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Chapter Text

     Hazel forced herself to give the fight club a bloody grin, ignoring the dull pain that was coursing all throughout her body. Her brain was still buzzing with adrenaline from the fight, and she was beginning to feel light-headed and shaky, but she shrugged it off. She always tried her best to be as happy as possible so that people would want to be around her more, and if that meant she had to “grin and bear it”, she would. Literally.

     “That was fucking awesome!”

     “Right?!” PJ shouted, jumping up and down excitedly and making various obscene gestures in the direction of the groaning, bloodied football players lying facedown on the field. “We fucking showed those Huntington asswipes not to mess with us again!”

     “Hell yeah we did!” Josie agreed, high-fiving Isabell.

     Hazel winced and quickly leaned back against one of the bleachers before her legs could give out, being careful to keep a neutral expression on her face. She had perfected this look over the course of many years, and it had always served her well in times like this. She clenched her hands into fists, not caring that her nails were digging into her palms.

     The pain was most severe in her side, as if a sharp knife was wedged between her ribs, driving deeper and deeper with each heartbeat. Each time she breathed, a sharp pain shot through her body. She gritted her teeth, hot tears stinging her eyes. But she blinked them away quickly. Her face remained calm, unbothered. She was used to this sort of pain, and she refused to let it get the best of her.

     “I can’t believe I actually did that!” Isabell giggled, looking down at her bruised knuckles with pride. “It was… it was amazing!”

     “I know!” Brittany chorused, a wide grin on her bloody face. “And it’s all thanks to PJ and Josie!” she added, turning to look at the two girls, her face shining with admiration. “We could NEVER have done this if it wasn’t for you!”

     As the rest of the fight club crowed around PJ and Josie, laughing and thanking them, Hazel looked away, her face slowly contorting into a scowl. “Yeah, let them take all the credit,” she thought bitterly, clenching her hands into fists again. “What else is new?”

     “Yo, Hazel!”

     Hazel quickly straightened her face and looked at PJ, who was walking up to her. “Hey,” she said with a small smile, standing up straight despite the internal screams of protest from her throbbing side. “What’s up?”

     “’What’s up’”? PJ repeated with a smirk. “We did it; that’s ‘what’s up’! God, that was fucking incredible! Good thing I started the club, huh?”

     “Fuck you, you fucking liar!” Hazel’s brain screamed. But she forced herself to smile at PJ anyway. “Yeah! It was just in time too.” 

     “Exactly! See, I told you it was a good idea.”

     Hazel’s smile faded slightly. “I never said it wasn’t.”

     “Yeah, but you’re always, like, all pissy about it.” PJ rolled her eyes. “Whatever though, it’s all in the past now, right?

     As Hazel was about to reply, a fresh wave of hot pain suddenly shot through her body, and before she could stop herself, she let out a sharp hiss of pain, clutching her side.

     PJ frowned and stepped forward quickly. “Hey, you good?”

     “Yeah… yeah I’m fine. I just… uh… gotta pee.” Hazel gave a sheepish smile and shrugged. “Too much Dr Pepper.”

     PJ rolled her eyes and stepped back with an annoyed sigh. “Fucking idiot.” She turned away from Hazel and walked over to Brittany.

     Immediately, Hazel fell back against the bleachers. The blood pounded in her ears. Her heart thudded in her chest. Her hands shook. Her feet tingled. Her vision blurred and disfigured, as if she were looking through a fish-eye lens. Her side throbbed with a steady, pounding rhythm. The pain was red-hot, searing through her senses, leaving her breathless.

    She had to get away. She couldn’t stay near that damned field any longer. She couldn’t look at it.

     She looked around desperately. There. The team locker rooms. She pushed off from the wall, trembling, and stumbled shakily towards the team tunnel, wincing with every step. Breathing was hard. Really hard. As if she’d just run the London Marathon.

     She stumbled into the locker rooms and closed the door behind her. Groaning, she dragged herself over to the sink, holding her side. She grabbed the edge of the counter for support and looked into the mirror. “Fuuuck...”

