Disclaimer: I own nothing.

"So Miley took her life…" Joey whispered to the class.
Everyone was silent. A couple of the kids had tears falling from their eyes. They understood what THAT meant.

XoXo

No one could speak a word, not the teachers, not the principal, not the children. Joey tried his best to hide his smile, proud of himself for telling the story so well. "Well…"

"Lilly was even worse now. It had been another two weeks, making it August now, since Miley committed suicide and four weeks since the fatal crash. Lilly spent her time locked away in her bedroom, constantly crying, not coming out or speaking to anyone. That meant anyone. Her phone was dead and had been for almost the full two weeks."

Lilly dried her eyes as best as she could and tried her hardest to keep the tears from flowing, she just needed a quick break. She pulled open her dresser drawer and took out a small earring box. Inside held her relief, her temporary savior that could stop some of her pain for a short period of time; a razor blade.

She knew it was terribly hypocritical that she started cutting herself, but her best friend had been right; it did help. She convinced herself that she was going to do it not only because it worked, but because if Miley had suffered this way, she was going to as well.

She added five fresh red lines to the family of scabs and scars and sighed. What a mess her life had become. In just a few short months she had lost one of her good friends to an accident, her best friend had committed suicide right before her eyes, and she basically lost her parents. She never heard from her dad anymore and her mom was an emotional wreck, and Joe…

She hadn't even spoken to Joseph since the day of Miley and Jake's funerals, which occurred about two days after her death. She made another cut on her arm thinking about him and then the tears started again.

She knew she was being selfish, that Joe wanted nothing more than to hold her as she cried…to make it all better, but she couldn't do anything. All she ever had the strength to do was cut herself. She hardly ever ate anymore; she was getting very skinny.

Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted by a soft knock on her door, making her jump. She thought everyone had given up on trying to talk to her.

"Lillian?"

Her heart stopped, and her breath shortened. Joe was outside her door. She tried her hardest to speak, she knew Miley would've encouraged her to do it, but her voice was lost due to not speaking in nearly two weeks.

"Lilly…" he tried again. Lilly could hear his voice quiver and with a sharp pain in her chest, she realized he was crying. She forced herself off the floor and stumbled over to the bedroom door to unlock it. She opened it slowly.

"J…" was all she could get out. She winced; her throat was so dry it hurt to speak. Her voice was cracked and raspy. She looked up at Joe.

He looked terrible; his hair a greasy looking mess, his eyes red and puffy, dark circles lined them. Lilly felt tears stream down her face at the sight of him. She knew she caused this pain for Joe.

They stood there, eyes connected, losing control of their bodies. No matter what pain they were going through, they still felt everything in the world when their eyes locked. However, Lilly was so weak that when her body went numb, she collapsed on the floor. Joe immediately rushed to her side.

"Baby…are you okay?" He whispered, concern lining his sweet and addicting voice. Lilly blinked a couple of times and nodded her head slowly.

Joe picked her up in his muscular arms and laid her down on her bed. Lilly let out a sigh and Joe laid down right next to her.

"I miss you baby," He said sadly. Lilly coughed and cleared her throat over and over, but couldn't get any words to come out. She squeezed his hand tightly instead.

"You look awful baby, like you haven't eaten in forever," Joe stated. She felt his tears burn a hole in her arms as they hit her skin. All she could do was nod. "Come with me baby, get out of the house; we'll go get something to eat. We can go to your favorite restaurant…?"

Lilly shook her head. As much as she wanted to, she knew she'd never be able to. Joe sighed. "This is dangerous babe, and I know your mom and your dad haven't been much of a help…I'm so sorry…but you need to eat baby. Please, for me?" Joe pleaded; more tears escaped his brown eyes. Lilly shook her head again. It was terrible, the first time she'd seen him in weeks and she couldn't even bring herself to be with him.

Joe sighed again. "I'm worried about you Lilly, so you're coming." He gently picked her up off the bed and carried her in his arms out the door. Every muscle in her body twitched in protest, but the combination of how weak she was and how much she loved being in his arms prevented her from putting up a fight.

