Chapter Twelve: My Heart's In The Wrong Place At The Wrong Time

Marco

My eyes flew open at the sound of a television. The last thing I remembered was the paramedics rushing into Andrew's bathroom. I looked around to find that I was in a hospital room, and the person lying in the bed next to me was watching TV.

After a few seconds of trying to focus my eyes, I realized that Andrew was the person in the next bed. I threw the blanket off of me, noticing that I was in a hospital gown. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood up, but I felt a rush in my head and had to sit right back down.

"Andrew," I whispered, holding a hand to my head.

"Marco! You're awake!" he said excitedly. I heard him shifting in the bed.

"Don't get up," I said, looking at him. "I'm coming to you."

I tried to get up again, much slower this time, and didn't feel dizzy. My legs shook the entire walk to his bed, which was only about five or six feet. I sat down on the edge of it and sighed.

"Are you okay? What happened?" he asked, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder.

"I should be the one asking those questions," I said, looking up at him. He pulled his hand away and avoided my gaze by looking down at the blanket, playing with it between his fingers.

I reached my hand out and used it to push his chin up, forcing him to look at me. He had tears in his eyes.

"I'm sorry," he cried, letting them spill over.

"For what?"

"It's my fault that you're here, isn't it? I heard the doctor talking to a nurse. They said you had an anxiety attack. It was because of me right? Because of what I did?"

This time it was me who looked away. I didn't want to admit it to him because I didn't want to upset him anymore than I already had.

"You should talk to Jesse," I said. "He still wants to be friends with you, and I told him that I wanted the two of you to hang out. So I'm telling you now too," I said, changing the subject.

"I promise that as soon as I get out of here, I'll hang out with him, okay?"

"Thanks," I smiled. "Let's skip all of the other sappy crap. I'm still a little tired, so I'm gonna go lay down."

"Same here," Andrew said. He leaned forward and hugged me. It was a warm, friendly hug, and one that I'd needed from him.

Of course, as soon as I'd gotten back to my bed, the nurse came waltzing in, ready to talk to me. She told me all about my anxiety attack, that must have been caused by stress, blah blah blah. Then I warned her not to call my father because I knew he wouldn't come, but she left the room to make the call anyway. At least when she left, I was finally able to go to sleep.

Thomas

"You think you have a right to be here?" I asked Tyler. I cornered him shortly after I'd seen Nate walk over to the bar.

"I'm his boyfriend, of course I have a right," he shot back, glaring at me.

"Well, I hate to tell you, but we don't let dealers into this party. So you can walk your faggot ass right out. I think you know where the door is."

"Wow, for a guy who's best friends with a bunch of gays, you sure don't know how to watch your mouth," he countered, not moving from his spot.

"I don't need to watch my mouth around anyone. Now get your ass out of here," I said, shoving him. He stumbled backward, but once he regained his balance, and just stood there.

"And if I don't?" he asked, just as Nate was walking back towards us.

"Then I'll have to kick you out."

"What's going on?" Nate asked.

"Tommy here was just telling me that he was gonna try to kick me out."

I couldn't stop myself. He called me Tommy and that really set me off. Nate knew what was coming, because his eyes widened and he took a step back.

My right hand flew back and then forward and I punched Tyler in the jaw.

"Is that the best you got?" he asked, spitting blood on the ground near my feet.

I leapt on him then, knocking him to the ground and punching him over and over again. Some people finally pulled me off, and Nate helped Tyler up off the ground.

"Let's go," he whispered. Then he looked up at me and glared. "Grow up Thomas!" he spat before leading Tyler away.

Jesse

It was getting late, and I was curled up on my bed, crying. Marco should be sitting here next to me, but instead, he's off screwing Andrew. What kind of a boyfriend is he? Doesn't he know I went through the same thing with Rex? At least Rex was off with a girl.

My cell phone rang suddenly, causing me to jump up and grab it. I didn't recognize the number, so I wasn't going to answer it, but for some reason I decided to anyway.

