Huh, really weird that I'm writing this right now, because I've already written a chapter for another story today and I don't usually write two chapters in one day. However, I currently have nothing better to do and am sort of mad at the world right now, and, as much as I hate it, it's a good emotion for what I'm writing, oh, and that reminds me…

WARNING, this chapter does have some self harm...or at least mention of it. If you don't like it, I'm sorry, but as I said, we're past the point of no return, so this is the direction that we're going.

Charlie stormed into the apartment. It had only taken about two minutes to drive from the school to their apartment, yet within that short time Ephraim was still able to find plenty of hurtful things to say. And honestly, Charlie couldn't blame him, he'd totally messed up. Still, Ephraim hadn't ever been this angry before. One of Ephraim's comments, which seemed to be more a note to himself, was insisting on being replayed over and over in Charlie's head.

"And I have to deal with this for at least another year. I seriously can not wait until you're eighteen and I can have my life back."

Charlie punched the wall in anger. Charlie was pretty sure that Ephraim hadn't meant for Charlie to hear that, but, he had, the damage has been done. Did Ephraim think that Charlie liked living like this? Charlie's been counting down to his eighteenth birthday for five years, ever since Ephraim and Rachel had started becoming more serious with each other. Charlie knew that Ephraim has been wanting to marry Rachel for a few years now, the only reason he hadn't was because he had to take care of Charlie. Charlie hated it.

Charlie groans and sits on the ground, putting his face in his hands. He couldn't do this, why did life have to be so damn hard all the time? Charlie tried to think about something else, anything else, but he couldn't. His brain didn't want to think about anything except for everything that made Charlie feel like this...like he's just a worthless little kid who only knows how to get in other people's way. Agh, great, now what that stupid dragon had said was now replaying in Charlie's head. He had to make this stop.

Charlie stands up and heads for his bedroom. He hated doing this, he loathed it, but he didn't know what else to do. Ephraim had dropped Charlie off at the apartment, then had driven off to continue his date with Elizabeth, so Charlie would be alone for the next few hours. It's not like anybody else would be coming here.

Jade ran all the way to Charlie's apartment building and only stopped when she reached the door to his apartment. She didn't bother knocking, instead she reached into her pocket and took something out of it. It was something that she could use to pick the lock on the door. Charlie had given it to her after he had taught her how to pick locks, like he'd said he would. Jade managed to open the door and went into the apartment and, not seeing Charlie around, decided to go with a more direct approach.

"Charlie, get your but out here!" Jade yells out loudly. A moment later, Charlie came out of his bedroom. Before Charlie could ask what Jade was doing here, Jade runs up to Charlie and embraces him, catching him completely off guard, and making him flinch a bit.

"Alright, what was that about?" Charlie asks, "And what are you doing here?"

Jade took a step back from Charlie, her face red. "Sorry. I just...I just came here to give you your sketchbook back." Jade reaches into her backpack and takes out Charlie's sketchbook and hands it to him. Charlie looks at it for a second, then turns his gaze to her.

"Did you look inside it?" Charlie asks, suspecting that he already knew the answer.

"Yeah," Jade says sheepishly. Charlie frowns and starts itching his arm. Jade noticed this, she actually noticed him doing this a lot, but this time she knew why. Jade gently grabs Charlie's hand to stop him from scratching, then, slowly, Jade grabs Charlie's jacket and pulls it off, the jacket that she never saw him not wear, even in the middle of summer. Charlie didn't bother resisting. Jade knew, there was no use trying to hide this anymore. Charlie didn't even want to hide it in the first place, he's done.

Under Charlie's jacket he wore a t-shirt, so his arms were bare. Well, unless you count the dozens of cuts covering them. Some of them were scars and seemed to be healing, some of them looked more recent, then there was also some of them that looked like they'd been made five minutes ago. Jade takes a deep breath and tries to calm herself down. Okay, she'll admit it, she's a little scared, but she's not the only one. Jade can see that Charlie is shaking, he was terrified. After a minute Jade pulls herself together and grabs Charlie's hand and starts pulling him to the bathroom.

"We need to stop the bleeding." Jade says as she starts looking through the cabinets for something, anything, to stop Charlie's arms from bleeding. Charlie shakes his head and grabs some bandages from one of the drawers and then started to put them around his arms himself, like he did this thing every day. Jade thought that it seemed a bit awkward for Charlie to be bandaging his own arms up, so she forces Charlie to sit at the edge of the bathtub, kneels down and starts taking over the job of wrapping his arms.

When Jade was done putting the bandages on she looks to Charlie, but he wasn't looking at her. He didn't seem to want to look at anything except for the ground. Jade could tell that he was still scared, but she wasn't sure of what. Finally Jade decides that her friend needs one more thing. Jade gets to her feet and holds a hand out for Charlie.

"Come on," Jade says with a smile, "Let's go get some ice cream."

Wow, this was, uhm, how should I say? Dark and angsty? Yes, yes I think that description works nicely. This feels so out of place, like, seriously. Oh well, I've written it, and I actually like it, so that's good enough for me.