Wow, this chapter seems a lot shorter now than it did when I wrote it. Eh. I think the writing is a little awkward, so sorry about that. But this was really difficult for me to write. I dunno why, really. It just was. I'm going to TRY to get Chapter 7 up, ASAP. But I leave for camp for a week on Sunday. My goal is to get it all up by then, but I dunno about that :)

Anyway, please review. Let me know what you think of this chapter.
And thanks to everyone who's been reviewing. You're the best :D

Sophie awoke to the hum of her cell phone vibrating. She quickly reached over and silenced it before it could wake up Joe as well. She sat up and glanced over at him. Still asleep. She wasn't surprised. Joe always slept late and it always took him forever to wake up. As quietly as she could, she grabbed her cell phone and tip toed out of the room and into the hallway. Once the door was safely closed behind her, she checked the new text message she had received. She was shocked to see that it was from Ellie:

"I talked to Nick. Call me."

She sighed. She knew that the word about her cutting was bound to spread quickly. And she knew she may as well call Ellie now. She'd have to face it eventually. She scrolled through the contacts list on her cell phone as she walked downstairs. She didn't want to wake Joe.

She clicked call as she reached Ellie's number in the phone. As it rang, Sophie sat down on the couch, absentmindedly running her fingers over the scars on her arm.

"Sophie!" Ellie sounded relieved. "Oh, I was so scared you wouldn't want to talk to me. Can I come over? I want to talk face to face."

"Oh, uh, sure," Sophie was a bit stunned by all the words Ellie had thrown at her so quickly. "How are you going to get here?"

"I'm at Nick's. Kevin and Gen can drive us over. See you in a few!"

As she heard Ellie hang up, Sophie leaned back, rubbing her eyes. Ellie had said "us." That probably meant her and Nick. She sighed. She didn't really want to deal with Nick. But Gen and Kevin would be there. And Joe was just upstairs. She silently convinced herself that she could handle it.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a frantic knock at the front door. Of course. She'd locked it the night before. Ellie and the others couldn't just walk in like usual. Sophie stood up and walked to the door. She was surprised to see only two people standing in front of her. It was Ellie and Genevieve.

The shock must have shown on her face because Gen quickly explained. "Kevin had to work so I drove Ellie over." Sophie nodded, silently thanking Genevieve with a small smile for not bringing along Nick.

Almost as soon as the girls had entered the house, Ellie flung her arms around Sophie, holding her in a tight hug. "Oh, Soph. Nick told me you cut yourself but he didn't say why. Please tell me why so I can help you through this."

Her concern sounded fake to Sophie but she hugged her back anyway before starting back towards the living room. "Wait." She turned around to see Ellie looking at her. "Uh, do you mind if it's just us?" She motioned with her hand, indicating that she meant just herself and Sophie.

"Oh, uh, sure. Is that okay Gen?"

Genevieve nodded reluctantly. "I'll wait in the car." Before leaving, she gave Sophie a quick hug. "Call me later. I want to hear everything." Sophie gave her a small smile before she exited. The two remaining girls continued on to the living room to talk. Sophie took her favorite seat on the couch, and Ellie sat across from her on the armchair.

"So, please, tell me everything."

Sophie bit her lip. "Everything?"

"Everything."

"It started the night of the talent show. Nick called me. And he wouldn't stop talking about how amazing you are. Which sucked. Since I've always been jealous of you and that was like putting salt in the cut. So I started cutting. Things got worse when they added you to the band. I'd cut more often. I'd cut deeper. It was the only way to let out the pain."

"Why did that make you cut more often, Sophie? It's not like I was rubbing it in your face that I was let in and you didn't..."

"No. You weren't. But you were all Nick talked about. He started ignoring me. You all started ignoring me."

"No we didn't!"

Sophie's eyes blazed with anger as she pushed up the sleeves of her shirt. "If you weren't ignoring me, how come none of you noticed this?"

Ellie's eyes widened as she stared at her arms. There were cuts covering almost every inch of skin that she could see. They started at her wrist and from what she could see, went all the way up to her elbow. She reached out and delicately touched the scars with her index finger. Sophie quickly pulled her arm away.

