A/N: Again, I apologize for my inactivity so I'll post this chapter quicker! This takes place the same day as the previous chapter.

Arceus High School

Dawn's POV: (TRIGGER WARNING - SUICIDE ATTEMPT)

Fuck my life.

I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. What did I ever do to anyone? It was like this at my old school back in Unova too - everyone hated me for no apparent reason and I ended up self harming. Look what I relapsed in!

In a blind rage, I swing the blade wildly across my left arm, pressing hard enough for it to pierce the skin each time. This one's for being a bitch. This one's for hurting Ash. This one's for being weak, pathetic, a loser, fat, useless, ugly.

Maybe if I were dead...

I'd be better off dead, wouldn't I?

My mum wouldn't have to look after such a fucking loser. Ash would be happier too. May - she'd definitely squeal in delight when they announce my death. Iris. Drew. Everyone.

I know what I'm doing when I pick up the bottle of pills and fill up a glass with water. I don't bother reading the label - it won't matter once I'm dead, will it? I fill the sink up with warm water and plunge my cut arm into it, watching the blood seep out and mix with the water. I pour some pills into my mouth - eleven? Twelve? Why am I going into details? I'll be dead soon, the world will be rid of a burden.

That's all I ever was.

I down some water, feeling the pills blocking my throat. I gulp down a few more mouthfuls, relishing the feeling of the cool liquid going down my throat. I might as well try to enjoy something before I die.

The water's a pale red now - maybe if it was pure blood, it would be darker. The cuts aren't closing, in fact they're doing the opposite - blood is flowing faster now. I can feel my useless heart palpitating. This is the last time I'll feel such adrenaline coursing through my veins. The last time I'll look at my bathroom tiles. The last time I'll feel the cool tiles against my bare feet. The last time I'll experience... anything. The thought starts to seep in and the water's cooling down. It's not quite room temperature but it's steadily approaching it.

How long until these damn pills work? My vision is kind of hazy and my head is starting to spin - not wildly, it's just a mild throbbing and everything is swaying, as if I'm on a ship.

The symptoms get worse and when I cant even make out the shape of my arm clearly, I know this is the end. This is it. A small smile tugs at my lips before disappearing when I hear my mum coming upstairs.

I left the door unlocked.

I'm plunged into darkness and the last thing I hear is a knock at the door before I hit the floor and I'm out cold.

My eyes are coming into focus and all I can see is white. White, white, white. My head, oh, my head. It hurts and my whole body feels exhausted as if it has just fought a lengthy battle.

Dead people don't feel pain do they?

Beep. Beep. Beep. Oh gosh, will someone turn their mobile down? I turn my head and see a bunch of wires in my arm, connected to several machines.

Oh. Oh.

I'm alive. That wasn't part of the plan. I'm not supposed to be alive. I'm not supposed to be hooked up to machines. I'm not supposed to be lying in a hospital bed.

I lift my arm, just to make sure and hiss when it tugs at the various wires. I lower it again and stare up at the ceiling. The door opens and a figure with blue hair walks in. My mum. Oh gosh.

"Dawn? Dawn, you had me so worried, oh my baby! Why would you do something like this?!" she asks in a rush, too fast for me to mentally answer each question, so I just give a groan in response.

"Mu-um." I whine and my voice sounds hoarse and croaky.

"Dawn, it's okay. It's okay. I'm here now and you're alive. I love you." she says and I know she's crying because her voice catches several times and she tries to muffle a sob into her palm.

"You... weren't supposed to... save me." I choke out, tears filling my eyes, blurring my vision.

"Of course I was, sweetie. You're my daughter - a beautiful one, at that." she cries.

"I want to... die." I sound so weak and it's so embarrassing and I don't want this - I don't want to be here.

My mum doesn't say anything - lets her sobs fill the silence. The bland walls suddenly appeal to me very much and staring at them drowns out the sound of my mother crying. It drowns out the guilt, the hatred, the anger, the sadness.

