Eat.

I wasn’t hungry anymore. Instead, I just sat on the campus grounds with my notebook and writing down lyrics. As I wrote, I realized that I wanted nothing to do with this song. Sighing, I ripped the page out of the notebook and crumbled it up, laying on the grass and taking a deep right after that. The chorus was still stuck in my head,

It's better to feel pain,

than nothing at all

The opposite of love's indifference

So pay attention now,

I'm standing on your porch screaming out

And I won't leave until you come downstairs

I groaned in aggravation and threw my arm over my arm trying to sleep. For a minute or two, I dozed off peacefully, but once I heard another backpack hit the ground, I removed my arm and saw Jimmy sit with his legs crossed in front of me.

“You can get your things robbed if you just sleep out here.” He stated.

“Don’t think anyone is interested in stealing a math book and my homework, Jim.”

“You’d be surprised. Anyway, what are you doing here by yourself in the sun sleeping?”

“I was tired.”

“Looks like you were hungry too but you didn’t eat any of your sandwich. Can I have it?”

I shrugged and motioned him to eat it, “What’s that?” He asked with his mouth full of ham, pointing at the crumpled piece of paper next to me.

“Homework that I gave up on.”

“Let me see it!” Jimmy jumped to grab it, but I snatched it out of his reach quick enough. He gave me a suspicious look, swallowed the food that was in his mouth and said, “Something tells me that whatever is in that piece of paper isn’t homework.”

I didn’t answer, instead, I watched him eat his sandwich.“What is it?” He asked again.

“I told you, it was homework.”

“You and I both know that’s bullshit. Come on dude, let me see it.”

Sighing, I threw the piece of paper at him and he caught it, eating my sandwich with one hand and reading the emotional lyrics on the paper. He raised his eyebrow a few times as he read, but he would occasionally lift his eyes up to see my reaction.

“This is about Ellie, isn't it?”

I scoffed sarcastically, “Brillant, Jim. You're a genius.”

“I could make do without the sarcasm, thanks.” Jimmy rolled his eyes and threw the paper back at me, “Tell her.”

“Tell her what?”

“That you know what she's doing. And that she should stop.”

“It's not that easy.”

“The hell it isn't.”

“It isn't, alright?” I growled, “Because no matter what I fucking tell her, she'll deny it. And if I don't fucking stop it...”

“She'll have to be put on a tube.”

“Or worse.”

Jimmy pulled at the grass, “Tell her you love her.”

“Don't be stupid.”

“If you tell her, then she'll stop.”

“I could give her the moon and she'll still do what her psycho boyfriend says.”

“We'll make them break up.”

“How?”

A grin played on Jimmy's lips, “We'll make a plan!”

“We aren't twelve years old.”

“I know. We're mature eighteen year olds' who are trying to help a friend.”

"You're far from mature."

"I have a kid. I should have some sort of maturity."

“Alright.” I exhaled wearily, “Let's do it. Actually, when are you going to find the time to even make a plan, Jimmy? You have a newborn at home.”

“I can devise a plan while I'm feeding her or something. It shouldn't be that hard.”

“Okay. When are we doing this?”

“We'll do it tonight.”

“I can't. I have to babysit.”

“Bring Mac with you!”

“If she breaks anything it's all on you, dude.”

Jimmy grinned and got up from the grass in one swift movement, “See you then!”



“Where we goin'?” Mac asked as I buckled her in.

I looked up at her and smiled, “Did you just construct a full sentence?”

“Where we goin'?” She repeated.

“We're going to Jimmy's house, is that okay with you?” I asked as I walked around to the driver's side.

“Jimmy?”

“Yeah. Jimmy.”

“Okay.”

“He has a baby now so you have to be careful with her.”

“Baby?”

“Yep, a baby.”

“What a baby?”

“A baby is what you were a few years ago.”

“Oh...okay. We go see baby and Jimmy.”

“And Matt and Zacky.”

“Okay. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, McKenna.” I laughed, starting up the car and driving.

Picking up the sleeping McKenna in my arms, I walk to Jimmy's apartment door, knocking and waiting patiently for him to answer. Instead, Dalia answered, her bright brown eyes looking at me. She gave me a sweet smile and greeted me.

“Hi! Come in, Jimmy's inside with Zacky.”

“Thank you. Is anyone else here?”

“No just the two of them. Is this your sister?”

“Yeah. I'd make her greet you but she's...sleeping as you can see.”

“Don't worry. You can put her inside with Emilia if you want.”

“I better not. She'll freak out if she wakes up to see that I'm nowhere in sight.”