"I'm sorry, Sophie. But you can't just blame us. It's not like we told you to go sit in a corner and cut yourself."

"You just don't get it, do you? Sure you didn't tell me to do it. But you drove me to the edge and this is what happened. Not to mention, none of you cared enough to notice that there was even anything wrong with me." Except Joe... she added silently to herself.

"Ugh, Sophie! Stop being so difficult! I'm trying to apologize!"

"Just so you can feel better about yourself. You didn't really care what happened to me so long as you don't have anything on your conscience. Right?"

"Stop it, please! You're my best friend!"

Sophie shook her head as she stood up. "Was your best friend. You obviously didn't care enough about me to realize when I needed you most. Isn't that what friends are supposed to do?"

Ellie stared at her, speechless.

"Maybe you should just go now," Sophie said, her voice shaky.

"Sophie..."

"Just go, Ellie."

She looked at Sophie for a moment before turning and walking back out of the house the way she and Gen had come in.

Sophie waited until she had gone before collapsing on the couch, rubbing her eyes.

"She told me I'm not her friend anymore." Ellie was sitting next to Nick on his bed, sobbing into his shirt. "She was just so mean."

"It's okay, Ellie," Nick responded quietly. He wasn't really thinking about the girl who he had his arms wrapped around. He was thinking about the girl who he had driven to cut herself. He still didn't know what exactly he'd done and he really just wanted the chance to talk to her.

Nick was ripped from his own thoughts by Ellie's voice. "Are you even listening to me, Nick?" He looked down at her. Apparently she'd still been talking.

"Oh, uh, yeah. Of course."

"I just don't know why Sophie's being so difficult."
"Me either," Nick responded, not really paying attention.

She opened her mouth to call him out on not paying attention again when there was a knock at Nick's door. "Come in!" he called, letting go of Ellie as the door opened. It was Kevin.

"Ellie's mom is here," he stated simply before leaving.

She stood up, looking at Nick expectantly. She was obviously waiting for a goodbye hug or something. He stood up and gave her the hug before walking her downstairs. "Bye, Ell"

"See you tomorrow?"

He shrugged. "Sure."

She smiled and waved at him as she headed out to the car that waited in the driveway.

"She got over that pretty fast," Nick muttered to himself as he shut the door.

"Yeah, she did."

Nick was surprised to hear a voice behind him and he turned around quickly, just to be face to face with Genevieve. Her hands were on her hips and he could tell by the look in her eyes that she was angry.

"Don't tell me you believed her. I had to listen to her sob all the way here from Sophie's about how horrible Sophie was. Please tell me you saw through her load of crap too."

Reluctantly, Nick nodded. He felt like he was betraying his friend by not believing her. But at the same time, it was pretty obvious that Ellie just wanted to feel better about herself. She wasn't really all that worried about Sophie at all.

"Good," Gen continued. "Now all you have to do is talk to her."

"What?!"

"Talk.To.Her." she spoke slowly, as if talking to someone of extremely low intelligence. "You know. Make things right."

"I don't know, Gen. It'll be weird. I mean, I just broke up with her yesterday. And she's already had to deal with Ellie..."

Genevieve ignored his reasoning and tossed him the phone. "Call her."

She gave him a tiny smile before turning around and walking back to the living room, most likely to go back to watching television and making out with Kevin.

Nick repeated her words quietly to himself as he stared at the phone as if it were some item from a totally different planet. "Call her."

Ellie had left less than an hour ago, and surprisingly, Sophie was feeling fine. She'd made herself frozen waffles and was now watching 'The Price is Right' as she ate. Joe was still fast asleep upstairs.

She was quietly rooting for yet another hundred-year-old woman when her phone buzzed in her back pocket. Sophie groaned as she set her plate of waffles down to answer it. She didn't even bother checking the caller id.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Sophie."

Her heart stopped momentarily and she suddenly found herself unable to breathe, much less talk. It was Nick.