FicWad

I opened my eyes and became aware of the pounding. I'd gotten another hangover in the last two days, and it was very painful. I tried sitting up and found that a sharp sting went up my stomach. That's when I remembered the events of yesterday. I reached my hand to the back of my neck and found the letters, brushing a finger gently over the scabbing wound. I raised the same hand up to my hair and felt that it too was the same as it had been yesterday, it wasn't some kind of dream. And the pain in my stomach was from Stacey kicking me there. I found that my other hand was wrapped in a bloody shirt.

My cutting episode hadn't been a dream or illusion either, the cuts were now throbbing and threatening to open again. I'd done it all and it had all happened to me. Meaning that my mother was still in bed in her room with an unknown man who she'd fucked the night before.

I got up, winching as I moved, and stretched my abdomen. I pulled off the clothes I had on from yesterday, I hadn't even changed into pajamas. A dark bruise ran through the already sickly yellow skin of my upper and lower sternum. I had a few bruises on my knees, but that was all. The rest of the damage was mentally and on my face.

I walked over to my dresser and pulled on a pair of dark blue jeans, along with a red tank top and a black cardigan. I went into the bathroon, trying not to look at my mother's door, and started the work on covering up my neck and trying to style my hair. It was a mess, twigs were still in it, plus it had the effects of bed-hair on it.

I started brushing the debris out of it and found a pair of hygiene scissors, and started trimming it so the hairs were the same length. Pretty soon I had a very short version of a pixie-cut. I looked like an even punkier me. Take that Stacey! I smiled as I soon started bringing my confidence back together.

After bandaging my wrists, I started on my neck. I wrapped it carefully, trying to be gentle and to also conceal that I had a bandage on. If I put a scarf on, you could hardly even see that the medical wrappng was there. I put on my regular make-up, putting the foundation on my face and putting on my black eye-liner and mascara.

Pulling down my sleeves to conceal the bandages on my arms, I went down to the kitchen. I'd put the empty wine bottle in the trash in the afternoon, before Mom came home. Who would be going into the office at 9 am. The clock read 7:34, which meant she had an hour and a half to wake up and get her act together. I meanwhile had only half an hour to get ready for school.

Grabbing a bagel, I went out to the car. Looking in my mirrors, I saw that I didn't look half bad with short hair, I could've shaped it a little better, but it didn't look like it had when I came out of the woods. I stopped at the same Dunkin' Donuts on the way to school.

Driving into that fateful parking lot, I saw that a bunch of the cheerleaders were there. I stepped out of my car cautiously, my bag at my side to swing at someones head. Stacey must not have been there yet because it was Dana who came up to me. She looked me up and down and smirked.

"Nice to see ya, piece of trash.", she smiled at me and pushed past me, the other's did the same. It was a sign that I wasn't a part of them anymore, and I had a small smile on as they did. Hopefully they would leave me alone now that they had done their revenge.

I looked back, just as a familiar Silver Subaru pulled into the open spot next to mine. I grinned as Mikey and Gerard came out. Gerard looked to the school, saw me and waved. I waved back and went over to meet them as they started toward the school doors. As I got closer, I saw their eyes pop, and my smile vanished. I hadn't thought of what they would think of my new look.

"Um, Jetta, you do know that your hair shrunk right?", Mikey asked as I stopped a few feet before them, turning his head slowly to the right. I lowered my head, hoping that they didn't think it sucked, I only had so much to work with after all.

"Yeah, I did sort of know that.", I mumbled, turning to go into the school, those two were right behind me.

"I like it." Gerard voiced his opinion. I froze and smiled, turning slowly back to face him and Mikey. They both walked on either side of me. Gerard was dressed in his black army jacket, while Mikey was sporting a black trench-coat.

"Really?", I grinned. He nodded as well as Mikey.

"It's actually pretty wicked.", Mikey smirked. Gerard agreed.

"It makes the contours of your face stand out.", he complimented me. The grin on my face was small and embarassed, but inside I felt warm. These guys really were nice.

"So what are you guys going to do at your grandmother's?", I asked, remembering our talk from yesterday in the art room. They both shrugged as we walked down the hallways of the school.

"Same as always, food and conversations of how school is going.", Gerard summed it up, his face light up with a grin.

"You really have to meet our Uncle Jon.", Mikey giggled, "He was a riot at the dinner table last time, funniest thing was when he accused Gerard of cross-dressing." I choked on a laugh, Gerard was blushing and glaring at Mikey.

"Don't you have your own locker to go to?", Gerard asked loudly. Mikey just frowned and then smiled wickedly.

"Hey Mr. Grumpy Gills. . .", Mikey started, and Gerard put his hands over his ears. I looked at them both confused, Mr. Grumpy who?

"You know what they say when life gets you down?", Mikey giggled and Gerard glared at him, hands still at either side of his face. We were right in the middle of the hallway with people trying to get around us. I had no clue what was coming, but both Way brothers were having a staring contest as Mikey said the next sentences.

"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming. . .", Mikey started singing and Gerard groaned, and started walking hurriedly ahead of me and Mikey. Mikey was still singing the same sentence and I had half a mind to smack him.

"Will you please stop that?", I asked exasperatedly. Mikey stopped, but was still grinning.

"Sorry, but I love messing with Gerard like that.", he grinned. "I'll see ya later Jetta, my locker's right here", he pointed to the wall of metal compartments to our left and went over to one of them. I said goodbye and hurried up to Gerard.

