This is just a drabble, so I have no idea how far it will go or if it will go anywhere at all. I don't mind if this story sucks, because I don't really know why I wrote it in the first place, hence the WARNING: DRABBLE thing...

P.S. No way is Miss Murder mine but AFI's, and I only used it because I was listening to it while I wrote this chapter.

Pain
Chapter 2

I had detached myself from my friends. I had no more friends, only Nick. I only needed him anyway. Truthfully, I didn't care at all. Everything, no, nothing mattered to me anymore. I gave up on life, perhaps. I don't know. I'm just really confused with everything. I don't even know why I'm still living. Maybe it's so I can help Nick become less abusive. Maybe.

There's so many maybe's in life, and so many questions. There's always the why question. "Why do I let Nick beat me up?" Who knows? I don't, for sure. I just didn't care. I knew I changed drastically since I'd been little, since I was eleven. When I had always fought with Jimmy and hung out with Libby and her stupid boyfriend and that llama boy. But that's not me anymore. Personally, I don't think that was me before. Ever. Perhaps I'm just a fake person in this fake world. FAKE FAKE FAKE. I could always tell when someone was being fake and when someone had fake body parts, like that one lady that one dude almost married. I could so tell she had breast implants. And her lips were so fake. She had fillers in those. Then there's the hips. No one could have those hips naturally. No way in hell.

Well, there's no point in talking about people who are fake, since, well, it's kinda pointless. Everyone knows, in a little corner of their minds, that people are fake. It's just a fake world. It wasn't always fake though, people were honest back then...

"Hello, Miss Vortex? Could I please have your attention please?"

I looked up from my notebook where I had been drawing Nick's face and saw my Pre-Calc teacher. Yes, Pre-Calc. I'm a senior, and I'm taking Pre-Calc. Who cares.

I nodded slowly and felt my neck muscles tense up. Nick wasn't in this class.. He had Geometry. He's not exactly the sharpest needle in the haystack. Oh no, I said something bad about him... Crap. Well, it's not like he knows, it's just that I blame myself whenever I insult Nick. To me, he seemed perfect, absolutely perfect.

"Well, now that we have everyone's attention, please note that the project will be due in three weeks. Now, let's pair everyone up..."

I tuned his voice out, his stupid wheedling voice. I resumed drawing Nick's handsome little face on the margin of my notebook. Add a little shadowing there, a stray hair there... No, erase the stray hair, his hair has to be perfect. I added a final shadow under his ear and admired my handiwork.

"Excuse me, Miss Vortex, could I please have your attention again?"

Stupid teacher... Whatever. I nodded and stared at him, a fake smile plastered on my face.

"Well, now... Let's see... Cynthia Vortex with... Let's see... James Neutron."

I felt my whole body tense up, and then I turned my head to look at him. Neutron. My fifth grade sweetheart, my rival. He had changed. Blue eyes were the same, but his hair and clothes were different. His hair was more red than brown now, but it was a dark red, not a bright red... He was wearing regular clothes... A black t-shirt and blue jeans. Tight shirt, baggy jeans.

"Hi," he said to me. "So I guess we're partners now."

I nodded again and stared at his ear. Better to focus on something and pretend to be paying attention than not pay attention at all. His voice drifted in and out of my mind, something about going to the library after school to work on the project. I shook my head lightly and I heard a reply float in my left ear and out my right.

"Cindy?" I stared at his ear, concentrating even more. "Cindy? Are you there?"

I didn't reply, there was no need to. The bell rang just then, releasing me from this prison and straight into the arms of my prince in rotting armor. Dammit, not again. I'll have to punish myself tenfold for that...

"Hey hey hey, babe." Nick was standing outside the classroom, eyeing me with something in his eyes. I didn't care what it was, I was just relieved to see him.

Jimmy walked out of the classroom, right behind me, and he smiled. "See you after school, Cindy."

Nick glared at him and pressed me close to his chest. His warm breath on my cheek, he asked me, "What was that?"

I let out an eep and he sneered. Then he pulled me along the crowd and we flew out the doors to his pickup truck in the upperclassmen parking lot. I held onto my notebook nervously as he opened the passenger side door roughly.

I climbed in wordlessly, because I knew why he was like this. We were going to some secluded spot and he was going to beat me. Without being drunk. That meant he was really mad. Really really mad. I guess he thought I was doing something with Jimmy, because he's only done this once before. When I had refused to take my clothes off in front of him.

He drove in a rage to the dopers' barn on the outskirts of the town. I trembled, feeling tears well up in my eyes and clutching my notebook.

"You know you deserve this, right?" he exclaimed gruffly after a long stretch of silence. I nodded and looked out the window at the trees we were flying by.

"Look at me!" I looked at him. He was glaring at me, one hand on the wheel, a mad glint in his eyes. "Why was Neutron talking to you?" He spat Jimmy's name, although I saw no reason to.

I continued trembling, unable to reply. Nick was used to this. I hardly spoke anymore. Mostly just nodding and shaking. He got tired of it sometimes and he beat me for it sometimes. It doesn't matter though...

He turned on the radio, and the song Miss Murder by AFI filled the truck.

"Hey Miss Murder, can I
Hey Miss Murder, can I
Make beauty stay if I
take my life?

With just a look they shook
And heavens bowed before him.
Simply a look can break your heart.
The stars that pierce the sky,
He left them all behind.
We're left to wonder why
He left us all behind.

Hey Miss Murder, can I
Hey Miss Murder, can I
Make beauty stay if I
take my life?

Dreams of his crash won't pass.
Oh, how they all adored him.
Beauty will last when spiraled down.
The stars that mystified,
he left them all behind
and how his children cried.
He left us all behind.

Hey Miss Murder, can I
Hey Miss Murder, can I
Make beauty stay if I
take my life?

What's the hook, the twist within this verbose mystery?
I would gladly bet my life upon it
that the ghost you love, your ray of light will fizzle out
without hope.
We're the empty set just floating through, wrapped in skin,
ever searching for what we were promised...
Reaching for that golden ring we'd never let go...
Who would ever let us put their filthy hands upon it?

Hey Miss Murder, can I
Hey Miss Murder, can I
Make beauty stay if I
take my life?

Hey Miss Murder, can I
Hey Miss Murder, can I
Make beauty stay if I
take my life?"

We were there. Nick switched off the radio and silence hung in the cabin. I peeked at him carefully, and he was resting his head on the steering wheel. He was always like this before it happened.

He looked up, saw me looking at him and grabbed my arm. He pulled me close to him, and then he kissed me. Shoving his tongue inside my mouth, his hands roamed free over my body. He always did this too.

Then he stopped abruptly, opening the door and coming to my side of the truck. He opened my door and pulled me out. I dropped my notebook on the seat, and it flew open to a page where I had drawn something.

I had drawn Jimmy.