Author's Note: Hey guys, from here on out, we're gonna start dealing with some serious issues. Still don't think it'll be severe enough to bump up the entire fic's rating to M, but there will be sensitive topics dealt with that intensify from here on out. Also, not sure how I feel about this chapter, but what can you do? -_-

Chapter 6: Silent Treatment

The following weeks after the drama regarding Bickson seemed to drag for Kairi. In fact, it wore her down much harder than she thought it would. She skipped Sora's birthday, refused to hang out with any of her friends, and even skipped out on Riku's traditional Halloween party. October turned to November and the further it got to the end of the year, the cooler the weather got and the closer to the holidays it got.

When Kairi returned to school the Monday after the mall incident, she officially broke up with Bickson, but unfortunately, it didn't stop there. Bickson's reputation in the school meant that he had power, and the power, he did use. All of a sudden, the story of Kairi breaking up with Bickson because he cheated on her became the story of Bickson breaking up with Kairi because she had slept with too many guys and "contracted something".

As Kairi would walk the halls that week following the spread of the rumor, the days became longer and it felt like literal hell to Kairi. Despite her friends, eye witnesses trying to defend her, it didn't matter. Kairi was usually the type who could easily ignore rumors about her, but the level that the gossip had gone to was something that she couldn't handle and she didn't want her friends involved.

One afternoon, Kairi walked through the halls towards her locker. School had let out for the day. She walked to her locker to grab her books for that night's homework assignments. She thought all of this homework was pointless, especially since she was going off to college the following year. Kairi sluggishly grabbed her Calculus and Physics textbooks. As well as her Drawing supplies so she could do her nightly drawing. Kairi's teacher was starting to get concerned since her latest homework drawings had been a little darker than usual.

While all of this was going on, there was a locker slam just shortly down the hall from Kairi. She couldn't help but peak on over. It was Bickson! He was there along with a few of his buddies from the Blitzball team. They looked to be huddled around another student. Loud laughter was escaping from their mouths. Kairi slammed her locker shut and grabbed her backpack to go check it out. She managed to peak around Bickson's gang and recognized the student who was getting picked on. Kairi's heart started racing. She dropped her backpack and ran around to the student.

"Cut it out!' she yelled at Bickson.

"Whoa! Look who came out of hiding!" Bickson hollered. "Looks like you two have something in common!"

Kairi glared at Bickson. She looked down on the student. "Are you okay?" The student kept his head low and shook it. Kairi's breathing became heavy. "What's your problem?"

"What?" Bickson asked. "Can't I be a little rough around the edges sometimes?" He smirked. "You would know."

The student looked up at Kairi. "I hate him…"

"I'd watch out, kid," Bickson began. "She may be contagious." Kairi's heart sank. "You may wanna hurry outside, 'queerdo', there's a rainbow calling your name." The student started shaking. Bickson and his gang walked past him and Kairi kicking his foot in process. "Watch where you're going, faggot!"

Kairi watched Bickson walk off confidently. She exhaled deeply. "He's an asshole…" she said as she looked at the student, who was sitting against his locker, shaking, his face in his hands. "Tai, are you alright?" Kairi recognized the student as Sora's little brother. He shook his head. She put her arm around him.

"It was one time!" Tai cried. Kairi looked at him confused. "I kissed a guy only once! I was only curious!"

"You mean…"

Tai wiped the tears from his eyes. "I had to know, I was so confused…"

"You're only 14, that's gotta be rough." Kairi said rubbing Tai's back. "So, what did you find out?"

"I don't even know if I can say it, my family doesn't even know."

Kairi sighed. "Well, if you feel like you can't say it, I understand." She leaned against the lockers and rested her hands on her knees. "I'm sure you've heard of the rumors about me."

Tai nodded. "Yeah, they're terrible. Why hasn't Sora said something to him? I thought you two were super close."

"We are," Kairi began. "But, I didn't want my friends getting involved or else, it would mean hell for them too. Bickson has that power with his popularity. I want them to have a senior year without dealing with my stupid relationship drama."

"So, why don't you say something?" Tai asked. "I can't say something to him about myself because I can't deny whatever he says to me. I just have to live with it." He looked over at Kairi, whose eyes filled with tears. She hid her face in her arms. "Oh...did you…"

"Yes," Kairi interrupted him. She started shaking. "It wasn't protected either, so, I don't even know if the rumors are true or not."

"Oh...that really sucks." Tai said exhaling deeply.

"None of my family or friends know. I don't want them to know." Kairi sighed. "It was just...one time...it was a mistake. I was always against sex before marriage, and then...I don't know...before I knew it. It happened."

Tai looked at Kairi. "Well, I don't think you're any less cool. Sora will probably feel the same way. He likes you, a lot."

