When She Cries

After the completely awkward discussion I had to have with them, I told Mike that I didn't want to hang out anymore. He said he understood and that he'd see me on Monday.

"Elle, you should come out back with us," Leana said, standing in my doorway.

I looked up from the book I was reading. "Why?" I asked skeptically.

"Because we're having a barbecue and people are coming over. Now, get your cute little butt dressed and meet us down stairs."

"But, Lee... You know I hate swim suits..." I mumbled.

"And that's why we got you a tankini. Please, Elle?"

I sighed, standing up. "I know you guys have something planned, but there's no way I'm going to get it out of you, is there?"

"Nope! You have ten minutes!" She called, before skipping of. Her and Uncle Jimmy are way too much alike...

I slowly pulled the swim suit on, wanting to waste as much time as possible. After trying to put cover up on my arms, I threw a hoodie on over it, but kept it unzipped. I looked at myself in the mirror one last time, before slipping my flip flops on.

Well... Here it goes...

I walked down the stairs slowly, just as Frank and Jimmy came running up. "Aw man," Frank whined when he saw me.

"Nice to see you, too," I mumbled, walking down the rest of the stairs. "I'll stay out of your way."

"I didn't mean it like that!" He said, putting his arm around my shoulder. "We're just bummed that we didn't get to drag you out of your room and throw you in the pool."

"We can always still throw her in the pool," Jimmy said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Uh, please don't," I said, trying to joke, but was still serious.

"You're safe... For now," Frank said, before scampering off back outside.

I followed behind him with Jimmy. That's when I noticed that this had turned into a full out party. My Chem and Papa Roach were here again, along with some family.

When Papa Gates saw me, he walked over and pulled me into a hug. "Hey, Baby," he said, smiling down at me. "I see you're still alive."

"Barely," I muttered under my breath.

"You were amazing last week, by the way," he said randomly.

I looked up at him as tears pulled into my eyes. "You were there?" I asked in a whisper.

"Of course I was! I wouldn't have missed that for the world," he said, smiling warmly.

"Well at least you found time to come."

"They feel horrible, Sweetie, they really do," he said, giving me a side hug.

"Yeah, that's what they keep saying," I sighed, before walking off.

"Oh no, Girl! You were in long sleeves the last time we saw you, no more. Take that stupid thing off," Jacoby said from one of the patio chairs.

"It's unzipped." I threw back at him.

"So! It's still covering half of your upper body."

"And I could care less," I said, walking off over to the Jacuzzi. I sat on the edge and dipped my feet in. The warm water felt soothing to my feet.

"Alright, what's going on?" I looked to my left to see Gerard now sitting next to me.

"What do you mean?"

"Something's wrong, and I can tell. Why don't you want to take off your sweatshirt?"

I shrugged. "Just because." I looked at the look on his face and he knew I was bullshitting. "Because I'm self conscious, okay?" I huffed, crossing my arms over my chest.

"What do you have to be self conscious about? Hun, you have a great body for someone your age. You're healthy."

"It's not that."

"Then what is?" I looked at him with an unsure glance. "I'm just here to help, Elle."

"Hey, Babe." My eyes closed tight when I heard his voice.

I turned and put on a fake smile. "Hey, I thought you went home."

"I did, but then your dad called me and said to come back over for the barbecue." I nodded as he wrapped his arm around my waist. "Who's your friend?"

"Oh, um, Mike this is Gerard from My Chemical Romance. He's one of my dad's friends. Gerard, this is Mike... My boyfriend." I just about choked on those words. Were they true anymore?

"Nice to meet you," Gerard said politely, but I could see he didn't mean it. "I'll just let you guys have some time to yourself," he said, standing back up, but I almost begged him to stay.

"I'm glad to see you wearing a sweatshirt," he said, dropping the nice guy act once Gerard was out of sight.

"I put cover up on, I don't know if it's visible to the others or not though. So I thought I should be safe."

"Good," he said shortly.

We sat there in silence for a little while, before someone's arms wrapped around me and I was thrown over their shoulder. "Don't hate me for what I'm about to do, because you know you love me." Was all I heard Johnny say, before I was thrown into the pool.

When I surfaced, I came face to face with Frank who was smiling. "Told you we would get you in here," he said, smirking.

"Fuck off," I said, before swimming to the edge.

"Language, Elle. And they're just trying to get you to have fun," Dad said who was also in the pool.

"Sorry," I mumbled, before getting out.

I walked inside, trying to find a towel. "Looks like they got you," Zack said, laughing.

"Yup," I was still pissed at him.

"Elle, can we talk?" He asked, following me up the stairs.

"About?"

"You know what about," he said, grabbing my arm. I hissed in pain since he had grabbed the spot where the bruise was. He gave me a confused look, but I shook it off.

"Fine." He followed me to the bathroom where I found a towel that I wrapped around my waist.

"You know, it would be more effective if you took the sweatshirt off and wrapped it around your shoulders."

"You said you wanted to talk, so talk," I said, sitting on the edge of the bath tub.

He sighed, before going on. "I know I've been acting like an ass lately, and I'm sorry. I've just been in bad mood and I guess I've been taking it out on everyone else."

“You guess?"

"Look, I'm trying, Elle. The best you can do is listen." I looked down, feeling guilty that I was still being a bitch to him when he was trying to apologize. "How're your feet?" He asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Alright, I guess," I said, shrugging.

"What really happened to them, Elle?" He whispered, still looking at them.