Yes, it was safe to assume that things between Skittery and Midnight were over. All in all, they had only lasted for a little over a month, but all the same, it was hard for Midnight to stomach. She had foolishly convinced herself that he would love her over Abigail, but that obviously turned out badly for her.

Things weren't even like they were before their 'affair.' Then, he stayed away, and was purposely cold and rigid towards her. Now, she saw him all the time. He wasn't the cold person he was before; now, he acted loverly towards Abigail. Whereas their relationship had seamed twisted and petty before, it now seamed as though they were truly in love.

Which was truly sickening, of course.

But the sick thing was, he spoke to her civilly suddenly. Skittery treated Midnight like an acquaintance, and nodded a polite hello at her when she was present. They never talked, of course, and she was sure his anger at her wouldn't go away so quickly, but he was being kind. And she hated it.

She was laying on her bed, staring at her ceiling and contemplating this one night, when Gin walked in on her. She had been fingering that silver locket and she was thinking about Skittery.

"Are you honestly crying over him?" Gin blurted out rudely.

Midnight sat up quickly. She hadn't noticed she had cried at all, but when she brought her hand to her face, sure enough, a few tears had escaped. "Over who?" she asked as she dried her face.

Gin didn't even look up from the nightstand she was rummaging through. "Come on. No one else may have noticed, but the thing between you and Skittery was obvious to me."

"How?"

"You were both so secretive, you were extra careful all the time, that locket appeared suddenly around Valentine's Day… I don't know. A lot of things gave it away." She sat back on her heels. "And there was that one time I saw you in an alley together. Hm."

Midnight's stomach dropped. "You what? Why didn't you tell me you saw us?"

"I wanted to use it against you sometime," Gin replied matter-of-factly. "Either way, you need to suck it up and move on."

"Easy for you to say," Midnight grumbled and looked away.

There was silence for a short while, and Midnight could hear her the other girl rummaging through the drawer. Suddenly, Gin was sitting on the bed next to her. She held a photograph in her hands.

"Who's that?" Midnight asked stiffly.

"My parents with Shrimp and me." Sure enough, there was a tiny baby in an earnest looking mother's arms, and seated next to her was a young girl with a dirty face and a sour expression. Behind them, a tall man stood there, looking stern.

Midnight thought about her own family. "What happened to them?"

"Dead," Gin stated. "My mother had an affair, and my father came home one night after drinking and she told him she was going to be leaving him. He took out a gun and shot her.

"And the fun doesn't stop there." She paused and snorted in a way that she tried to make light of the situation. "I woke up, and walked out to see my father holding a gun. I didn't see my mother that night; no, I got that pleasure when I woke up. My father ushered me back to bed, kissed me goodnight and tucked me in. He said he loved me, and a tear fell from his eye. I hugged him and went to sleep. When I woke up, there were two bloody bodies sitting on my parents bed."

"That's awful," Midnight sympathized. She hadn't actually seen her parents dead bodies, but had felt their absence nonetheless. "What does Shrimp think about all this?"

"She doesn't know. She was about two when it happened, and I took her and ran away from the orphanage when we were little. I never told her. She just thinks that we were left on the stoop of the old adoption place as kids.

"Life is hell, Midnight. People die, people break our hearts and people leave us forever. And that's never going to change. We all just have to suck it up and deal with it."

Midnight nodded slowly as Gin got up, put her photograph back in her drawer and left the room.

Life is hell.