A/N: This chapter is named after 'Smother' by Daughter.

Italics are flashbacks again, except for the part where they're text messages. I don't even know to be honest. I just like italics. :/

Frankie opened the door to her house after walking home with Campbell, taking a few gentle steps inside. It was dark, quiet, and every typical adjective it came off as. She tripped over a few items scattered across the floor, eventually making her way into the kitchen. She turned on the light, the brightness causing her to blink rapidly a couple of times. Once she adjusted to the lighting, Frankie moved her position so she could face the counter. She saw multiple envelopes on the counter. The girl began to look through them, ripping open the flimsy paper easily. Frankie took out the contents inside.

She brought her attention to the sheet that was now in her hand, scanning over the words. The cable, internet, and phones had already been successfully shut off. Her entire body froze for a moment, but she forced herself to open the next letter.

Water and electricity else were next. She had never been poor before. Suddenly, something was set off in Frankie, and she realized truly how bad they were without her mother and Miles.

'I haven't heard from you in a while.'

'What's up?'

'Frankie?'

'You okay?'

'Please answer me.'

'Are you mad?'

Cam stared back at his phone, waiting for the screen to flash back with some sort of response. He'd been attempting to contact Frankie for days, but to no avail. His fingers ran across his phone, sliding back and forth as he continued to anticipate for an answer. To say the boy was worried would be an understatement. What if something was really wrong? He didn't want to panic right away, but it was the only thing he was actually good at doing. It was hard not to get anxious over little things, and because Frankie hadn't answered any of his messages, he automatically supposed that she was most likely mad at him. But for what? The last time he saw her he was breaking down in Justin's closet. Had that been too much for her? Had she finally realized how insane he truly was?

Campbell didn't want to ponder on it anymore, so he quickly grabbed his coat, and hurried out to his car.

Arriving at the Hollingsworth place wasn't something Cam expected to do today, but here he was, standing at the front door. He knocked at the door impatiently, needing some sort of answer from somebody inside. No one ever came, though. Sighing, the boy jiggled the knob, finding that it was unlocked. He raised his eyebrows slightly, hesitant on walking inside without permission. What was the worst that could happen?

He pulled the barrier open, moving into the larger home. He glanced around his surroundings, realizing that it wasn't as fancy as he had assumed it'd be. It seemed.. bare, and empty. There was something missing and dejected about this place. Campbell decided it'd be best not to think about that now, considering he was here to find Frankie and confront her on why she had been avoiding his texts all winter break.

Roaming about the house was difficult, due to its large capacity. He had never been in such a large building before and finding the young girl seemed near to impossible at this point. He went through every single room he found and opened all of the doors, but there was no presence of any human being.

Cam opened another door, and there was Frankie, laying on her bed.

She seemed to be a complete zombie and she didn't even acknowledge that he was in her house. He stood in the doorway, observing, and anticipating for her to say something. Nothing left her mouth, so Cam inched forward, reluctantly getting onto the bed.

"Frank?"

Silence. He exhaled a deep, loud breath.

"Are you mad at me? I'm really sorry if I did anything again..."

"Frank?"

It was early June and a younger Frankie had just fallen off of her bike. She was stuck on the pavement with scrapped knees. The cuts in her skin were filled with dirt and tears were swiftly rolling down her cheeks. She had been hurt before, but her mother had always been nearby to make it better. Today, she only had her older, stupid brother to comfort her. She stayed on the sidewalk as Miles moved closer, quickly wiping her eyes so she wouldn't appear weak.

She had been too focused on being strong that she hadn't noticed Miles' hands reaching for her.

"Frankie? I know you're not okay. Let's get back home." His fingers brushed against her shoulder which caught the younger girl's attention. She glanced up, gazing at the elder child. She sniffed lightly and nodded her head weakly before finally accepting his help, allowing Miles to pull her up and off of the disgusting ground.

"We can walk back home and come back for our bikes later, okay? We need to get you home and fix those." Miles motioned towards her knees, keeping his hand in Frankie's to continue soothing her. "Mom will fix you right up." He grinned in her direction.

Frankie missed being eight sometimes.

She still didn't speak. The longer Frankie stayed quiet, the more concerned Campbell grew. What was she feeling? He had been in these type of states before, but he had never gotten to the point where he wouldn't respond to anybody.

"Okay, don't talk to me. It's okay." His tone wasn't upset or angry; it was soft and understanding. All he could do at this point was slowly wrap his arms around the girl, pulling her on top of him. He laid in the bed with her, running his fingers across her limbs. She seemed stress; everything was firm. He knew fretting over this situation wouldn't help her and it wasn't as if she would notice if he had, so he continued to use relaxing movements, trying to get the girl's muscles to ease up. He didn't want her to feel this way; nobody deserved to be this low at any point in their life. It wasn't fair that someone as kind and naive as Francesca Hollingsworth felt like this, but then again, the world wasn't fair. Cam didn't want to make this more agonizing than it had to be, so he allowed himself to unknot as well, knowing it was best to just stay here with her. He was well aware that if Frankie wanted to talk, she would, and there was no need to beg her to say anything to him.

