“What’s going on?”  Mark called as he came in the back door, “Anyone home?”

“SHHH!”  Shane hissed as she walked out to the kitchen.

“What?”

“Jenny’s had a really rough day.  I got up and she was in the bathroom cutting.”

“No way!  She’s ok, right?”

“Yeah, I took her to talk to someone but I’m supposed to watch her until she goes back tomorrow.”

“Wow, I knew she was going through some stuff but not that it had gotten to this.”

“Neither had I.  But hey, can you keep an eye on her while I make a few calls?”

“Sure, what do I do?”

“Make sure that if she gets up she stays away form anything sharp, pills or alcohol.  Actually if she gets up, get me she’s got a short temper and you might piss her off right now.”

“No problem.”

            While Mark went and sat down in Jenny’s room Shane got on the phone; calling Alice, Dana, Carmen and Kit to come over to help and if Jenny woke up to talk to her.  The only people she didn’t call were Bette and Tina because of the baby.  Within half an hour everyone was in the small living room talking in hushed tones about Jenny.

“First Marina, now Jenny.  What’s the deal?”  Alice whispered to Shane.

“I think its my fault,” Carmen piped in, “I knew she wasn’t ok and didn’t tell anyone.”

“It’s no one’s fault,” Kit interjected, “one of our friends needs help and she’s going to get it now.”

“Ok, the reason I called all of you here is to have all of us hang out and take turns either keeping an eye on Jenny or trying to talk to her.  Everyone in?”  Shane asked the group.

“Yes!”  Kit replied immediately.

“Yeah.”  Carmen echoed.

“Of course.”  Dana answered.

“On it!”  Alice chirped.

“Ok, so Mark’s with her right now and I think someone else should take over soon.”

“I will.”  Kit said quietly as she headed down the hall.

“I was wondering if this was in anyway triggered by what I did.”  Kit heard Mark asking Jenny quietly.

“No, no.  It had nothing to do with anyone but me.”  Kit had stopped right outside the door to Jenny’s room, listening to the conversation inside.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“I have gone through so many…weird, unbelievable things lately and not really expressed any of the emotions I’ve wanted to.  I’ve been having these really out there dreams and it’s just gotten to be so much.”  Jenny drawled out in her broken speech pattern.

“Where you trying to die?”

“No, no!  I just wanted to let some of the pain out.  Do you know what I mean?”

“Yeah.  I do.”

            Kit could hear Jenny sitting up as she asked Mark, “Do you?  How do you understand?  Have you ever done this?  How can you understand?” 

The pause drew on so long that Kit started to wonder if she should go in when Mark replied, “When I was in high school my dad died.  I was convinced boys didn’t cry and was confused because all I wanted to do was just that.  I started burning myself.”

“It helped, didn’t it?”  Jenny asked eagerly.

“Oh yeah.  I felt able to cry because of a burn.  If got me by, but I had to stop it because it became an obsession.”

“That’s what happened today.  I cut, then I did it again and again!  Suddenly I couldn’t stop!”

            Kit walked back out to the living room and sat down, grabbing a slice of the pizza Alice had delivered.

“What’s up?” Shane asked, “I thought you were going to relieve Mark.”

“I would have, but they’re talking and I didn’t even go in.  I listened outside the door for a while but it’s pretty deep personal stuff, so I left.”

“What’d you hear?”  Dana asked the question on everyone’s mind.

“Well I wasn’t going to say…”