Alright so here's that chapter! *applause* I promise you that the next updates will be a lot quicker! I've been working so I'm really sorry that it was so late! But the other chapters are already started on so now the updates will be quick! Again, I'm sorry! I suck! :P And also, the next chapter will actually be "All falls apart", not this one. :PP

Eli's POV

Eli, I think you should come to the dance and check on Jillian. She doesn't look too good.

That's the text that I had gotten from Julia, who Jillian had been invited to the Chives school dance with Jillian and John. I took a bus up to her school and walked from the bus station to her campus. As I walked up the steps, I saw four boys outside. One was passed out on the ground, two of them were puking their guts out, and the last one was rolling around on the roof of a car, laughing like some retarded first grader. I shook my head in disgust. Every time there was a school dance anywhere, there were always a few idiots who would get drunk or high. I was above that kind of stuff, though. Unfortunately, I took it that Jillian had drank too much and that's why I was over here to pick her up. I walked through the doors of the school and walked down the hall. I saw a sign that had an arrow pointing to the gym. I walked down there and followed the music to the gym. I was greeted with blaring music and flashing lights and hundreds of energetic middle schoolers dancing away to the music. I looked around until I saw a familiar raven-haired girl.

"Julia!" I called over the music.

She spotted me and then ran over, "Oh, Eli! Thank god you're here! I think there's something really wrong with Jillian!"

"Has she been drinking?" I asked.

"I don't think so." Julia told me, "Trust me, I was with her all day before the dance."

"Where is she?"

Julia grabbed my hand, "In the hallway with John! Come on!"

Julia and I ran out of the gym and down the hall. We finally came across the two sitting on the bench. John had his arm around Jillian with a worried look on his face, and Jillian was hyperventilating. I ran up to Jillian and knelt down in front of her, "What happened?"

"I dunno mayn!" John shook his head, "We were, like, dancing and then Jillian just started to freak out! This shit is scary!"

"John!" Julia crossed her arms, "You were supposed to go get a teacher!"

John looked up at her in confusion, "Oh…..you meant right NOW?"

Julia did a face palm, "Never mind! I'll go get the teacher. Eli, you stay here with Jillian."

Julia ran down the hallway. I looked back at Jillian, who was still freaking out, "Jillian….Jillian, look at me!" Jillian looked at me and I cupped her face in my hands, "It's gonna be ok. Just…..tell me what happened."

"I-I….." Jillian gasped, "I don't k-k-know! This...*gasp*…just…..*gasp*…started…*gasp*…happening!" Jillian's panting and gasping got worse.

"Jillian, calm down….." I begged, rubbing her shoulders, "Just try to relax. Julia's getting help." Jillian nodded, but then her face began to turn purple and her eyes grew wider. "Jill?" With one final gasp, she collapsed to the floor. "Jillian!" I shook her. She didn't move. "JILLIAN!"

"Uh…..is this bad?" John asked.

"YES!" I screamed in his face, "THIS IS BAD! WHY DON'T YOU GET YOUR BLOND-HAIRED HEAD OUT OF YOUR FREAKING ASSHOLE AND DO SOMETHING TO HELP!"

"Whoah, just take it easy, mayn!" John put his hands up in defense.

"I'm not gonna 'take it easy, mayn'!" I told him, "Jillian is unconscious!"

Julia arrived with three teachers behind her. "What happened?" One of them asked frantically.

Julia looked at me with wide, worried eyes, "She's unconscious!"

"Call the police." One of the teachers instructed the other.

"Hello 911?" The other teacher said on the phone, "I'm at Chives boarding school. There's a student unconscious. We need an ambulance right now."

Within a matter of minutes, the ambulance arrived and paramedics rushed in with a stretcher. Jillian was still unconscious when they took her inside the ambulance. Julia and I rode to the hospital with her. Julia began crying and I wrapped my arms around her in comfort. I was so scared, I felt like crying as well. "What do you think happened?" Julia asked in almost a whisper, "She wasn't drinking at all, I swear."