"I know." Kairi said standing up. "It's just been a lot to process, so being alone as been great for me." She picked up Tai's backpack to hand it to him. "Here you-" All of a sudden, a bottle of pills spilled out from his backpack and onto the ground. There was a big rule against having pills in school unless it was aspirin and even then, the student was limited to how many they could bring. Kairi gasped as she picked up the bottle. "Tai, are you-"

"-Please! Don't tell anyone, especially Sora!" Tai begged and he grabbed the bottle from Kairi. His eyes filled with tears again. "Please! Don't tell anyone, promise?" Kairi sadly nodded her head.

Talk about a tough week ahead for Kairi. Not only was she dealing with Bickson's harassment, but now she had Sora's brother's potential suicide haunting her. It almost seemed like Kairi had her own burden to deal with and now, she had Tai's burden. It started to affect her. She wasn't sleeping well. She wasn't eating well. To make matters worse, Kairi continued to avoid her friends. Selphie, Roxas, Riku, and Namine all respected Kairi's request for space, but Sora wasn't having any of it.

Sora had found out about everything from Selphie and Namine at his birthday. He was not only shocked, but also pissed off that Bickson felt like he could get away with what he did. If there was one person who hated seeing Kairi in as much pain as she was, it was Sora. While he respected Kairi's space, he was also well aware of Kairi's misery. She was basically falling into depression and he couldn't allow that. One particular day, after a couple weeks, Sora saw Kairi eating lunch by herself. He looked over and simply got up from where he was sitting ignoring everyone else around him. Confidently, Sora walked over and sat at the table next to Kairi, who was reading The Fault in Our Stars.

"Hey, Kai." Sora casually greeted. Kairi didn't answer. He exhaled deeply. "So...what're you reading?"

"The Fault in Our Stars." she simply replied.

"That's...kind of a sad book, isn't it?" Sora asked. Kairi nodded. "You know…I still haven't beaten The Last Guardian yet. Got busy with schoolwork. Maybe...you can come over and we can finish the game together."

Kairi shook her head. "I'm fine, thanks."

Sora heaved a sigh. "Kairi," he began, trying not to get frustrated. "I'm trying, okay? You haven't been yourself the last couple weeks. I mean…" Sora paused holding his head low. "I miss spending time with you."

"Sora…"

"Kai," Sora's head perked up. "That's the first time you've said my name in two weeks."

Kairi started to fume. "I just need everyone to BUTT OUT!" she screamed before running out of the cafeteria.

Sora leapt from his seat and ran after Kairi, who had run through the halls to right outside of the building. Tears were streaming down her face as her shaking body carried her farther away from the school. Before Kairi knew it, her legs lost feeling in them and she fell to the ground. She continued to sob while Sora ran out of the school. He called out Kairi's name and ran over to her.

"Kairi!" Sora held onto her as she cried into his shoulder. "I just...I don't know what else to do, I'm trying to help you!"

"Why do you care?" she cried. "Why does anybody else care? If I involve you guys, then Bickson will do something to you too!"

Sora huffed. "I don't care! I don't care what that asshole says!" He held Kairi's shoulders. "What I don't get, is why you're letting this get to you so much?"

"I just…" Kairi sat against a tree and hid her face in her knees. "I just feel so helpless."

Sora sat next to Kairi and pulled her into a hug. "Kairi, you can't let them get to you like this. It's not good for you. And I'm sorry, but I'm not letting my best friend get to a dark enough point that she won't be able to get out." Kairi lifted her face and looked into Sora's. "I don't care what it takes, I'm here for you. I'm going to help you get over this. I care about you, a lot. So does Riku, and Selphie, and Namine, and Roxas."

Kairi smiled weakly. "I'm sorry, Sora, and thank you."

Sora smiled. "That's my girl!" He pulled Kairi closer to him until he was resting his head on top of hers.

"But Sora," Kairi said immediately sitting up, her expression turning serious. "There's something you should know…"

Sora looked at her, his expression turning serious. "What?"

"Well," she sighed. This was an even harder subject to talk about. "It's your brother…" Sora started to shake his head. "I think he's trying to kill himself…"

Sora's breathing became heavier. "No...Tai can't do this…how'd you find out about this? I know he's been struggling, but he refuses to talk to me or our parents."

"It was an accident. I helped him pick up his backpack and these bottles of pills fell out and they were not aspirin." She held her head low. "He made me promise not to say anything."

"I can see that promise went out the window." Sora exhaled deeply. "I need to tell my folks now. We need to find help for him." He pulled Kairi into a tight embrace. "Thank you...:" He thanked her, his voice shaking. "Now, I have a chance to save my brother's life."

Kairi smiled and held him back. "You're welcome, and thank you Sora, for being there for me too and helping me realize how stupid I've been."

