The next morning, Zac didn't leave his room. He layed in his bed the whole day, staring at the ceiling.
At about eight that night, there was a knock on his door. When he didn't answer, taylor opened it anyway.
"Dad told me to make sure you were still alive." he said, standing in the doorway.
"Tell him no." Zac answered, flatly.
"What is wrong with you?" Taylor crossed his arms over his chest.
"Fight with Vienna."
"About what?"
"Does it matter?"
Tay sighed, walked over to Zac's window, and opened it.
He jumped out, onto Vienna's roof, and knocked on the glass between her and him until she got up and opened it.
Zac could hear the two of them talking, through his open window.
"Can I ask you a question?" Taylor asked.
"Can I stop you?" She responded, flatly.
"No. Are you mad at Zac?"
There was a pause. Zac clenched his eyes shut.
"I'm a little upset." she said, quietly, "not neccessarily with him."
"Yeah?" he pushed.
Vienna sighed.
"I'm just hurt, Taylor."
"I think he's hurt too, Vienna."
Another pause.
"Is there anything he can do?" Taylor asked.
"No." she answered.
"Will you talk to him?"
Yet another pause.
"Sure."
A few seconds later, Taylor climbed back in the window.
"Go!" he commanded, pointing towards it.
Zac got up and climbed out. He looked at Vienna from the end of her roof.
She sighed.
"Come on in." she said quietly, backing away.
He did.
They locked eyes, a pained exchange between them.
"I'm sorry." Zac whispered.
"Stop apologizing." she said softly, crossing her arms, uncomfortably, at her waist and looking down at the floor.
"Then what do you want me to do?" he asked, in the same tone.
She sighed and sat down on the bed, shaking her head.
"I don't know...It hurt, Zac." when she looked back up at him, there were tears leaking out of her eyes, "Because you're the only person who really did understand the hell I've been through. Or at least accept that you may never really understand. But you were the first person to tell me everything was going to be alright and I believed it." She clenched her eyes shut before going on, "I mean...they were always just empty words before you got here...And because I never opened up to anyone until you..Because it's been two years since I've come close to being as happy everytime I see you. Because it isn't everybody, it was never anybody, and it took your shoulder and your arms and your eyes and your smile and your heart and you, Zac, to bring me back to life." she looked, pleadingly, at him and he felt tears welling up in his eyes. For a moment, they just stared at each other, in silence.
"Vienna.." Zac whispered, "Can I fix this? Let me fix this."
She looked at him, so sadly, for a moment, then held out her hands. Dry blood from the still unattended to cuts covered her arms.
Zac came over to her, kneeling in front of her, and she touched his face with her finger tips.
"Don't worry about it." she whispered, "I just need to get over it. I had a really bad day...it's just that the person I would run to wasen't there." she ran her hands down the sides of his neck, onto his shoulders, "But you're here now." she smiled.
Zac dropped his head into her lap.
"I'm sorry for hurting you." he said, softly.
"I'm sorry for making you feel bad." Vienna answered.
They spent several minutes like that, Zac with his head in Vienna's lap, and her stroking his back softly.
Eventually, he picked up his head to look at her, appraising her cuts.
Remembering that Vienna had a bathroom ajoined to her bedroom, he got up and went to it, opening the medicine cabinet.
"What are you doing?" Vienna laughed.
"Checking to make sure you're not a crack addict." the told her, closing the cabinet, ointment and peroxide in hand. He held them up and smiled and Vienna rolled her eyes, leaning back against her pillows.
Zac walked back to her, took her arm, and started to clean up the wounds.
"So, are you going to tell me about this?" he asked.
Vienna sighed.
"It's hard to explain cutting. But, when I lost my family and was moved here to live with Satan in a hell full of jerks like Cameron Green, who are only attracted to me because I want nothing to do with them.."
Zac laughed and she smiled, shaking her head, "Um..yeah, when all that happened, I started to slef mutilate..I got really messed up, I was so morbid..I have this notebook full of poems that I wrote during that time..it scares me to reread them."
"I didn't know you wrote poetry." Zac commented.
"Yeah. I do that." she sighed.
"Cool, write me a poem."
"Later." she continued, "My english teacher noticed something was up because she had to read my writing, so she was watching me like a hawk and, I don't know my sleeve slipped. She saw the cuts, told my guidance counselor, who told my uncle, who brought me to a doctor, who put me in a hospital."
"You were in a mental institute?!"
"I was in a PSYHCIATRIC HOSPITAL." she corrected.
"That's so cool." he mused.
"No it's not."
"Were there crazy people who talked to themselves and thought they were Arnold Shwartzeneger or something?"
"Yeah, I met a guy who thought he was you." Vienna kidded.
"Well, everyone wants to be me."
"Yeah, I slept with him, but anyway.."
"Well, everyone wants to sleep with me."
She laughed.
"I had to go through a lot of therapy and work and...hell. Sheer hell. But they made me alright again." she smiled, "And when I was okay, they let me go."
"How long were you there?"
"Four months."
Zac cringed, "That's stregnth. You should be an astronaut."
She chuckled.
"When they let me out, they had to ease me off therapy. I spent six hours a day in an emotional rehab. Then it was three hours. Then three days a week, two, one, then it was one hour. twice a week, once a week, once every two weeks and I'm still going." she looked at him, "I'll close my eyes if you want to run."
Zac rolled his eyes.
"Okay." she went on, "And I'm on Prozac cause I'm manic depressive."
"Can I be your ProZac?"
"See if you still want to when I'm finished." Vienna commented.
"Oh knock it off."
"I'll be on drugs the rest of my life. And I had plastic surgery to fill up all the scars."
He moved to clean up the other arm.
"Then what?" he asked
"What do you mean, that's the end."
"Is it?" Zac stopped to look at her, "Why do you have nightmares?"
"Don't I have enough reasons to have nightmares, Zac?" she was laughing, but the cold emotionless mask was back on her face.
"Yep." he answered, finishing off his task, "Well, you're done kid."
She held her arms out in front of her, looking at them in disgust.
"Ew, I hate myself." She sneered.
"Well, I don't." Zac said.
Then maybe you're the one who needs to be on medication."
He laughed. "Perhaps."
"Hey, school in two days, right? How horrifying. Going back after winter break is so awful." she rolled her eyes, "I have to recover the energy to deal with the assholes."
"You know." Zac laughed, "You have too many issues, I may reconsider running away and just never looking back."
"K, goodnight." she rolled over and closed her eyes.
Zac layed down next to her.
"Do you want me to leave?"
She rolled back to facing him.
"Don't leave ever." she settled her head on his chest and he stroked her hair.
"Okay." he whispered, "I won't leave you."