Sleep didn't come easy for Jessie that night. In fact, it didn't come at all. She stayed awake all night. She was crying and sobbing quietly, trapped in her own private hell. Tomorrow. Oh God tomorrow. Jessie dreaded the idea of getting up the next day. She didn't want tomorrow to come, she wanted to stay in bed, tucked away safely from the world. However, she knew she would have no such luck. So, she sucked it up and tried to suppress her tears.

"Hey Jess," Rick began as Jessie wandered into the kitchen the next morning. "I talked to your mom earlier this morning."

"And?" She asked, tiredly, but still wondering where this was leading.

"You're going over there after therapy today. Is that okay?" He said.

"Yeah. Who's taking me?" Jessie asked, hoping that it wasn't Grace and Eli.

"Grace and Eli are taking you. Eli's picking the two of you up after school," He replied, on his way out the door.

"Oh, okay. Bye," she said as Rick kissed her on the forehead and left. Jessie let out a weak smile before resting her head on the table. Never before in her entire life did Jessie want to jump off a tall building so bad. She sighed and was getting ready to leave, but Eli and Grace chose that moment to enter.

"Hey Jess," Eli said, picking a piece of toast up form the toaster. "You want a ride in today?" He asked around a piece of toast with crumbs falling out of his mouth. Jessie smiled, despite herself. Grace looked at her expectantly. Jessie just shook her head and walked out the door.

"Don't worry Eli, we'll be able to talk to her on the way to therapy today," Grace told her worried stepbrother.

Jessie, however, heard all of this. She was listening at the door and she was upset. She felt betrayed. Her family plotting against her behind her back. Talk to me my ass! Turning, Jessie huffed off.

That whole morning, Jessie was deep in thought. Trying to figure out how to avoid the two in the most effective way possible. I got it. I'll take the bus back to Mom's. I'll tell her I forgot about therapy. She had rationalized that she would be able to avoid her scheming relatives completely this way. She smirked at her own cleverness.

Now, with her mind somewhat at ease, she was able to focus on the task at hand. Jessie was in the library. She looked down at the book in front of her, "The Life of Billie Holiday: The Unauthorized Biography". Jessie smiled, the book got her thinking about Katie, always a good thing to think about.

"Hey Billie," Jessie heard someone whisper in her right ear.

Her smile seemed to touch her ears once she heard the voice. "Hi Katie," she turned to look at her friend, holding the smile. Her brows furrowed, "Billie?" She asked, confused.

"Yeah. Billie," Katie said slowly, motioning toward the book.

Jessie grinned, she didn't put the two together at first. Duh. "Cute," she said, rolling her eyes, but continuing to smile. Katie sat down in the seat next to her friend. Jessie tried focusing back on her book, but she could feel Katie staring at her. "So, what brings you all the way to the far corners of the school?" She turned, looking at Katie.

"Well, I had English. Grace is not on my Top Ten list of people I want to deal with today. She's still giving me dirty looks. It's scary," Katie said, shuddering.

Jessie snickered. "Try living with her," she griped. Suddenly, Jessie was feeling light-headed. She almost fell out of her seat, but Katie stopped her.

"You okay?" Katie asked, worriedly.

"Yeah. Just got a little dizzy. That's all," Jessie smiled, turning back to her book.

Katie smiled and started staring again. Even when she's smiling, she looks sad. Her smile faded and Katie now looked pensive.

An hour went by, but it only seemed like a few minutes for the both of them. Katie smiled, then her smile faded. She slapped her forehead, earning a strange look from Jessie. "I have something for you. It's in my locker," she looked at Jessie. "My locker which happens to be by my English class," she grumbled. "Come on." She grabbed Jessie's arm and pulled her behind her.

Upon reaching her locker, they noticed that half the class was still in the room, including Grace and Tad. They loomed in the doorway before Mr. Dimitri saw them.

"Oh, Ms. Singer, you were here today," he smirked. Katie never wanted to smack anyone so much in her life. He turned back to the remaining students. "Don't forget. The meeting is in here tomorrow after school." The teacher then left.

Grace glared at her, but Katie chose to ignore her this one time. Tad came over, mostly to see Jessie, but Katie was there too. "Hey Tad," Katie said before he could greet either of them. "What was Dimitri talking about?"