     She was in bad shape. Her lip was split and throbbing painfully, and there was an angry red scrape on her right cheek. Her eyes were bloodshot and swollen from the dark purple bruises beneath them, and there was yet another bruise on her left cheek. Not to mention her arms and legs, which were also covered in large greenish-yellow bruises.

     But Hazel wasn’t concerned about that. She took a deep breath and lifted her shirt slightly, biting her lip hard to keep from crying out. The metallic taste of her own blood washed across her tongue for the umpteenth time that day. “Oh my God…”

      On her side, there was a large red and purple bruise, the largest she had ever seen in her life. It began right above her hip bone and ended just below the top of her waist.

     She remembered the sickening crack she had heard and felt when one of the Huntington football players had swung a large tree branch into her side and her face paled. Her ribs must be broken. She quickly dropped her shirt, feeling a wave of nausea wash over her. “Wh-whatever,” she said shakily to her reflection. “I mean… I’ve had broken bones tons of times before. I’ll be fine.”

     But as the adrenaline rush from the fight slowly began to wear off, she was left trembling and gasping in pain.

     She managed to stumble into one of the shower stalls and close the curtain behind her before the white-hot wave shocks of pain overtook her body and she crumpled to the ground. Her face contorted in agony, her eyes squeezed shut as she curled into a ball on the floor. She began to sob, her whole body shaking.

     How long she stayed like that she had no idea. But soon enough, a comfortably numbing chill took the place of the hot pain and she found she was unable to move, slipping into darkness...

     “AHHHH! What the fuck?!”

     Hazel’s eyes flew open. She moved to sit up and hissed as a sharp pain shot through her side yet again. She looked up into Jeff’s shocked face, her eyes full of tears she was trying her best not to let fall.

     “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN HERE?!”

     “I-I… I fell asleep…”

     “Well get the fuck out! Jesus Christ, can a guy even take a SHOWER without you fucking lesbians around?” He laughed loudly, apparently finding this very funny. “Nah, I’m just kidding. I sure owe you guys one after tonight! But seriously, get out. You wanna sleep, go to the bleachers or something.”

     Hazel gritted her teeth and lay back down very carefully. “I… I’d rather stay here actually.”

     Jeff stared at her. “Huh? I’m trying to take a shower, idiot!”

     Hazel sniffed, holding her side. “So go to a different stall. I’m not looking.”

     “You’re acting weird.”

     Hazel scoffed. “I AM weird, remember? I’m the ‘school freak’. You said so yourself.” She looked away, scowling.

     “Oh come on, I was just playing around!” Jeff rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically. “You look like shit by the way,” he added, bending down to peer into her face with a frown. He straightened up and held out his hand. “Now come on, get out. It’s not funny, Harper.”

     “It’s Hazel, asshole,” Hazel spat out, clutching her side and gritting her teeth. “The least you can do is get my name right.”

     “Whatever! Just get out!”

     “No.”

     “Why not?!”

     “I don’t want to.”

     Jeff rolled his eyes and bent down, grabbing Hazel’s arm and pulling her up.

     A scream of pain tore from Hazel’s already raw throat, echoing loudly throughout the room. Hot tears fell down her face and her legs gave way beneath her. She would have collapsed to the ground if Jeff hadn’t caught her quickly and set her gently on the floor.

     “Hayley! Oh my God, oh my God!” Jeff cried out as he knelt beside her, close to tears himself. “I-I didn’t mean to hurt you; I’m so sorry!”

     “N-not your fault,” Hazel choked out, her body shuddering. “Huntington… assholes…”

     “Oh, thank God!” Jeff sniffed, wiping his eyes. “Oh right... I mean uh… oh no!” He looked down at her awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. “Um… where’re you hurt?”

     “Ribs.”

     “Oof.” Jeff winced sympathetically. “Broken?”

     “Yeah.”

     “…Is there anything I can do to help or…”

     “No. I’ll be fine. Just… give me a couple minutes and I’ll be out of here.”

     “Hell no! I’m not letting you walk out of here with broken ribs! You need to get to the hospital.”

