"Ian…?" Crystal whispered softly, resting her hand on his shoulder. "Whatever's wrong… you can tell me. I won't tell anyone, I swear…" She tightened her grip on his shoulder slightly, silently hoping for him to turn around and tell her what was going on.

He did just as she had hoped, turning and looking her straight into her blue eyes. "Swear it on my very life that you won't tell a soul. Not a teacher, not a student, not any authority figure, no one. Not even my friends…"

"They don't know?"

"No one knows… not yet, anyway. Not promise me, because I'll admit I have to get this off of my chest."

"I promise. On your life, Ian, I swear to you…."

He slumped down, his back resting against the wall. He wrapped his arms around his knees, laying his head on his arms. She had sat next to him and he looked at her, taking a deep breath. "Okay… I think I can trust you. When I was younger… I was always sort of different, you could say. Not like I am now, but still not like the other kids. I liked different things, different music, things like that. The kids always said I was weird, but I had friends, you know?"

She nodded, scooting closer to him.

"When I was in eighth grade, my father died. He ran a record store. One day while he was working, a man came in and robbed him at gunpoint. I guess he didn't trust my dad not to tell the cops… he shot him in the head. He died instantly, but… it didn't really matter how he died to my mother and I, or to my little sister and brother. All we knew was that the man of the house had died, meaning I had to take up that role. I took care of my brother and sister, I took care of my mother… and then, when I was a sophomore I guess… she decided that the man of the house wasn't to be there just for taking care of the family. I had hit puberty already and looked about like I do now… she said I looked just like my father when she had met him. She… she started… touching me at first, but… recently, the past few months… she's actually…" Ian's voice broke and he buried his face into his knees, rocking back and forth. He sobbed uncontrollably as Crystal slowly, carefully laid him down on her lap.

"I'm so sorry, Ian… you don't deserve that… I'm so sorry…" She kept whispering, running her fingers through his hair. "Shh…"

He sat up again, wiping the tears from his eyes and sniffling a few times. "I don't know what to do… she'll hold a knife to my throat or stomach or something, but I know she won't do anything…"

"Because you're her son…"

"No! Because she's using me for sex! That's one of the worst things to think about out of all of this… but anyway… I almost want to let her kill me someday, but as said, she wouldn't. I can't scream or anything because I don't want my brother and sister to be scarred anymore than they already have been in their young lives, and I can't actually make her stop when it comes down to it because she's so upset over my dad… I can't just let her be miserable… she's my mom, you know?" Tears continued to flow down his cheeks as he looked Crystal in the eyes. "And the worst part is that… the things she does… it's only natural for… for…"

"I get what you're saying."

"Yeah… but I don't want to get like that because of her, you know? I feel so… nasty when I do…" He stopped, breathing heavily and sobbing a few more times before taking a deep breath. He looked at Crystal. "You want to get out of here?" He asked quietly. "I don't think I can go back down there looking like this…" He looked at his hands, which were covered in eyeliner and tears.

"Sure… can you get us out of here without getting caught?"

"Of course, I do it all the time."