I Knew Babysitting Paid, But It Finally Paid Off

-Joe's POV-

Manda led me to the living room and motioned for me to sit.

"How did she get so depressed? Tell me everything." I said. I had a hunch I was to blame for this, and I wanted desperately to be proven wrong.

"Okay, well its a long story. Lets start the day you guys broke up. She was crushed, Joe. You really broke her heart bad. She stayed with me for a few days, wanted to avoid going to her house. When she finally did though, she asked me to take down all her posters. You know, of you and your brothers. It was really hard to watch her see your face over and over." She paused, glancing up at me.

"But after that ordeal, I thought things were getting better. She seemed happier, less depressed about the whole thing. So, I went to her house one day, because we were going shopping or something and I found out she was worse. Much, much worse. I didn't think it would have happened this fast, I didn't know she could fall back into her depression again so quickly."

"Kristen has a history of depression?" I asked. Why did I not know this? But she's always so happy, how could this be?

"Yeah, surprising huh? Last person you'd expect to get depressed. It started a few years back. She was dating this guy Pete, for about two years or something. I think he was the first guy she ever truly loved. But, then he went and broke her heart. He cheated on her with this girl Danielle and got her pregnant. When K found out, she was a wreck. Ditched school and walked all the way here. And just so you know, she's never left school like that before. Just walked right out of the building." She paused again, glancing at the clock on the wall.

"Anyways, when she got home she just started writing, getting more and more depressed. She kept it all in this one compostition notebook."

"And let me guess, you found it out when you came over that one day." I said, knowing where this conversation was going.

"That's right. The notebook only comes out when its really bad. So I was pretty freaked out when I saw it on her bedside table. Then she left her room for a second, and I sneaked a peek at it's last entry. It was titled 'Pushing Me Away'." She stopped, looking me in the face.

Pushing Me Away was written by Kristen?! But then that must mean that its written about me! Oh my God...

"Kristen wrote Pushing Me Away?" I asked, slightly numb from the sudden information.

"Yeah. She was having these nightmares about you, actually. It was the basis of the poem. Or lyrics now, I guess. You kept pushing her off a cliff."

I sat there stunned. I didn't know she could write like that. And I can't believe she wrote Pushing Me Away. Or that its written about me. I'm just kind of in shock. I simply nodded, letting Manda know to continue.

"From there, everything went from bad to worse. One night, she hung out with her cousin, Audrey. Total party girl, bad influence, you know? Anyways, she took K clubbing, even though she's underage. Snuck her in I guess. But K got really wasted. Like before that time, she never drank, ever. And that was also the night she landed herself on Perez Hilton. She took that pretty hard. She didn't like people everywhere knowing about you and her. Then she started drifting away from me. Stopped going online, texting, everything. I knew something was up, but she wouldn't talk to me. I knew it was getting worse. And then I got a phone call from her saying how she didn't deserve such a good friend like me and how I loved her more than I should have." Manda stopped abruptly, and wiped her eyes quickly, trying to be stealthy about it. "And thats how you got here."

"Wow. I never knew she could get so depresed. I almost lost her forever." I said glancing up the stairs to her room.

"Wait - you still have feelings for K?" Manda asked, sounding curious. I couldn't help but blush a little, the only other people that knew was my family.

"Yeah, I do. That's why I was in such a rush to get out here. I was trying to decide how to get here back." I answered, subconsciously playing with my promise ring.

"You love her?" Manda asked.

"Yeah. I think I do."

"Well then, we've got some planning to do." She said, a smile on her face.