"I don't know." I squeezed Julia tighter.

We arrived at the hospital and Julia and I were asked to wait inside the waiting room. We were there for an hour practically, before Cece and Bullfrog came huffing and puffing into the waiting room. "What happened?" Bullfrog demanded. Cece's puffy red eyes clearly showed that she had been crying.

"We don't know." Julia and I said together.

Finally, a doctor came out into the room and approached us. Cece and Bullfrog stood up. "Is our daughter ok?" Cece asked him, "Can we see her?"

Cece headed towards the door but the doctor stopped her, "Ma'am, I'm gonna have to ask that you stay here."

"Our baby's in there!" Cece cried.

"Jillian will be fine." He promised, "We need to run a few more tests. But she's conscious now." All four of us sighed in relief. "We'll let you know when you can come in and see her."

"Well, can you at least tell us what happened?" Bullfrog requested.

"Yes." The doctor sat down with us, "First I want to ask you if you were ever aware of any symptoms of an…eating disorder." My parents looked shocked. "You see, we've run a few tests and we've found that her body has entered into starvation. From the records of her last check up with her regular doctor, it looks like she's lost a lot of weight."

Cece had a guilty look on her face, "We have noticed that she's not been eating very much lately. We just thought that she was stressed out though. She was elected student body president a week ago. And there was this horrible girl Amanda, who was saying bad things about Jillian like…." Pain washed over my mother's face, "Like she was fat." She then began crying all over again, "Oh no! It can't be true! We couldn't have been that blind! It has to be something else!"

The doctor shook his head, "I'm afraid it's true. Because in one of her blood samples, we found that over this week, she's had an excessive use of a drug called ipecac. It is used to induce vomiting." Cece covered her mouth with her hand and Bullfrog put his arms around her. "Don't worry, Ma'am. Everything's gonna be all right. Jillian got very lucky. Over-use of the drug ipecac can cause seizures and could have even lead her to have a heart attack."

Cece calmed down a bit and nodded, "So, our little girl is gonna be ok?"

"She'll be fine. She's gonna have to stay here for a few days for some physical therapy, though. And we'll have to continue to work with her to get her digestive system back again. Also, due to her condition, we're referring her to a therapist who specializes in preteen and teenage girls with eating disorders. I'll let you come in and see her as soon as we're done with the final test." Just as the doctor left, Cece began to fall apart again.

"I'm a horrible parent!" She cried into Bullfrog's chest, "How could all of this be right under my nose and I was too naïve to see it? I mean, I never would have expected Jillian to have an eating disorder. She's always seemed so confident and she's beautiful! I could never imagine that she would be unhappy with her appearance."

"It's ok," Bullfrog comforted her, "Parents never expect their kids to have problems. Let's just be happy that we caught up with all of this before it got out of hand."

Then I began to feel guilty. I knew that Jillian had a problem. I never said anything though, because I didn't want to believe it myself. I could hear her throwing up in the bathroom last weekend when she was home. I wanted it so badly to be my imagination. Julia leaned over and rested her head in my shoulder. I wrapped my arms around her. We waited for what seemed like forever, until finally a woman came out of the office. "Hello." She greeted us with a smile, "If you would like to check up on Jillian right now, just follow me." We all stood up at once. "In and orderly fashion, please. Thank you." We followed the nurse into the room where Jillian was. "Just don't crowd her. She's still not feeling too well."

Bullfrog and Cece rushed in and I followed behind them with Julia. "Oh, are you ok?" Cece went over to Jillian who was lying in bed and hugged her.

"Not really." Jillian replied groggily. She still didn't sound good, but I was just happy to hear her voice again.

"Jillian….." Cece began, "Why didn't you tell us, baby girl? How could you ever think you weren't beautiful?"

Her reply broke all our hearts, "Because I'm not. I starved myself sick and I'm still fat."

