Author's Note: Thanks for all of the reviews guys, I really appreciate it!

When I got home on Friday, my Mom was sprawled across the living room floor. Tears were falling down her face, and there was a needle next to her. My first thought wasn't "What the fuck just happened?" or "Is she okay?" It was, "God, this is exactly how desperate Emma looked today." It was like she was so broken that no one in the world would ever be able to piece her back together.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to know what was going on. She'd been dating a new guy. Mr. October, as I called him, because you better believe by the time November came around, he wouldn't. It was a simple formula, really. She liked drugs. He could get her drugs. She liked him. He liked sex. She would have sex with him. He liked her. They were doomed.

That's why I wasn't into any of this stuff, you know, the drugs. I saw what it did to her. How she couldn't see straight and the smallest mistakes became Shakespearean tragedies. How I'd become the parent around here, and she depended on me for everything. I loved my Mom, I really did. It's just she had been so much stronger when I was young. My Dad left when I was six, and I hadn't seen him since. I wasn't old enough to understand the concept of divorce. I didn't know what it meant to abandon someone. All I knew was that the guy who tucked me in at night was gone, and according to my Mom wasn't coming back. I hate him for doing that to her. To us.

I started noticing things had changed when I was thirteen. She wasn't around when I came home from school anymore. She had a new boyfriend every week. There was more alcohol in the refrigerator than food. Then it was on to bigger and better things, like heroin. It wasn't anything she'd done regularly. It's just when times got rough, she'd be shooting up. Today was one of those rough times.

"Jason, honey, is that you?"

She picked her head up off the floor and I moved to sit next to her. She was still crying and I pulled her in close to me.

"Mom, it's okay. You are going to be okay."

She started to explain to me how she was going to surprise Mr. October this morning and bring him over breakfast. You know the story, she walked in and he was with another woman.

I cleaned her up and brought her to work. It was the only thing I could do. She needed that job. We needed it. There was only so much shit I could steal before people started to notice. I'd decided to cool off of it for a while, though at times like these, I doubt anyone would notice. They are too wrapped up in their own melodrama about Rick to really pay attention to anything.

The rest of the weekend was just a continuation of the nightmare. Comforting her, telling her it would be okay, and that she was better off without him. Isn't this the kind of thing a Parent tells their broken-hearted teenage daughter? Is that what I'd become? The roles had reversed, and I wasn't capable of handling the responsibility that came along with it.

Monday morning, everything changed. Spinner was going to tell Raditch. He'd gotten Alex on her side, and they were both going to confess. It was a sinking ship and they were taking me down with them.

It was after homeroom, and I was ready to knock some sense into Spin.

"They are going to find out, Jay. Everyone knows it was us."

"No, they don't. And even if they thought it was us, there is no proof. Don't be so fucking stupid."

"Stupid? My best friend was in a coma because of us. I don't think I can live with him thinking that it was something he did. We fucked up big time Jay, and now we have to face the consequences."

The bell rang to signal the start of first period.

"You won't confess if you know what's good for you."

I shoved him into the wall and kept him pinned against it for a second.

"I'm going to class; we can finish this 'conversation' later."

He walked away, and then that's when I saw her. Emma Nelson, her eyes fixated on everything that just happened. She tried to look away, but we both knew it was too late for that. I was mad, I was so fucking mad. Mad at Spinner, mad at Alex for taking his side, mad at my Mom for putting me in the position she'd put me in, and now at Emma for knowing. I had never felt guiltier until that minute when I saw her watching us.

She was so innocent and naïve. Her behavior was perfect and flawless. There wasn't anything about her that wasn't pure and clean. Her edges weren't rough and her life had no cracks. And now she knew. She knew the worst thing about me. I can only imagine all the names she was calling me in her head. How fucking shocked she was. I was getting angrier just thinking about it.

"Enjoy the show?"

I was being sarcastic, cold, and angry. And she deserved it all.

"It-it wasn't like that, I swear."

She stuttered, stumbled over words. It wasn't the confident Emma Nelson that I knew. She was scared of me. If this was last year, I would have felt like I won. I made fun of her, teased her, tortured her over smallest things. Everyone else I'd ever done that had run with fear. She was different. She'd yell right back at me, she'd get me back. It had become a game of revenge. I make her boyfriend break up with her, she rats me out at the Dot for stealing. I call her names, she gets Raditch to search my car. She was tough. She didn't get like this. She didn't get flustered over things I said. She'd fight back. Why wasn't she fighting back?

"I don't know why I'm surprised. You never did know how to keep your nose out of other people's business. Let me put it this way, whatever you think you heard, you didn't. And for your sake, I hope you aren't planning a career in detective work, you are awful at it."

She nodded. She acted like I was the biggest psycho on the planet. And maybe I was, you know; now that Rick was gone. I just shook my head and walked away. I hit the closest thing to me, which ended up being a hard, metal locker. Great, on top of all of this, I'd probably end up with a broken hand.

"Jay..."

Her voice sounded delicate and soft.

"It wasn't your fault."