It was the hospital.

I'm such an idiot. Marco and Andrew were both in the hospital, and I assumed they were running away together or something. I jumped up, put Gracie in her carrier as quickly as I could, and hopped on the first bus to the hospital, cursing myself the entire way.

Lindsey

I successfully avoided Theresa the entire night, and only talked to Thomas once, to thank him for throwing the party. It wasn't much fun though; all I did was drink the night away.

I couldn't stop thinking about her. How beautiful she was. How it felt to be with her. I tried to shake the thoughts from my mind, but it didn't work. I was all hung up on her and I didn't know why. My best friend's girlfriend? Damn.

I watched her leave with him, and suddenly became jealous. Then I remembered where I was, and just sat down and ordered another drink. I turned my head, hoping to catch one last glimpse of Theresa, but she was already gone. And that's when I saw her coming in through the door. Sarah.

After jumping up from the stool I was on, I stumbled over to her and kissed her. All thoughts of Theresa left my mind as I took all of her in.

"Hey baby," I said, brushing some hair away from her face. Instead of saying anything, she looked down at the floor. "What's wrong?" She lifted her head up and had tears streaming down her face.

"How can you even ask that? You know what's wrong Lindsey! You're going to jail…" I interrupted her by kissing her again. But she pulled away quickly, her mood turning from depressed to angry. "Have you been drinking?" she asked.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be? It's how I met you, after all," I told her, kissing her again.

"Stop it!" she yelled shoving me off of her.

"What, you don't want to be with me? After everything I've done for you?" I asked.

"Don't you get it? That's what got you into this in the first place! This is the reason you're going to jail; for being with me," she said, starting to cry again.

"Actually, I wouldn't be going if you hadn't lied to me that night. Do you honestly think I would screw around with a fourteen year old?" I asked. I did love Sarah, I really did. But I knew that I wouldn't be in the position I was in if she'd told me the truth. Once I was in it with her, I couldn't stop. But I never would have started if I knew how old she was.

"Once you found out who old I was, you didn't stop yourself then. You told me you loved me and I was stupid enough to believe it!" she yelled.

"I do love you! And that's why I'm going to jail for you! Not many guys would do that," I screamed right back at her.

She kissed me then, so hard that I never wanted to let go. I knew I'd have to let go sometime, but not tonight. I led her to another room and locked the door. We were in an empty VIP room, that no one was using that night.

I brought Sarah over to the nearest couch and laid her down, climbing on top of her. If it was our last time together, it sure as hell was gonna be our best.

Andrew

The doctor sent some psychiatrist down to talk to me after Marco fell asleep. So I've landed myself back in therapy, and now they've even got me on anti depressants.

I didn't want to wake Marco up, so I couldn't turn the TV back on. I sighed and lay back and just stared at the ceiling. There wasn't much else to do. If I started to think about who I really wanted to think about…I'd just get depressed. Then I'd need more pills, and, I don't want to end up like Nate.

There was some sort of commotion in the hall that caught my attention. I tried to see what was going on through the door, but all I couldn't see anything. And then he came in through the door. Jesse.

I squeezed my eyes shut and pretended to be asleep. It didn't matter anyway, because the only person he was concerned about was Marco. He'd even put Gracie in her carrier on the ground by the door. It was almost like he dropped the baby in that exact spot, so he could get rid of the dead weight that was keeping him from Marco.

I watched as he grabbed his hand and started whispering into Marco's ear. I instantly wished that I was the one he was whispering to, but it was almost like Jesse didn't even notice me. Like I was just another shadow on the wall.

Marco's eyes fluttered open at the touch of Jesse's lips to the corner of his mouth. It was some thing that they shared; I'd see them do it so many times when they thought no one was looking. It was kind of cute when I wasn't thinking about how I wanted to be kissed like that.

