4.

Elliot was seeing red. Nick had all but dropped Kathy, who was standing inside the stall on shaky legs, smoothing out her dress while Nick quickly reached down to grab his pants. Before the boy had a chance to pull his pants up, Elliot's fist connected with his face. Blood spurted from his nose and Kathy screamed. The two people in the showers came running around the wall half-dressed and were just in time to witness Elliot charging at Nick again and using his stomach and face as a punching bag. Elliot only vaguely registered the screaming of the others while he pummeled Nick until the boy stopped moving. Elliot stood over him, breathing heavily and still reeling with adrenaline. He looked at his girlfriend then, who had sank down to the floor next to the toilet and was sobbing.

"El," she said shakily when she saw him looking at her but he couldn't listen to her.

He had never felt so betrayed in his life.

"Is he dead?"

"Nick, buddy."

Kim and Ed, who were somewhat dressed again, rushed over to tend to Nick. Elliot turned around and walked out of the dressing room, down the hallway and straight to the emergency exit. Once he was outside, the adrenaline finally wore off and the full extent of what had just happened hit him. His legs gave out and he sank to the ground, his back hitting the outside wall of the school with a thud. He covered his face with his hands and cried.

…

"Come on Elliot, you gotta stop drinking. Your dad's gonna flip if you come home drunk."

They weren't 21 yet after all. Elliot looked at his friend and then looked at his beer again. They were at Brian's place and his parents were out.

"I don't care anymore. Nothing matters anymore," he mumbled.

He felt so empty. Completely drained. He couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe Kathy. He thought they had a good thing going and then she turned around and did this? He'd been nothing but good for her, looking out for her. Loving her. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he would have laughed at anyone who would try to tell him Kathy would cheat on him. She would never. He'd been sure of it. And yet she had. He still remembered her moans and sighs. She'd been sighing another boy's name. She had let him fuck her. The captain of the football team and the cheerleader. How cliché. He couldn't help wondering if she'd just used him for sex in the end. Some of her requests had surprised him, like that time in the supply room, but he had chalked it up to the growing trust between them and Kathy's thirst to learn how to please him better. Had it all been a lie? He had felt so safe in her arms, so at home, and part of him longed to go back to yesterday. Back to when everything was still right in the world. He wanted to sleep on her naked chest and feel her hands drawing patterns on his bare back. His stomach clenched at the thought that that would never happen again and he couldn't deal with it.

By the time his friends convinced him to call home and tell his parents that he was crashing at Brian's, he was completely numb. When his father started yelling at him through the phone he just frowned and gave the receiver back to his friend, who hung up for him. He didn't care anymore what his father was saying, and he'd endure the beating he was sure to get the next day. It couldn't hurt more than he was hurting already. He felt like he was dying inside, and once he was dead on the inside, nothing would hurt him anymore.

…

Elliot had managed to drag himself through the rest of the weekend. His mother told him Kathy had called the house but he didn't want to talk to her. No apology would ever be able to erase what he'd seen and he wasn't going to add to his own pain by giving her another chance. He knew he would never trust her again and he needed to move on from her. She had been his first love. The girl he had given his virginity to. He thought it had meant something to her but he wondered now if she had ever felt something for him at all. He'd whispered words of love to her many times when they had been intimate together but he couldn't remember now if she had ever said those things back to him. She must have felt something for him, but to turn around and do what she had done … her feelings hadn't been strong enough. Not as strong as his.

The only good thing that had happened was, that his father had actually understood that he'd been upset because Kathy had broken up with him. He'd looked at Elliot's bruised, bloodied hands almost proudly. Elliot hadn't given his father any details but the man hadn't punished him for staying away all night. He'd yelled at him again on Sunday night but he always did that when he was drunk. Elliot had simply gone up to his room where he could be alone with his thoughts and his parents hadn't bothered him again.

It was Monday now and he would have to face school again. He had no doubt that everyone knew by now what had happened. And sure enough, the principal was already waiting for him and called him into his office before he could even go to his first class.

"I've told your teacher you'll be in a little later," Principal Jones said. "Now sit down, Stabler."

Elliot complied and looked at the older man rounding his desk and sitting down with a sigh.

"Nicholas had to be taken to the hospital," he declared then.

"Good."

"There is nothing good about that, Stabler. You do realize you're in trouble, don't you? We don't solve disagreements with our fists around here."

"He should have kept his hands off my girl!" Elliot said. "What would you do if you saw another man banging your wife?"

The Principal folded his hands on his desk and stared at them for a moment.

"Probably the same thing you did," he admitted then. "How have you been holding up, son?"

