dinner or something tonight." Taylor lamely came up with an excuse trying to get away without talking to her teacher.

"This won't take long, I promise I'll let your mom know why you were late." The teacher tried to reassure her as he closed the classroom door. Shit, Taylor thought, she knew a closed door meant the teacher wanted to ask her something "personal" and expected her to answer, "honestly."

"Why were you so reluctant to participate today during the experiment?" The teacher asked, he obviously didn't take the same course all her other teachers had of, "if you wanted to ever talk to me, this is a safe space to do so" crap.

Taylor shrugged, "I don't like participating in situations of which I don't know what's going to happen. When someone tells me to expose any part of my body so they can do some sort of experiment, I don't like the fact that I'm not in control. I now know it was only water and rubbing alcohol," Taylor paused, which would have practically caused me to cry from pain if you have ever seen how many cuts I have on my arm she thought before returning her attention to the teacher. "I would have participated had I understood that was all it was and why we were conducting this experiment in class. I'm sorry and will try to participate more the next time." She apologized with a fake sympathetic smile.

The teacher slowly nodded, "As long as there isn't another reason that you refused to take off your jacket or roll up your sleeves."

Taylor just pressed her lips together again and forced another smile, "There's no reason. Thank you, I've got to get going before my mom starts to worry." She said slowly slipping out the door of the classroom, as she entered the hallway she whispered to herself, "And if there was a reason you wouldn't find out. I don't trust you, and you just made the entire class wonder why you jerk."

Taylor sprinted across the beach so that she could just get to her mom's car. She was ready to go home and go to her room, it had been a stressful week and it seemed like more and more people began to ask her about why she was always wear long sleeves. And the weather was getting even warmer and it was hard to convince everyone she was still cold.

"Hey love, I was beginning to think you had walked home with a friend." Lena smiled as her daughter fell into the passenger seat next to her. Taylor just shook her head no and plugged into her music while staring out the window.

It took a while before Taylor realized that Lena wasn't driving in the direction of their house but instead just driving around. Taking her ear buds out she faced Lena, "Is there a reason we're driving in circles?"

Lena couldn't help but chuckle, if no one knew better Taylor would have been Stef's daughter with her temper. "Is there a reason you aren't telling me what you're thinking? You've been listening to music and staring out the window for twenty-five minutes."

Taylor just shrugged, "My friend wants to talk to one of her teachers because she's been self harming." Taylor slowly explained while coming up with the lie, "But she doesn't want her parents to know. And I was trying to remember if teachers are required to report that type of stuff."

Lena watched her daughter carefully, something about the story didn't seem right but Taylor gave no signs that it was a lie. "I'm not sure exactly if it's required to report it but if it were you or one of your siblings I'd want to know as your mom, and would be quiet upset if a teacher didn't tell me that they thought you were harming yourself.

Shit. Now I can't talk to anyone about it. Taylor thought as she nodded, "I was trying to get her to tell her parents anyways, if she needs help she needs help. That doesn't make her weak."

Lean finally pulled into the drive way. Taylor smiled at her mom, even though it was killing her that she just lied to her mother. The teen grabbed her bookbag and ran up the stairs to her room before falling onto her bed. She was screwed, she couldn't talk to anyone and if they saw they would tell Lena. Taylor began to shake again, she was just so angry that there was no one she could talk to about this. She took a razor out of her drawer again but put it back as she heard Lena come up the stairs. "Come on, it's movie night. Girls choice this week."

Taylor nodded and smiled faintly. She was just going to keep on faking it and breaking down when she was alone at two in the morning.

Author's note:

Thank you for all your amazing reviews. Something weird happened yesterday when I uploaded the first chapter so I'm sorry for that. Again I took a situation from my life to put into taylor's story. I really want someone to talk to but I'm afraid a teacher will have to contact my parents, i'm not sure if there's any rules on that or not. Anyways I added a bit of story into my story with the interaction with Lena. What did you think and what do you want to see. I didn't cut so far today and I'm about to go to bed so one day clean. Yay?