CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: Information

*MITCH'S POV*

I don't remember how I got here, or how much I had to drink. My vision is still a little blurry, but I know that I'll at least remember what's going on now. I look around for the noise that woke me up. I'm lying on the upstairs bathroom floor with my pillow and sheet. Lily is huddled a few feet away. Her blanket is in a twisted heap near her like she threw it off in her sleep. She's frowning and making little noises like she's frustrated. It must have been her that woke me up. I'm about to tell her to shut up and go to sleep when I notice that her eyes aren't open.

She must be having a nightmare. I start to get up and go over and wake her up when I realize that that's a really bad idea. The world swirls and tips. The contents of my stomach are about to make a surprise reappearance. I just barely get my head over the toilet bowl before what little is still in my stomach decides it doesn't want to be there anymore. Any thoughts of comforting someone else are completely gone. I feel a hand rubbing my back lightly and I relax a little bit as my stomach settles down. I reach for the handle and flush the nasty liquid away. Lily hands me my toothbrush as I sit back against the wall, not wanting to get up.

"Sorry I woke you up," I say. She shakes her head and hands me a Dixie cup to spit in.

"Believe me, it's fine," she replies. She takes the cup and toothbrush, then hands me a cup of water. I take a couple sips as she puts the stuff away.

"What time is it?" I ask. She checks her watch.

"About 7 AM," she replies.

"How long have I been out?" I ask.

"An hour maybe? I'm not sure."

"How long have you been sleeping?"

"Forty-five minutes? I don't know," she says, rubbing her eyes.

"So what happened last night? How did I get here?" I ask. I almost ask why she's here instead of Ashley, but something tells me I shouldn't. Her face darkens.

"It's best if I tell you later, when we've both had more sleep," she says.

"But–"

"No, Mitch. I'm serious about this one." I don't doubt it. There's no trace of her usual smile.

"Okay," I say, letting it go. A few minutes pass silently.

"So what was it about?" I ask.

"What?"

"Your nightmare. What was it about?"

"How did you know that I was–Ah, shit, I woke you up, didn't I? I'm sorry. It's nothing. Don't worry about it." I'd probably believe her if she wasn't avoiding eye contact.

"Lily, just tell me. It'll help, I promise. Scout's honor," I say, putting one hand on my heart and the other in the air like I'm swearing an oath. She smiles, then sighs.

"It's a long story, Mitch."

"I got time."

"Fine. When I was younger–like, middle school younger– I wrote really dark poetry. Like, bones and murder and stuff. I think I found it funny in a kind of twisted, sadistic way. I mean, here's this adorably innocent, quiet, shy little girl writing poetry about death and pain and shit. As I grew up, they became more self-reflective and socially observant than dark. They were still haunting, just in a different way. Didn't really stop them from biting me in the ass, though.

"Around my freshman year of college, I started to have these nightmares that were really familiar for some reason. It took quite a while to figure out that they were the poems I wrote.

"They seem to repeat kinda randomly. They tend to come if I haven't had one in a few weeks, or if I'm stressed, or if I get really upset. The worst part is, I can't stop writing. It just keeps coming. It's almost like I'm willingly depriving myself of sleep. I haven't found a way to stop them yet.

"Hopefully we can both back to sleep now, but I'm gonna have another one. They always stay the whole night, especially when they're because I'm upset." She stops like she's given away too much.

"So why did it come tonight?" I ask.

"Like I said, I'll tell you everything tomorrow," she says quietly. "Let's just try and go to sleep." She lays down on her side, facing away from me. A short while later, her breathing evens out. Couple minutes later, she starts making the frustrated noises again. I crawl over to her (no puking this time, thank god), dragging my pillow and sheet. I push my pillow up next to hers and lay my sheet across us both. I gently lift her head and slip my arm underneath, then use my other arm to pull myself against her back. I adjust so that I'm comfortable and listen to her breathing even out again. I forgot what it felt like to hold somebody like this. It's nice that it doesn't mean anything. I can feel her breathing against my arm as I fall asleep.

When I wake up almost twelve hours later, she's turned around so that one arm is draped over my side and her head is snuggled into my chest. The first thing I do is smile.

The second, of course, involves my head in the toilet. You would think that I'd gotten rid of everything but apparently not. Lily rubs my back while I'm still heaving and hands me a glass of water when I'm done. I drink it all, then sit back against the wall.

"Everyone's out somewhere. They left us a note," she says. I nod, and we sit in silence for a few seconds.

"So…" I say.

"George," she replies.

"What?"

"Nothing. Long story. Inside joke," she says, smiling.

"Oooookay. Are you going to tell me what happened last night?" I ask.

"Well, let's see. Mat tried to put Preston in the pool, Rob had a breakdown because I told him he's white, aaaand I'm pretty sure you chugged most of a bottle of vodka." I laugh.

"That all?" I say.

"There's more, but you won't believe me."

"Try me," I say. She's making me anxious.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," she replies, then sighs. "You tried to rape Ashley."

"What?!" I ask. That's impossible. I mean, I like her, but I would never try to force myself on someone. That can't have happened. I was drunk, sure, but that doesn't mean I was that far out of control. Right?

She pulls out her iPod and fiddles with it for a few seconds, then shows me the screen. I'm half-expecting to see another shirtless picture of Mat.

What's actually there is so much worse.

A/N TIME! I BET YOU MISSED THIS: Hey guys! QD here with a semi-cliffhanger update. Sorry (kind of). Thank y'all so much for all of your support with the last chapter (does it count as two if it's in two parts? I don't know). You guys are seriously the best and I love each and every one of you beautiful indivduals so, so much. As far as the six-month project goes, the vote is currently tied between a livestream and one-shots. My current plan is to do one short companion story and still stream, if I can get that working. If the stream doesn't work, I'll make a YouTube video that has something to do with my story. Moving on, I don't think there's much point to doing a fact/fiction section for this chapter, so instead I'll just explain why there wasn't an author's note for the past chapter(s). obviously, a lot happened, and some pretty serious stuff went down on Lily's end. I would rather not explain how I came to that particular storyline. I also didn't want to interrupt the flow of action. Things will get better, I promise. I just can't promise another update for at least a week, and most likely even longer. In conclusion, thank you guys so much! Much luv and internet hugs!

-Quiet Defiance

PS - for those of you following Ancient Merome, I will get to updating that as soon as I'm through the dramatic part (well, one of them) of this story.

PPS - don't forget to follow me on twitter! Username in my bio :)