“I understand. Emili can't be away from Jimmy for more than two seconds. Weird how she even sleeps.” She mumbled.

“Like a baby.” I smiled, walking into the dining room to see Jimmy and Zacky there just like Dalia had said. I greeted them quietly and sat down, Mac tensing and threatening to wake up but she relaxed, took a deep breath and continued to sleep.

“So? Anything?”

“We were actually waiting for you to come,” Zack said, “considering that you know more about her than any of us.”

“Are we going to wait for Matt?”

“When he comes we can explain it to him later.” Jim said in seriousness, wiping the dry erase board infront of him. “We were already brainstorming but there were too many flaws, and without our informant, we really couldn't come up anything.”

“Well what do you want to know?”

“Her routine.”

“What the hell? We're going to make her break up with Mario not hack into her bank account.”

“Well we need to know if they have dates frequently, because if they do, we can do something to sabotage it.”

“He didn't even buy her a Christmas present, I really doubt that he takes her out to dinner.”

“No sabotaging dates then.” Jimmy sighed, crossing the word sabotage off the board.

“We know he's an alcoholic.” I said.

“He is?”

“Well I know he's an alcoholic.”

“We can lace his drink with bleach and kill him!”

“We're not trying to kill him!” Zacky groaned, “We're trying to get rid off him!”

Jimmy blinked, “What's the difference?”

“We're not poisoning him.” I sighed, “I don't want to go to jail if they found out I was involved in this.”

“Any other ideas bright ideas?”

“I've got a few.” Matt's voice came from behind us, throwing his jacket on the couch and sitting down next to me.

“If they involve sabotage and poison then get out.” Jimmy grumbled.

“What? No. Nothing like that.”

“What's your idea then, smart guy?”

“By traveling.”

“What?” I asked.

“We ship his ass somewhere else. Like Europe. Or Jupiter.”

“Elaborate.” Zacky ordered.

“We give him a fake job offer or a reason to go away. He leaves only to find out there's not job or anything.”

“Yeah. That's going to work for two days. But what about when he gets the money to come back?”

“I've got a friend who owns a meat shop in New York. We could make him move there, help the guy find a pretty girl, settle down and never see him again.”

“It's a good plan and all, but what if he does the same thing to her?”

“Alright. New plan.” Matt says, grabbing the marker and beginning to doodle, “We know Mario has a 4.0 grade point average, right?”

I rolled my eyes, “Yeah.”

“We send his transcripts to Colombia University!”

“The Ivy League school in New York?”

“Yes.”

“Then what?”

“He gets accepted and he goes there.”

“You're obviously missing something here,” Zack sighed, “that's an if. What if he doesn't get in?”

“Plus, how the hell are we going to get his transcripts?” Jimmy asked, “You have to go to the counselor to get those.”

“That's where Zacky comes in.”

“What? Me?”

“Doesn't Lily work in the school office?” I asked.

“No way. I'm not making her smuggle transcripts.”

“Why not?! You could tell her to jump off a bridge and she'll do it! She's like putty in your hands!” Matt said.

“Yeah but I'm not going to take advantage of that.”

“Come on, dude. Do it for Ellie. You know that if we tell Lily our plan that she'll be in it to win it.” Jimmy coaxed.

Zacky sighed and nodded, “Fine. I'll do it.”

“Alright. The transcripts are covered, but what if he still doesn't get in?”

“We find out his SAT and ACT scores.”

“And what if those are shit?” Matt asked.

“The kid has a 4.0 GPA,” Zacky scoffed, “That's better than all four of us combined.”

“That doesn't my question though. What if he doesn't get in?”

“Then we'll send him to another college that's even farther away. Like Russia.”

“Or the North Korea.” Jimmy grinned.

“Are we really going to do this?” Zacky asked wearily.

“We're doing this for Brian,” Matt explained, “and if you won't do it for him. Do it for Ellie, and if you still won't do it for her, then do it for Lily. Because I know that Ellie and Lily are pretty tight knit. Their names even rhyme, dude. Just do it.”

“Alright.” He sighed, “I'll do it.”

It was then little Emilia began crying from her room. Jimmy got up his chair, banged the marker on the table and said, “Meeting adjourned, boys. My babes calling me.”

McKenna squirmed in my arms and opened her eyes, yawning and stretching, she looked up at me with confused sleepy eyes, “What happened?”

“Nothing, Mac. Go back to sleep. We're going home.” I soothed, standing up as she rested her head back on my shoulder.

“I hope this works.” Zack said.

“It'll work. If it doesn't...well, we'll find something else.” Matt smirked, pulling his jacket back on.