After recounting, as best he could, the events that had taken place that day, he and Star were both fighting tears. Her even more so than him, as he had already run through most of his before she had gotten to the car.

When they got home, the two sat quietly sniffling in the garage, still not leaving the car, both still staring mostly straight ahead. Though every few moments, Star cast him a sideways glance, which only resulted in her having to force back a new wave of tears.

Finally, Sky spoke again, “I guess this is where I should cut off all my hair, throw away all my makeup, decide I’m straight, and swear off sex forever, right?”

“Sky” Star whispered back sadly.

“Isn’t that the proper reaction to the fact that my fucking teacher actually saw what Curt was doing to me, and still blamed me for all of it? Cause this is me. This is what I deserve for being me” he choked on the words.

“He’s a fucking ignorant prick who should be fired for letting that happen, not doing anything about it, and even acting like you brought it on yourself! You know that’s not true” Star told him firmly, though there were still tears in her voice.

“Really, cause even our own father believed that I deserved all I got; back in our real life” Sky stated bitterly, still not able to look back at her.

“We could always go back in time again. Our lives were pretty perfect until today” she whispered sadly.

“Back in time? Yeah right. That won’t erase any of the memory. We know that all too well by now. And after all Curt’s done; in the next version of our life he’d probably end up raping you instead. I know can’t live that life” he told her with a shake of his head.

“So what do you wanna do?” she asked him sadly, then added, “and don’t say destroy your entire identity. You’re my other half. We have to match” she attempted a smile, though it died before reaching her lips.

“He’s never gonna stop. He’ll always find a new victim. Maybe if I just try to live with being that victim in this life, he’ll leave everyone else alone, finally” he whispered.

“I don’t know if he’ll ever leave anyone alone. Right now, I just need to know if you can survive this. If not, we’ll turn space and time upside down if we have to” Star told him with another sniffle.

“Every time it just comes out the same but with some small difference. There is no way to fix a world that has him in it” Sky told her with a bit of hopelessness.

“And the world that eventually didn’t have him in it... well that one ended up sucking a whole lot too” Star stated with continued despair at those memories that would never truly be gone for either of them.

After another long moment, Sky finally spoke again, “it wasn’t really rape though, right?”

Star just shook her head at the denials he was trying to make himself believe, “if he had forced his fingers inside me...” she just left that sentence there as Sky bit back more tears at her words. There was then another long moment of silence before she spoke again, “please, tell me anything at all I can do... we can do” she corrected.

“Like you said, imagine it was you. Then what do you think would make any of it any better?” Sky asked her, though there was hardly any volume to his voice.

After a long moment, she offered the only answer she could, “the only thing that ever makes anything better for me, is knowing I still have you” she told him as more tears slid down her cheek as she moved across the seat to wrap her arms around him, wishing her touch was enough to make all the pain go away, just like magic.

When they finally made their feet carry them into the house, their stress levels didn’t get any better when they found that Brie had left work early that day after some accident at the lab. But at least no one had been hurt there, unlike the pain Sky suffered just from going to class that day.

“Thought you two may have gotten lost on the way in from the garage” Brie stated pointedly, already seemingly upset about something herself.

“Had a really crappy day. Were just trying to talk it out in the car” Star offered as she squeezed his hand slightly.

“Yeah, mine wasn’t great either” Brie stated, giving them an accusing look.

“Everyone’s ok though, right?” Star made herself ask as she had seen her mother’s text earlier that day, but didn’t respond just then. Sky just remained silent, not surprisingly.

“Actually my day got worse after I got home” Brie stated with that same cool tone.

“Ok” Star looked a little perplexed by that statement, but she was so upset by what had happened to Sky, she honestly couldn’t deal with any part of Brie’s bad day, or bad mood right then.

“I got the mail today. You got the catalog that you two order all your layers of black from. I left it in your room” she stated in the same pointed tone.

“Could’ve just left it down here” Star mumbled, but said nothing else as she and Sky started toward the stairs.

But Brie interrupted their departure, “yeah, I can imagine you would’ve preferred that.”

Star’s nerves stretched to the very edge already, she quickly turned back, raising her voice slightly, “enough with the passive aggressive. What are you pissed off about now?”

Brie blinked slightly at that outburst, and it obviously did nothing to improve her mood. Instead of answering with words, she sighed, reached into the pocket of her button down sweater and tossed the small, round plastic case onto the coffee table. “Those fell off your desk when I tossed the catalog onto it. You two might wanna sit down” she told them with barely veiled anger.

Sky just cringed, blinked back his next wave of upset, and headed up the stairs, wordlessly. Star just looked after him with further worry, not wanting to know what he’d do to himself right then, but also knowing that she wouldn’t be likely to just be able to escape the conversation with Brie, either.

“Mom this is a really bad time for this conversation” she told her in an almost pleading tone as she watched Sky disappear up the stairs.

“Well, that’s too fucking bad, isn’t it?” Brie told her with further anger, “sit down!”

