(am I speeding this up because I want to get to the angsty/gay parts? yes, yes I am. cry about it)
(t/w : beatings, homophobic slurs)
Darcy's pov-

Margot acted the same the next few days. She was telling me nothing. Maybe she's just been tired? 

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked, setting down my lunch tray. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" She replied.

"I don't know, you've just seemed out of it recently. Is everything okay with Janie and Wesley?"  I knew Riley and Charlie were fine, I'd immediately know if something was up with them. Mainly Riley since he goes to the same school as us. "Everything's the same as it's always been, Darcy." She shook her head, just looking annoyed. 

We mostly ate lunch in silence. This was odd. Like, really odd. Xe had been talking to me during lunch all the other days but now she was just quiet. I looked around the lunch room, hoping to see Riley and ask him about this. "I'll be right back." I said. I thankfully saw him.

I walked over to the other side of the room and sat in front of him. "What's going on with her?" I asked him. "Huh? Margot?" He took a bite of his bread stick. "No, Oprah Winfrey- yes, Margot!" I said, very quickly becoming annoyed with him. "I don't know." Is all he said.

"You live with her."

"Doesn't mean I pay attention to them. She's not the one I have to keep from dying."

"Well, can you give her attention when you get home? I want to know what's up with her. Please? She's my best friend. I want to know what's up." 

"Tomorrow sure, but I'm taking Charlie to the roller rink after school. Wanna come? You can bring Melody and Eddie. I got Captain to come."

"I don't see why not. Is Margot gonna be there?"

Riley shook their head. "Nope, but I'll ask her again before the elementary school gets out." They finished their bread stick. "Okay, thanks." I said before walking back to me and Margot's table. She paid me seemingly no mind.

Margot's pov-

As I parked my car in the driveway, I sat there for a minute. I had a feeling that I didn't want to go inside. But what choices did I have? Stay here and freeze to death? I mean, I could leave the heater on but that would use up gas so I just went inside.

I put in my key and stepped inside. I walked up to my room to set down my backpack and to give my cat , Vee , some scritches. I was hungry so I walked downstairs to the kitchen to see if there was anything I could fix up really quick. I walked in the kitchen to see mom and dad sitting at the table and it took a second before I noticed something on the table.

My diary.

The diary which I poured every thought, feeling and want into.

The diary in which I said I was a lesbian before I ever told anyone close to me.

The diary that I managed to hide from my homophobic parents since I was eleven.

I could feel my heart beating in every inch of my body. Hands, feet, legs, neck, face, stomach. I could feel it in all of those places. They hadn't gotten to that part right? No, they definitely had. But both of them hate reading. 

"Margot Rosie Miller, what is this?" My dad spat. Honestly, this was probably the most attention he's given me since I was eleven. The diary was open on a page from when I was thirteen and had realized I was a lesbian.

"ANSWER ME, MARGOT!" My dad shouted and I drew back. "I...I..." I couldn't speak. Not one fucking word was able to leave my mouth. "I can't believe we raised a faggot." My mom shook her head. "I can't fucking believe this." I wanted to say I wasn't the only one but I wasn't going to out Riley like that. And besides, he's bi just with a male lean so it's not entirely the same thing.

My dad walked closer to me as I backed up. He ran towards me and grabbed me by my hair. No sooner than he had done that, I felt his cold, rough hand smack me across the face as he let go of my hair. I stumbled backwards into the fridge, feeling it's coldness on my back and the hot sting of the smack on my face.

He grabbed me by the arms and my mom went up to his room to grab something I had been all too familiar with as a child. The godforsaken belt.

She came downstairs and handed it to my father. He bent me over his knee like I was seven instead of seventeen and it just...it hurt. That's it. That's all I have to say. It hurt, in multiple ways. Physically, emotionally, physiologically, all of it. 

This went on for maybe ten minutes. He hit me not only on my back and butt, but on my arms and legs as well. Those bruises weren't going away anytime soon and neither was the one on my cheek.

I stayed in my room for the rest of the day with the door locked. I didn't answer any calls or texts from Darcy and when Riley and Charlie got back, I pretended to be asleep. 

I was completely done.