He stood up and helped Kairi off the ground. "Now, let's get back to school before they start even more rumors about us skipping school to smoke pot."

Kairi laughed. "Okay, now THAT ONE is stupid!"

Once Sora had finally gotten through to Kairi and gotten her to talk, everything seemed to slowly fall back into place. Kairi was smiling and laughing again, she was hanging out with Namine and Selphie on weekends, and much to their satisfaction, Kairi did finally make it to Sora's house to help him finish The Last Guardian.

However, while everything seemed to be falling back into place on Kairi's end of the spectrum, things seemed to start to slowly fall apart on Sora's end. During the weeks that Kairi was avoiding everybody, Sora's big priority as far as his social life went was trying to help Kairi. Because of this, he also hardly talked to anybody else at school and that included Rinoa, who had no affiliation with Kairi's group whatsoever. Because of this, once Kairi was starting to feel better, tension had built up between Sora and Rinoa.

It was the first Wednesday in November. Sora and Rinoa hadn't spoken to each other at all in days. Sora was really worried. He got home that day from a long day at school and lay down on his bed facing the ceiling. While lying on his bed, Sora grew tired and decided to fall asleep and take a nap. He had slept for a good, long while because he was woken up by his mother knocking on his sighed in frustration. She knew that if Sora slept in the middle of the afternoon then he wouldn't be able to fall asleep at night.

"Sorry," Sora apologized as he sat up and stretched. He looked over at his phone on the side table and saw that there as a text from Rinoa.

Hey, can we meet somewhere? I have to tell you something.

I can't, it's a school night and I have homework to do. Sora texted back. Is it something bad?

Rinoa texted, Kind of. I just want you to know that if we break up, it's not because I hate you.

Sora's heart dropped. What was this about breaking up? Sure, he and Rinoa had some tension going on because Sora was focused on Kairi for the past few weeks, but he was sure that everything would be fine in the long run after getting a chance to talk to her. Sora groaned. Whatever was going on, it was not going to be done over text messages. He flipped through his phone and found Rinoa's phone number. It took a couple attempts, but Rinoa finally picked up the phone.

"Hello?" she answered.

"What's going on?" Sora asked.

"Listen Sora...I'm sorry...but, I just think we need to break up."

Sora gasped. "Are you serious? Look, if it's because of what's been happening the last few weeks, I'm sorry. I tried to tell you that Kairi needed my help-"

"-I don't want to hear about Kairi!" Rinoa interrupted.

"Fine, but I told you that one of my friends was in trouble and I had to help her, you knew this."

"I'm sorry Sora," Rinoa kept apologizing. Sora wasn't buying it. "I thought the feelings were there, but I guess they weren't."

Sora smacked his head figuratively. "Oh gee, that would've been nice if I knew about this MONTHS AGO!" Sora's heart rate grew faster. He hadn't felt this angry over a breakup before. "Is there another guy?"

"What?"

"You heard me! I don't care what the answer is, but just tell me if there's another guy!"

Rinoa sighed. "No, I'm not that kind of girl."

Sora heaved a sigh and his his face in his hand. "So...that's it then? It's over then?"

"I'm sorry, Sora." Rinoa said before hanging up the phone.

Sora sat on his bed dumbfounded. Despite how hard he tried and how good he was to Rinoa, it wasn't enough for her. Sora groaned and lay back down on his bed. The worst thing about the situation was that he now knew what Kairi was going through, which was new for Sora. Although both of them had been through breakups before, their latest relationships had to be considered their first true heartbreaks based on the circumstances and how the breakups occurred. Both were left-field and both were from what they would consider, their longest relationships.

Downstairs, Sora's father was cooking dinner. Sora denied any, which if he denied food, that meant something was wrong with him. He grabbed his hoodie and walked outside, hands shoved in his pockets. Where did he go wrong? Was Rinoa in the wrong for putting Sora in a situation where he was going to have to choose between her or Kairi? At this point, Sora could barely think. He went from being happily with someone, to having some tension, to being single in a matter of a couple weeks.

"Now I know how Kairi felt…" Sora muttered to himself. He pulled out his phone and scrolled through to find Kairi's number.

Hey, Kai, Sora texted. Kairi answered almost right away.

Hey Sora! What's up?

Are you busy right now?

Just doing homework, why?

Sora heaved a sigh before texting back. I know this is last minute, but can you meet me at the beach?

Kairi paused before replying.Sure, I guess I can get away for a little while. Everything okay?

Not really…

I'm sorry. I'll be down there ASAP.

Thanks.

Sora began to walk over to the beach. All he wanted to do was clear his mind of what was happening at the moment.

Author's Note: Damn, can't anybody catch a break anymore? Now it's poor Sora!