I don't know why this took so long to write! I knew exactly what I wanted to write I just couldn't-- ahgoiehrjaksng. There's only a few more chapters left before it's over! HOLYCRAP! anyways that's Elsie down therrrr..
Title: The Chronicles of Life and Death- Good Charlotte
(Isaac's P.O.V)
I made my way down the steps from my room and I found it strange that my dad's car was still in the garage because he's usually gone to work by now. I opened the front door slowly to see if my dad was waiting for me inside, but the coast was clear and I went into the kitchen in the hopes of skipping the awkward talking. Unfortunately that wasn't the case.
"Hey, kid." He greeted.
I scrunched my eyebrows together at his strange introduction, but replied nicely anyway. "Hey."
"How're you doing?" My dad asked, casually sitting in a chair sipping on his coffee.
"I'm okay," I mumbled, grabbing the coffee pot to pour myself a cup. "I thought you'd be at work by now."
"The divorce case I'm working on is on hold for the moment."
"You can say Moseley, I know Tom and Larissa are splitting up."
"Yeah?" I widened my eyes and nodded, bringing the cup to my lips. "But, uh, anyways I know that I've been busy lately and we haven't talked all that much, but how are you doing?"
"I'm just great." I said truthfully.
"Are you still writing every day?"
I quickly turned around to place my cup on the counter and put both of my hands on the surface. It was hard for me to come up with a reason as to why my dad cared in the first place. I didn't even think my dad knew that I was having problems again, but then my mom probably told him everything that was going on. "Yeah."
"Everyday?" He pressed. I tilted my head back, closing my eyes and licking my lips.
"Everyday." I lied, not having written in the past couple days. I exited the kitchen to avoid any other questions about my life and went up to my sister's room. When I reached the top of the steps and took a right down the hall, the light was off and I didn't know where she was.
"Where'd Katherine go?" I asked, poking my head into Nixon's room.
"How should I know?" He shrugged, looking up at me from his bed.
I rolled my eyes and ran back downstairs to find my dad sitting in the same spot I left him in. "Where's Kitty?"
"Your mom already took her," He started, but was cut off by my brothers yelling as they came down the stairs. "But I was thinking I could take you guys to school, you know like old times."
He offered me a smile which I didn't return. Nixon stood in the doorway to the kitchen with Trey next to him. "I have my own car, but you can take Trey." I offered.
"That's a good idea," My dad nodded, getting up from the table to grab the keys off the wall. "Now we can talk about your game last night." He aimed towards Trey, who gave me a death stare on my way out the door.
By the time I got to my parking spot at school, Nixon was practically rattling the door handle to get out of my car before I even put it in park. I watched from inside the car as he met Hannah Barker a few cars down.
I huffed to myself and grabbed my back pack out of the back seat. The air was starting to get cooler, so I popped my collar to block the wind from my neck.
"Hey, Isaac wait up." A voice called after me. I stopped in my tracks and looked behind me to see John Tulsan approaching me with a smile on his face.
"Oh, hey John what's up?"
"Can I ask you something?" He asked, coming up to my side.
"Yeah, sure."
"You haven't seen Penner have you?" He blurted, causing my head to snap to the left to look at his face.
"He's in New York all week," I explained, clutching my hand around the strap of my book bag. "I would've thought you knew about that." I thought out loud.
"Hmm, I guess that's why he hasn't been at school." His voice came out as a whisper.
"Listen, I'm sorry you had no clue."
"It's not a big deal I just found it strange that I hadn't seen him all week," He gave me a weak smile. "Anyways thanks for letting me know."
"Sure, no problem-."
"Isaac!" Morgan bellowed from across campus. "Let's go, we don't want to be late for English!"
"It's cool I've got to head to gym anyways." John mumbled, patting me on the arm.
"Alright, see ya later."
I was still getting asked from Carly and Lucas if I'd heard anything from Penner since he left. Morgan and Jai didn't seem to care if he was gone, but I doubt they even noticed at all because of the past between the three of them. I still didn't know the full truth to the story. I heard Jai's side in Chemistry class and then Penner gave me his side, saying that Jai lied about everything.
I would simply tell Lucas and Carly that Penner was doing great and he was having fun in New York. Of course they wanted more details than that because of what they saw in the paper about his band. The comments about being drunk and Tyson, who I found out was Penner's ex-boyfriend through his dad.
I didn't even think about telling my friends about what was going on in Penner's life because that was his private world-although everyone knows what's going on even if they try to kept it hidden.