After what seemed like hours of laying on the mattress with Frankie, he wanted to try something that would cause the girl to be more alert. He pulled her out of bed, picking up her petite body, and carrying her into the bathroom. When he placed her onto the tiles below their feet, she stood completely still, acting almost as if she was a stiff board. Cam didn't show any annoyance with her, but instead began to help her take off her current outfit. (Helping as in taking the clothes off entirely without her assistance). He threw them to the cold floor before reaching over to turn on the water to set a bath for the girl. As he waited for the clear liquid to fill up the tub, he began to rock back and forth on the heels of his feet, not noticing any type of resistance from Frankie. This was reassurance to keep going with his actions, and once he saw that the water had filled most of the tub, he turned it off. Cam motioned for Frankie to get in, but her legs didn't move; she stayed in the same position as before. He sighed quietly, wrapping his arms around the girl again, and getting her into the water. Once in, he got in his knees so he was at eye level with her, not knowing what to do or say.

"Is this relaxing you at all?" He asked, referring to how tense her muscles had felt earlier.

No answer.

"Do you want me to wash your hair or something?"

Nothing.

Mrs. Hollingsworth held a peroxide filled cotton ball up to Frankie's left knee, lightly rubbing into the cut. She kept her focus on the wound as her daughter began to flinch at the discomfort, but refused to say anything. She still didn't want to come off as young and weak, considering she was trying a newer, and more mature, look this week. Although, it hadn't been much success, considering she was still fairly little.

But all Frankie wanted was to be older. She wanted to be able to make grown-up decisions by herself, and being grown-up didn't mean letting your brother and mother help with your cuts.

"Does that feel any better?" Mrs. Hollingsworth questioned, looking up at her youngest, and only, daughter. She gave Frankie a reassuring smile, trying to tell the girl that the small scratches wouldn't hurt as much later on.

Frankie didn't want to respond; she still wanted to be grown-up. She huffed her breath in annoyance, pushing pass her mother, and quickly getting out of the bathroom so she could continue her plans on seeming older.

Picking up the shampoo bottle and pouring some of it into his hand, he began to rub the substance around in Frankie's dark brown locks, still not receiving any type of movement. He continued to pretend that the sustaining silent treatment didn't bother him and kept moving his hands through her hair. When he was finished, he began to cup water into his hands, dumping it over Frankie's head to remove the soap. The only action he got out of this was her closing her eyes momentarily to avoid the liquid from entering her sockets. It was better than nothing, he supposed, and kept up with the motions.

As soon as everything was out of her hair, Cam tugged at the drain, allowing the water to slowly slip away from the contents of the tub. He grabbed a towel from the rack before helping Frankie out. He gently wrapped the cloth around her.

"I'm going to find you a robe or something, okay? It'll be a lot more comfy." Campbell stated, running out of the bathroom to look for a light article of clothing she could wear. Rummaging through the girl's room took longer than he thought, due to the fact it was messier than his own, but he was able to find a bright, pink robe in the back of her closet. Upon grasping onto it, he went back to where Frankie had been left, removing the towel and pulling the robe onto her body. Cam took a few steps forward, wanting her to be able to follow him on her own, but she didn't. He immediately returned to her side, picking her up once more, and returning to the bedroom they had once resided in.

Cam held Frankie in his embrace again, allowing his fingertips to trail across the robe she currently had on. He had done his best to make her talk to him, but no sound ever left her lips. His eyes glanced between the blank, also unresponsive television screen. No matter how many times he had tapped all of the buttons on the remote to find a channel that was broadcasting, it didn't work. He had settled for a black screen at this point, sitting on the girl's bed in complete silence. His hands soon moved away from her current attire, beginning to stroke her hair instead. He had to make sure her eyes were still open every now and then, and every time he checked, they were. She didn't appear to blink; at times, he didn't even think she was breathing. It was calm and completely tranquil, but nothing like Frankie. She was practically always talking; she was the liveliest person he knew. Seeing her like this caused him to fear what was about to come, because Cam could recall Justin's personality doing a complete shift right before he…

Cam had to try and get her to talk again. He had to say something to make Frankie realize how much she meant to him. In the short time of getting to know her, he was proud to say that he trusted her more than anybody before. If he lost anything person, he wasn't sure on what he would do. Cam didn't expect her to tell him what was going on, nor did he want to force something out of her, but he just wanted to remind the girl how much he wanted her in his life- no, he needed her.

"You don't have to talk, but just listen to me, please?" He started out in a soft tone, allowing the last syllable to linger. He waited for some type of acknowledgement, but didn't receive any. Not needing any sort of recognition, Cam decided to continue with his speech anyway. "I really like you and all of that cheesy stuff. And I know something probably happened-something bad. You don't have to tell me, but I just want you to know how much I care about you and this is exactly how my brother was acting before he did.. whatever, you know?" He paused, pulling the girl closer to him. She still wasn't moving or seemed to be paying attention whatsoever. "I've never had anything worth saving before, and I want to help you. Not just because I'm your boyfriend, friend thing, but because I don't want you to end up like Justin. You have a lot ahead of you and I'd hate to see that being thrown away."

He didn't expect Frankie to say something when he stopped. He assumed everything would go back to the same silence it had been, but that wasn't the case. Abruptly, the younger brunette turned around, pulling Cam into a deep, fervent kiss. She kept her lips on his for a couple of seconds prior to moving back, a weak smile finally on her lips. "I like you a lot." She whispered softly, pressing her forehead against his.

All Campbell could do was return the exact same grin. "And I like your smile."

Today had started out terrible, and she hadn't expected Cam to show up and attempt to make her feel better, but Frankie was for sure going to mark December 30th in her calendar now. Someone cared again.