"He was referring to your not being in class. Which I can totally relate to because you haven't really been-"

"No, dumbass. I'm talking about the meeting. What meeting?" She asked, slapping him on the arm. Jessie just stood there, uncomfortable around him, especially after their conversation last night.

"Oh, it's for the Gay-Straight Alliance," he smiled sheepishly, looking over to Jessie. "You know I'm going."

"Tad, are you coming out?" Katie smiled, jokingly. His head snapped up and toward her, his eyes growing wide.

"No!" He yelled defensively. Jessie and Katie snickered. He regained his composure. "One word: Bisexual girls."

"That's two words, idiot," Katie smiled, shoving him.

"Hey, I've got to get going," Tad said looking at his watch. He turned and left.

Katie shook her head as she walked the two feet to her locker. "He is such a dope," she said still smiling. Jessie just stood there. She was looking for any excuse to avoid her next class.

"You know what?" Jessie asked looking into Katie's obscenely cluttered locker. Katie just grunted. "Martha Stewart would have a conniption if she saw the inside of your locker." They both chuckled.

"Ahh haa!" Katie exclaimed proudly pulling something out of her locker. She handed Jessie a CD.

Jessie smiled and looked up. "Billie Holiday," she pulled Katie in for a hug. "I love it. Thank you!"

"Have you ever even heard her sing?" Katie asked quirking an eyebrow.

Jessie just shook her head to the negative, with a stupid grin on her face. Suddenly, her eyes lit up. "Let's go listen to it now!"

Katie was shocked. "You want to skip school to listen to it?" She asked, making sure she was understanding her correctly. Jessie nodded fervently. "There's more to it than that, isn't there?" She asked. Jessie stopped nodding and her face fell. "Spill," she ordered as they walked toward the exit.

Jessie was looking out the window to Katie's car. She liked Katie, she really did, but she really was just looking for an excuse to leave early. She found it in her friend. Sure, Katie had figured it out, but she wanted an excuse to leave to it seems.

For her part, Katie was shocked that Jessie was skipping again, on her own terms even. She knew Jessie had her reasons, like avoiding her family. Katie also knew that even though Grace was a bitch and Eli, according to Jessie, was an ass, but she also sensed a strong paranoia vibe coming from Jessie.

Katie looked over at her friend and sighed. There was no way to get in Jessie's head to see what was going through her mind. She wished there was, then maybe, she figured, she would be able to help. She hasn't changed. She's just hiding it better.

Jessie was eternally grateful to Katie. Two times, she had saved her from potentially unpleasant situations. Now, Katie had taken her to therapy. That, made Jessie a little uncomfortable, but Katie didn't seem to be mentally criticizing her over it though. Nevertheless, Jessie still felt that she was.

"Jessie?" Dr. Rosenfeld waved his hand in front of Jessie's face. She had totally spaced out.

"Huh?" She grumped, still glaring out the window.

"How are you?" He asked, slowly. He was still worried about her. "I thought Grace and Eli were coming again today."

"I came with a friend instead," she mumbled. He quirked an eyebrow. "I just didn't want to deal with them today, that's all," she defended, standing up, her back toward him.

"I see. Why is that? Did you get in an argument with one of them again?" The doctor asked, only half serious, but knowing there was more to it.

"Not exactly," she turned toward. He tried to encourage her to continue with a smile, it didn't work. "Can we not talk about it?" Jessie asked, rolling a stress-ball in her hand.

"We kind of have to," he stated. "What happened with them?"

"It's a conspiracy," she grumbled, refusing to sit back down.

"Oh," he really didn't know what to make of that. Knowing she wouldn't continue with that idea, he decided to change the subject. "How's your mom doing?" He tried to sound nonchalant.

"I think she blames me," she said somberly, sitting down. "She gave me this look yesterday. I think...I think she's disappointed in me. But I can't be...I can't be certain," she had tears in her eyes and she turned away again.

"That's what you saw in her eyes?" He knew that Karen was anything but disappointed in her daughter.

Jessie nodded. "I think so. I don't know!" She was growing increasingly frustrated. "I don't know," she repeated slowly and quietly to herself. She looked at her watch and stood up. "Bye," she said, drying her eyes on her shirtsleeve.

