When Alex woke up she found Vicki staring at her. Alex smiled. Vicki smiled back.

"Good morning, Vick."

Alex leaned forward to kiss Vicki but immediately Vicki pulled away.

"What's wrong?"

"Did you think this was a continuous thing?"

Alex raised an eyebrow. "Is it not?"

Vicki rolled her eyes. "About last night. That kiss. It was a one time thing. I-I'm not gay. That's disgusting. It was just a result of too much whiskey. A stupid mistake. There's no way in hell I'm gay."

Alex felt a sudden rush of anger mixed with sadness overcome her. She got out of bed and pulled on her jeans.

"What's wrong, Alex?"

"Fuck you, Vicki."

Alex pulled on her hoodie and gathered her things.

"What are you getting so upset about? I don't understand."

Alex zipped her bag and looked Vicki in the eye. Her voice cracked as she spoke. "The one time I thought that something good could happen to me. The one time!"

"Oh my god, Alex. Are you a lesbian?"

Alex ran toward Vicki in anger, at the very last moment she decided not to punch her. Instead she pulled the empty bottle of whiskey out of its place between the bed and table.

"Alex, what are you doing?"

"Fuck you."

"Alex, I swear, if you walk out that door with that bottle, our friendship is over!"

Alex smiled. "Cheers."

At that she left the room and slammed the door on the way out.

Alex entered the kitchen where Vicki's parents were making their famous Saturday morning breakfast. She gently placed the empty bottle of whiskey on the kitchen table.

"Good morning Mr an Mrs Donahue."

As soon as their eyes were on the bottle Alex spoke. "She hides the rest in the shoeboxes on the topshelf of her closet. Have a good day."

Alex threw her backpack on her back and hurried out of the house and down the street.

She couldn't stop the tears that poured out of her eyes. She ran faster trying to focus on something else to calm herself down. When it didn't work she picked up speed, running as fast as she possibly could. She was just two blocks from her house when she missed the pothole in her path because of her blurry vision. She tripped and flew forward. Imediately she regretted not running on the side walk. She tried to stop herself with her hands but because of the speed she was running it did not work. She slid along the road until her weight stopped her.

Alex slowly picked herself up, trying her best to ignore the painful throbbing all along the front of her body. She threw herself down on the side walk and held her face in her hands. She had destroyed something beautiful again. Vicki had been her friend since preschool. She loved Vicki and Vicki was the only human who loved her back. She had just hit Alex's very last nerve. Maybe she was overreacting. Maybe it was her hangover mixed with her early morning grumpiness. It was just that those words hurt her. Vicki could be so inconsiderate.

"You're not gay, Alex." She whispered out loud to herself. "Grow up."

More tears escaped Alex's eyes. Stinging the cuts on her hands. Alex was tired. Just so tired of her feelings. She was tired of being tired. She just wanted to know what it would be like to feel happiness again. She was so tired of being unhappy.

"That was graceful."

Alex spun around. "Maggie?"

Worry imediately overtook Maggie's face. "Oh no! This looks really bad. Stop crying."

Alex cleared her throat and took in a deep breath. Hoping her words would not be ruined by the effect of her crying. "I'm not a baby. I'm not crying because I fell."

"Oh..."

"What are you doing here anyway?"

Maggie ignored the harshness in Alex's voice and sat beside her on the sidewalk. "Well I was busy with my bonsai trees in the window when I saw you fall. This is my aunt's house."

"Bonsai trees are lame."

Maggie smiled. "Shut up. May I help you get cleaned up?"

"My house is two blocks away. I'm good."

"Alright tough guy, I don't care. You're either coming inside with me or I'm walking you home to make sure you don't bleed out and die. Your choice."

Alex was about to argue then remembered how overprotective Kara could be. If she showed up at home with fresh wounds Kara would have too many questions.

"Is your aunt home?"

"Nah, she went shopping."

Alex slowly stood up. Her tears had begun slowing down. Maggie put her arm around her and helped her inside.

In the bathroom Alex looked into the long mirror and saw what Maggie had seen. Her hair was not brushed. Her face had blood smeared all over from her hands and cut chin and her black eye had only faded a little, her favourite jeans were ripped at the knees and her gray hoodie was covered in holes and blood. She was a mess.

Maggie helped her out of her hoodie. Alex was amazed she hadn't screamed in pain.