     “No!” Hazel cried out quickly, wincing at the pain her sudden outburst had caused. She squeezed her eyes shut, sucking in her breath. Once the pain had subsided somewhat, she let out a deep, shaky breath and opened her eyes again. “No. No hospital. I don’t need it. I’ll be fine.”

     “I don’t wanna hear it,” Jeff pouted, crossing his arms. “You’re going, whether you like it or not. I’ll carry you myself if I have to.”

     Hazel scoffed softly, grimacing. “Oh please.”

     “I mean it.”

     “You wouldn’t dare.”

     “Well I can’t just leave you here!”

     “Why do you care anyway?”

     “Because you and your dumb lesbian sadist superhero girl-power fight club thing saved my fucking life!”

     Hazel stared at him for a few seconds, blinking. Then, she slowly began to smile. “My what?”

     Jeff groaned, smiling a bit himself. “Honestly, fuck you. You know what I mean. And don’t try to change the subject!”

     “I just need to lie still for a few minutes. I’ll be fine; really. Now shut up.” Hazel said softly, closing her eyes.

     Jeff shut up.

     Hazel kept her eyes closed, focusing on taking shorter breaths so as to cause herself as little pain as possible.

     After a few minutes, Jeff spoke up. “Haisley?” he ventured softly. “Are you okay?”

     “Peachy,” Hazel replied with a grimace, keeping her eyes closed.

     “Well… you know what, I’m gonna go get Mrs. Callahan.” Jeff moved to get up and Hazel’s eyes flew open.

     “Don’t,” she said desperately, grabbing Jeff’s hand and trying her best to stay still. “I don’t want her here. Not now.”

     “What? Why not?”

     Hazel let go of his hand and looked away. “Please… just don’t.”

     Jeff threw up his hands. “Fine! I’ll just get Penny and Jordan then.”

     “Wait!” But Jeff had already run out. Hazel groaned and leaned her head back against the floor. “Great. Just fucking great.”

     Slowly, her eyelids drooped shut. At least now it was quiet.

     “Hazel! Oh my God!”

     Hazel groggily opened her eyes. “Hey, Josie.”

     “I came as soon as I heard,” Josie said breathlessly, kneeling beside Hazel. “Did Jeff call 911?”

     “No…”

     “Fucking idiot…” Josie cursed, taking out her phone.

     “What’re you doing?” Hazel asked sluggishly, her tongue numb.

     “Calling an ambulance obviously,” Josie replied, punching the screen.

     “Jo… don’t, okay? I’m fine…” Hazel said slowly, her eyelids beginning to droop again.

     “No you’re not! Now be quiet…” Josie put the phone up to her ear as Hazel closed her eyes.

     “911?... Yes, it’s an emergency… My friend broke her ribs… We’re at Rockbridge Falls High School… Okay… Okay, thank you.” She put the phone down. “They’ll be here as soon as possible. Hey, are you okay? Don’t pass out on me.”

     “Mmmmm…” Hazel replied softly.

     “That better fucking mean ‘I won’t’,” Josie growled. “How bad is the pain?”

     “Not that bad…” Hazel replied in a quiet voice, opening her eyes slightly. “It was really bad before, but now I just feel… numb.”

     Josie nodded and took Hazel’s hand, gently tracing her fingers along Hazel’s knuckles. “You’ll be okay; I promise. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

     Hazel smiled softly. “Thanks, Jo. Hey, where’s PJ?” she added, looking around and trying to keep her voice casual.

     Josie grinned. “Oh, she and Brittany took off, like, half an hour ago. No one knows where they went.” She laughed and leaned in to whisper playfully, “I’m guessing Brittany had her gay awakening.”

     Hazel’s eyes widened slightly. She bit her lip and swallowed hard, her chest tight. “O-oh. That’s… that’s great. I’m glad you and PJ finally got the girls you wanted.”

     “I know, right?! Everything’s going perfectly!”

     Hazel lay her head back and closed her eyes, trying not to cry. Of course PJ would choose Brittany over her; who wouldn’t? That kiss had meant nothing to PJ. But it had been Hazel’s first… and with a girl she had secretly liked for months now. She should’ve known it was too good to be true.

