TW: hard drugs, mentions of abuse, mentions of sexual assault/abuse.

Ethan laid down on his back in his bed, and stared at the ceiling of his room. He kept thinking back to that afternoon at the diner, and how Cypress had walked all the way home afterwards. Thankfully Ethan got a text from Cypress an hour later saying he made it home, and when he asked Hailey to make sure he wasn't lying, she said he was home.

There definitely were some scares in the past that had made Ethan paranoid about Cypress sometimes. He had a past of heroin, Xanax, as well as suicide, it was very clear Cypress had more than just social issues... he had mental health issues in general. However, it had gotten better- but now there might be another valley forming in Cypress's track record.

About a year ago, Ethan had gotten a text from Cypress, it just said, "I am going to die." Ethan immediately called the police, and an hour later he got a call from his father saying that they had found Cypress overdosed on heroin at the river. A few months before that, Ethan had found Cypress in his bathroom with his wrists slit, after that his father banned Cypress from sleeping over.

The history of Xanax and Cypress was never something entirely clear to Ethan, he just knew he abused the drug and was caught a couple times at school taking it. Sometimes he would be missing from school for a week, then he would come back and just say he was "sick", but it was very clear on his face that it wasn't just that. When Ethan would ask Hailey what happened, she would just say it was his "issues".

Suddenly, his phone went off, he checked who was calling him and saw that it was Hailey.

"Hey, everything ok?"

"Is Cypress at your house?"

Ethan felt a wave of cold wash over his body, he sat up in his bed and cursed under his breath.

"No, no he's not. How long has he been out?"

"I don't know, I've biked around our neighborhood and he's not anywhere." Hailey started to sound worried.

"Shit, is your family home? Are they looking for him?"

"N- no I haven't told them I don't want them to get worried..." Haileys voice started to break, "but I called Abigail and Jesse and they are looking for him."

"Ok good, I'm gonna drive around and if no one sees anything in about 30 minutes call your family ok?" Ethan got up and slipped on his vans, then rushed down the stairs.

"Ok, thank you, thank you so much..." Hailey hung up before Ethan could give her a few words of comfort.

About 10 minutes into driving he slammed his breaks while driving past a house. It was Mickeys house.

Mickey, or Mick, was the school drug dealer. He had shaggy bleach blonde hair that always showed his brown roots, and always smelled like weed or sometimes even gasoline. His skin was freakishly pale- almost grey, and he always sported a bandage on either his hands, arms, or face- and a hickey.

Ethan stared at the house, which Mickey had to himself all the time because his mom spent the daytime out on the town and the nighttime doing work out on the town.

"For fucks sake I hope I'm wrong." Ethan growled and then parked his car in the unkept driveway. He walked up to the door and knocked on it. A minute later the door opened and Mickey rubbed his eyes, which were very red.

"Ethan I didn't know you worked at Johnnys Grill." He smiled kindly, "congrats man, way to make that cash."

"What the fuck? No! Is Cypress here?"

"I mean, I told him I wasn't gonna tell no one..."

Ethan just stared at Mickey, who stared back, then raised his eyebrows in realization.

"Dude, that's a total my bad." He giggled, and Ethan sighed. "Here come join- oh ok"

Ethan forced the door open more and let himself in, and stopped when he saw Cypress passed out on the couch.

"The fuck did he take?" Ethan started to shake him awake but he just buried his face into the pillow. Then Ethan decided to do some investigation, which basically was checking his arms, and sure enough, there was a small puncture wound.

"Well I think you figured it out." Mickey crossed his arms, "took a shower and came back to find him on my couch shootin the shit. Dude is a fucking weirdo, but I'm impressed so I'm not charging him." He shrugged.

"Oh fuck." Ethan groaned, then slapped Cypress which made Mickey laugh. "WAKE UP!"

"I'm not home right now..." Cypress slurred, then covered his face, "leave me alone..."

"Mickey you fucking asshole why didn't you call me?" Ethan looked up at Mickey who was now drinking an energy drink.

"Cause he told me not to." He crouched down next to Ethan, "by the way, you need anything?"

"Are you kidding me?! Cypress might've overdosed and you're asking me if I want drugs?!"

"It's just a question man." Mickey shrugged, then got up and stood behind the couch and ruffled Cypress's hair, "heheh... fluffy fella. Wake up buddy you got company."

Cypress groaned, and Mickey put his drink down and pulled his body to sit him up.