"Sit over there" Maggie pointed to the edge of the bathtub.

Alex did as she was told as Maggie sorted through the bathroom cabinet. "You're still in your pajamas," Alex observed. Maggie was in Batman pajamas.

"So are you," Maggie said, not looking back.

Alex looked down and realised she was still wearing the pink kitten pajama shirt. She immediately felt embarrassed. At least Maggie's pajamas were cool.

"So what happened? Did you fight with your friend again?"

"You could say that yeah."

Maggie returned and sat on a stool in front of Alex.

"This is disinfectant. It's going to burn."

"I'm not a baby," Alex said.

Maggie started with Alex's right hand. Alex bit her lip and closed her eyes.

"Sure," Maggie said, sarcastically.

"Shut up."

"So what happened?"

"I fell. You saw."

"You know that's not what I mean."

"I ended our friendship in the worst way possible."

"Why?"

Alex's tears started up again. She wasn't sure if it was because of the physical or emotional pain. "I just... I don't even know. She said something that upset me and I don't even know why."

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

"There's nothing to say. I don't even understand it."

"You'll figure it out."

"How can you be so optimistic?"

Maggie smiled. "It's all I've got left."

Alex frowned.

Maggie finished disinfecting Alex's hands and lower arms. She then wiped the smeared blood and dried tears off of Alex's face.

"I'm a mess" Alex mumbled.

"You're beautiful" Maggie said.

Alex looked into Maggie's eyes and saw honesty.

"Thank you."

Maggie left Alex alone in the bathroom to freshen up after she'd cleaned and bandaged all of her wounds. Alex changed her clothes, fixed her hair and brushed her teeth. She splashed water on her face a few times, trying to calm herself down. When she was certain she was not going to burst into tears again she left the bathroom. She found Maggie in the kitchen dressed and smiling with two cups of coffee ready.

"You need caffeine."

Alex smiled and took a cup.

"Look, Alex. I don't know what happened to you but you deserve to feel happy and loved. Allow yourself to have that, stop punishing yourself."

"I wish I knew how to stop."

"What's getting in the way?"

"I just... I have no idea."

"When you figure it out you can move forward. Don't fight whatever it is that's hurting you."

"Thank you for everything, Maggie."

"No problem."

"Hey, are you hungry? My mom usually makes pancakes on a Saturday morning."

"That sounds great."

Maggie smiled widely at Alex and suddenly the the anger that had been consuming her the entire morning vanished.

Just then a tall brunette walked into the kitchen. "Maggie! Look what I bought!" She said with too much excitement. She dropped the bags she was carrying and pulled out a large gay pride flag. "We should hang it on our front door!"

Maggie started laughing as the woman held it up with a huge smile on her face.

"Hey, Aunt Ofelia. I love it. This is Alex."

Maggie's aunt threw the flag at Maggie and walked toward Alex. "Hi! I'm Ofelia! Nice to meet you, Alex! Are you gay too? Are you Maggie's girlfriend? I knew she was into the bad girls."

"Woah!" Maggie yelled, followed by something in Spanish. Ofelia took a step back and calmed herself down.

"I'm sorry, Maggie says I am rude. Your sexuality is your privacy. You do have the whole bad girl look going on though. The black eye, the cut skin, and the leather jacket, it's very sexy."

"Uhm... Thank you?"

Maggie rolled her eyes then started to push Alex out of the door. She yelled back, "I'm having breakfast at Alex's house. Thanks for the flag, I'll see you later."

"Have fun!"

Once they were out the door Maggie let go of Alex. "I'm so sorry about that. My aunt can get a little over excited at times."

Alex laughed. "I thought my mom was bad!"

"She's just so happy to have me here and she's so supportive. I can look over her crazy and love her."

"I think she's really sweet for loving you the way you are."

"I wish everyone could be that supportive."

"You mean your parents?"

Maggie put her head down as they walked. She did not want to make eye contact. "Yeah... I still love them so much. I had no time to prepare for them sending me away. It was just so painful and so humiliating."

Alex put an arm around Maggie's shoulders. "If they don't love all of you, they don't deserve to love any of you."

"It doesn't make me miss them any less."

Alex saw the first tear roll down the side of Maggie's cheek. "Hey, Mags? Do you think we can both just stop crying for at least one day?"

Maggie brought her hands up wiped her tears away. "Only if you promise?"

"Promise."