Problems

Chapter 2

Lip shut the door behind him and started to walk down the creaky stairs of the Gallagher house. How could ian do that to himself? He thought. How could anyone do that to themselves? Hurt themselves purposely. Purposely. The word spun around his head like a carousel. Ian had purposely hurt himself.

Fiona was in the kitchen, cleaning up the remainers of dinner. When she saw Lip's sadden but confused expression, she immediately walked, over to him. "What's wrong, sweetface?" She asked in her caring Fiona voice.

Whenever something was wrong, Fiona always had the sweetest and kindest voice which made comfort sprout inside whoever she was talking to. That's one of her many specialties.

"It's umm- It's Ian.." Lip begun, his voice quiet and low. They decided to move to the living room so they could take a seat, comfortably. "He had just had a shower, and when I walked into the room.. he.. he umm, had cuts, all over his thighs..."

"What?!" Fiona exclaimed, loudly. "Who hurt him?"

Lip sighed at Fiona's obliviousness. "That's uhh the thing.. he did it.." He trailed off awkwardly not knowing how to have this conversation.

Fiona expression shifted uncomfortably to a look of what seemed to be shock, sincerity, sadness, and understanding all in one. "Should I talk to him about it.?" She asked staring at the empty mug that had been sitting on the coffee table for probably over a week now.

"I tried to, I guess, but how do you handle that situation? I told him that he needs to get help." Lip said, robotically. His mind was blank, nothing could break through the thick wall that prevented him from thinking or speaking.

"I'm gonna talk to him, okay? See if he's alright."


***



Ian sat uncomfortably on his bed staring as his hands picked at each other, still not having anything but a pair of briefs and 2 shirts on. Suddenly the faded sound of footsteps grew closer before there was a knock. "Hey, you okay?" Fiona called quietly.

He didn't move, this was meant to be his little secret, and now that it was out in the open he felt like shit.

"Okay." Fiona whispered, closing the door and entering the room quietly. Ian heard the footsteps louder before there was a dip in the mattress next to him and an arm was being wrapped around his shoulder. Tears left his eyes that Ian didn't know that he was holding in, his own arms coming up to grip onto Fiona.

"I- I'm sorry.." he cried, his head throbbed and his tears fell onto his lap. Fiona glanced down to Ian's scar littered thighs, Lip was right, his thighs were full of tiny scars. Some were white and healed, others were red and angry and some were scabbed and fresh.

"It's okay, hey- I've got you.. you know you don't need to do this to yourself?" She said sympathetically, no harsh or mean tone to be found in her voice.

Why wasn't she yelling? Ian thought. She should be yelling at me telling me how disgusting and vile I am. Ian soon calmed down and looked at Fiona with puffy, teary eyes. "Why aren't you yelling at me?" He asked, wiping a stray tear, which fell slowly down his freckled skin.

"Because this isn't something to be yelled at about." She kindly explained. "This," she gestured to his thighs. "This is something we are going to work on. Because as much as you want to keep doing it, you can't. It's not healthy." She grabbed his face with her hands, tears finally starting to fill her eyes. "We are going to get you help okay? I'll book an appointment at the clinic, and we'll take it from there."

The thought of going to the doctors scared Ian, he wasn't even sick, maybe mentally a little. But no one here has ever had to go to the doctors for something as little as this. Not Lip, not Fiona, Debbie, Carl and especially not Liam.

He sighed. "Yeah, okay."