"Jeez, that song will me in my head all day now.", he muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. I smirked.

"It isn't that bad, it's actually pretty catchy.", I said, recieving a look from him which I giggled at.

"Are we still on for Dawn of the Dead tonight?", he asked me, a little grumpily. I nodded.

"I am if you are.", I smiled. His head perked up as he turned to me with another question.

"Would you mind if a couple more people were over?", he asked. I shook my head. The people at their lockers were staring at me like I was the plague, and they were completely ignoring Gerard. I fought the urge to tell them off.

"I don't mind, is it the same group I hung out with at the party?", I asked, hopeful. Gerard smiled, and nodded.

"Yep, just you haven't met Matt yet, you'll love him if you can stand Frankie.", Gerard said with a chuckle. And we came to my locker and I waved him farewell.

"I'll see ya in Art.", Gerard told me over his shoulder. And suddenly I couldn't wait for 7th period to roll by.

Thoughout the day I had people staring at me. I knew that I hardly looked like the same girl who'd came here in September, but the feeling of eyes on me was starting to get on my nerves. In lunch I sat down at the same lonely table from yesterday, and surprisingly had two people sit down with me. It was Ray and Bob.

"Hey Jetta, what's up?", Ray asked, taking a bite out of the apple he had. Bob was going with a no lunch.

I shrugged. "Same old, same old.", I muttered. I asked them about the movie and they confirmed they were going.

"So where were you guys yesterday, I looked around for people from the party. . .", I asked Ray. He shrugged.

"Out back having a smoke, me and Bob are the only ones from our group in this lunch period so we just go out and light one up.", he shrugged. We started talking about different things. It was a forced conversation, I had no clue why they were even talking to me, I hadn't even known them until Saturday. But it was still a friendly gesture to sit by me and I accepted it and made small talk. Except when the next topic rolled around.

"So, what's with the new hair-do?", Bob asked, suddenly breaking the row of silence he had going on. I fought for a reason and just said the first one that came to mind.

"I don't know, it's just something I've been thinking about doing.", I lied, shrugging nonchalantly. Bob's trademark frown deepened.

"Oh really?", he asked. "Because I heard two girl talking about how 'Jetta totally got pawned by Stacey, she cut her hair and everything.", he said quietly. He waited for me to give my version of the story or to deny that it had happened. I took a deep breath and started to say that it wasn't true, but the look on his face said that he wasn't going to buy anything that I said. Ray was looking between us.

I came clean. "Fine, they did do this to me, but I could care less what they have to say about it.", I finished. Ray was shaking his head.

"And you didn't think to call someone to help you out, or even kick their asses?", he asked, his eye-brow raised. I shook my head.

"It's not like I had time to just start calling people, they took me into the woods out back of the school.", I said with a final note in my voice. The bell rang and we got up. Ray reached over the table and grabbed my arm.

"You know you just can call one of us and we'll help you out right?", he handed me a slip of paper with two numbers on it. I looked at it quizzically.

"Why are you guys helping me out so much?", I asked quietly, I understood how Gerard had helped me and we'd made a bond, but these guys were practically strangers. Bob shrugged and Ray answered.

"Having an entire school against you sucks, and it helps to have back-up once in a while.", he smiled at me with a knowing look.

"Thanks.", I mumbled, with a small grin on my face, and they headed to whatever class they had next. I was making more and more friends, of course I could never actually call Ray or Bob, but it was nice to know that they were willing to help me out if I ever got caught in another situation like yesterday. If it ever happened again, which it hopefully wouldn't.

The next few periods flew by. I walked into the Art room, got my supplies, and sat down to start working. Gerard came in and did the same, pulling out his drawing of the cemetary girl. We were silent for some reason, and I had no clue why, but I went along with it. I had started to color in my sunset and add the tones to the buildings when he spoke up.

"I heard from Ray and Mikey that you weren't the one who cut your hair.", he muttered silently, if the class wasn't concentrating on their work to where the chatter volume was minimal, I wouldn't have even heard him. A guilty expression formed on my face and I nodded.

"You could've told me and I'd understand Jetta.", he didn't sound angry, just a little hurt. He probably thought I hadn't trust him enough to tell him the truth. I shrugged.

"I didn't want you to worry about me anymore than you already did.", I replied, trying to concentrate on getting the right shade on the paper before me. Gerard left my reply unanswered for a little while as he worked on his own. His expression unreadable as he stared down at the drawing.

The rest of the period was like this, silent and brooding. I had finished the sunset and set my pencil down on the table when it started to roll off the end of the table. Unconsciously, I jerked my arm out to catch it, pulling the sleeve up and fully exposing the set of bandages I had on that arm. Gerard's eyes widened at the sight and I quickly covered them back up with my sleeve. He stared at me with a inquisitive and worried look, but he kept quiet and I returned to finishing up the drawing. I felt his irritation rage as the bell rang for us to leave.

"I'll see you tonight, when do you want me there?", I asked quietly. Gerard looked at me with a raised eyebrow, almost surprised that I had the guts to remind him about the movie tonight. Then he shook his head, his black hair swishing.

"Around six', you might want to bring clothes if you're going to sleep over.", he muttered, gathering his books and putting his hair behind his ears. I nodded.

"And Jetta. . ." He got my attention, but then he seemed to lose his nerve about telling me whatever he wanted to. "I'll see ya tonight", he finished and walked out, leaving me feeling stupid and very guilty. The movie tonight was going to be a hell to get through.