But as I stood in line to get lunch with Jai and Morgan, my phone began to ring with the 'Camden Care" name on the screen.
"Hello?" I answered, holding my hand over my exposed ear to block out the loud voices in the cafeteria.
"Hi, it's Rebekah."
"Hey, what's up?"
"Do you think you can come down here?" She asked, suddenly causing me to stop in the line and grabbing Jai's attention away from Morgan. My thoughts automatically going to Katherine, hoping that my sister was calm and under control.
"Why, what's wrong?" I panicked.
"Nothing's wrong, there's just have a little situation with Katherine down here," She started. "I think you should come to the school."
"Come there now?" I gasped, chewing on my thumbnail. "It's a little difficult to leave, I mean I'm in school right now."
"Go, we have plenty of time," Jai muttered, grasping my shoulder. "I know how it is, I have a three-year-old, too."
"Okay, okay I'll be there soon." I hung up the phone quickly, bringing a hand to my forehead.
"What if you're not back in time for class?" Morgan asked before I could take off.
"Then I'll be yelled at in Spanish by Mr. Wesley," I joked, shrugging my shoulders. "I gotta go."
Getting out of the building wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I just walked right out the front door without anyone stopping me or saying anything to me. I had under 30 minutes to get to Camden Care and back before lunch ended and my next class started, so I wasn't going to speed limit throughout town.
I jogged up to the front door and greeted Ellen behind her desk before going into Katherine's room. I didn't spot Rebekah at first, just Jai's brother Miles playing with a blonde haired girl.
"Good, there you are." Rebekah panted.
"What's going on?" I asked, following after Penner's sister as she took me to a secluded corner where I spotted my baby sister sitting alone. The movement coming towards Katherine caused her to bolt up to a standing position to latch onto my leg. I picked her up off the ground and began rubbing her back gently.
"She's upset she couldn't find the burrow for the bunny." She explained.
"This is about her shoes?" I wondered, thinking about how my mom taught us how to tie our sneakers.
"Look I'm sorry, but she won't come out of the corner because she won't let anyone help her tie them."
I nodded in understanding and quickly wanted to get this resolved before I would be in trouble with the school and then with my parents. I pulled her face out of my neck and set her on the ground once again.
"Kitty, you don't have to learn to tie your shoes right now," I signed. "You just have to practice and then you'll be able to do it on your own."
"You will help me?"
"Of course I will," I nodded, kissing the top of her head and standing back up. "I really have to get back to school."
"Again, I'm sorry that I had to get you to come down here-."
"Don't worry about it." I grinned, waving at my sister as Rebekah walked me to the door and I said goodbye to Ellen on my way out.
Racing back to school didn't take as long as I thought it would either. They just checked my book bag and made me walk through a metal detector, but as I was on my way to Mr. Wesley's class a deep voice called at me from down the hall.
"Isaac, would you come into my room for a minute."
I spun around where I stood and replied. "I'm already late for Spanish, Mr. Reed."
"It'll only take a moment." He spoke calmly. I sighed to myself and followed after the history teacher. His classroom was completely empty as I stepped inside, but the slow sounds of orchestra music played somewhere in the room.
"Where's that coming from?" I wondered.
"It helps my digestive system," He muttered, sitting at his desk and fixing a stack of papers that lay there. I lifted an eyebrow and stared blankly at him "I'm joking." He laughed, running a hand through his hair.
"I'm really late-."
"It's okay, I'll write you a pass."
"Okay, what did you want?"
"I caught Nixon kissing in school." He blurted.
"Is it really that big of a deal, Mr. Reed?" I asked, finding the information about my brother to be irrelevant.
"Hey, he was caught making out with Hannah Barker."
"Oh," I sighed. "Okay, that's not so good."
There were so many things wrong with his statement. That was Jai's younger sister who's a year older than Nixon. Hannah's supposed to be with Morgan's brother, Grayson. My brother wouldn't be stupid enough to take someone else's girlfriend, would he?
"While cutting class." He added, causing me to huff in frustration.
"Also not so good."
"In a balcony in the auditorium," He explained further. "I came to you before I went to your parents because I know how much trouble he's been getting-."
"How can I come down on him for something I was caught doing a few days ago?" I interrupted, thinking back to when Trey caught me kissing Penner in our kitchen.
"If he's going to take you seriously he's gotta know you're serious."
