Chapter 4 - Ready

Keely sat on her bed, knife in hand. She had heard that slitting your wrists every night relieves stress, but she wasn't too sure; she had never done this before. The curious type, Keely was always up for a challenge, brought upon by herself or others. The only way to know the truth was to do it.

She took the knife, careful to not go hard over her veins. It was uncomfortable, but she couldn't seem to stop. She had to admit; she DID feel a little better!

She went up and down the underside of her arm, until it felt... right. She watched the blood trickle down her arm, landing on her bedsheet. She didn't care. Then, she took the knife and went across her wrist, once again until it felt right. Then she did the same with her other arm.

When she decided that she had had enough, she went downstairs to the kitchen, washed the knife off, and put it in the dishwasher. Hopefully, when her mother came home, she wouldn't notice the little blood that was still on the knife.

She stared at her arm. The blood had slowed down, but was still kind of coming out. She went upstairs to the bathroom and washed it off. The blood gradually slowed and finally came to a stop. Keely actually did feel better. She picked up her cell phone, dialing a number.

Ring, ring, ring. Ring, ring, ring. Then, he picked up. "H-h-hello?"

"Phil... get down here. Now." She set her phone down on her nightstand.

Phil was there in less than five minutes. When he knocked on her door, she answered it and gave him a huge hug, weeping hysterically.

He patted her on the back, and a few tears even slipped from his eyes. He stroked her hair and picked her up, carrying her to the couch. He sat on the chair beside it, looking into her eyes.

"Keel... what's wrong? And... what happened to your wrists?" he exclaimed. Keely noticed the fear in his voice.

"Phil... I'm so sorry... I really am... but... a lot has been going on lately. I feel really shitty..."

Phil looked at her sadly.

"Save me," she said. He frowned.

"Well, tell me what's wrong. You know I can help you."

Keely narrowed her eyes to the floor sadly before saying something. "I know you can. And I'm so sorry that I didn't tell you sooner. But now I think I can tell you."

"Okay. I'm listening," he said softly.

"Well... my mom... things haven't been going good with her lately. She's been an ass to me."

"Do you know why?" he asked.

"No! That's the thing. I don't understand her... it's like she hates me or something."

"You know that's not true... maybe she's just been having a bad week or something."

"Yeah, I'm sure she's been having a bad month, Phil," she said, another tear escaping from her eyes.

"Oh... I didn't know it had been that long..."

"Yeah. Well, it has."

"When did it start?"

"A little bit before I stopped talking to you completely. The mom situation got worse, and then some other things happened..." she said sadly.

"Okay, like what?"

"Well... I've been in some fights with Via, and I don't know what to do."

"What are you fighting about?" Phil asked her.

"That's the thing... I don't know. We were on the phone one day, talking about her Owen situation, and then... BOOM! She went off on me, and... I don't know..." She was starting to cry again.

Phil walked over to the couch and sat beside her. She laid on him, crying into his chest. He whispered to her softly, trying to get her to calm down so she could go on.

"Anything else, Keel?"

"Yeah... one more thing... my... my... Muffin... died..." she drug out. Phil looked around, realizing that Muffin wasn't around.

"Oh, Keely..." he whispered, stroking her hair as she weeped into him. She was attached to that little brown pekinese like there was no tomorrow.

"She's buried in our back yard."

Now Phil noticed why that little angel had been in the back yard. He had seen it about a week ago when he walked by Keely's house. "Is that what the little angel is in the back yard?"

Keely nodded sadly. "I really... I really miss her, Phil," she said, looking into his eyes.

Phil smiled at her lightly as another tear slid down his cheek, landing on Keely's pants. She grabbed onto him tightly.

"Okay... about your mom... have you tried talking to her about it?"

"No... should I?" she asked quizzically.

"Well, I don't think you're gonna get anywhere unless you do. It might be a little bit hard, but you really need to do it. Where is she, by the way?"

"Business trip... a long one... I've been here all by myself for like, a month. I've been really lonely."

"Well, how long is she gonna be away?"

"Like, three months... it's a really important one."

"Well, if it's really important, you should understand that she needs to be there," he said.

"I didn't say I didn't understand... but I've just been lonely lately."

"Okay, well... hmm... do you wanna come stay with us?" he offered.

"No... I don't wanna intrude... maybe you can come stay with me?"

"No offense, but that might be better. If you came to my house, you might be on the pull-out couch," he said, chuckling a bit.

Keely laughed, for the first time in a long while. "It's okay... you weren't offensive. But yeah, you can come stay with me."

"Okay, that works. It'll be fun!" Phil said excitedly.

"Yeah, it will," she said blankly.

Phil frowned. He thought that he was making her feel better, but he was obviously wrong.

"As for the mom thing, again," he said, changing the subject, "Just talk to her. If that doesn't work, come to me, okay?"

"Okay, Phil," she smiled. "Thanks."

"And for the whole Via deal... have you tried talking to her?" Phil asked.

"Nope... I don't know how to."

"Well, you need to talk to her, too... you'll never make it better if you don't," he said, taking her hand in his.

"Yeah... you're right," she said. "I'll talk to her about it soon."

"Why don't you do it now, while I go home and pack my stuff?" he offered.

"Yeah... okay. I'll see ya later. Pack quickly!" she joked.

"Haha... okay, I will." He then walked out the door. Keely watched him walk out of sight and into his house before picking up her phone to call Via.

End of Chapter 4

Longer than most, I know. Review!