Linda's Story

Coming Undone

Usually during her physics and math class, she'd sit next her boyfriend. (Thank goodness for no assigned seating, she often thought). Today, though, she chose to sit in the very back corner, by herself, away from everyone else. She was bent over her book, her long hair covering her face, hiding her from her boyfriend's confused eyes. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him start to stand and make his way towards her. For once, she was glad when Lori got in Danny's way and insisted on sitting with him. It seemed as though Danny was still planning on coming over, but the bell rang and the teacher walked in, so he remained seated.

***********

"Hi," his voice filled her ears.

"Hi," she responded, forcing a smile and failing.

"You sat in the back today-"

"I had a headache. The lights... aren't as harsh in the corner." That was a lie, but she couldn't tell him why she chose not to sit with him.

"Are you okay now?"

"Yeah, I'm okay."

"Linda, what's going on?"

Linda met his eye, shook her head and shrugged nonchalantly. "I told you- I've got a headache."

"Do you need to go to the nurse?"

"No! No- uh..." she cleared her throat, "it'll go away once I eat."

He cast his eyes to her food, "You're not eating."

"Can we just not talk?" She snapped at him, inwardly kicking herself. He didn't deserve her anger.

For a split second, hurt crossed his face. "Is it okay if we talk after school? Maybe at your house?"

"Sure, whatever," Linda gathered her tray and walked towards the trash cans. She dumped her lunch and made a quick exit, needing to get away from her boyfriend.

*********

Linda only agreed to let Danny come to her house because she knew no one would be there (and she just wanted him to quit asking her questions). She hung her coat up, "why don't you head upstairs and get homework ready while I make a snack?"

"Do you need help?"

"No! No, it's... no, I can do it." She forced a smile, and reluctantly, he walked up the stairs. She threw a bag of popcorn in the microwave, standing in front of the counter as the kernels popped away. She fingered a kitchen knife handle, curling her fingers around it.

Upstairs, Danny was looking at the pictures in Linda's room. A few posters of that boyband she loved stared back at him, making him turn to the pictures on her nightstand. One was of the two of them together, smiling widely- he recognized that one as one of the photos they had taken in a dollar photo booth at the mall. She must've gotten it blown up. The other one was of her when she was maybe seven, sitting next to her grandma on Christmas morning.

Danny frowned- that meant at one point, Linda's family was like his- happy. What had happened? She didn't like talking about her family, but Jimmy did, and Danny gathered it had everything to do with cheating and lying.

"Here's the popcorn," Linda came in her room with a big bowl of popcorn and a box of M'n'Ms.

"I like your pictures."

"Thank you." Linda put the bowl on the nightstand, sat next to her boyfriend on the bed. She paused, "why did you want to come over?"

"You seem sad," he shrugged, "and I thought you maybe didn't want to be alone."

She yanked at her sweater sleeve, "thank you."

"How old were you in that one?" He pointed to the picture of her and Rosita.

"Uh... seven?"

Awkward silence hung in the air, Danny wondering what was going on with Linda. He looked at her when she started to sniffle, "Linda?"

She shook her head as a sob escaped her, waved her hand in the air, brushing him off. He touched her shoulder tentatively, which only caused her to cry harder.

"Hey, hey, hey," Danny said gently, trying to calm Linda down. "Hey, it's okay, it's okay." He tried to grab her hands, but she yanked them away. He looked at her quizzically before taking her hand and pushing her sleeve up with his free hand. "Linda..."

Across her wrist were bloody scrapes and scratches, all red and angry. He checked her other wrist- it looked the same. He didn't say anything as she started coughing and gasping, her sobs overtaking her. The only thing he could thing to do was to hug her and never let go.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she repeated over and over again, gripping the back of his shirt for dear life. "I'm sorry."

Danny kissed her head, rubbed her back. What was he supposed to say? He had never known anyone who cut themselves- not to his knowledge anyways.  He waited to speak until her tears were spent- which was quite some time, he noted. "Shouldn't... shouldn't you clean the- the cuts?"

She pulled away from him, rubbed her eye like a little five year old, as she nodded.

"Do you need help?"

She shook her head, and stood up to head to the bathroom.

Should he follow her? Part of his trust for her was now completely shattered. Again, he asked himself what he should do. "Is it okay if I go with you?"

Linda only nodded again, suddenly feeling very tired and very drained. In silence, she cleaned and bandaged the cuts, then looked to Danny for instruction.

He had no idea what to do. "Uh.... Wanna lie down for a little bit?"

"Will you hold me?" She sounded so scared, so broken.

"Always." He held out his hand, and she took it. He lead them back to the bedroom, let her get comfortable first, then laid down next to her. He held her in his arms while she drifted into sleep. He couldn't let himself take a nap- he needed to figure out a way to make Linda better.

**********

A/n

You can find the rest of the story over on AO3, under the same name. My user name is Visionsofdazzlingrooms.
(I thought it was too intense to include the full story here)