Five Months Later
Zoe sat on her porch swing on the front porch, resting her head on Rei$'s shoulder as she gazed out into the yard. If it weren't for the roof above the porch, the two of them would be soaked by rain. Zoe watched lightning flash through the darkened clouds above. She loved the summer, especially when it rained like it did now. There was a loud roar of thunder and the rain seemed to get harder. Zoe closed her eyes and listened to the rain pound on the roof; it was a calming sound. Rei was running his hand through her hair, smiling to himself.
"See how much softer your hair gets when you use good conditioner?" he asked.
Zoe punched him in the arm, smiling.
"Shut up." She muttered, the calm sound of the rain making her sleepy for some reason.
Rei laughed and pulled her closer to him, kissing her on your forehead. Life had been so wonderful in the last five months. Zoe had gone from completely miserable to amazingly happy ever since her and Rei got together. He was always there for her, no matter what. He was there to wipe away her tears when she cried, there to smile with her when she was happy, and there to hold her when she just wanted to be around him. But, the biggest thing that Rei had done for her was rid her of her nightmares. It had been months since her last nightmare. Another good thing in her life was that she only had a month of school left, and then she could proudly say that she graduated (and survived) high school. Zoe planned on going to an art college that wasn't too far from where she lived, but that was only after summer break ended.
...And then there was Lee. Hi and Zoe two were like best friends again. Though, he did freak Zoe out a bit...
He always looked at her in a way that made her uncomfortable. He seemed to have really changed in the seven years he was gone. Despite the fact that they were really good friends again, she was sort of scared to be alone with him.
"It's getting pretty late." Rei mumbled into her ear after an hour or so had passed. "I better get home before my parents start to wonder where I am."
Zoe frowned and reopened her eyes.
"Aww...okay then." Zoe sighed.
She stood up, stretching a bit. She had been sitting on the porch swing nearly all day, just watching the thunderstorm in awe. Rei pulled her into a kiss, putting a hand behind her head to deepen it. After a while, he pulled away. Zoe sighed, wishing that he didn't have to leave.
"See you later, sugar," he said with a cute grin on his face.
"Sugar...?" Zoe asked. "Where'd that come from?"
"Dunno, I just thought it suited you so well...since you're so delicate and girlish..."
"Yeah right. Delicate and girlish...I think those two descriptions belong to Kai, he wears the tabk top around here." Zoe laughed.
Rei laughed as well.
"Okay then. I guess I'll talk to you later." Zoe said.
Zoe kissed him softly and waved goodbye before he ran off into the pouring rain, to his dad's truck that was parked in Zoes driveway. She watched as he drove off and sighed, going into the house. It was empty; Chris and her mother weren't there. And, they wouldn't be for about another week. They were on vacation and had left Zoe with the responsibility of being the housekeeper while they were gone. She did love having the house all to herself, but she missed Chris and her mother a lot.
Zoe went upstairs to her room and flopped down on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. It was crowded with various band posters and posters of supernatural creatures. Having nothing else to do, Zoe got up and put a random CD into her stereo and listened to music for a while. Right as the final song on the CD ended, she heard a knock from downstairs. Zoe got up and hurried downstairs, to the front door. When she opened it, she saw Lee standing there, soaking wet.
"Lee? Are you alright?" Zoe asked, seeing the odd look in his eyes.
"No...I'm not...alright," his words were slurred and she could tell that he was drunk.
"You're drunk, Lee. You need to-"
"No, just listen." Lee interrupted, taking a step forward. "You weren't suppose to fall in love...with Rei. He doesn't love you anyways."
"What the fuck are you talking about?!" Zoe half-shouted, Lee's words starting to anger her.
"You're not his...you're mine..." he snarled, his drunken words starting to hold anger in them.
And before she could say or do anything else, Lee stepped forward and locked his lips with hers. Zoe gasped and pushed him away, Lee's eyes narrowed in pure anger.
As Zoe opened her mouth to yell something at him, though, she heard a soft gasp. Zoe looked behind Lee, outside, and felt her heart stop beating. There stood Rei, looking absolutely shocked and hurt.
"Rei...no...it isn't-"
Rei shook his head and turned around. He started to run off. But, Zoe weren't going to let him leave without hearing what had really happened.