As they kissed again, full on the lips this time, my stomach started to get that feeling. It felt like a bunch of spiders were crawling on the inside of my stomach, and they were all fighting to get out. I snapped my eyes shut as I heard Marco mention my name. But I never opened them again that night.

Ellie

I watched Lindsey drag that Sarah girl off to the adjacent VIP room. I figured that he really did sleep with her; especially since they were gone for almost three hours. And when she left, her hair was all over the place, and her makeup was smudged everywhere. I had to laugh to myself; they were in over their heads, but still managed to look cute doing it.

What wasn't cute was the fact that immediately after she left, Lindsey made a beeline for the bar and proceeded to drink himself into a hole. I looked everywhere for Thomas, only to find out from some kid I'd never seen before that he'd already left with his girlfriend.

By the time I got to him, Lindsey was falling off the stool. I was barely able to drag him five feet, never mind all the way to the bus stop. Luckily, one of the bouncers helped me walk him down the street, probably not wanting to get in trouble for underage drinking. Then I managed to get him on the bus.

Since the closest place was my school, I just snuck him in there, and lugged him up one flight of stairs, onto my floor. I was actually out of breath and had to rest before pulling him down the hall, and finally, into my room. I'd thought that Theresa would be with Thomas, but she was actually in her own bed, asleep.

I somehow pushed and pulled enough to get him up on my bed, where he lazily kissed my cheek and grinned before passing out. I rolled my eyes and proceeded to the other side of the room, to attempt to tell Theresa that he was there. I shook her and poked her, but she just groaned and rolled away from me. I finally gave up and decided to call Thomas to give him a piece of my mind. I left the room and stood in the very empty hallway.

"Hello?" he asked, answering the phone on the fifth ring.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" I asked. I hardly ever swore in my life, but I was pretty pissed off.

"Who is this?"

"Ellie. Who else? And I'm pissed at you Thomas," I said, glaring as though he could see me.

"What did I do?" he asked. He was actually almost whining; I must have woken him up.

"It's more like what you didn't do. Like, oh, I don't know…get your own damn best friend home!" I hissed, trying to stay somewhat quiet. "I had to drag him to the bus stop, on and off of it, and up to my room!"

"I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't know he would get that drunk. I take it Sarah showed up…"

"Of course she did. You're such an idiot Thomas. Do you even care about anyone but yourself?" I spat.

"What do you mean? I called Sarah for him, so that they could have a proper goodbye."

"I wasn't talking about them; I was talking about me. Don't you even care that I had to bring him home with me? That I went through all kinds of trouble to get him here, nearly got myself killed, and am facing expulsion if anyone sees him?" I whispered as loudly as I could.

"Of course I care about you Ellie. A lot, actually," he said.

Everything was silent for a few moments as both of us were probably just trying to understand why he'd said that. A lot? What did he mean by that?

"Uh…Ellie?" he asked, finally breaking the silence.

"I gotta go!" I said. "Someone's calling on the other line."

I wasn't lying so that I could get off the phone with him; someone really was calling me. It was Marco, and he was in the hospital! Suddenly, all of my thoughts of Thomas and Lindsey disappeared. I scribbled a note and left it next to Theresa's bed before rushing off to see if Marco was okay.

Theresa

As soon as Ellie was gone, I sat up in bed and squinted in the dark to read the note. I leaned closer to the window, and caught a line saying that she wouldn't be home until probably after classes that day, since it was already very early in the morning. That was all I needed to know.

I got up and locked the door, just in case, before walking over to Ellie's bed. There he was, sprawled out across her bed, his mouth hanging open. I couldn't think of a time when he looked any cuter than that exact moment.

He was warm as I crawled into bed with him, and cuddled up to his stomach. I kissed him softly, and he finally opened his eyes. He murmured something that I couldn't make out and kissed the top of my head.

"What?" I whispered, pressing myself even closer to him.

"I guess our plan worked," he repeated, kissing me again, on my nose.

"I guess it did," I said, smiling. He ran a hand through my hair and kissed me one last time, slipping his tongue into my mouth for a brief moment. Then he wrapped his arms around me and fell asleep.

