Just Platonic

Prologue

Keeping the secret from her brother was killing Jackie. She just wanted to tell him what had happened that weekend she visited him, but she did not want to cause any trouble between her brother and his friend. She was only fourteen and he was twenty. She always thought he was nice to her because he had come to see her as a little sister, but that was not the case.

He knew exactly what to say to her when she was self-conscious. He knew how to make her feel better about herself. Make her feel like she was perfect. That's what she strived for after all; perfection.

Slowly he built up her trust. Slowly he started to cross boundaries. Little by little his real colors came out. She didn't feel comfortable around him, but she didn't want to keep her brother away from his girlfriend who had just lost her grandpa. She put her feelings behind her because she was not selfish.

If only she would have been selfish once. Just once. Then she would not be believing everything he told her as she struggled underneath him. Everything he said to her after he had his way with her.

Every disgusting, terrible, morbid thing he said about her she remembered. When she remembered she would draw on herself. Line after line was added to her skin. Line after line until she passed out crying. This time would be different.

She was in the tub for only twenty-three minutes before her brother unexpectedly got home. He saw the letter on the kitchen counter and ran upstairs. He wiggled the doorknob, but it was locked. Not thinking twice about the damages that would be done to the door he threw his body against it as hard as he could. It took him a few tries before he actually busted the door open. He hurried to her side.

She was drifting in and out of consciousness. He called 911 as he brought her out of the bloodstained water. He was in tears as he held her until the ambulance got to their house. He didn't understand why she would do something like that. No one knew why she would.

And no one would know why she did it until a month later.

~*~

Collynn's dad left him and his mom when he was only eight. He doesn't remember or know much of the guy, except for the pain his mom was dealt over him leaving them. She put all her pain into raising Collynn by herself and her work.

When he was eleven his mom remarried to Erik. Erik was a deadbeat. He only had a job because his father was the owner of the business. He was nice to his mom, just not so much when she was gone.

He would yell at Collynn when his mom was gone, he even hit him a few times. When she went away on a business trip on time, he starved him. Collynn didn't know why Erik didn't like him, but it all came out when Haily was born when he was fourteen.

Erik absolutely was the best father to her that he could be, and for a while his ways changed with Collynn as well. Until the accident happened.

Collynn had called his mom to pick him up because it started pouring rain. She got in the car with Haily in the backseat. Erik was working late, or so he told Collynn's mom.

She was only ten blocks away when a drunk driver hit her. Haily was fine, but at the cost of his mom.

For the next three weeks he was under Eriks' scorn and hate. Every time Haily would cry he would get angry and ash out on Collynn and tell him the accident was his fault. Collynn went down a darker hole then he ever was before.

Erik hated him and wanted him gone. Haily was only a few months old. And his mom was in the hospital just recovering from a coma, having a miscarriage- that she didn't even know about- and broken bones.

When Collynn had gone to visit his mother she looked so fragile, that if he was to hug her too hard she would crumble.

Erik had taken Haily to the store when Collynn wrote his note. He wrote a letter just for his mom and one for Haily to read when she's older, and left them on his desk. He wrote another to tell Erik he was in the garage and to call the police.

Collynn took a bunch of pills and tied the rope around his throat. He counted to three before he kicked the step stool out from under his feet. Just as the ladder clanged Erik burst into the garage. Collynn struggled to watch as Erik moved faster than he ever saw him before. Erik cut the rope and set Collynn down as he struggled to breath and stay awake. Erik was frustrated as he dialed 911.

"Don't you dare die on me boy," he sternly told Collyn as he was struggling to stay awake. "Don;t you dare close your eyes."

It was at that moment that Collynn could hear Haily crying from inside the house as he stared up in Eriks eyes. He struggled to stay awake, but he passed out only a few minutes before the ambulance got to his house.

He wouldn't tell anyone about the abuse he was put through until a month and a half later.

~*~

"I can't believe we are seniors this year," Jackie said to Collynn as they sat in the sand looking out into the water.

"I know,"Collynn replied. "It seems like yesterday we met and became the best of friends and started lying to our parents together."

Collynn stared off into the distance, the sky almost spotless of clouds

"Yeah, but they were the ones who gave us the idea of dating. They were the ones who said we were good for each-other."

Jackie laid down in the sand, as Collynn fiddled with his fingers.

Collynn wanted to tell Jackie the secret he was hiding from her, but he couldn't bring himself to do such a thing. To ruin the progress he had made since May. He had to be better, not just for himself and Jackie, but for Haily as well. Haily needed him the most, especially now.

"One more year," Jackie mumbled. "One more year until we can stop the lies. One more school year. No one will know the truth."

They stayed like that until the sun was only giving off a tiny bit of light. Jackie said good-bye as she climbed into her car before driving home. Collynn walked down the beach to the park and waited until he got what he was waiting for. For what he needed. For what he craved.

If anyone knew their secrets they were screwed. They were each other's support and cheerleader. They were all they had to live as close to a normal life as they could, or else they would be sent back to three years ago. They would become the broken kids again. The kids who had failed at everything, even taking their own lives.