Zoe roughly pushed Lee aside and chased after Rei. He was already quite far ahead of Her, but she caught up with him. The sidewalk was flooded with water from the thunderstorm earlier. Zoe ran up behind Rei and grabbed his arm, spinning him around to face her.
"Just listen to me!" Zoe pleaded.
"Listen to you?! No, fuck you! I refuse to listen to a lying bitch! If you didn't truly love me, then you should've just said so!" Rei shouted.
Tears were streaming from her eyes now, because she felt so very helpless. He wouldn't believe her...
"Rei, I didn't kiss him! He kissed me, God damnit!" Zoe shouted back.
Rei seemed to become less angry, but he still looked sad.
"You were so perfect, Zoe...you were kind, you were funny, but most of all, you were trustworthy. You were, that is. It shocks me that you'd be hollow enough to want to hurt me like this. We're done, Zoe. Goodbye."
Zoe didn't chase after Rei as he walked off again; she couldn't get her legs to move.
"Don't go..." Zoe whispered in despair. "I love you..."
But he didn't hear her. He had already disappeared in the distance...
Lee grinned evilly to himself as Zoe pushed past him to chase after Rei. He stared after her, waiting until she was out of his sight, before he spoke.
"It's all clear. The plan was a success," he said.
A shadowy figure walked out from behind the hedges that seperated her front yard from the neighbor's.
"Good. Now we can both have what we want." Emily said with a wide grin. "Rei will be mine again..."
Zoe finally managed to get her legs to move. She had just been standing there for at least two hours, staring blankly at the spot where Rei had just been standing. Zoe had stopped crying, but that didn't mean that she was feeling better. Zoe walked back to her house, finding that Lee was gone. Zoe was happy for that, because she might've hurt him seriously if he had still been there. Zoe slowly trudged into her house, not even bothering to close the door behind her. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs, staring emptily at the ground. Zoe were thinking...thinking about something serious. She stood there for a long time, until she looked up at the clock to the side of the room. It was already 5:00 A.M. She took in a deep, shaky breath before she headed upstairs.
Once she got upstairs, she went into the small room that was across from the bathroom. It was Chris's office. He would usually go up there after he got home from work to be alone and unwind. Zoe went over to the small desk to the side of the room and started searching through the drawers. She finally found what she was looking for in the bottom drawer, carefully hidden underneath some papers. Zoe grabbed the completely full bottle of Southern Comfort and held it close to herself, going across the hall to the bathroom. Zoe sat the bottle down on the sink and opened the medicine cabinet, immediately spotting the bottle of sleeping pills. Zoe grabbed it eagerly and opened it. She then stared at the bottle for a moment, contemplating what she was doing, before she brought it up to her mouth and downed half of the pills in the bottle. She then tossed the bottle aside and grabbed the alcohol. Zoe opened it quickly and drank it all, slowly sinking to the ground as she did so, until she was sitting. Zoe looked up at the ceiling, feeling the affect of the pills and alcohol. She suddenly felt angry...angry at everything.
"Why does everything have to always fucking happen to me?!" Zoe screamed, chucking the empty bottle of Southern Comfort at the closed bathroom door. It shattered, glass shards flying out in all directions. A rather large and sharp piece of glass landed right next to her hand. She could feel herself losing consciousness, but she weren't finished yet. Zoe grabbed the piece of glass with her right hand and held her left arm out. Tears began to slip silently from her eyes as she carved words into the flesh on her inner-arm. Once she had finished, she collapsed forward and immediately fell into darkness...
Kai's P.O.V
I was worried...really worried. Rei had told all of us about Zoe and him breaking up when he got to school this morning. He never told us the reason why, though. That wasn't what worried me. What worried me was that Zoe didn't show up to school. She wasn't even late, like she usually is. I could just feel that something was wrong. And Lee was acting really odd. He was avoiding us all. What the hell was going on?
I was really eager to get out of 4th period and get to lunch. Well, I wasn't going to lunch, but I just needed to get out. When the bell rang, I sprang to my feet and hurried out the door. I ran outside and pulled out my cell phone, dialing Zoe's number. I waited for her to answer, but she never did. I was really fucking worried now. I put my cell phone away and started running towards the school parking lot. I got into my car and started it up, driving off down the street. My worry only increased when I got to Zoe's house.