Remy

When I woke up, my vision was blurry and my head was killing me. I could just make out the numbers on the digital clock: 11:24 am. Classes had obviously already started. I'd almost forgotten where I was, but then it hit me.

I remembered my head being slammed into the wall…and Kelly's face as he did it. He was grinning wildly with a devilish look in his eye. He enjoyed all of it so much. I managed to stumble to the bathroom and shove my finger down my throat. My body was in so much pain, but the bile passing through my throat somehow made me feel a little better.

I left the room carefully, making sure that no one saw me. I couldn't be in there any longer. I never wanted to go back, but I had to. I had to make it through the year.

While only a few doors away from the room, I saw someone walking towards me. He wasn't just walking towards me; he was walking towards that room. It was Nate.

My stomach flopped. Nate and I had somewhat become friends over winter break. I suddenly felt like I had to protect him; like I would be responsible if the same thing happened to him.

"Where are you going?" I choked out. My throat hurt like hell, and I was just realizing it for the first time.

"You look like hell. And I'm just…walking," he said. I knew he was lying right away. He was going in there to wait for Kelly, who would probably be on his lunch break soon.

"Don't go back to him," I warned.

"What are you talking about?"

"I know what you're doing with Kelly. He told me. And it's the same thing I used to do. But trust me, it won't turn out good," I said. I really wanted him to hear me.

"The same thing you used to do? The way I see it, you still do! And maybe you just want him all to yourself," he said, getting angry.

"Are you kidding me?" I said loudly, trying not to yell. "I don't want to do this; any of it. But he has all of the control," I told him, getting upset.

"That's crap. You could stop if you wanted to and you know it. And Kelly doesn't have the control with me; I do. And I like it that way," he said, trying to walk past me.

"You'll lose the control," I said to his back. "And you'll end up like me."

He completely ignored me and kept walking. I watched, hurt, as he let himself right into Kelly's room and slammed the door. I held back tears as I stumbled back to my own room.

Nate was right; I could stop if I wanted. And I did want to; but I wanted to graduate more. I felt the urge to throw up again, and rushed back to my room to do it. I would have gone through with it, but when I opened the door, Rory was in my room.

"What happened to you?" he asked, a worried tone in his voice. We hadn't been spending much time together, and I suddenly realized how much I missed him.

"Don't worry about it," I told him as I collapsed onto my bed. "Why aren't you in class?"

"Because this period is history, with Mr. Jackson," he said, sighing. I could tell that he was upset about something, but I didn't know what. "Remy, I probably won't graduate. I'm gonna fail this class because I just can't go," he confessed.

"Why not?"

"I'm gonna ask you a favor first, and then I'll explain," he said, sitting up.

"Okay," I said, shrugging.

"Will you go to the class and pretend to be me? For the rest of the year? I just can't face that guy," he told me, his eyes starting to tear up.

I thought about what he was asking. I was in the same boat as him, struggling to graduate because of some pervert teacher. I hoped that this Mr. Jackson wasn't doing the same thing to him that Kelly was doing to me.

"Of course I'll do it," I said. "You're my brother."

"Thank you," he said, instantly relieved.

"But you have to tell me why." He sighed; obviously he'd hoped that I wouldn't make him tell me. But I was getting upset, and I was definitely ready to kick the guy's ass if he was hurting my brother.

"It happened when I was living on the streets…"

A/N: This chapter took place on the night of Saturday, January 14 and the morning of Sunday, January 15. The next chapter will be skipped ahead quite a few months because I want to get to graduation soon.

Sorry the chapter is so late, but this time it's actually not my fault! The site wouldn't let me upload my chapter at all...I kept getting an error message. So here it finally is. For anyone who reads My Escape, I'm sorry to say that the chapter isn't finished yet. I've been having a really crazy week/weekend and I haven't had time to write. I'll try my hardest to get it up before Monday.