A/N: I am so sorry for not updating yesterday. I wasn't home yesterday, after school I went straight to the mall with some friends and my mom was too tired to pick me up so I spent the night at a friends house and I just got home.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I appreciate the people who take some time to review! It means a lot, thanks!
"Hey Dawn." Buffy greeted her sister but Dawn didn't seem to acknowledge her.
Dawn walked past Buffy without even looking at her. She knew that ignoring Buffy wouldn't make her feel better about this situation but she didn't know how to talk to Buffy anymore. She wasn't sure what to say. She thought she would probably make it worse by trying to talk to her.
Buffy watched Dawn unlock the front door and hurry inside. Dawn slammed the door shut behind her and ran up the stairs.
"She's not feeling too well." Joyce said in hopes of making Buffy feel better about Dawns attitude.
Buffy stared at the front door. "Sure."
Hank awkwardly tried to change the subject, "So, how about some lunch?"
Buffy rolled her eyes and Joyce opened the door. Hank, Joyce and Buffy attempted to enter the house at the same time and ended up tripping over each other. Buffy managed to gently push past her parents and she walked into the house.
Buffy heard a noise upstairs and her thoughts instantly went to Dawn. "I'm going to take a nap," Buffy lied.
Buffy crept up the stairs and cautiously tip toed over to Dawns bedroom door without her noticing. Buffy stopped once she approached the entranceway the bedroom. She peaked inside and saw Dawn sitting in the middle of the floor, throwing clothes out of her pink bag. Buffy was about to enter the room but changed her mind when she heard Dawn mutter, "Stupid Buffy. I was going to spend all weekend with my friends but nooo, Buffy had to come home. Buffy this, Buffy that. Gah!"
Buffy leaned her back against the wall, next to her sisters bedroom door. She slowly slid down toward the floor and wrapped her arms around her knees and buried her head between her legs and chest. My sister hates me. How could I let this happen? I thought she would understand. Buffy tightly shut her eyes as tears began to seep through. What am I doing? I have to stop crying. Just stop it, Buffy. Come on. Stop crying. Get up and act like an adult. Pull yourself together. Come on. A voice inside of her urged her to stop crying and talk to Dawn.
After she finally convinced herself to speak to Dawn, she slowly stood up and took a deep breath. She wiped away any tears left on her face and peaked inside the room again. Buffy lightly knocked on the wood trim around the doorway.
Dawn jerked her head behind her and saw Buffy standing directly underneath her doorway.
"Hey Dawn." Buffy took a few steps inside the bedroom and Dawn stood up and walked over to the other side of the room. Dawn faced a corner and folded her arms over her chest.
"What do you want, Buffy?" Dawn asked with a slight tremble in her voice.
Buffy stood only five feet behind Dawn, "I just want to talk."
Dawn turned around and faced her sister, "About what?"
"I don't know." Buffy turned away from Dawn and looked out of the window, "About anything. Maybe we can talk about school? Your friends? Your new boyfriend, Colin?"
Dawn corrected her, "Connor."
Buffy nodded her head. "Yeah, that's it, Connor."
Dawn shook her head. "No. I don't want to talk about Connor. I don't want to talk about school or my friends or anything like that."
Buffy turned her head toward Dawn as she continued speaking. "Why did you try to kill yourself?" Dawn shouted loudly.
Buffy widened her eyes, "Dawn, I didn't…"
Dawn walked over to Buffy until their faces were merely two or three inches apart.
Dawns eyes glazed over with tears, "What were you trying to do, Buffy?" Her voice was now barely above a whisper. Dawn grabbed Buffys wrist and pointed at a scar, "You think that's going to help? You think all your problems will disappear if you carve yourself up?" Dawn released Buffys arm. "All you're doing is making it worse!" Tears freely poured down Dawns cheeks.
Buffy tried to wipe away her tears but Dawn smacked her arm away. "Don't touch me."
Dawn walked over to her book bag and pulled out a pair of scissors.