"Fat-!" Cece began to freak out, but Bullfrog stopped her. She took a deep breath, "Ok…..were gonna get you some help. You're just a little sick, that's all. But Jillian, listen to me….don't listen to what anybody ever says. You are BEAUTIFUL. Everybody thinks so. Everybody always says that we have the most beautiful daughter….." Cece looked over at me, "….and son. And soon, you'll realize that again." Jillian looked down in discomfort.

Bullfrog reached over and rubbed her head, "It's true, Jill." After speaking with Jillian for a little while longer, Bullfrog and Cece left the room to speak with the doctor. I walked over to Jillian's bedside, "Hey…."

Jillian looked a bit happier when she saw me, "Hey." Her voice was so quiet, it was almost inaudible.

"Are you feeling better?"

"A little." She winced and clutched her stomach, "Not really. My stomach still hurts like hell."

"Jillian!" Julia pushed past me and pulled Jillian into a hug.

"Julia…." Jillian hugged her back.

"I was so worried! I thought you were gonna die!" Julia hugged her tighter.

"Uh…..Ju-Julia?" I commented, due to the fact that Jillian began to look suffocated.

"Sorry!" Julia let go of her. She sighed, "This is all my fault. I should have known what you were going through."

"It's not your fault. It's my fault. I'm the one who got fat." Tears began to fill Jillian's eyes, "I want so badly to be beautiful."

I pushed past Julia and grabbed Jillian's hands, "You ARE beautiful! I know that you can't see that now, but you need to believe me." I thought for a second and then I pulled out my phone, "Here, look at this…." I went onto Twitter and gave Jillian the phone.

She looked annoyed at me, "I already saw the picture, Eli."

"Yeah? Did you see the comments that Amanda got from posting it?"

Jillian took the phone out of my hand and scrolled through the comments:

- Amanda, you spelled PHAT wrong.

- Jillian is gorgeous! You're just a jealous fat pig!

- Whaaaat? She's perfect! Get a freaking life!

- Jillian? FAT? Is this supposed to be a joke?

Jillian put the phone down. She looked up at me. "They're all just trying to make me feel better."

"AND they all think you're beautiful!" Julia added. Jillian looked back down again. Julia placed her hand on top of Jillian's, "Look, it's all gonna be ok. Just relax and…think happy thoughts." Jillian smiled a little. Julia reached behind her neck and undid her scarlet "J" choker, "Also, I want you to have this." She placed it in Jillian's hand.

Jillian looked down at the necklace and back up at Julia, "You're giving me your lucky necklace? But it's your favorite-"

"You need the luck now more than I do." Julia smiled, "And I want it to be a reminder to you that I think you're beautiful no matter what anybody says." The two girls hugged again.

"It's perfect." Jillian said looking at the necklace, "And it good because both of our names start with 'G'." Julia and I looked at each other and giggled.

I then walked over to Jillian and hugged her as well, "Just try to remember how beautiful you always knew you were." Jillian smiled at me.

As Julia and I left the hospital, we spotted three boys walking in, carrying another boy who was completely unconscious. "Yo man, he is MEST UP!" One of them said, "He dun not tell us he never dun 20 shots before!" They were followed by one of the chaperones from Jillian's school, who looked more annoyed with the boys than concerned for them.

"And then after that Jillian went for counseling." I told Jessi, "We eventually got through to her. And that's pretty much the story."

Jessi put her pen down, "Wow." That was all she could say. My shrink was speechless. "Just…..wow."

"Crazy, right?"

"I just…" Jessi shook her head, "I hear stories about these girls all the time. I have patients who are going through the exact same things Jillian is going through."

"Of course what Jillian went through isn't rare." I agreed.

"But this story…." Jessi smiled at me, "I think the reason why it was so empowering and really touched me was mostly because of the relationship that you and Jillian have."

"We are…were very close." I nodded.

"Tell me, Eli," She continued, "Where is Jillian right now? Like, is she still insecure about her weight, or…..?"