What they say is true - the hospital really does grow on you. I take a shower the following morning as I wait anxiously for my scan and blood test results to come back. I use strawberry scented soap like I usually do and when I re-enter the room, my mum comments on how I don't smell like the hospital anymore.

The results come back a while later and my organs seem to be fine - at least I had the sense not to use paracetamol, I would have damaged my kidneys and liver if I had - and I just have a few deficiencies in Vitamin D, calcium and iron. I'm prescribed some ferrous sulphate tablets, dissolving tablets and these disgustingly massive ProD3 tablets. Along with those, I'm also forced to see a therapist once a week and visit a support group, as well as having to take medication for depression. Great.

Since everything seems to be fine, they doctors discharge me - 'no point in keeping you here', as they say - and my mum leads me back to the car. We're off, driving towards our house, the landscape whizzing past, my eyes trying to take in as many details as I can.

"Dawn, sweetie, why?" she asks and I can hear so much sadness in her voice, it tears me apart.

"I don't know." I say simply, not wanting to talk about it because my head is filling up with Ash and May and everyone laughing and the anger they have towards me and I feel like trying again.

The car jerks forward and my mum is staring at me, eyes shining with tears, hands gripping the steering wheel.

"That's not a reason!" she cries and I want to disappear.

"It is..." I whisper.

"It's not! I can't fucking help you if you don't share anything with me!" she yells.

I swear I feel the entire car shake as it sings the words back to me, ringing them in my ears. The tears come and I storm out of the car and run in the direction we came. I have no idea where I'm going but I just need to get something into my lungs - something that isn't going to cause me to suffocate in guilt.

I run and run and my legs are throbbing and I don't want to carry on but I force myself to. I just want to be as far away from everyone as possible. The snow crunches under my feet - apparently another snowstorm hit us while I was out - and I shiver as a gust of wind blows past, sweeping my hair to the east. I should have told my mum to bring legwarmers.

I keep running as a few flakes of snow start to fall. I'm almost at a forest now until I bump into something black. I land on the floor and wince slightly as a jolt of pain rushes up my spine - my body's still kind of weak - and I look up to find a tanned face looking down at me with concern.

"I'm so sorry! I just - Dawn!" it says in a panic and I recognize it.

Ash. Oh gosh. My heart starts to thud and I feel all the sadness hitting me like a snowball in the side of the head.

He offers me his hand and helps me up. I stare at the snow on the floor as the flakes fall faster.

"Dawn, I-I heard about your... suicide attempt." he says. "I wanted to say -"

"What?!" I yell, tears falling. "That I'm a hopeless, pathetic freak?! I've heard that enough lately! I don't need you to remind me!"

Ash looks taken aback as he starts speaking, "I wanted to say I'm sorry..."

I freeze and I don't know if it's out of shock or if it's because I'm turning into a block of ice.

"You what?" I ask lamely.

"I'm sorry. I was acting like a prick. Iris told me what happened - she feels guilty too - and I should have believed you. I was too blinded by my own feelings of hurt to recognize yours. So I apologize. I shouldn't have treated you like that, Dawn. The... the truth is, I never hated you... I l-l-loved you and I... still do.." he trails off and if it wasn't for the street light, I wouldn't be able to see the deep blush creeping up his neck, staining his cheeks. "I understand if you don't want to talk to me anymore. I was just so worried that you wouldn't make it and I'd never get to apologize. You don't have to accept. I just thought you should know."

Before I can think of a well planned reaction, I barrel into his arms, wrapping my arms around his neck, "Oh, Ash! I love you too! I accept your apology, I'm so sorry!"

My heart fills with an unfamiliar warmth and it fills me up, coursing through my body in my bloodstream. Suddenly, it's as if I'm not outside in the middle of winter, but on a beach in the summer and Ash is grinning and I'm giggling and it all feels so, so right.

A/N: Aaah, that was so depressing but at least it ended well.