     “Hazel? You okay?”

     Hazel just nodded slightly, too drained to reply.

     “…Is this about PJ and Brittany?” Josie asked gently. “I mean… PJ… you… you like her, don’t you?”

     Hazel nodded again, looking up at Josie, her eyes blurred with unshed tears.

     Josie looked down at her with an expression somewhere between sadness and pity. “Maybe they’re not together,” she said quickly. “I mean… maybe they’re just… platonically… talking? I don’t know; that sounds lame…”

     A strange shuddering filled Hazel’s chest and a choked wheeze escaped her quivering lips. Hot tears forced their way out of her eyes, followed by her fist meeting the floor. As she cried, her body heaved with each sob, her chest convulsing with the weight of her emotions. She no longer cared about the sharp pains shooting through her body.

     Josie stayed silent, just holding Hazel’s hand tightly.

     Hazel sobbed loudly until her throat was raw and sore—until her eyes were swollen shut—until she was absolutely and utterly exhausted—until she couldn’t cry anymore. She stopped fighting and slowly slipped into unconsciousness, vaguely aware of Josie’s warm and comforting arms wrapping around her…

Chapter Text

    Hazel made her way through the hallway of Rockbridge Falls High School, dodging various other students who were tearing down the hall, laughing and whooping loudly. She fidgeted with the buttons on her shirt, biting the inside of her cheek as her head began pounding and her breathing quickened. She was overstimulated and definitely ready for the day to be over. At least it was Friday. She sighed, remembering she’d have to walk home, as her mom was… preoccupied.

     “Yo, Hazel! Have a good weekend!”

     Hazel turned and forced herself to grin back at PJ. “You too!” she called, waving. “Say bye to Josie for me!”

     PJ gave her a quick thumbs up and ran out.

     Hazel sighed and stopped in front of her locker to deposit her books. She dropped her bag onto the floor, rummaging through it and pulling out her headphones. She plugged them into her phone and went to her “Favorite Songs” playlist on Spotify, putting it on shuffle and pressing play.

    “Electric Love” by BØRNS started playing. Hazel sighed in relief and leaned her head back against her locker, closing her eyes. Music definitely made everything better. Slowly, her anxiety was replaced by a sense of peace and gentle elation.

     She picked her bag back up and walked out of the school, smiling and humming softly to herself. She smiled and breathed in deeply as the gentle, sweet-smelling breeze flowed through her short brown hair. Even when the annoying group of skimpily-dressed cheerleaders pointed at her and started laughing, per usual, Hazel just grinned and raised her hand to wave at them as she rounded the corner.

     It was just as her warm feeling of inner joy was reaching its zenith that she felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to face it. The punch slammed into her left cheekbone just below her eye, knocking her flat as the world exploded into yellow light.

     After the world exploded, Hazel felt for a brief moment like she was floating on air, as if she was back at the park, with her mom pushing her on the swings. That had been a long time ago, back when she’d been a little girl with no cares or troubles in the world. Her father had watched over them like a benevolent king, hair perfectly trimmed, his business suit brushed clean to perfection. He wasn’t around much, so when he was, it was quite the excitement for young Hazel. Until she understood why. Her mother would laugh and smile, bringing out glasses of lemonade and freshly-baked cookies, dark-haired and beautiful…

     Then her senses slowly began to return, and the image of her mother’s face sharpened and reformed into that of a boy with a large, crooked nose and piercing blue eyes.

     “Wakey wakey, sunshine!” Crooked Nose said, his words echoing slowly through Hazel’s dazed brain.

     Hazel tried to speak through a mouth that seemed to be full of gum and cobwebs. Her ears were ringing and her head was throbbing painfully. “Mmmph… huh… wha…”

     Crooked Nose grinned. “Remember me?”

     “Look… maybe we shouldn’t be doing this…” came another voice from behind Hazel. Crooked nose had brought friends with him. His head snapped up, and he glared in the direction of the voice.

     “Shut up, you! We went over this last night!”

