*****Next Day
"Hey Paige." She turned around to see Hazel coming down the hall.
"Hey Haze."
"What? You look…"
"Tired, yeah, well, I got up at five this morning."
"Why?"
"My parents realized Dylan's car was gone, Dylan too."
"What, he was gone all night?"
"Yeah, he got a call at like ten last night, and I guess he left. My parents called his cell at six, good thing he had it on too."
"Where was he?"
"He stayed over at his boyfriend's house."
"He has a boyfriend?" Hazel looked shocked. Ash walked up to them. "Hey Ash."
"Who has a boyfriend?"
"Hey Ash. Dylan does."
"Really, who?" Paige looked down the hall and saw her brother and Marco walking together. She nodded towards them, Ash and Hazel followed her gaze. Ash smiled a little.
"Marco?" Hazel looked back at Paige.
"Seriously?"
"Yeah. I guess they did more than talk at their little meeting after school yesterday."
"Oh, there's Craig, I gotta go."
"Don't say anything, okay?" Ash nodded as she left.
"That's weird, it's good though right? For them?"
"Yeah, until the guys find out. Spin won't like it, and Jimmy and Craig are cool with Marco being gay, but a boyfriend. Especially my brother."
"Eh, I get it. I'll se you later." Ellie walked up to Paige after Hazel walked off to class.
"Looks like Marco and Dylan hit it off. Huh?"
"Yeah they did. Oh, you don't know yet do you?"
"Know what?
"Dylan and Marco got together after school. Their meeting was more of a make out session than a talk though."
"That's so cute."
"Dylan stayed at Marco's last night."
------
"Marco"
"Craig, Hi."
"What's with you, man?"
"What's with me?"
"Yeah, you look unnaturally happy."
"I guess I am happy, really happy.
Ellie's cell rang at lunch. "Hello?"
"Ellie?"
"Dad. Hi."
"How are you?"
"Good. How is it there."
"It's nice. We're getting a lot of work done. How's your mom?"
"The same as always."
"Oh, I'll talk to later Sweetie."
"Bye."
*****
When she got home from her intern at Caitlin Ryan's TV show she found her mom passed out on the couch.
"Again." She covered her with a blanket and picked up the empty alcohol bottles, and headed to her room.
She missed hr dad already, she was sick of taking care of her mom, and Caitlin expected her to do everything.
She started to cry, she looked around her room. Her eyes fell to the canvas on her floor, and then settled on the razorblade that lay on the canvas.
--------- New Chapter
Ellie twisted her hair into two braids, as usual. She glanced into the mirror, then left. She tugged at the sleeves of her shirt, then again when they inched up. As she walked in Paige caught up with her.
"So talked to Marco lately"
"No. Why?"
"Just wondering. I wanted to see if he said anything about Dylan."
"I've been busy with my internship."
"Oh, yeah. So how is it? I'm glad I didn't get it, it sounds to hectic for me."
"It's good." Paige noticed that Ellie kept tugging at her sleeves. There was a line of blood on her sleeve.
"Hey, El. You're bleeding."
"Huh? Oh, um...thanks." She rushed into the bathroom.
Ellie found an empty stall in the bathroom. She pulled up her sleeve, one of the cuts had reopened. Her arm was covered in cuts form her wrist to halfway up to her elbow. She pulled another shirt out of her bag, one with black sleeves. She pulled the other one off and replaced it with the new. She headed straight to homeroom.
She sat in class listening to Ms. Hatzilakos drone on about parent teacher meetings.
"I want to see all of your parents there, tell them to come."
Ellie walked up to her teacher.
"Can I get my marks now? My parents can't come."
"Why not Ellie?"
"My dad is away, and my mom is …sick."
"We're not supposed to. We have to give them to the parents."
"If my parents can't come though, you should give them to me."
"I'll have to talk with Mr. Raditch about it."
-------AFTER CLASS
"Ellie, You changed shirts." Ellie turned from her locker to see Paige standing behind her.
"Yeah, so."
"Your mom is sick, huh? Not bad I hope."
"No, she'll be okay." If only that were true. "Did you want something?" Paige opened her mouth, then closed it again.
"Have you talked to Marco yet?"
"No. You really want to know what he thinks of Dylan don't you?"
"Yeah. I haven't seen him this happy for a while. It's great."
"I'll talk to him."
"Great." Ellie watched Paige walk off.
She caught Marco at his locker.
"Marco."
"Oh, Hey El." She smiled at him and raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"Dylan stayed over the other night, huh?" Marco blushed and grinned.
"Nothing happened, well, okay, something happened, but not…that."
"What happened then?" Marco leaned against his locker.
"We kissed. It was great. Things make sense now."
---------------
