Toxic

Violet sat down beside Alex silently when she realized the seat next to his was the only one left. She knew he was probably mad at her for snapping at him, he was only trying to help. She didn't want help though, she wanted people to leave her alone and not notice her. She'd gotten off to a great start she thought to herself.

The teacher started class, handing out the course outline like in every class she'd been to that day. Their teacher's name was Ms.Bell. She was a young quirky lady, she seemed energetic and enthusiastic about the art program. She explained the assignments and work they'd be doing for the semester, and apparently at the end of they year they'd be having an art show to display their artwork.

They all sat and listened to her talk for almost the whole period, and finally when there was only ten minutes left in class she let them talk amongst themselves.

Violet sat in her seat with her arms folded over her chest, and Alex turned to chat with Dylan who was sitting next to him. Dylan's eyes were flickering to the girl who had sat next to Alex, shooting him curious looks.

"Dylan this is Violet" he finally said, "Violet, this is Dylan"

She just nodded and gave him a half smile.

"Violet is Rian's twin sister" Alex said.

"Rian has a twin?" Dylan asked, surprised.

"It's a long story" Alex replied, feeling a little awkward about the whole conversation suddenly.

"Anyway, you hear about that fight at lunch? I heard some girl just walked up and attacked Elizabeth or something. What kind of a psycho would do that on the first day?" Dylan laughed, and Alex's eyes widened.

Violet squeezed her hands into tight fists and clenched her jaw, people were talking about it.

"Dylan I don't thi--" Alex started but he was cut off,

"Yeah some new girl or something, no one really knows who she is, some loser probably." Dylan said.

Thankfully the bell rang to signal the end of class and Violet all but jumped out of her chair, heading straight for the door. The panic was rising in her chest and she felt like she had nowhere to go. Getting out into the hallway she let out a gasp, feeling like her chest was caving in. 'Pull yourself together' she thought to herself, but all she wanted to do was cry.

Suddenly she felt an arm wrap around her shoulders from behind, forcing her to walk forward. It was Alex,

"This way" he said under his breath and she allowed him to guide her down the bustling hallway. They received looks from the kids crowding the hallway, all wondering why the ever popular Alex Gaskarth was anywhere near the girl whose new reputation was quickly spreading through the school.

He led her all the way out one of the doors that led out to the football field. They walked without a word down the hill to the bleachers, Violet barely able to keep the tears from spilling out.

"We still have one more class" Violet said, stumbling on her words.

"What class do you have?" Alex asked, guiding her up the bleachers to sit down.

"Gym" she replied quietly.

"Me too, we'll just be late" he said with a shrug.

They both sat down and Violet let out a few short breaths, still feeling like she was going to have a panic attack.

"He didn't know" Alex said after a few minutes.

She just nodded, swallowing hard.

"Its fine, just knowing they're all talking about me and they don't even know who I am is just--" she said, choking on the last words.

Alex put his arm around her shoulders, wrapping her in a tight hug, "You probably couldn't have chosen a better person to scrap with" he laughed, trying to lighten the mood.

She took a deep breath, trying to get her hands to stop shaking.

"Jack is in this Gym class with us too" Alex said, "He'll have you laughing in no time."

"As long as that blond haired girl isn't then I'm golden" she replied, thinking how it would be nice to see Jack's goofy self after all she'd been through today.

Alex released her from his hug, "Her name is Elizabeth" he said, "She's the most popular girl in our grade. We're friends, I didn't think she'd go as far as to start a fight."

"I have a knack for pissing people off it seems" she replied with a half laugh.

"Hows your lip?" Alex asked, looking down at the swollen part of her mouth.

"Fine" she said, looking down at her feet, "We should go back."

He nodded and got to his feet, following Violet down from the bleachers. They walked back up to the school into the gymnasium. They were only a few minutes late, and managed to slip in the class without being noticed. Their gym teacher Mr.Bork was handing out their uniforms; black tee shirts and grey cotton shorts.

"Hey Violet" Jack said when the two approached him.

"Hey Jack" she said, forcing a smile.

He ruffled her hair and then turned to listen to everything the teacher was going through for their first day. Violet zoned out, until her eyes wandered and she saw that 'Elizabeth' and one of her followers were standing off to the side.

Great.

Alex noticed what she was looking at and sighed too, he knew that they were probably going to start something, it was in their nature. Thankfully their teacher spoke for the whole period, giving Violet the opportunity to go unnoticed for the time being.

Finally it was the end of the first day, Violet Jack and Alex exited the gym, going to find Zack and Rian so they could all walk home together; the guys were having band practice like usual. It had gotten pretty hot by the time the bell rang. Violet removed her sweater and shoved it into her backpack for the walk home.

"How did the rest of your day go?" Rian asked, Violet and him falling behind the other boys.

"Okay I guess" she replied, not wanting to talk about her almost-break down.

"Things will get better. We can try and smooth things over with Elizabeth" Rian replied.

"Please, please don't say anything about me. I don't want people's 'your mom died' pity." she responded with a huff.

"I won't say anything if you don't want me too" Rian said replied, trying to make his sister feel a little better. "Looks like I need to teach you how to fight though" he said, lightly shoving her shoulder.

"Hey, I can defend myself" she laughed back.

"Not by the looks of it" he said, raising his eyebrows.

"Don't tell dad, please" she pleaded, "I don't want him fussing. Or getting me in trouble."