"Okay, okay," I nodded. "I'll talk with him tonight, just don't tell my parents anything yet."
"I won't," He promised, scratching something down on paper and handing it to me. "Here's your pass."
"Thanks, Mr. Reed." I smiled, heading to Spanish class.
(TIME PASS)
All day I hadn't heard from Penner, but even though I had thoughts racing around in my head about all the things that could be wrong with that, he's told me how busy he is and I can't expect him to constantly be talking to me.
Even though we haven't been dating for a long time, I was missing him. I don't even know if "dating" is the right word to use because we've never discussed what we actually were. But just imagine being around someone all the time and then suddenly not see them at all. It makes you feel like you're lost and confused.
The minute I got home from school, Nixon bolted to the fridge and literally began throwing everything out of it. "Why are you ripping the fridge apart?"
"Do we have mustard?" My brother casually asked.
"I don't know," I shrugged, throwing my bag on the table. "Why?"
"Dad told me he's cooking hot dogs for supper."
"Let me look," I said, pushing him out of the way. The only thing I saw left in the fridge was leftovers from two nights ago and a bunch healthy foods that my mom is obsessed with. "I don't see any, but you can ask dad go to the store to get some."
Nixon whipped out his phone and began typing my dad a message. The both of us sat at the table before his phone vibrated with a reply. "Dad said he's with Trey at the store now."
"Okay," I swallowed. "That's good because I wanted to talk to you about something."
"Umm what?" He mumbled, his eyes glued to his phone.
"Mr. Reed told me about what happened today."
He looked at me through his eyelashes the glanced back to the screen. "What about it?"
"Uh well, skipping class to make out in the auditorium is what I'm talking about." I blurted
"If you're going to tell mom and dad just do it already." He said not looking at me.
"I wasn't going to tell them," I murmured, but watched as he rolled his eyes at my comment. "I was going to ask why you did it in the first place."
Nixon sucked in a breath and put his phone face down on the table. "Hannah asked me to homecoming."
"You can't go with her." I snapped.
"What do you mean I can't?" He gasped.
"Haven't you thought about how Grayson's going to feel?" I wondered, watching his expression soften slightly. "Don't you want to keep the friends you have instead of losing them?"
"But Isaac, it's a big deal that a sophomore asked me to homecoming. Freshman aren't allowed to go unless an upperclassmen asks them."
"Then maybe it's a sign you shouldn't go at all."
"Hannah said she wanted to go with me, not with Grayson," He explained, throwing his hands in the air. "I mean what do you want me to do?"
"Find another sophomore?" I offered, but got another eye roll. "Nixon, I know what will happen if mom and dad find out about today, but I do not want you to go to homecoming with Hannah."
"Why?" He whined.
"Because you told me that you've made friends and I don't want you to lose them because of some stupid dance."
"Okay," He gulped. "I might be able to ask if someone else is available."
"Okay, thank you."
"So, will you help me find a tux?" He muttered hopefully.
"Yes, I'll find you a tux."
"Okay." He beamed, going over to the stairs.
"Nixon, wait," I said, stopping him in his tracks. "In the balcony of the auditorium?"
I watched as my brother's face deepened in color. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."
"You are so going to hell." I laughed, slouching in the chair as I sat there alone.
A couple seconds went by and the vibrations of my phone caused me to jump. When I went to take it out of my back pocket I bit on the inside of my cheek as the name Penn was on the screen. The only text I received from Penner read "Skype me?"
(Penner's P.O.V)
I drummed out a beat on the dresser in front of me, waiting for Isaac to reply to my text, but instead I got a quiet knock on the door of my room. I walked over to it and look through the peephole to see Zander fixing his hair with his fingers.
"Do you need something?" I asked, opening the door to stand face to face with him.
"They won't send up anymore alcohol," He said with his hands shoved in his pockets. "Do you have any in your fridge?"
"Do you think that's really a good idea?"
"Look," He cleared his throat. "We're all gunna have fun so if you got any just hand it over."
"Sure," I nodded, leaving the door open to give the untouched drinks to my bandmate. "Look, I like Isaac," I snapped as he started walking away without another word. "He's got this thing-this way about him and I like him okay? And I'm not gonna defend it or apologize about it."
"Okay." He shrugged, continuing to walk away.
"So stop your little dickhead tough act!" I shouted a little too loudly.
"Go ahead, kick and scream," He waved me off. "I'm sure you've been planning you're rant all day!" I was about to holler back at him, but watched as he ducked into his room before I had the chance.