Elliot shrugged. He didn't feel like talking about his feelings with the principal.

"I think we should schedule a talk with Ms. Malloy for you."

"I'm not gonna get my head shrunk. I'm fine," Elliot said.

"Ms. Malloy is not a psychiatrist, Elliot," the principal said kindly but he already knew that.

"Doesn't matter. I got my friends to talk to. I'm not gonna tell her anything anyway."

"How are things at home, Elliot?"

"Fine."

"Do you get along with your dad?"

Elliot jumped up and took a few steps away from the principal's desk.

"What's that got to do with anything?" he asked vehemently. He was getting impatient and wanted to get out of this office.

The older man just looked at him for a few moments and then picked up his pen.

"I'm making an appointment with Ms. Malloy for you anyway. You are to see her at least three times after school, and then we'll evaluate. It's an official assignment from me, and if you don't show up, I'm giving you an F for one of your classes."

Elliot huffed but took the note after the principal had written it out for him.

"Now get to your class and try to stay out of trouble."

"Yes sir."

Elliot quickly left the principal's office, relieved that the man seemed to understand why he'd beaten up Nick. He was bummed that he'd have to go talk to the school's social worker but at least they weren't calling his parents with a formal complaint. Or so he hoped. He snuck into History quietly and sat down in the back as always. His stomach clenched when he saw Kathy, hunched over her book, two rows ahead of him. Part of him longed for her and another part of him felt sick about what she'd done. He wished he could just stop loving her but apparently there wasn't an off switch for his feelings. John nodded at him and Elliot gave him an upward nod in return and then tried to focus on what their teacher was saying.

…

After class, Elliot tried to ignore Kathy and her friends. Kathy was clutching her books against her chest and tried to make eye contact with him, but he just walked passed her towards the lockers to grab his things for their next class. Kim suddenly popped up next to him at his locker.

"Elliot, I'm so sorry," she started but Elliot didn't feel like talking to Kathy's friend either.

She had been there so she had betrayed him as well.

"I didn't know she was going to go all the way with him, El. Honestly," Kim tried again. "I thought she was just tagging along for me. Nick tried to kiss her but I assumed she'd blow him off and … well ... I went to the showers with Ed so I didn't realize it until I heard them."

Elliot closed his locker and stared at Kim. He didn't know who she was anymore, or who Kathy was. Fucking football players they weren't involved with during a school party? He knew kids did that, but not his friends. Not his girlfriend. Ex-girlfriend.

"I hope you'll all be very happy together," he snapped at Kim. "You deserve each other."

Kim had a stunned look on her face but her eyes softened then.

"Alright. I guess we deserve that. I'm really sorry, Elliot."

"Tell Kathy to stop calling my house. We're through."

Kim nodded and lifted her hand to touch his arm, but changed her mind and took a step back before turning around and walking away, leaving him standing at his locker. Elliot let out a harsh breath and then slammed his fist into his locker, making a large dent in it.

"Fuck!"

"Hey. Are you okay?"

Elliot blinked and turned around slowly to see who was talking to him. He saw a young brunette with a very concerned look on her face staring at him. He didn't know her. In fact, he didn't think he had seen her in school before. She was wearing blue jeans, white sneakers and a simple white sweater and she had a black bag slung over her shoulder. All the other kids were hurrying to their next classes and then it was just the two of them.

"Yeah, I'm okay," he said quickly.

"You don't look okay."

Elliot shook his hand, that was a bit painful from hitting the locker. His knuckles were still bruised from beating up Nick on Saturday and hitting a wall afterwards, and he saw that they were bleeding a little again.

"Let me look at that," the brunette said, stepping closer to him and taking his right fist in her hands.

Elliot was too surprised to respond and let her examine his hand. She looked up at him.

"That's not the first thing you hit, is it?"

Elliot shrugged.

"It'll heal."

"Your hand will heal, yes," the girl said and somehow he knew what she was telling him. His hand would heal but the reason he'd hurt himself wouldn't go away so easily.

"I don't think I've seen you before," he said and the girl smiled.

"I just transferred in today. I'm Olivia."

"I'm Elliot."

"Nice to meet you, Elliot. What's your next class?"

"I'm supposed to be in Math right now."

"I'm late too. Gotta run! See you around?"

"Sure. See you around."

Elliot finally headed for his next class and smiled when he saw Olivia run down the hallway, almost skidding around the corner on her way to her class. He sighed and walked to his Math class, bracing himself before being confronted with Kathy once more.

…

A/N: Can all the EO fans come on board now already? Reviews are life, remember?