"Vi you have a fat lip that looks like its bruising" he replied.

"I'll tell him I bit it or something" she shrugged, "please Rian."

"Yeah alright then" he said defeated, "but you should try and stay out of trouble. You got away with that one but if the teachers saw you could have been in shit."

"Yeah, yeah" she replied, ending the conversation.

"Sweaty balls, its hot out here" Jack said, turning around from where he was walking up ahead to face Rian and Violet.

"Girls don't have balls" Violet joked, causing all the boys to start laughing and Jack recovering from the burn.

"You little shit" he said, walking over and messing up her hair. Jack and Violet fell into stride with each other as Rian caught up with Zack and Alex.

"For the record I've never like Elizabeth. Next time get in a better punch right to her money maker though would you?" he said, throwing a couple air punches.

"Well I'm sure I'll have some drama to face tomorrow" she replied with a laugh that quickly turned to a frown. "Are you guys actually friends with them?"

"Yeah I guess we are. I never really thought they were that bad, Elizabeth has always kind of rubbed me the wrong way though. She called me a 'hyperactive skinny little fuck' when we were in junior high and I've never forgiven her" he said with mock offence, crossing his arms over his chest.

Violet just laughed, maybe things wouldn't be so bad. So far she had the guys on her side with what went on, even if they were friends with those girls.

They all arrived at the Dawson house, but no one was home. Kathi and their dad were still at work so Rian unlocked the front door letting everyone inside.

Realizing she hadn't eaten yet today, Violet opened the cupboard searching for something to snack on. Deciding on a handful of dry Honey Nut Cheerios, Violet made her way down to the basement where the guys were setting up for band practice.

Deciding to perch herself on the couch and watch, Violet sat down and popped a few cheerios into her mouth.

"This show isn't free" Alex joked, holding out his hand for Violet to pay up. Instead she threw some cheerios at him, hitting him with two square in the face.

"Now you're going to get it" he said picking up a throw pillow from the ground and throwing it as hard as he could at her on the couch.

The boys covered a few Blink songs first, and then made their way into a few of the songs they had written, one called 'Hit the Lights' and 'Last Flight Home'.

Violet just sat there and smiled at them, she was thankful for the hour or so that they were able to take her mind off of all of the bad that had happened earlier in the day.

"You're hired" she said with a grin.

The smile on Violet's face made one break out across Alex's and he couldn't explain why. Seeing her smile after such a shit day made him feel on top of the world, he never wanted it to leave her face. She stretched out on the couch and put her hands behind her head, closing her eyes. Jack took the opportunity to sneak up to try and scare her, Alex took note of what he was doing and tiptoed over.

Jack let out a crazy screech right beside her ear causing Violet to jump, and Alex sat right on her stomach.

"Get off!" she squealed, unable to stop the laughter that came from the heavy weight on her stomach.

Jack grabbed her feet and started tickling them. She was unable to get free and was squirming under the weight of Alex's body while trying to kick Jack away.

"Oh my god I've never seen her laugh like that!" Rian exclaimed, suddenly enthused by the sight of his twin unable to contain her laughter, even Zack was smiling at the whole ordeal.

"No, no I'm serious, stop!" she choked out between laughs.

Violet suddenly felt her right hip begin to burn, one of her cuts had come open she knew it. If Alex didn't get off soon she would start bleeding through her shorts for sure. Thankfully they stopped soon after and Violet shoved Alex to the floor with a thud. She got up and ran into her room without the boys giving much thought thankfully. Closing the door tightly and pulling down her shorts she examined her side, she was bleeding quite a bit.

She cleaned herself up, looking in the mirror at the hip bone she had destroyed. It looked disgusting, the sight of it made her tear up at what she'd done to herself. Pushing the thought out of her head she just changed into sweatpants and took the contact lenses out of her sore eyes. She'd teared up more times today than she could count. Putting on her glasses and walking back into main room, she realized all the boys had gone upstairs but Alex.

"Do you have your acoustic guitar?" Alex blurted out when he saw Violet enter the room.

"Uh yeah why?" she replied cautiously.

"Rian told me you had one, we only have the electric ones here and I think I just thought of something good" he replied from where he was sitting on the couch.

Violet went back in her room to fetch her guitar, walking back out and handing it to Alex without a word. He started messing around with a few chords, and after a few tries finally got a tune going. Violet had taken a seat next to him on the couch, pulling her knees up to her chest.

When he was finished, she reached out for her guitar and he willingly handed it over. She started gently playing the chords to Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls, Alex immediately recognizing what she was playing. She shot him an expecting look, trying to silently urge him to sing the words. So when she'd reached the right part of the song he did,

I'd give up forever to touch you
'Cause I know that you feel me somehow.
You're the closet to heaven that I'll ever be,
And I don't want to go home right now.

All can I can taste is this moment
And all I can breathe is your life,
When sooner or later its over,
I just don't want to miss you tonight

Violet joined in for the chorus, harmonizing with Alex.

And I don't want the world to see me,
Cause I don't think that they'd understand.
When everything is made to be broken,
I just want you to know who I am.

Jack, Rian and Zack bounded down the stairs in that moment with a big bowl of popcorn and some bottles of pop in hand. Violet stopped strumming the guitar and both of them looked up sheepishly at the the boys who were giving them questioning glances from the other side of the room.