If it wasn't for the loud ringtone coming from inside my room I would've stood fuming in the hallway for a little while longer. When the name Izzy flashed on the screen, all my anger melted away and an actual smile appeared on my face when the text said "I'll call you." I sent back a quick reply, telling him to give me a few minutes as I set my laptop open on the desk.
"Hey we're going to my room to go watch a movie," Boone's voice knocked me out of my head. "You coming?" He asked from my open door.
"Nah, I'm spending the night with Isaac," I winked, wiggling my eyebrows at my best friend. "Just tell them I'm going to bed."
"At 8 PM?" He huffed, raising an eyebrow at me.
"Boone-," I whined, but was cut off by a ringing throughout the room. "That's him, leave!"
I pushed and shoved Boone out of the door. I fixed my hair in the mirror above the desk and sat down in the chair and pressed the answer button. When the screen came into focus he was looking off somewhere to the side with his hands in his hair also.
Although it'd only been a few days, I felt like I was just now seeing him again for the first time. His eyes scrunched closed as he smiled at me and his perfect grin was plastered on his face.
"Wow, holy crap." I said, my jaw dropping to the ground and my eyes going wide.
"What, is there something behind me?" He gasped, quickly turning around to check behind him.
"No, no there's nothing behind you." I reassured, getting him to turn back around.
"Then why did you freak out?" He shouted, looking behind him again.
"You just-I mean you just look great and I haven't seen you since I left, but I'm not about to stalk you on Twitter or anything like that."
"Oh, uhh," He blushed, looking down and clearing his throat. "Thanks, Penn. You look great yourself."
"I think your bruise is all the way gone, but it's hard to tell through the computer."
"It completely went away the day after you left. Now I'm back to normal!" He joked, showing the dimples in his cheeks.
"I'm glad to hear that," I laughed. "So what have you been doing today?"
"Well, I just watched a video of you and your band performing for the first time."
"And what did you think?" I wondered.
"I've got a couple questions about it."
"Oh?"
"First of all, did you know that bass players generally have really big hands?"
I looked at my hands in my lap, then placed them in view of the camera to show Isaac who's grin was from ear to ear. "I guess that's true, I do have pretty big hands."
"And then the other thing I was wondering was why do you play the bass?"
"What do you mean?"
"I thought you got discovered or whatever for your vocals, but you hardly ever sing. "
"Well in my old videos I would do covers of songs I liked," I began. "But I took bass lessons when I was younger so I learned how to play to my favorite songs and I would just sing along in my video."
"Why don't you sing in your band?" He continued to ask.
"Because Zander is way better than I am, but I still do backup singing, and plus I like the bass more," I examined his expression. The way he nodded slowly and chewed on the inside of his cheek had me thinking something else was on his mind. "Why do you ask?"
"Because I love listening to your voice." He boldly admitted.
"Is that so?" I choked out, feeling a sudden tightness in my jeans.
"Uh-huh I can listen to it all day."
"Okay, okay enough talking about me," I rushed, trying to change the subject. "I want to talk about you."
"You want to talk about me?" He joked, placing a hand over his chest
"Of course I do," I said truthfully. "I know that these past few days have been all about me and how I'm doing, but I want to know how you feel and we can talk with no distractions and all the time we want."
"Hmmm okay," He muttered, folding his hands together. "Shoot."
"So, umm you're problem-I mean with the drugs or whatever it is-."
"You want to know the story behind it?" He finished for me as I wasn't able to stop stuttering.
"I don't want to push it-."
"No, no I'll-I'll tell you if you want to know." The words he spoke seemed to be truthful since his expression didn't change to an uncomfortable one.
"Part of me does and part of me doesn't," I started. "Like, I want to know what caused you to get to that place where you turned to drugs."
"Why do you want to know that?"
"So," I whispered, clearing my throat and starting again. "So I can make protect you from that happening again."
"You really want to know?" He whispered after a brief moment of silence. I was just praying that I didn't scare him off or make him feel like I was forcing him to tell me something he wasn't ready to share. I wanted him to be able to tell me anything that was going on in his life. And even though I had many secrets of my own, I wanted to know what Isaac's were.
"I really want to know." I nodded.
"Okay," He quickly settled, a surprising smile appeared on his face. "Back in Nebraska there was this Spring Dance when I was a seventh grader and I wasn't sure of who I was yet, you know I didn't even know it was possible for two guys to be together. I grew up really sheltered and wasn't sure what the world was like. So I asked Jennifer, this girl who was in my gym class, she was really shy but we sometimes talked during our activities."