I thought for a moment, "Her weight is still important to her. But she's pretty much past the whole eating disorder thing. She does have anger issues…and she drinks…..she started drinking a lot before she left. My parents wanted to send her to rehab and Principal Simpson put her in an anger management seminar. That's kinda when everything blew up. But up until then…she was perfectly fine."

She nodded, "I think that maybe all Jillian needs is to feel like somebody understands her. You know, someone to pull her out of her slump."

"I tried…." I shook my head, "She just kept saying she didn't want anybody's help, because she thought that people were trying to 'change her'."

"All you need to do is listen, and be patient." Jessi advised me.

I sighed, "Yeah, well…..maybe that advice will work with someone else one day," I looked hopelessly up at my therapist, "because I don't think I'll ever get that chance with Jillian ever again."

It was true. The more time dragged by, the more hopeless finding Jillian seemed. There were always stories on the news of children going missing for a long time, with hopeful parents and family keeping up the search for what seems like forever. But how often do those kids ever get found? If they do ever end up finding the kid, most of the time it's the dead body of the missing kid locked up in some guy's trunk. So who am I to get lucky and have my sister come back to me safe and sound? I'm kidding myself. On the other hand, who's to say I won't get lucky? I mean, there's still a chance, right?

Still frustrated and confused as I left the therapist's office in my hearse, I shot Clare a quick text message:

Hey Clare

Let's meet at the church and talk

E

I drove Morty into the woods and parked it right near the crumbled building. I opened the door and small animals immediately ran away, startled by the loud heavy metal music blasting out my speakers. That is, if the giant hearse parked in the middle of the woods wasn't enough to scare the little critters away. I sat up on top of Morty and listened to the music, until I saw Clare on her bike.

"Clare!" I called over the music. I hopped off of Morty's hood and reached in the window to turn down the volume.

"Hey Eli." Clare leaned her bike up against a tree and walked over. Without warning, I grabbed Clare and pulled her into a hug. Clare stood there frozen for a second, but slowly hugged me back, "Um…..wow. Ok…."

"Sorry," I slowly pulled away, "I just missed you. We haven't spoken to each other all day."

"Oh yeah, I got your texts….it's just that I've been so busy today, Alli still needs help decorating the gym for the dance, I have a paper to finish for tomorrow-"

"No need to explain." I stopped her, "I just wanna know that we're good."

"Well of course, Eli." Clare reassured me, "Why wouldn't we be?"

"You're amazing Clare, you know that? You're my inspiration." She smiled at my comment. "We share a passion." I reminded her, "If we write together we can maybe even publish a novel!"

She shrugged, "I-I guess so….."

"So I found the perfect thing for us!" Before Clare could say another word, I whipped the two tickets out of my back pocket, "All access passes to the gothic lit convention!"

Clare's face didn't light up like I had expected. Instead, she just looked at me confused, "But that's in Bloomington."

"I know! We get to spend two days together, just you me and Morty. I'm sure your mom won't mind as long as we tell her my parents are chaperoning." I took both of her hands in mine, "This is what we've been waiting for Clare. The beginning of our dream."

"W-Wait….." Clare shook her head, still confused, "So you planned this whole trip by yourself and you think that I can just pack up and leave for two days and my mom will just be ok with it?"

"Don't worry about it!" I told her, "I'm gonna have Bullfrog call her." It then occurred to me that I hadn't even discussed this with my dad. But I didn't have to worry. Bullfrog was cool with just about anything. "Everything's ready to go. So, what do you say?"

Clare didn't say anything for a few seconds. She nervously bit her lip and shuffled her feet. Finally, she shrugged and said without any enthusiasm, "Ok, I'll go."

A little disappointed with her reaction, I narrowed my eyes at her, "I thought you would be a little bit more excited."

"What else do you want?" She answered curtly, "We're going."

I nodded and smiled as awkward silence followed. On the inside, I was freaking out.