bruises // heathers

seven // stay with me

"Mom? Dad?" Elle asked, knocking on the door and interrupting the kiss between Veronica and JD.

"What's up, Ellie?" Veronica asked, her voice a bit breathless.

"I'm hungry." Elle whined, rattling the doorknob to no avail.

"We'll go get something to eat." JD said through the door before kissing Veronica quickly. Then he opened the door. "What do you want to get?"

"I don't know." Elle shrugged her shoulders.

"Have you gone grocery shopping?" Veronica asked, pushing past JD and Elle to look in the cupboards.

"Uh, not really." JD said coyly, rubbing his neck. "I'm not much of a shopper. I'm more of a fast food kind of guy." Veronica nodded in understanding, trying to find something she could whip up into dinner for the three of them.

"Mom's a great cook." Elle said to JD, taking a seat at the island counter. "Can we have pancakes?"

"There isn't the stuff for pancakes." Veronica answered to which her daughter whined in annoyance.

"Can't we go to the store?" Elle asked in a whiny voice.

"Giselle, I don't know if you know this or not but we're broke. We don't have money to go to the store and have you ask for everything you see." Veronica snapped, slamming her hand on the counter, causing Elle to pout.

"But I won't ask for anything!" Elle insisted.

"You say that every time." Veronica reminded her. "You never actually don't ask for things."

"But-" Elle began only to be cut off.

"No, Giselle. We aren't going to the store. You can have what we find. Which looks to be pasta. You love pasta." Veronica replied.

"I don't want pasta!" Elle bayed.

"It doesn't matter. That's what's for dinner." Veronica said, putting her foot down on the matter. "There isn't money to go to the store right now and it's late."

"This is why Heather doesn't like you! You're mean to me! You made me move away and you won't let us live with my dad!" Elle yelled, getting off the stool and running to her room. She slammed the door in frustration on the way in.

There was silence in the kitchen. Neither JD or Veronica spoke. Veronica held her head in her hands while her elbows leaned onto the island counter. Only a few minutes later, the two could hear screaming coming from Elle's room. The two hurried down the hall to the door and tried to open it. The door was locked.

"Giselle Felicity Sawyer! Open this door right now!" Veronica shouted in a panicked manner, banging her palm on the door, while JD went to find the key.

"No! Heather's talking to me! Go away!" Elle screeched from behind the white door.

"We're unlocking the door." JD said in an unnaturally calm voice. He put the key in the door, unlocked it and opened it in one swift motion to see Giselle laying on the floor in a ball, holding her wrist.

"Get out!" Elle shrieked.

"We aren't going anywhere." Veronica told Elle, walking over to her daughter slowly and carefully. Elle was prone to lashing out during these episodes.

"I told you to get out!" Elle howled, standing up and pushing her mother away from her before assaulting her with small fists. It didn't take long for either of her parents to notice her arm.

"Veronica, she's bleeding." JD told the mother of his child, grabbing Elle in one quick motion.

"Let me go!" Elle yelped in anguish at the sudden touch, but she was much too weak to pull away from him. She battered on JD as well but it was no use, she wasn't hurting or even phasing him.

"Get some towels from the bathroom." JD ordered Veronica, who hurried to do as told, bringing back a light blue towel. JD held up his daughter's arm to see the damage.

"Oh my god, she cut herself." Veronica cried, pointing to a pair of bloody scissors peeking out from under the bed. JD began to press the towel to the cut, the source of Elle's sudden scream. She wailed in pain at the pressure to stop the blood, still trying to wrestle herself free from the grasp of her father.

"I hate both of you! Why couldn't you just let me die!?" Elle screeched loudly, causing Veronica to really start crying heavily. It even caused JD to well up. "I deserve to die! Heather says I have to die! Let me die!"

"Giselle, please, calm down." JD said in a steady voice despite his fear in this moment. The last time he was so dreadfully afraid was when Veronica was hanging in her closet, limp and supposedly lifeless. It was at that moment that Elle fell limp too, only she was not lifeless but rather just passed out from the stress. She shut down.

"Oh my god, JD, please stop the bleeding." Veronica begged while sobbing.

"I'm trying. Get me the first aid kit in the bathroom." JD said, Veronica did.

JD released the towel to reveal Elle's skinny wrist that had one very crooked and deep cut, diagonally crossing the vein on her arm. He put gauze on the cut, two layers of it before wrapping her entire wrist in medical tape all down the gauze so she wouldn't be able to peel it off and pick the scab. He laid her gently on her bed and tucked her in. Veronica kissed her forehead and picked up the bloody scissors. Then they left her room, leaving her alone in her bed.

"I can't believe she did that." JD mumbled in a quiet voice.

"Neither can I." Veronica said, throwing out the bloodied scissors and towel.

"Where did she even learn about that?" JD asked.

"I have no idea. It's never gotten that bad." Veronica lit a cigarette with shaking hands. "She's scratched herself before but she's never... she's never cut herself."

"This isn't the first time she's freaked out like that?" JD questioned.

"A few times a year she just freaks like that, over nothing. It's all the stress and stuff built up, tumbling out in one big explosion of emotions." Veronica answered.

"I don't think I've ever been more scared in my entire life than when I saw all that blood just coming out of her arm." JD whispered, trying really hard to not cry. It was to no avail, however. Veronica walked up right there and hugged him, attempting to comfort him. She pulled away for a second and when JD looked down at her, they both met one another's lips at the same time.

One thing led to another however and as they both lay in bed, naked and out of breath, they find each other again.

"Veronica," JD whispered to the quiet, receiving a questioning noise as Veronica's response. "Stay with me." He said, louder. Veronica didn't speak, she only nodded her head against his chest in agreement.

"I love you," Veronica mumbled.

"I love you too." JD replied, feeling his heart become whole again. Veronica felt the same thing. "Promise that you'll stay?" He asked in a childlike voice, sounding very young in that moment.

"Promise." Veronica smiled, curling deeper into him and falling asleep.