“Sky is really upset right now, and...” Star began her plea only to be cut off by her mother.

“I’m really upset right now” she told her loudly.

Star sighed heavily, casting another glance at the stairs, “I suppose you wouldn’t believe me if I told you it was just to regulate my period?”

“Somehow, no” Brie returned. But Star could offer no more words as she slumped to a seat in the recliner, burying her face in her hands, even more upset by this conversation today than she would have been any other day; and positive Sky was more upset by it too that day, somehow. “Seriously, you have nothing to say?” Brie pressed a moment later.

“No” was Star’s simple statement.

“Well find something to say!” Brie retorted.

“What? What do you want me to say? All I know is that I can’t deal with this right now. So, no, I don’t have anything to say!”

“Fine, I’ll give you some hints on what to say; like how long have you been taking these i.e. how long have you apparently needed to take these?” she asked angrily.

Though Star refused to answer either question, knowing better; as Brie just continued to stare at her in exasperation. That was when Connor appeared, having stayed behind at the lab to help clean up after the accident. When he came into the room, he looked between the two women and had to fight the urge to head right back outta the room once more.

“I take it I missed something” he greeted them with more than a bit of caution.

“I would have texted you” Brie began, “but this is not really a text conversation” she growled as she gestured to where Star’s pill case still sat on the table in front of her.

Connor just let out his own extremely uncomfortable sigh as his eyes fell on the pill case. After another moment, he managed to find something to say to break the silence in the room, “so, why isn’t Sky down here being part of this conversation too? I take it, he’s the reason you’re even on those” he directed the statement to Star as he took another deep breath to force his voice to remain even.

“Apparently Sky’s in too bad of a mood to talk right now. He went straight upstairs even after I instructed them both to sit down” Brie added with continued anger.

“Which is why I need to go check on him, and make sure he’s ok” Star told her with deliberateness.

“Yeah, and how do you plan on making sure of that?” Brie scoffed.

But before Star could offer another angry response, their attentions were all drawn to the all but forgotten news that had been playing across the TV in the background when the name of their school was mentioned. Apparently one of their fellow students had left school early and supposedly taken their own life barely an hour earlier. Though they hadn’t released the name of the student yet.

All three of them swallowed hard as they were suddenly pulled out of their conversation by such a harsh reality, and one that close to home. That was when Sky finally came back down the stairs, looking a bit shocked himself, phone in hand.

“Did you hear?” Star asked him worriedly.

“Yeah” Sky stammered as he stepped off the stairs, “I just got a text” he added more quietly.

“What? Who was it?” Star asked warily.

Sky took a breath, “Crista’s neighbor.”

Star just shook her head, “who’s Crista’s neighbor?”

“Tim... Curt’s friend, Tim.”

They were all silent for a moment, though Sky looked particularly upset. Though, he had been upset all afternoon already, so it was less noticeable than it would have normally been. Looking at Sky’s expression, Connor finally spoke up, mainly to stall the earlier conversation as well as get more information about this occurrence. “So, were you friends with this boy?”

“Not hardly” Star offered the answer.

“I saw him after gym today. He must have left school right after I talked to him” Sky stated slowly.

All three of them then looked more than a bit worried by that piece of information. Brie swallowed hard then, “so, you were probably the last person he talked to before he... did that?” she asked, her breath catching.

“Yeah, seems likely” Sky sniffled slightly as he finally took a seat on the arm of the recliner Star sat on, only to wince slightly as he did.

Of course, Star was the only one that seemed to notice that wince, and it caused her to bite back her own emotions once more. Connor then spoke again, “so what on earth did you and he talk about before he... did that?”

Sky took a deep breath before even trying to answer that, “he’s a jock; the homophobic prick variety, like most are” another sigh, “and me being me, we were hardly friends, just like Star said. But today...” he stopped to try to compose himself with another deep breath.

“Today what?” Brie asked with further worry.

“Today, he came out, to me... well, sort of” Sky admitted.

“Came out?” Connor repeated with a raised brow.

“He finally... made it known” Sky decided on, “that he actually was interested in men.”

“He... told you this?” Brie stammered slightly, Star even looking shocked as Sky’s recount of the time after gym class definitely left that part of the day out, considering the second part of what happened there that day was exceedingly more traumatic, to put it mildly.

“Well, not exactly, told me” Sky shook his head.

“So he came out or didn’t come out?” Connor asked with a shake of his head.

“First he cast a few homophobic slurs at me, like usual; then he started asking me seriously about my orientation” he stated, with a bit of discomfort as this was the one life where the two had yet to share that little factoid with their parents yet.

“Maybe he was just curious?” Brie stated, forcing hopefulness into her voice.

“Mom, he flat out came onto me” he just shook his head, “and I told him that he wasn’t my type; after he was finally brave enough to even admit he had an interest” Sky sighed heavily once more, “then, he left school early... and killed himself” Sky finished, voice breaking.