She frowned in the mirror. Something wasn't right. She looked good, she was going to a party with her friends, she had a loving family and a comfortable life. Yet, somehow, everything seemed… empty. Hollow. False, even.

Everything felt plastic-like and fake. Talking to her friends felt like a charade, family was a game, and her love life was an elaborate fantasy she played out in her desensitised mind over and over again to the point where she almost couldn't distinguish between reality and the story she told herself every private moment.

She was ruining her relationship with her friends and she knew it. Juuhachigou had been told her mother had three days to live, and had broken down in tears in front of them and she had just stood there. Just stood there unthinking, as the world faded away into shades of grey and her cheeks felt cold, her fingers numb and nothing swirling about in her brain. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. The world was nothing, her life was nothing.

She felt guilty for feeling this, she was so lucky, had such a great life, was blessed with so much, and yet she felt so numb? She appreciated nothing of what she had been given. Her gifts, her talents, everything was wasted on her. She was an ungrateful wretch. Anyone else would revel in such a life as she had, anyone else would throw their arms wide open and embrace the world, and yet she was huddled in a corner, trying simply to retreat.

She shook her head, closed her eyes, then opened them. She stared blankly at the pretty face in the mirror, the empty, meaningless smile, and tilted her head. It wasn't her, she didn't recognise the face that stared back at her. It was a stranger.

She walked out of the room.

He stared down at her solemnly. The unnatural smile was still plastered on her face. He hated this. He wanted to take her to the hospital, but she would hate him for that. Sometimes he thought maybe that would be best, if she hated him then he could admit he hated her and it would be over. But somehow, for all he hated her, for all he was so angry that she did this to him, he couldn't betray her trust.

He sat and watched the slow rise and fall of her chest. As long as she was alive it would all be ok. He looked down at the syringe, lying on the floor, and shuddered. Why did she do this to herself? Why did she want to hurt herself? He didn't understand. He could hear footsteps outside the bedroom door and snapped his head around to stare, pushing the used syringe under the bed with one hand. The footsteps stopped and his breath caught in his throat. Then they started and he let it out with a sigh, turning back to the prone figure of his girlfriend.

Then he made up his mind. He was sick of wasting his time with her. She was a bitch. A filthy whore who only spent time with him so that she could boast that she had a boyfriend. He hated her. He hated her hated her hated her. As much satisfaction as injecting her again and letting her die would bring, there would be consequences. Calling an ambulance had no bad repercussions, except upon her. And she was the one he wanted to feel the shockwaves.

He picked up the mobile phone sitting in front of him on the dark blue carpet. He had thought about this for too long. It was time to make a decision. So he picked up the phone and threw away what he believed to be his last chance at anyone caring. He had no one now. He needed no one.

She sat on the couch, sulking. Her two best friends had been acting so off lately. She could understand on one part, but both of them? There was no reason for both of them to be acting like their lives were destroyed. She had it far worse than pining after a guy.

"Argh!" She slammed her fist down on the arm of the chair with a frustrated cry, mingled with tears. She threw the magazines that littered the coffee table across the room furiously. Life was awful. Why was everyone acting so insane? She supposed it was the whole teenager thing, combined with Juu's troubles.

She clenched her fists and stared at the blank screen of the television. She was alone. They had been supposed to go out today. Shopping, the movies, but the other two had both decided they didn't want to come, and she wasn't going to go with just the boys, she'd end out watching some crappy action movie and then spending the rest of the time in the town's huge sporting goods centre.

Why was everything so fucking screwed up? She just wanted everything to be normal, but it seemed she was the only one capable of acting like a well-adjusted human being.

Crystalline tears flowed down her cheeks and onto the bedcovers. Her shoulders shook and her wails filled the enclosed space of the room. She looked around helplessly, tears clouding her vision. Her brother, standing stiff, trying so hard to keep the tears from falling from his cold eyes. Her father hunched in a chair, facing the wall, crying silently.

"Three days," she screamed to no one, "they said she had three days." And then there was silence. Her brother stood stiff, her father cried silently, and she stared off hopelessly. Normally when such a silence occurred her mother would break it with a light-hearted joke.

She couldn't break the silence now.

She would never break the silence again.

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This one isn't so long either, hehe… but I thought that would be the best place to leave the chapter. A deceptive amount of stuff happened in this chapter, despite it being an emotions excerpt. REVIEW!! REVIEW OR DIE!!