     “Well, who the fuck put you in charge?”

     “I did! This was my idea in the first place, now shut the fuck up!”

     “Shut the fuck up yourself, Chad!”

     Hazel made a groggy mental note: “Crooked nose’s name is Chad.”

     “You wanna rematch of last night, Ian?” Chad growled, standing up and glaring in the direction of the voice. “If not I suggest you stay quiet.”

     Hazel made another mental note: “His friend’s name is Ian.”

     “Fine, asshole! Just… hurry this up!”

     Hazel felt almost as dizzy from voices flying around as from the blow to her face. As her eyes slowly began to refocus, she saw that she was in an alley, surrounded by a group of guys about her age. Her phone and her bag were gone. “Wha-…. what’s going on?”

     Chad tore his gaze away from Ian and looked down at her. “’What’s going on?’” he repeated jovially, grinning. He nodded to his friends, still smiling. “Hold her, guys.”

     Hazel, her cheek still throbbing painfully, now found herself dragged roughly to her feet, her arms pinned behind her back by several pairs of hands. Chad moved back a step, keeping his eyes on Hazel the whole time.

     “Now, I had been asking you if you remembered me,” he said calmly, with a hint of danger in his eyes.

     Hazel, who was still disoriented and groggy, stared at him stupidly.

     Chad rolled his eyes, his grin growing wider. “Well now, this isn’t gonna be as fun if you don’t remember me! Come on, little girl, rack your brains.”

     Hazel frowned, annoyed and beginning to feel scared. “I don’t know you…” she said slowly. “Why… why did you hit me?”

     “Hold your horses; we’re coming to that,” Chad replied, putting his hands behind his back and pacing back and forth in front of Hazel. Suddenly he halted, his expression growing grim, and he stepped forward, looking at her fiercely. “Number 8 ring a bell?”

     Hazel glared up at him, trying to stay calm. “Number 8 what?”

     Chad smirked and stepped back. “Well, I see I’ll have to enlighten you then. That’s alright.” He sighed and looked down at her condescendingly, with the air of a teacher trying to explain a simple concept to a stupid student. “Number 8 as in player number 8 on the Huntington football team.”

     Hazel’s eyes widened slightly and her face paled. She swallowed hard, her throat tight. “Oh.”

     “Yes, ‘oh’,” Chad sneered. “Remember what you and your stupid little ‘fight club’ did to us? Well, I think it’s time we returned the favor.” He stepped forward, his face contorting into a look of rage.

     Ian, the one holding Hazel, had loosened his grip slightly when Chad approached. Hazel noticed this, and waited until Chad was just a few feet away before jerking free. She sprinted desperately towards the opening of the alley, her heart pounding in her chest.

     Immediately, four other boys sprang into the alley and Hazel jerked to a stop. She looked around desperately. The only other path to freedom was straight through the gang of football players, and they knew that. They advanced towards her slowly, grinning, like a game of cat-and-mouse.

     Hazel found this infuriating. She glared at them, backing into the wall slowly. “Run! Run! Run!” her brain was screaming. She let out a yell and tried to charge through them, but first one and then the rest of them laid hold of her. She struggled and kicked out with her fists and feet, but she was no match for them. They dragged her back to Chad, who was looking at her with a mixture of amusement and condescension. Ian caught her eye and shrugged hopelessly, looking worried.

     Chad laughed loudly, smirking at her. “You think I didn’t know you would try something like that?” 

     Hazel glared at him, her breath coming in short, rapid bursts. “Let go of me!” she screamed, struggling to break free.

     “I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Chad growled, his face growing grim. “Not after what you did to me.”

     Hazel tried in vain to kick out at him. “Fuck you!”

     “No, fuck YOU!” Chad yelled, his fist suddenly connecting with Hazel’s gut.

     Hazel doubled over, retching and coughing. Her face was still screaming in pain where Chad hit her earlier, and now her stomach felt as if it had been smashed in with a sledgehammer.

     “What the fuck Chad?! That’s ENOUGH, let her go!” Ian yelled, pulling Chad back. “You said we were just gonna scare her!”