XoXo

"So Joe carried her from her silent house and placed her into his car. He drove them off to the town to go to her favorite restaurant. The ride there was silent and depressing. The sun hurt Lilly's eyes…"

They pulled into the parking lot of The Olive Garden and Joe stopped the car. He looked over at Lilly and asked, "You ready baby?" She gave no hint of any reply. He sighed once again, and got out of his door to open hers. He was about to pick her up but she held up a hand. She got out of the car and tried with much difficulty to stand. Joe weakly smiled and assisted her. With his arm around her shoulder, and hers around his, they slowly walked inside the restaurant.

"Can I get you kids something to drink?" The middle-aged waitress asked them happily once they were. "I'll have a coke, and water for her please," Joe answered the lady. "Mmhm," she wrote down the orders and walked off. "What do you want to eat baby?" Joe asked Lilly. Lilly shook her head. Joe frowned. "Please baby, talk to me."

The waitress came back with their drinks. Lilly immediately reached for hers and took a long sip of her water. The cold liquid felt good against her burning throat. Her glass was finished in less than a minute. Joe looked surprised, but he knew she probably hadn't really drunk anything in a while. Lilly cleared her throat and tried to speak. She succeeded, but it still hurt a little bit.

"Joe…it hurts to talk," she said slowly. Joe's eyes brightened. "It's okay baby, it's so nice to hear your voice though." He smiled.

"I love you," she whispered as best as she could. He grabbed her hands. "I love you too Lillian." The connection was rekindled. Blue met brown again, and before they knew it, the two teens were leaned over the table kissing passionately. All the strength Lilly could muster was pushed into this kiss. They broke apart when the waitress came back.

"Sorry kids…" she mumbled embarrassed. Joe waved it off and said, "It's okay." She smiled at the boy and got out her notepad, "What'll it be?"

He got Lilly to at least eat a salad, and Joe ordered a large pepperoni pizza for himself and Lilly if she'd eat it."That'll be right up kids," the waitress said with another smile and walked away for the second time. The teens intertwined their fingers together again.

"So Lilly…I know you're not holding up to well, but…anything you'd like to talk about?" Joe warily asked. He felt the pain in his chest now as he saw her eyes fill with tears. "Oh no baby, don't cry, you don't have to talk about anything."

She shook her head, sighed, and whispered, "I'm sorry Joseph; it just…hurts like hell." Joe nodded.

"I know baby, I know. I'm so sorry about everything…I wish I could make it better," he said sadly.

"But you can't…" Lilly said, anger lining her voice. She didn't know where this was coming from, she knew Joe didn't say anything wrong but she couldn't stop the anger from coming.

Joe noticed the change of tone as said confusedly, "I know baby, I just wish I could make it all better for you."

"But you cant Joe, you just can't. Nobody fucking can!" –She was yelling by now- "My best fucking friend is dead, so is another one of my close friends, and my parents are fucking useless dead weights that are divorcing! No one can make this fucking better!"

Joe was taken aback, and the whole restaurant was watching the rampaging fifteen year old scream at him. "Lilly…I…"

"Fucking save it Joseph," she snarled, "I hate you!" She spat the last part out in the nastiest tone she'd used all day and ran out of the restaurant. Joe was left sitting there in shock. He felt his heart tear into thousands of tiny pieces. He hadn't even realized the tears falling down fast until his pant legs were soaked in them. She said she hated him…the one he loved said she hated him.

XoXo

Lilly ran, she couldn't feel her legs carry her, and she had no control over where they were taking her, but all she knew was she was going to find a blade. She just lost all control over her emotions and the anger she felt for months that was bottled up was released on Joe. She told Joe she hated him. Tears flooded her eyes as she realized what she had done. She dropped down to her knees on the sidewalk and just sobbed. "Shit," she sobbed to herself over and over. People passing her sadly stared at the obviously broken girl.

What felt like hours later, she finally regained enough energy to start walking. She had no idea where she was, the street names and buildings were so unfamiliar, even though she had walked these streets countless times. She knew she was in the downtown shopping plaza, but her mind couldn't register it. She had come here so many times with…Miley…she sighed and felt the hot tears sting her cheeks once again. She really missed her best friend.