"I bet you were shy as a kid, too." I laughed, giving him soft eyes through the computer.
"I was," He agreed. "I only ever had one serious friend before I moved away."
"What was his name?"
"His name was Emmett and it was one of the strangest friendships anyone could have."
I noticed the look on his face when he started talking about Emmett. The way his eyes would glance to the right and smile as if he was reliving a memory he had with him. "Tell me about him."
"Emmett was a kid who grew up in a foster home," I blinked rapidly, not expecting that scenario. "He was incredibly good at soccer and he had this hilarious personality, but not a lot of people knew of his home life and I was the one only who did know about it."
"So how did you become friends?" I questioned.
"He stood up for me," He mumbled, looking at his lap. I was about to stop him from continuing, but he picked up on his own after taking a deep breath. "All the kids in my class were daring Jennifer and I to kiss, but something in me didn't want to, it just didn't feel right because I didn't see her that way. So when she went in to kiss me I ran out the building and walked back home,"
My ability to hold back a laugh got the better of me and I snickered to myself. At first I felt horrible because he was spilling out his past to me. Luckily he was laughing along with me until he explained further what happened. "I was completely dreading showing my face the next day, I mean I was mortified. And school turned out to be the worst time of my life."
"Why what happened?"
"Obviously I was shoved around and called names, I practically had AIDS by the way people were trying to avoid me. Emmett told people to screw themselves and he even beat up some guy who threw a banana peel at me," I arched an eyebrow at the strange comment. "Ever since then he's been like a brother, but he doesn't have a phone and I haven't talked to him since I left Lincoln."
"I'm glad you were treated right when you were around him," I said sincerely. "But if you had Emmett as a friend, how come you went to drugs?" I asked a little too directly.
"I've never actually tried drugs-well alcohol is technically a drug, but I turned to it because I wanted to fit in." He admitted.
"You got addicted because of peer pressure?" I carefully asked.
"I guess that's part of it," He shrugged, starting again. "At first when I saw Emmett drinking I didn't have a doubt in my mind whether or not I was going to try it. I mean I looked up to him and I did everything he did, I went everywhere he went. But then I realized that after one drink I thought about what six would be like, then eight, then ten and the more I had the more I escaped from my own head,"
I just sat back and let him say what he needed to say. I didn't want to stop him because I felt as if this is something he's been needing to tell someone for the longest time.
"I got addicted because that seemed like the only good thing going for me. I was always picked on after I realized I didn't like girls, so I would drink. I had so many responsibilities, like practically raising my siblings, so I would drink again. And then feeling alone made me drink even more. Then realizing that you were invisible to everything and everyone around you didn't help things out at all." He finished with a weak voice, his head hanging slightly.
I would've given anything to be in Camden with him. I wanted to be there so I could hold him in my arms as he confessed all of this to me. "Isaac," I muttered, getting his attention. "I-I won't ever let you feel like that again. Okay, I promise."
"You're too nice to me, Penn, I'm stronger than I look." He said, showing me is arm muscles to lighten the mood.
"If you can make it through that you can make it through anything," I smiled, hoping I could change the expression on his face. "I believe in you."
He smiled to himself, looking at his lap and blinking a few times. "Thank you," He picked his head up and even through the screen I could see his cheeks were a different shade of red. "Hey, can I tell you something?"
"Of course."
"Now that you know everything, I feel loads better."
"I can agree with that," I fiddled with the tip of a pen between my fingers. "Your eyes look brighter, for some reason."
"Can I tell you something else?" He asked, sitting up in his chair.
"Sure." I laughed at his repeating question.
"You're too good at this flirting thing."
"I'm too good?" I wondered. I watched through the screen as he nodded, grabbing his lip with his teeth. "Ugh, don't do the lip thing."
"What lip thing?" He gasped.
"The one you just did, it drives me crazy every time you do it." I huffed, falling back in my chair to exaggerate the situation.
"You're insane, I don't do any lip thing." He said, biting his lip again.
"You're torturing me!" I huffed, covering my eyes with my hands. "If you were-." I started, but pulled back when I wasn't sure if it was the right thing to say or not.
"If I were, what?" He pressed.
"If you were here I would kiss those lips of yours."
"Just two more sleeps until you can." He teased, winking at me.