     “Well, plans change!” Chad yelled back, pushing Ian away.

     “No way! NO FUCKING WAY! Let her go!”

     Before Ian could stop him, Chad stalked back up to his prey. He paused in front of Hazel, looked her up and down briefly, and then raised his foot, bringing it down with all of his strength onto Hazel’s right foot.

     Hazel, her lungs already empty of air, gaped widely as her mouth went through the motions of a tormented scream. She slumped down, still upheld by the boys. Her cheek, stomach, and now her foot were throbbing with a steady, pounding rhythm. The pain was red-hot, searing through her senses, leaving her breathless.

   “Fuck off, you little wimp!” Chad called to Ian, giving him the finger.

     “That’s it! That’s fucking it!” Ian yelled. “I’m gonna go get help, so you better let her go! This is going WAY too far!”

     If Hazel had been in any shape to notice, she would have heard this and seen Ian rush past her out of the alley. But as it was, all she was concerned about was her own pain.

     The boys holding Hazel slowly let her go, and she crumpled to the ground, shuddering and gasping for breath, hot tears of pain stinging her eyes.

     “What now?” one of them quietly asked Chad.

     Chad, who was breathing heavily and glaring after Ian’s retreating figure, turned back to the gang. “What do you mean? We’re finishing what we came here for!”

     “What? But Ian-“

     “Fuck Ian! You remember what those girls did to us? You just wanna let them get away with it?!”

     “I dunno man...” “Fuck this shit…” “I’m outta here…”

     Chad stared after the gang, his mouth hanging open, as they took off. “FUCK YOU GUYS!!” he screamed after them. “YOU HEAR ME?! IM NOT GONNA FORGET THIS!” He stamped his foot on the ground. “FUCK!!”

     Then, he swung around, glaring at Hazel. She was curled up into a ball on the ground, trembling and trying to hold back her tears.

     She closed her eyes tightly as Chad stormed back over to her. He looked down at her for a few seconds. Then, he brought his foot back and kicked forward at her face as hard as he could.

     There was a sickening CRACK! and Hazel’s mouth filled with the metallic taste of her own blood. Her face contorted in agony, her eyes squeezed shut as she curled more tightly into herself, trying to escape Chad’s torrent of kicks. Impossible, INCONCEIVABLE that anything could hurt so much. Pain tunnel-visioned her world and every other sensation paled. It was as though she existed solely as an epicenter of agony. Chad kicked her again and again, each strike more painful than the last…

     “HEY, ASSHOLE!!”

     Hazel kept her eyes closed tight, trembling and whimpering in pain, but she recognized PJ’s voice.  

     “GET HIM!!” There was a general outcry of voices that Hazel drowsily recognized as belonging to the fight club and the sound of several pairs of feet charging towards her.

     She opened her eyes, blinking away her tears, just in time to see PJ’s fist connecting with Chad’s nose.

     “Justice,” she thought groggily. “This is what my English teacher would call poetic justice.”

Chapter Text

     Hazel stared up at her parents in horrified silence. No… this couldn’t be happening. Not now. Not when everything was finally starting to get better. The picture she had been so eager to show her parents fell to the floor as she stepped back. Hot tears stung her eyes, threatening to fall. “Wh-what?” she choked out.

     “Oh baby,” Mrs. Callahan, close to tears herself, stepped forward and held out her arms. “It’s for the best.”

     Hazel stepped back again, away from her mother. “’For the best’?” she glared up at her mother through blurred eyes, her small hands clenched into fists. “How can it be for the best?!”

     “Don’t talk to your mother like that, young lady,” Mr. Callahan warned with a stern frown, stepping forward as well. “That’s just the way it’s going to be now. You’re a smart kid; I’m sure you understand.”

     “No!” Hazel yelled. “I don’t understand!” She turned back to her mother, almost sobbing now. “Why?” she wailed, hugging herself tightly.  

     Mrs. Callahan wiped her eyes and took a deep, shaky breath. “You know why,” she replied, throwing a bitter scowl at Hazel’s father. “We… well, we just don’t get along very well.”

