"Relief exists, I find it when I am cut." - Cut by Plumb

Evie's Point Of View

Evie had drifted off to sleep pretty quickly after Mal left, despite the fact that thoughts were running through her mind at about what felt like a million miles per hour. She found herself having a pleasant dream about her and Mal in some meadow. It was peaceful at first, but the peaceful dream slowly started to turn into a nightmare with huge monster-like creatures crushing her happiness. The worst part was that these monsters had faces like Doug and Ben. Evie woke up in a cold sweat, grabbing her phone and checking the time. 11:30. This was around the time her, Mal, Jay, and Carlos would go eat lunch. She sighed and was about to go to the bathroom when she heard a knock and a familiar voice say, "Evie. Can you let me in? I forgot my key."

Evie approached the door to let Mal in and looked at the purple-haired girl quizzically, as if to ask what she was doing here when classes wouldn't be over for another few hours.

"I'm here to take you to the nurse since we never got to do that this morning," said Mal, as if knowing what the girl was thinking.

"Okay," replied Evie, grabbing her phone and a jacket, "Let's go."

Mal's Point of View

There were two more classes before lunch by the time Mal realized she hadn't taken Evie to the nurse, like she had mentioned the day before. Classes went by extremely slowly, and so by the time the period before lunch ended, Mal let out a sigh of relief. She was about to head out the door, but not before she felt a tap on the shoulder. The purple-haired girl was about to go off on the person who had tapped her shoulder, but physically relaxed when she turned around and saw it was Jay.

"Are you alright, Mal?" asked Jay.

"Fine and freaking dandy," responded Mal sarcastically.

"I'm serious, Mal. You're like my sister and I care about you. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I guess. The police came by this morning. Did they come by and talk to you and Carlos?"

"Yes," Jay responded, "Fairy Godmother got Carlos and I out of first period to talk to them. It went as okay as it could have gone, I guess."

Mal nodded and said, "Well, I'm gonna go take Evie to the nurse because she needs to get her arm, stomach and neck looked at."

Jay stared at Mal quizzically as if to ask her what was going on.

"Doug came and beat her up pretty good yesterday after we talked to Fairy Godmother yesterday."

Mal saw anger flash through Jay's eyes for what felt like the billionth time that week, and put her hand on his shoulder ever so lightly as if to calm him down. It was only then that she noticed the absence of a freckled, whtie-haried boy.

"Where's Carlos?" Mal asked.

"He decided to go back to his room after talking to the police earlier. I don't think he's handling this very well, but he's trying to stay strong for Evie."

Mal solemnly nodded and said, "Well, I'm gonna go check on Evie and take her to the nurse and you go check on Carlos."

Jay nodded and they embraced for what felt like hours. After they let go of each other, Mal went to check on Evie and take her to the nurse.

When she got to her room, she realized she had forgotten her keys. Shit, she thought to herself. Then, she decided to knock on the door, and when no one answered, she said "Evie, can you let me in? I forgot my key."

After explaining to Evie why she was there, and letting Evie grab her things, they headed to the nurse's office.

Evie's Point of View

When Mal and Evie arrived at the nurse's office the nurse smiled sympathetically at Evie. Evie hated that look of pity. She felt herself sink into Mal, who rubbed her back as if to tell her it would be okay. The Fairy Godmother must have told the nurse what had happened. Evie wanted to be angry but she knew it was what was best.

"What brings you here?" questioned the nurse, who had pretty blonde hair and light blue-gray eyes.

Evie lifted her shirt to show the fist-like bruise that had taken shape on her stomach. The nurse visibly gasped at the sight of the bruise, and Evie squeezed Mal's hand. She felt Mal squeeze back and the blue-haired girl said, "That's not all." Evie proceeded to show the bruises on her neck and arm.

The nurse said, "Well, I'll give you some Ibuprofen to take every 6 hours as needed for swelling and pain and we'll put Neosporin on the cut that looks like it got roughed up.

Evie nodded and let the nurse check her vitals and make sure nothing was injured too badly.

After seeing that there were no serious injuries the nurse questioned if Evie had been tested for pregnancy and STD's.

"N-n-no. N-not yet," stuttered Evie.

"It's okay. We can do that right now if you want. The results for the pregnancy test won't take very long and the STD results won't take long either, since we have a magic potion that helps hurry the process up. Now, for the pregnancy test, we will need a sample of your urine and I will have to take some blood from your fingertips for the STD tests. Is that okay?"

Evie nodded and obliged to what needed to be done to make sure she wasn't pregnant and was healthy. Throughout the whole process, Mal didn't leave her alone, not once.

Soon, Evie was told that she wasn't pregnant and that she had no STD's to worry about. However the nurse did make sure to remind her to take ibuprofen for the swelling on her bruises.

After they arrived back to their room, Evie collapsed on her bed and sighed.

"Are you alright, Evie?" questioned Mal.

"I'm fine, I guess. Just tired."

Mal looked at the girl suspiciously, looked at her phone and responded, "Well, it's almost time for me to get back to class as lunch period is almost over. Will you be okay?"

"I'll be fine," Evie replied, sinking into herself.

"Are you sure?"

"Mal, I said I would be fine," exclaimed Evie harshly, but upon seeing the hurt look on Mal's face, she said calmly, "It's just been a long day. Just go on to classes. I love you."

"I love you too, E." Mal responded, as she went to kiss the girl on the forehead and then hurriedly headed to the rest of her classes.

Evie felt her heart physically ache as Mal left to head to her class. She knew the girl needed to not miss any classes if at all possible. Hell, she herself should be in classes. But everything just felt so pointless to the girl. She felt a tear run down her cheek, so she decided to head to the bathroom, and escape all of her problems with a blade in hand.

When she got into her and Mal's shared bathroom, locked the door, and rolled up the sleeves of her gray long-sleeved t-shirt. She then grabbed her razor, held it down until it made her bleed and sighed at the relief she felt come at the sight of her blood.

What the fuck is wrong with me? Thought Evie, Why do I have to hurt myself to feel any control over myself ?

Evie soon cleaned up her cut, bandaged it, rolled her sleeve back down, and went back to her room. She was exhausted, so she collapsed onto her bed, where she closed her eyes and tried to let sleep find her. However, try as she might, she just couldn't find it in her to go to sleep. Her anxieties were keeping her awake, so after a while, she grabbed her phone and a pair of earbuds. She opened up her Spotify, and listened to her favorite playlist. But the upbeat music just didn't mean what it used to, so she searched for a playlist with the word, "sad". Thousands of playlists came up and she clicked on one called "depression playlist". She pressed play and the first song to come up felt so real. The lyrics "I'm not a stranger, no I am yours. With crippled anger and tears that still drip sore." resonate deeply with the girl. Tears roll from her eyes down her cheeks and she starts to sob. This is who she is, deep down, and right now, she doesn't know if she's ever going to be able to change.