A/N: Thank you guys for all the love and support! Also, literally no one asked for this, but...

Maddie is a Taurus.

Carson is a Scorpio.

Dylan is a Leo.

Jason is an Aries.

Luna is a Gemini.

Zach is a Virgo.

I don't know if that holds any importance to anyone lol, but there you go.

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"Never thought I'd be here," I laughed, nervously.

"Me neither," Grey contended.

We were in a small café, on the other side of town. I was hoping that there'd be no on here to recognize us in case this didn't end all that well. Fortunately, there was no one there that I knew.

"I'm glad you called," Grey said.

"Really? Honestly, I didn't expect you to answer."

He laughed and shook his head, "I'd have to be a fool."

I was stalling; I have been for the past twenty minutes. God, this is so much harder than I thought it would be. How did I know this wasn't all a big mistake?

Grey cleared his throat, fidgeting in his seat, "So, why did you call?"

There it was.

"Well, I've been thinking a lot recently. And-"

I was cut off by my cellphone ringing.

I know I should have ignored it, but it was Dylan. I never ignore Dylan. Besides, maybe this was God's way of saying, 'Don't do this, you idiot.'

I looked up at Grey, "I'm sorry, I have to take this."

Greyson nodded and sat back in his chair, waiting patiently for me to be done.

"Hey, Dyl, can I call you back? I'm-"

"Mads, are you there?" His voice came out broken and grainy.

"Dylan? I can't really hear you? Are you alright?"

"Maddie, I'm fine. But you need to come." I tried to piece together what he was saying, despite the poor connection.

"I don't understand, where are you?"

"Look, I'll explain when you get here. We're at the alleyway off of tenth street. Please come quick."

"We? Who's we? Dylan why are you in an alley?"

Dylan didn't answer. We had been disconnected. I was so lost right now.

"Is everything alright?" Grey asked.

"I don't know," I said. "But I think I have to go."

I hurriedly picked up my things, getting out of my seat.

"Wait," Grey spoke, placing his hand over mine, and stopping me in my tracks. "This isn't like, you didn't plan this right?"

"I'm sorry what?" I asked.

"Like, this isn't like you planning for someone to call you with an excuse if you weren't having a good time."

I sighed, "No, Grey, of course not. I have no idea what's going on, but I really have to go."

He nodded his head, and I took that as the time to make my exit.

"Call me, we can reschedule this!" I heard Grey yell from behind me.

Yeah, probably not. This was a sign: we were not meant to get together.

* * *

I parked my car a little bit down from the alley, making sure to lock it. This side of town was not my favorite to stop in.

Night had fallen fully. The only thing illuminating the area was a single yellow light coming from the alley. I followed the light, increasing my speed as I rushed to find Dylan.

The first people I saw, however, were Zach and Luna. They stood at the mouth of the alley, huddled together, Luna buried in Zach's arms.

I looked past them and saw Jason standing against the brick wall, staring blankly ahead of him.

My heart was beating out of my chest as I ran up to Zach.

Something was completely, terribly wrong. I knew it the second I picked up Dylan's call, and every moment since then, the feeling got even greater.

"Maddie, thank God you're here!" Zach looked relieved. His eyes were nothing but dark circles, and his face was a sickly pale. Luna didn't even look up at me.

"What's going on? Where's Dylan?"

Zach nodded his head toward the back end of the alley. As I squinted to see far ahead of me, and I made out the two dark shadows at the end, everything blurred and stopped. I felt the color and emotion drain from my face as the reality of this hit me all at once.

Carson.

He had his head pressed against the wall, his hands pushing against it. His face was hidden by the darkness, but I caught glimpses of his eyes tightly shut as he drove his head back and forth into the wall. Dylan was next to him, trying to pry Carson away from the wall. I turned away.

"What's wrong with him?" I asked, swallowing the lump forming in my throat.

Zach shook his head and shrugged, "We don't know. He hasn't said anything. We didn't find him; one of Dylan's friends did. He called us and stayed 'til we got here."

I looked back at Carson and Dylan again. I couldn't see much, but still, I could see the blood sticking to Carson's skin from back here. Dylan looked pained, as he stood by pretty helplessly.

"Maddie, he needs you. He won't say anything to us, but he said something about you. You have to help him."

I subconsciously started to back away, shaking my head. What did they expect me to do? Carson and I were barely friends. And even now, we hadn't really talked to each other in like two weeks. I couldn't do it.

"Maddie," Zach looked at me, panicked. "Maddie, come on."

I shook my head, still backing away. "I can't. Someone else has got to-"

"Maddie, Maddie you have to try," Luna said, looking up from Zach's shoulder. She had tear stains on her face.

Zach nodded in agreement, "We all have. He hasn't stopped. It's been two hours. You have to try."

I turned my head back to Dylan and Carson.