     Mr. Callahan scoffed, scowling back at her. “That’s the fucking understatement of the year.”

     Hazel looked back and forth between her parents, her mouth hanging open in a silent cry of distress and pain, the tears still falling fast. Why were they looking at each other like that? It was like… they hated each other… but they couldn’t! They were her parents… they… they loved each other, didn’t they?

     “No one asked for your fucking opinion!”

     “Well, I gave it anyway!”

     “You-“

      Hazel clamped her hands over her ears and stepped back again, her back hitting the wall, sliding to the floor, pulling her knees up to her chest.

     “This is all my fault!” she said to herself, crying into her arms. “I should have told Daddy about The Secret…”

     The memory was like a sharp knife slicing through her mind, filling her with pain and hatred.

     The Secret.

     She had been out for a bike ride with her best friend Charlie. They had been taking their normal bike trail, but decided to return a different way, just for fun. A way that took them past the parking lot of the bank where her mother worked.

     Charlie had just turned to smile at her about something when Hazel looked over their head and saw her.

     Her mother.

     She was sitting in a large parked black car. Hazel saw her mother, but her mother didn’t notice her. She was just about to wave when she saw him. A strange man; a man she had never seen before.

     Short black hair, the man had. Wearing some kind of ugly yellow t-shirt.

     Her mother had leaned over and kissed him, not a friendly peck, but a kiss. A kiss where she leaned her head up, putting her mouth to his, and kissed the man, her hand on his cheek. And Hazel saw it.

     Saw what her mother had done with the man who was not her father. Saw the kiss that had become The Secret that her father didn’t know about.

     The memory was so real that she could feel the heat of that day, could remember the worry that Charlie would turn their head and see her mother, could remember the shame of it; the shame of what her mother had done.

     “—don’t care!”

     Hazel stood up shakily, her eyes blurry, and quietly slipped out the front door. She stumbled down the sidewalk, keeping her eyes on the ground, not even paying attention to where she was going. She couldn’t stay in that house any longer, she just couldn’t.

     Hazel walked for several minutes before she thought look up. She sniffed and wiped her eyes, looking around. She was on Charlie’s street. They were home alone, Hazel knew; it was Friday, so their parents would be out on their date night.

     Date night.

     Hazel scowled, kicking at a pebble in Charlie’s driveway. When was the last time her parents had gone a date night? And now they never would again…

     She was almost sobbing again by the time she reached the stairs leading to Charlie’s back deck. She stumbled up, her body shuddering, and climbed onto the lip of the roof hanging over the deck, pulling herself into the window of Charlie’s attic room.

     Charlie jumped up from their bed. “Oh good you’re he— Hazel? What’s wrong?!”

     Hazel stumbled towards Charlie and began to sob, her whole body shaking.

     Charlie responded quickly, wrapping their arms around Hazel and rubbing her back comfortingly. “Shhh… shhh… it’s okay…”

     “M-my parents—“ a sob tore from her already raw throat and she buried her face into Charlie’s shoulder, holding onto them as if her life depended on it.

     Hazel sobbed loudly for several minutes, her chest heaving, until she was absolutely and utterly exhausted. She pulled back from Charlie, wiping her aching eyes. “I-I’m sorry...”

     “Don’t be,” Charlie said quickly. They rubbed Hazel’s arm gently, looking at her with a mixture of concern and sympathy. “What happened with your parents? Were they arguing again?”

     “Y-yeah… but… it was worse than that…” Hazel whispered shakily, looking down at the floor.

     “What do you mean?”

     “They’re getting divorced,” Hazel said quietly. She kept her eyes on the ground, waiting for Charlie’s reaction.

     “Oh my God… Hazel… I’m so sorry.” Charlie stepped forward and hugged Hazel tightly. They stayed like that for several minutes, silent, comforting, just there. Hazel hugged them back, grateful for their presence and warmth. Exhausted, her eyelids drooped and she let out a deep, shaky sigh.

     “Wanna stay over tonight?”

     Hazel nodded, looking up at Charlie gratefully.