Buffy stood still, as though she was glued to that spot. "What are you doing with that Dawn?"
Dawn positioned the sharp point of the blade from the scissors above her wrist.
Buffy gasped, "Oh my god, Dawn, what the hell are you doing?"
Buffy ran over to Dawn and tried to yank the scissors out of her hand.
Dawn pushed Buffy down.
"Is this what you do Buffy? Does this help you? Does it make you feel good?"
Buffy picked herself up and wrestled with Dawn over the pair of scissors. Buffy finally got a hold of the scissors and pulled it out of Dawns hand. Dawn stumbled back. "You see how crazy that is, Buff? I had to show you. You had to feel what I felt when I saw your cuts. You thought I was crazy when I did that, didn't you?"
The two girls stood a couple feet apart from each other, both out of breath. They just stared at each other in silence for minutes.
A couple hours passed and Joyce, Buffy and Dawn were now in the kitchen making manicotti.
Dawn and Buffy talked for about an hour after the scissors incident and came to an understanding. They both had difficulty dealing with their pain but they both agreed that cutting was not the answer.
Dawn explained to Buffy about what she does when she feels upset. She writes in a journal. She writes down every thought and feeling and when she's done, she feels much better. Dawn told Buffy that holding everything in will only make things worse. She told her that all over her pain will build up and she'll end up exploding. "Just talk to someone or write your feelings down, it's good to get your problems off your chest," Dawn said to Buffy. Buffy laughed at the fact that her 12 year old sister was talking to her as if Buffy was the younger sister. But she knew that Dawn was right. She can't keep everything to herself anymore, it is killing her inside. Buffy had no intention of telling anyone about Ted but she could write about it.
After Dawns little lesson to Buffy, Joyce called the girls down for a 'family meeting'. Joyce went over a few new rules she made for the girls. Hank sat in a chair and listened to their meeting, he felt like he didn't have a right to share his thoughts so he only listened to them talk.
The meeting lasted for almost an hour and the summarized discussion was written down on a piece of paper and separated into different subjects:
No big secrets. If something major happens to one of them, then they must call a family meeting and discuss what happened.
No cutting. If Buffy, or even Dawn, ever feels tempted to cut then she must immediately tell Joyce so she can intervene and help handle the situation correctly.
No lying. Lying won't help any of them and the truth will eventually come out, it always does, so it's pointless to lie in the first place.
Everyone agreed to the new rules and even signed their name at the bottom of the paper. Failing to follow the rules could result in being grounded or removal of TV/Phone privileges.
After talking, everyone said that they were hungry and Joyce wanted to have a little family time so she and the girls cooked dinner together.
Hank was in the living room, resting before his flight. He was going to eat dinner and spend some time with the girls before he had to leave for the airport. His plane is scheduled to depart at 10pm but he has to be at the airport two hours before departure.
Joyce put the manicotti into the oven. "Okay, now we can have fun cleaning up the mess we made!"
The girls moaned and complained as they began to clean up.
After tidying up, Buffy excited the kitchen and went through the dinning room and into the living room to see her father sitting on the couch with his eyes closed. She wanted to talk to him before dinner but she didn't want to disturb him so she went back into the kitchen.
Twenty minutes later Buffy and Dawn were sitting on top of the counter and Joyce was standing in front of them. They were talking about the 'good ole days' and laughing loudly. Everything seemed to be improving so quickly and they were all pleasantly surprised and pleased.
Buffy remembered that her father was sleeping in the other room and realized that they probably woke him up. She wondered why he didn't come into the kitchen though. She doubted that he could sleep through the past twenty minutes since they were all being very loud.
Buffy hopped off the counter and walked into the living. She stopped dead in her tracks and looked around. Hank wasn't in the room.
"Dad"? Buffy called out.
No response. She walked up the stairs and checked every room. There was no sign of him. Buffy ran down the stairs and opened the front door. His car was gone. Buffy walked onto the driveway and stood where her fathers car once was.