Her front door was wide open. Shit...God no...let her be alright. I got out of my car and ran faster than I ever have before towards her house. I ran inside, calling her name.
I never got a response.
After searching all the downstairs rooms, I rushed upstairs and started looking in all of the rooms up there. When I threw open the bathroom door, my heart froze with fear. There she lay, completely motionless, on her stomach. The ground was littered with pieced of broken glass and I saw an open bottle of sleeping pills in the corner. But the thing that scared me the most was the pool of blood that had formed under her left arm. I rushed over to her and knelt down, lifting her up from the ground. She was a hell of a lot paler than usual. I gently grabbed her left arm and saw what had caused the blood...
The name "Rei" had been carved deeply into her skin. The wound was somewhat fresh. It was still bleeding a bit, but the blood around it was already drying up. How long had she been here like this?! Fuck it. I had no time to think. I picked Zoe up bridal-style and hurried downstairs. When I got outside, I ran to my car and gently laid her down in the backseat. I then got into the driver's seat and sped off down the road. I had to get her to the hospital...
...But what if it was too late...?
Gerard's P.O.V
I stood outside during lunch, not wanting to be anywhere near my friends right now. No one knew how badly Zoe had hurt me. She didn't expect me to come back...perhaps I shouldn't have. But, I had no choice. The fucking tires on my dad's truck blew out only a couple of blocks away from Zoe's house. Who the fuck leaves barbwire in the middle of the God forsaken road, anyways?! I wasn't too far from Zoe's house, and my cell phone was dead, so I decided to walk back and see if I could use her phone. What a wonder-fucking-ful surprise I found when I got back to her house. Lee...that fucker. Why did he have to come back and ruin my life...?
I was snapped out of my thoughts when Tyson burst through the school's double doors. A look of pure horror was on his face, his cell phone clutched tightly in his hand as he looked at me.
"Tyson...? What's wrong?" I asked,He was sort of scaring me.
"Rei...Kai just called me from the hospital..." Tyson started to speak, his voice really shaky.
Shit. What could've possibly happened to Kai$?!
"Is he okay?!"
"Kai is fine, Rei. He's only there because of Zoe."
Normal P.O.V
Zoes eyes slowly fluttered open, bright light filling them. She shut them quickly and waited a moment before opening them again. She found herself staring up at a white ceiling and could hear a soft beeping sound to her side. At first she had no idea where she was, but then a wave of pain shot through her, bringing back the memories of what she had done.
Zoe clenched her teeth and shut her eyes tightly, a searing pain in her arm and head. Zoe only opened her eyes again when the pain dulled. She brought her left arm up so that she could look at it. It was wrapped up in a red-stained white bandage. Zoe hated how tight the bandage was, so she ripped it right off. Zoe felt tears sting her eyes as she gazed at the name she had cut into her arm.
"Rei..." you muttered softly.
The wound was no longer bleeding. Zoe could see how deep it was, knowing that it was going to leave a permanent scar once it healed.
"Zoe...?"
Zoe put her arm back down to her side and looked at the doorway to the room she was in. Kai stood there, looking both relieved and confused.
"God, Zoe...why in the fuck did you do all of this to yourself?!" he asked, hurrying over to her.
Zoe felt the tears that had been forming in her eyes release.
"He wouldn't believe me, Kai..." Zoe whispered hoarsely. "I didn't kiss Lee...that fucker was drunk...he kissed me. I would never want to hurt him...I loved him, you know that..."
Kai frowned.
"Zoe...can you just tell me what happened?"
Zoe didn't hesitate when Kai asked. She told him about everything that had happened. And then she told him exactly what she did. Kai looked shocked once she finished explaining, but had no time to say anything to her. A nurse came in and, upon seeing her awake, shooed Kai out of the room. Once Kai had left, the nurse looked down at her.
"You're a very lucky one," she said. "If that kind boy hadn't of gotten you here as quickly as he had, you would've died."
Zoe closed her eyes and nodded.
'But what if that was what I wanted to happen...?"
