So i was waiting for at least one more review before i updated, but i guess no such luck. Sparkle587, you're an absolute doll, and i appreciate your consistency. Maybe everyone will like this chapter more and submit a review...please?

"But Mom!"

"Eleanor, that's enough. I won't have you sitting around moping all night and making my friends feel uncomfortable. You can't stay home and that's final"

"Mother, do you have any idea how ridiculous you are being? Reasonable parents want their children safe at home on a dangerous holiday like New Year's Eve, what will all the drunks out there and everything. But then again I guess most parents don't get so plastered that their children are safer out on the road than in their own home, do they?"

Mrs. Nash's hand gave a resounding smack as it collided with her daughter's cheek.

"Get out. Now." She muttered through clenched teeth, her eyes matching Ellie's as they smoldered with rage. The red-headed teen was the first to break contact, turning on her heel and heading for the door, but stopping at the threshold to get a final word in."

"Do me a favor though, would ya? Try not to burn the house down this time Mother."

And with that the door slammed shut and Ellie headed off in the direction of Marco's. God, her mother was infuriating! She was reckless, ignorant, self-centered, and most of all, dangerous. Did her time in rehab teach her nothing? But even as mad as she was right now, Ellie couldn't help but be worried as well. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she tried to clear her head. She could only do so much to protect that woman, after all, wasn't it a mother's job to look after her child? When did the rules get switched around on her? She didn't care anymore, she couldn't care anymore, she had to focus on the present, which unfortunately happened to be that damn party.

"Ellie! You fin-ally...made...it?" Marco's face changed from that of utter glee upon her arrival to one of complete horror when he viewed her ensemble. The jeans and grey hoodie she had thrown on before going to confront Mommy dearest didn't exactly match his dress code.

"Sorry Marco, I...I...I spilled coke on my outfit for your party and..." Ellie let her voice trail off, as the fedora-adorned, perfectly accessorized, picture of fashion perfection had obviously stopped listening. She wanted to tell him the truth, and for a second there she almost had, but luckily she managed to stop herself in time. She had been keeping Marco in the dark for so long that telling him what had transpired this afternoon would just open up so many questions she didn't feel like explaining. She was okay, right? Well, at least in everyone else's minds she was, including that of her best friend, and she would rather keep it that way. After all, ignorance was bliss.

"Elle, Elle, Elle," The boy clucked, shaking his head disapprovingly but with a small smile playing at his lips. "Thankfully, today is just happens to be your lucky day (Oh god, if only he knew...) Paige couldn't decide between a couple of things to wear so she brought them over to get my opinion. I'm sure she wouldn't mind if you borrowed one she didn't pick. Come on, they're in my room."

Umm, wait. Hold up, was she hearing this correctly? Ellie Nash, wear pretty, preppy, princess Paige's clothes? Stunned by the mere thought of it, she couldn't object as Marco took hold of her wrist and dragged her up to his room. And suddenly there she was, confronted with her eveningwear options, either a white, full-skirted halter-y thing that eerily reminded her of Marilyn Monroe or that black slinky number Paige had worn to go meet Matt earlier that year. For a second she contemplated refusing to wear either and just staying in her own clothes, but she knew to do so would break Marco's little heart, or at least throw off the party he had painstakingly planned down to last diminutive detail. Reluctantly, she picked up the black flimsy piece of material (flimsy was better than fluffy, right?) and shimmied into it. Thank God the scars on her arms had begun to fade and that the dress was just long enough to cover the more recent wounds on her thighs. She still felt as good as naked in that thing though, so she slipped her chucks back on and wrapped the sweatshirt around her.

Downstairs the house was already a blur of black and white as people bustled about in their best, swirling in and out around the huge tower of champagne classes stacked in a pyramid just waiting for that toast at midnight.

Champagne.

Alcohol.

Her Mother.

She didn't give a fuck, she didn't give a fuck, she didn't-but she did. She tried and lied and exhausted herself with the complexity of her feelings for her Mom, but she couldn't help it. Something in the pit of her stomach was pulling her away from the party and back home.

"Oh God Ellie, it that my dress!" Paige's voice cried shrilly out to her over the crows, causing quite a few people to turn in their direction, and jolting Ellie back from her thoughts.

"Umm, yeah. Marco said you wouldn't mind." She responded, trying desperately to seem as nonchalant as possible.

"Mind? Hells no babe, you look gorgeous!" the blonde shrieked, yanking the hoodie Ellie clutched like a security blanket out of her grasp and exposing her to the growing number of onlookers, who stood gawking at the usually so covered up Miss Nash in a get-up that left little to the imagination. Well, at least by Ellie's standards. Manny would have most likely considered it to be old maid-ish, but at least she wasn't there.

But Jimmy was. Ellie caught him eying her across the room and giving her one of his "smooth" smiles. God, she was going to be sick. Muttering something about needing to go somewhere, she slipped out of view, quickly making a break for the door once she could. Midnight was quickly approaching and she had a feeling she should be at home.

Doesn't that purple rectangle look interesting? Come on, push it and see what happens!