"Bye Jess," he said quietly watching her leave. She's falling fast. He sighed.

"You ready?" Jessie asked Katie as she stepped out. Katie immediately could tell that she had been crying and was trying to cover it up. She also knew that the last thing Jessie wanted was to talk about...anything at this point So, she just nodded and smiled.

The ride to Karen's was silent. They ran into some mild traffic on the way there. There was a car accident. A person had gone to cross the street when a car came flying around a corner. The car tried to swerve to avoid the person. Whoever was driving had lost control. As the car was swerving, it hit the person. As for the others, the car literally wrapped itself around a light pole. There was only one survivor, the person in the passenger side of the car.

Jessie was mesmerized by the scene. She saw the car, the driver was being drug out of the car and the pedestrian was mangled. She turned to see the passenger crying hysterically as the body was being pulled out. It's so easy. That's it. If anything can end in a split second, then why can't this? No, stop. Don't even think it.

Katie saw the look on Jessie's face and she was worried. "Sad, isn't it?" She asked.

"Yeah, that poor woman," Jessie looked sadly over at the woman, crying into a police officer's shoulder. She let a tear escape. Katie saw, but she knew that it had nothing to do with the woman.

Jessie walked into the house and closed the door behind her. Karen ran out into the living room. She was immediately followed by Grace, Eli and Rick. Uh oh! This was so not looking good.

"Where the hell have you been?" Karen shouted. Jessie looked at the others, to at least calm her mother down. They didn't, but they all shared the same stern expressions.

"I was at therapy," Jessie figured that Karen would calm down after hearing this, she didn't. If anything, Karen grew even more upset.

"Eli and Grace were supposed to take you. They said they didn't take you. How did you get there?" She shouted.

"I got a ride," she answered weakly. Karen was about to scream some more, but Jessie continued, "Katie took me."

"Why the hell didn't you let any of us know?" Eli piped in, his face turning red. This scared Jessie more than her mom, she never saw him lose his cool.

"I forgot," she whispered, tears coming to her eyes.

"Jess," Rick said. He walked over to his daughter. Karen stopped him.

"Don't," she warned. Rick walked out the door to wait for Grace and Eli. Karen turned back to Jessie. "Why did you skip school?" Jessie shrugged, to upset to say anything. "You must know. You did it two days in a row."

Jessie shot Grace a death glare. "I wasn't about to lie for you," Grace snarled. Eli grabbed Grace's arm and the two left. Karen looked at Jessie.

"I don't know!" Jessie yelped, choking back tears and waving her fists around in the air. "I don't know! Are you happy?" She cried out. Karen stood her ground, still upset. Jessie was furious. She turned and threw her book bag across the room before running up the stairs. The last thing she heard before slamming her door was the sound of her bag crashing into something. She locked her door.

Karen was staring up at where her daughter just ran to. I'll make up with her tomorrow. Little did she know, tomorrow would be too late.

It was late, Karen was in bed already. Jessie laid on her bed, staring at the ceiling. She had been thinking for the last few hours, she turned to her clock. 2:30. All she was thinking about were ways to solve her problems. Everything is so fucked up. It's all my fault. Scaring Mom half to death today, almost getting her killed. I hurt Dad, Eli and Grace so much, not only in the past week. I keep letting everyone down. It stops now.

She was a girl on a mission now. Jessie slowly creaked the door open and crept down the hall. When she got to the bathroom, she felt dizzy all over again. She leaned against the door to regain her balance. Then, she went to the medicine cabinet a second later. Here they are. Jessie pulled out a razor blade. Jessie set it down. She grabbed her stomach with one hand and the counter with the other. Looking into the mirror, she didn't like what she saw. Now, she knew what she had to do.

She grabbed it, feeling weak for some reason, she grasped onto the blaze. Jessie looked down, she released the counter and brought the blade down. Hurry up damn it! She pressed down and continued to the other side. She was dizzy still, she reached over to the counter, she grasped something. It came crashing down. Feeling the weakness get to her, she finally collapsed, the blood flowing.

*A/N: A lot more to come. Stay tuned ;)*