It's taken me a while to figure what would happen next, so sorry for the delay! I love Henry and Natalie sooo much :)

No, I don't own Next to Normal. *sigh* *another sigh* *an even bigger sigh*

Natalie hated crying, but sometimes she just couldn't help it. And now, it was one of those days. She drove around in her car, blasting classical music, and crying. And the pain just didn't seem to go away. She'd never felt so alone in her life. She couldn't believe Henry; she couldn't understand what was going through his head. She wanted things to be normal.

She laughed at how ludacris her thoughts were. Normal? She was never normal, she never could be normal. But was it so bad to wish to be normal?

At around four, she decided it was safe to go home. Her dad wasn't even there, so was a little mad at herself for wasting all that gas. She did homework in her room and decided to wait for Dan to make dinner whenever he got back. She wasn't in the mood to do anything. Suddenly, she was thinking about her mom. Did she ever go through this? Natalie struggled for the courage, but decided to pick up the phone and dial.

"Hello?" her mother's "happy voice" answered.

"Hi, mom," she said. "It's me."

"Oh, hey, Nat. What's going on? Are you okay? Did I miss a piano recital or something?"

"No, no, it's just...no big deal. Nevermind."

"Wait, Nat, what's wrong?"

She took a big breath, then started to talk. "Henry's parents are, like, getting a divorce I guess," she said, "and he doesn't want to talk about it with me. I have no idea why. So we were fighting and then last night we made up and we talked a little about it. But today at school I found out that he talked to the head cheerleader about it last night too. But he talked to her before me, which I totally don't get. He's insisting it's nothing and that I should just let him have his time. I'm willing to do that, I am, but I just don't get why he can't come out and say that and show me how he feels instead of chatting with the cheerleader instead of his girlfriend." She caught her breath. "Did you catch that?"

Diana took some time to digest it all. "It sounds like Henry's having a hard time," she said finally. "Maybe you should just give him his space."

"What? What about the fact that he talked to Ashley and not me? Isn't that wrong?"

"Well, men do strange things. If it takes a little pre-talking with someone else to get him prepared to talk to you, then maybe that's how he works."

"But a pre-talk with a cheerleader? That's not Henry."

Diana laughed. "Well," she said, "maybe you don't know him as well as you think you do."

Natalie thought this over. It could be true, even if she didn't want to admit it. She said goodbye to her mother, then went up to her room feeling more depressed than she had earlier. She was still home alone. She knew there was only one thing that would make her feel at least a little bit better. She knew she shouldn't, but she went straight to the medicine cabinet. And every night that week, she popped a different pill.

By Friday, Nat felt like a different person. She had missed that feeling since she'd stopped using. Who cares how bad things were with Henry or that she was cutting class? If she felt down, she'd pop a pick-me-up. No big thing. And she'd avoided Henry really well. A part of her thought she deserved to feel good for just being able to do that.

But finally, after last period when everyone was leaving, Henry caught up to her at her locker.

"Um, hey," he said, grabbing her arm when she tried to run away. "So, um, it took me a week to get the courage and think of something to say to you." He stared at her eyes for a bit. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Me?" Natalie said, smiling, still feeling a little dizzy from her little "snack" with lunch. "I'm great."

"You look a little...Wait. Are you using again?"

"What would make you think that?"

Henry took on a very serious tone, shutting her locker and turning her all the way towards him. "Listen, Nat," he said, "you shouldn't do drugs. Its-"

She laughed in his face. "Since when are you the Crack Cop?" she asked. "Don't talk to me about drugs."

"You know we both promised never to mess with any of that shit again. And I've kept that promise. Obviously you haven't."

"Come on, Henry. One pill won't hurt anyone."

"Yeah, but one pill more than once a day for a week will. Natalie, don't do this to yourself. Especially not over me."

Her jaw dropped. "You think this is all about you, don't you?" she asked, finally having enough energy to give him some attitude. "Newsflash, Henry, not everything's about you. I have feelings too, you know. So you're parents maybe might get a divorce. My parents are seperated, my freaking brother is dead. I have a Yale audition in like three months. I'm going through way more stuff than you right now. But you know what? I'm not afraid to tell you why I'm hurting. But you? You have to go cry on the cheerleader's shoulder."

"Would you just drop that already?" Henry shouted, getting a some stares from the few people left in school. He sighed, taking her hands. "I know you're under stress, and I know you're upset, but cut me some slack. And stop taking pills."

"You can't tell me what to do. You're not my boyfriend anymore." She turned on her heels and started to walk away. But suddenly, her legs just felt like Jello, her whole body felt numb. Her mind was going fuzzy and her vision was starting to blur. She could feel herself collapsing to the ground.

"Natalie!" she heard Henry shout, but then everything went black.

So what do you think? Please review! I'm excited to continue!