* * *

The closer I got to Carson, the more I wish I had never picked up the phone when Dylan called. Then maybe this wouldn't be real.

Dylan saw me coming, and there was some sort of relief that washed over his face, I don't know. The sad smile he gave me was meaningless in the presence of his obvious exhaustion and stress.

He stepped away from Carson, and placed a comforting hand on my shoulder before brushing past me, probably to rejoin everyone else.

I still didn't know what I was supposed to do. Or say. Feelings and emotions were not my strong suit.

Carson was still shoving against the wall his head over and over. I looked over to his knuckles, which were badly scraped up and covered in dried blood.

I looked back at everyone. Zach and Dylan were the only ones who could bear to still look in this direction. Jason and Luna were still trying to keep their eyes anywhere but on Carson. Dylan nodded his head, signaling for me to do something.

Did they think I was some magician? I know it's insensitive and terribly selfish of me, but this was scary for me. Carson is... Carson.

He's the strongest person I know. I mean, I've known him since middle school, and he's lived with me for months and I've never seen him cry. So, this is scary. It's scary to think about what hurt the strongest person I know enough for him to do this.

I sat down, sliding my back against the wall, and stared up at his face. His eyes were still shut tight. It didn't take much to figure out he was drunk, I could smell it wafting off his clothes. Some part of me was relieved that at least he wasn't doing this sober.

I really didn't know what to do; I could barely hold myself together right now, and what? I was just supposed to know exactly what to do to fix him?

I hated his hands. The way they scraped against the brick and the amount of pain it must be causing him couldn't even be detected.

I reached up to touch one of them, just to see how thick the layer of dark blood on the skin was. This seemed to startle him. His eyes shot open, red and watery, and as he lowered them onto me, it took everything in me not to turn away.

Turns out, I didn't have to. It didn't take Carson more than a second before he shot his eyes in a different direction.

"Carson," I said quietly.

He blinked, but didn't grace me with a response.

"Please look at me," I pleaded, rubbing my hand up and down his arm. He wasn't really pounding his head, more just pushing it, as if he was trying to push through it or something.

"Why won't you look at me?"

His hands dropped to his sides; I didn't let go of his left hand, and held it as close to me as I could. Slowly, his eyes turned back onto me and I tried my best to give him a smile.

"Will you please stop?" I asked.

His jaw clenched, as he looked away and shook his head. I sighed as I stood up. I looked over to Dylan, silently asking him to come help me. I walked behind him, and placed my hands on his back, feeling his shoulders relax as I rubbed in circles.

His breathing was quick and shallow and he resumed the throwing of his head into the wall, now balling a fist to bang as well.

"Carson, I need you to stop. Now," Dylan demanded, finally joining us. Carson grunted, but he finally stopped, letting his head rest on the wall.

"Can you please get up?" I asked.

He shook his head.

"Carson," Dylan said sternly.

"Carson, please," I was practically begging at this point.

...

"Carson."

"It hurts."

Two words. He only said two words and still it felt like night and day. Two words have never managed to stab me whilst bringing me such relief simultaneously.

"I know."

I took his hand again, giving it a light squeeze. He sighed but stood up straight, facing away from me. I placed my other hand on the side of his waist, hating how tense he got.

"Will you please look at us?"

He shook his head.

"Carson."

He remained frozen in place.

I grabbed his face in my hands and forced his body to turn around. I tried to not look horrified by how awful he looked now that there was enough light to see him fully.

I pretended not to notice the blood running down from his ears, or his nose, or the corners of his mouth, or his hairline. I didn't even stop to stare at his left eye, black and swollen almost fully shut.

"I'm sorry," His voice was all hoarse and strained, like he had been screaming for hours and this was all that was left.

I shook my head, hoping the tears threatening to fall wouldn't, "You're gonna be okay, Carson."

He was shaking, like physically, involuntarily shaking. I took both of his hands in mine, ignoring how rough and cut and sticky they were.

He closed his eyes again and kept them closed. He let his head fall down onto my shoulder with a heavy thud.

"Don't fall asleep on me, you have to get checked out," I said. I ran my hand through his hair, feeling for the bumps that were scattered across his head.

"No," He croaked. "No doctor."

"Carson," Dylan started, but soon realized it was futile.

He wouldn't go even if we all shoved him in a car and carried him into the hospital. Not to mention, as soon as Carson was asked for his last name, the people at the hospital would recognize him and it would be a whole thing.

"Okay," I said. "Okay, no doctor. But we're going home."

I started to pull him out of the alleyway, but he stood still, like deadweight.

He had turned back to stare at the wall again. I gave his hand a gentle tug. Before I could stop him, Carson had raised his free hand, he swung his fist at the brick wall and punched it. Hard.

He coughed and turned away once again, finally allowing me to pull him out of the alley. I was supporting most of his body weight as he leaned against me.

"Sorry," he muttered again.

"I know, Car, I know. You're okay."