Joe drove the streets through tears in his eyes. He couldn't believe what had just happened. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that he shouldn't be so worked up over this, he knew she was upset and she didn't mean it, but it hurt so badly. Her words broke his heart. He didn't know where he was going, and he didn't care that he was wasting gas pointlessly driving around; all he cared about was Lilly.

He didn't know how long he was driving, but he suddenly found himself in front of her house. He knew it would be pointless to try to call her cell, for it had been off for the past two weeks but he found himself dialing her familiar number anyways.

"Hey this is Lilly! Wait for the beep and tell me your story!"

He sighed and weakly smiled as he heard her cheerful recorded voice. He missed hearing her voice sound like that; even though out of the four months or so he knew her she was only cheery like that for two of them. He wished silently to himself that she could be happy again, purely for her sake.

He drove off from her house and absentmindedly drove to the one place he always knew he could get away from everything at. He had done it since he was younger; it was a small clearing in the back of some woods. It was extremely hard to find and he hadn't seen signs of anyone else being there in the years he had been going. So he went.

XoXo

Lilly found herself recognizing the place she walked to now, it was her neighborhood. The drive to the shopping plaza was 20-30 minutes at least, so she knew she must've been walking for a long time. She walked down the silent streets to her house and arrived there five minutes later. She reached for the knob, and found it unlocked. No one was home though, as usual. She sighed and dragged herself up the stairs to her bedroom, not even bothering to shut the door behind her.

She immediately went to her dresser for the second time that day, and made fine red lines all across her arms. She did not know how many cuts she did, but she cut until she was temporarily relieved. Blood trickled down her arms and onto the floor. She felt lightheaded, but shook it off to grab a dirty shirt to wrap around the wounds. She lay on the floor and broke out into sobs. "I…am…so…stupid!" she whispered to herself as she sobbed and her whole body shook violently.

Joe was lying down on his back on the cool grass of the clearing, listening to the small river softly brush up against its banks. He was crying hard and repetitively dialing Lilly's number to hear her voice. But every time he did so, his heart would break even more. He just didn't understand what happened. He kept trying to tell himself that she didn't mean it, but he failed every attempt to convince himself. He found himself just wishing this pain would end.

XoXo

"That's intense…" a boy whispered to the class. No one could even agree with him; they were all lost for words.

"Will they end up okay, Joey?" a girl asked him as she wiped away a tear.

"Well Jessica, we'll just have to wait and see," Joey replied, "Anyways…"

XoXo

"At least two hours later, Lilly decided she should do at least something for Joe. The only thing she could think of was charging her cell phone. So she plugged it in, and turned it on. No messages or voicemails. She sighed, knowing she should pick up the phone and call him and beg for forgiveness, but she couldn't."

Joe pressed redial for what seemed like the millionth time and waited for the familiar voicemail to come, but instead something happened that made him bolt upright. It rang. Joe's heart sped up and started thumping rapidly. She turned it on…

Her cell phone started ringing, which made Lilly jump 10 feet in the air. It was 'Every Time we Touch' playing…that was their song. She jumped over to her phone and saw he was calling. Her heart pounded and her stomach lurched. She wanted to answer it, but she couldn't get herself to do it. She let out a frustrated scream as the screen read 'one missed call- Joseph'

He sighed and let the tears come once again. He waited for her voice over the voicemail, and realized now that the phone was on he could leave a message she would get.

"Hey this is Lilly! Wait for the beep and tell me your story!"

He left her a message, and then he started sobbing and quickly hung up the phone.

XoXo

Her phone beeped. She looked up and grabbed it quickly. It read 'one new voicemail' she immediately connected to her voicemail and waited. It was from Joe.

"Hey Lillian, it's Joe. I have a story for you; it's about a guy and a girl who met one day and immediately fell in love. Well," she heard him choke back tears, "well…one day the girl told the boy she hated him, and it broke the boy's heart. But the boy will always love her, no matter what she says or does. But he wants this pain to end. Lilly…I…I think I'm going to kill myself…"

Then the line went dead. Lilly felt her heart break and her mind go blank. She screamed.

XoXo

The whole entire classroom let out a gasp.

Hola, so I'm home sick from school today so yeah, you guys got an update.

Do you think Joe's really going to kill himself?! God, I hope not. That'd be terrible.

Review please, and I'll love you forever and ever.

-Jenna.