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Finally, after days Skip was leaving the hospital.
Their dad was driving them home, as it was his day off. He always had the windows open a lot more than their mom, it made them shiver a bit. They were only wearing a T-shirt, their hoodie still at home.
Apparently their mom washed off the blood and fixed the hole from the knife, though she said she'd try to get a new one as soon as she could.
A random pop song played on the radio, though it was hard to hear over the sound of the wind through the windows. Their dad was silent.
What a stereotypical family dynamic: stay at home mom, working father who barely talked, and the depressed child who stayed in their room all day.
Wow, what a way to describe themself. Though it was accurate, sad and angry, self-harming, attempted suicide (though they considered it half assed as they had no plan and did it impulsively).
Soon the car parked and they were back at their house. They unbuckled their seatbelt and got out of the car, their dad close behind.
Their mom opened the door before their dad could grab the key.
“Sara!” She scooped them up in a tight hug. “I'm so glad you're finally home.”
“Me too,” they choked out through the pain of their recent injury being squeezed.
“Your hoodie is on your bed,” she said, letting go. “Why don't you get some rest?”
They nodded and quickly made their way upstairs to their room.
The sound of their bedroom door closing gave them instant relief. The quiet darkness of their room was calming compared to the blinding lights of the hospital and the constant beeping of machinery.
They grabbed their hoodie off their bed and put it on. The sewn up hole was obvious but that didn't matter to them, they just wanted the comfort of it back.
They flopped on their bed and before they knew it they were asleep.
~~
They woke up the next day for school and sighed.
It was a Friday, luckily, but they had to give their doctor's note to the admin and probably give each of their teachers an explanation for their absence.
It was going to be annoying but it had to happen.
They made their way downstairs and to school, arriving before the doors opened like normal. They weren't too pleased when they saw Jeremy there as well.
“Oh, hey Skip.” He waved. “You got discharged?”
“What's it to you?” They sneered. Jeremy quickly went quiet again. They sat on the bench farthest away from him, despite wanting to sit in their normal spot.
They looked away and when they looked back Jeremy was on a bench closer to theirs. They wanted to jump out into the nearest street.
They groaned and rubbed their eyes. When they looked back he was on the bench closest to them.
“What do you want?” They said through their teeth.
“I-I just wanted to know if you were okay…” Maybe it was him they wanted in the street.
“I'm fine.” They snapped.
“Are you really? ‘Cuz you–”
“You wanna know the truth, Jeremy Heere!?” They stood up, staring him dead in the eye. “The truth is I stabbed myself because of you!”
He looked horrified.
“Yeah! All that shit you did really fucked me up huh!? Well that's not it!” They pulled up their sleeves, pointing at their scars. “Those? You too!”
Whatever was more than horrified was what he looked like.
“You fucking ruined my life Jeremy!” Tears of anger filled their eyes. “I can't believe I ever called you my friend.”
“I-I…” he couldn't speak, a look of guilt and horror overtaking his face.
“I hope you get hit by a truck,” they said right before the doors opened. They walked in, past the teacher that opened the doors, tears beginning to run down their face.
They heard the teacher asking Jeremy what happened, him just replying “something personal.”
~~
They were on edge the entire morning. From explaining why they were gone to walking past Jeremy's friends they always felt like someone was gonna yell at them.
Which Rich almost did but they sprinted out of the cafeteria so fast they ended up halfway across the school.
If Jeremy told his friends about what they said this morning they might be better off dead, especially since one of his friends has loose-lips.
They ended up sitting in the boys locker room for the rest of lunch. Surely nobody would come in there, right?
Of course they were wrong.
A white boy with curly a brown mullet walked in, what was his name again? Dustin Kropp?
He awkwardly stared at them and they stared back.
“...Yo,” he said, waving.
“Hey,” they said back.
“Why are you in here?” He asked.
“Hiding from people who hate me, and I hate them… it's mutual.”
“Why you hate them?” He asked, walking in and going to (presumably) his locker.
“He ignored me for weeks straight and ruined my life.” They stared at the ground.
“Just cut him out of your life, dude.” He pulled a bag of weed from his locker and shoved it in his pocket.
“What?”
“If he was a dick to you why do you keep thinking about him?”
“Because? He ruined my life! How can I stop?”
Dustin walked over and stood right in front of them.
“Why don't you come hang out with my gang?” He held his hand out.
They hesitated before taking it. He pulled them up and dragged them off, back to the lunchroom.
He pulled them to a table not far from the doors of the cafeteria. Sitting at it was a girl with long black hair dressed like a French stereotype, and a boy with blonde hair and heterochromia who dressed like he was from the 80s.
“Hey guys, I found someone,” Dustin said to his group. “They were sitting in the boys locker room.”
“Well based on the fact she got tits I have a few questions on what she was doing in the boys locker room.” The girl said.
“I'm non-binary.”
“Oh, nevermind then,” she said, leaning against the table.
“What's your name then?” The boy asked.
“Skip, I'm Skip.”
“Owen,” he said smiling.
“Madeline,” she said, pulling out a mirror.
“Owen's my boyfriend, Madeline's the lesbian 3rd wheel,” Dustin said, sitting down. He passed the bag of weed to Owen from under the table.
Skip sat down as well. These people seemed nice, and certainly better than Jeremy and his friends. None of them looked at them with disgust like they were intruding on something, there wasn't any awkwardness, everything was… fine.
They didn't think about Jeremy for the rest of lunch, instead getting wrapped up in conversation. They quickly learned how everyone acted and what was okay with these 3. They even remembered small details they said.
Owen was hard of hearing so he had hearing aids.
Madeline had a crush on a girl from her science class.
Dustin lived with his aunt, Uncle, and his uncle's boyfriend.
Once lunch was over they finally realized what happened.
Their life didn't end. It didn't end when they moved, it didn't end when Jeremy left, and it didn't end in the kitchen. Jeremy had hurt them but they were still here, standing in the crowded hallway of a high school.
They weren't ruined. They weren't gone. They were in a bad situation but they got out, they felt like they could breathe.
Healing from what Jeremy did would take time but maybe these new friends was the first step in the right direction.