"C'mon buddy, there you go." He patted Cypress's shoulder, he was still very much out of it but now he could keep his eyes open.

"Cypress what the fuck- why are you-"

Ethan was interrupted by Mickey, who climbed over the back of the couch to sit down next to Cypress. He gave him a very judgmental stare, and Mickey apologized.

"Why are you doing this? You're sister is worried about you... and now I have to tell her that- that you're doing fucking heroin!"

"Mmm..." Cypress started nodding off, then he laid back down and rested his feet on Mickeys lap.

"Nice kicks man." Mickey looked over at Cypress, who was once again passed out.

"Fuck it I'm calling Abigail she'll wake him up."

Ethan stepped out of the house and did just that, and from the sound of Abigail's voice when she heard what happened, he was pretty confident Cypress was going to wake up. Then he walked inside.

"Hey big daddy, she comin?" Mickey turned his head and smirked.

"Don't... don't call me that. And yes." Ethan closed the door and sighed.

"Sorry all of this is goin down, I would've turned him down if he didn't break in- knowing the last time he did heroin." Mickey got up and got his bong from the kitchen table and his bag of weed. "You wanna smoke?"

"No, I don't need to be high as shit when I tell Cypress's sister that her brother is doing heroin again." Ethan sat down on the couch chair and sighed, then looked at Mickey who was sitting in the chair across from the coffee table setting up a bowl.

"I'm not mad at you by the way. I know you would've turned him down. It's just you're not very helpful right now."

"Yeah man it's cool." Mickey gestured at him and then started smoking.

"How's Mavis?"

Mavis was Mickeys girlfriend, she recently started transitioning.

"She's you know..." mickey shrugged and put his lighter and bong on the table, "still trying to get her family to understand..."

Ethan nodded, he'd met Mavis a few times, she dropped out of high-school last year after she came out to her family. Apparently things didn't go well, and she decided that if her family wasn't going to pay for her transition, she was going to.

"I mean- they don't really involve themselves in it. They just ignore it. Even though she's been doing hormones for half a year they still call her Kenneth and shit." Mickey leaned back and closed his eyes, "crazy... but she's staying with me for a week or so cause she got into another fight with her dad."

"Your mom okay with that?"

"Oh she doesn't give a fuck, she figured that since she made me live with my dad for 15 years she can just let me do fuck all." Mickey looked over at Ethan, "I'm gonna do another hit." Then he reached over and lit up.

"Did you smoke before I got here?"

Mickey nodded, then blew out the smoke.

"OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR."

There was a pounding and Mickey looked at Ethan again.

"Abigail it's-"

The door swung open and Abigail slammed it shut, then grabbed Cypress by the shirt.

"WAKE THE FUCK UP." She slapped him and Cypress slowly woke up.

"Huh?"

"How the fuck can you do this to your sister?! She's out running around at 11:30 at night in your neighborhood looking for your selfish ass!" She pushed him back and Cypress groaned. Then she walked around and looked at Mickey.

"AND FUCK YOU TOO!" She yelled, then grabbed Cypress again, "get the fuck up! NOW."

"My brain feels like a cotton ball..." Cypress groaned, then weakly held Abigail's wrist. "I cant see...."

"Your eyes are closed bud..." Mickey said kindly, and Ethan sighed.

"When I close my eyes I can't see..." Cypress leaned back, and Abigail just let him go.

"He's too drugged, his pupils are giant." Abigail faced Ethan and sighed, "I just feel bad yelling at him- especially after today."

Ethan nodded and got up before gesturing at her to sit down. She smiled and took the offer.

"Man I don't get how girls break up with you, you're literally just a hot nice sex machine." Mickey stared at Ethan, who stared back at him in disbelief.

"What?"

"I mean, Jesus dude. You're super nice, laid back and shit. You're hot as fuck, you're like- man I just wanna have sex with you."

Abigail laughed, she couldn't help it.

"Abigail don't you wanna have sex with this guy?" Mickey looked at her and gestured at Ethan.

"I mean, I'm a lesbian, but sure I would be down if he asked." Abigail shrugged, then looked at Ethan, "that night I walked in on your banging Alice- I mean I get it."

"Get... get what?" Ethan gave her a strange look.

"Oh you know, the sex machine bit, the reason why all your exes still stare at you." She smirked.

"Is he like... big." Mickey asked and Abigail nodded. "Man... now I'm horny." He winked at Ethan.

Ethan smiled uncomfortably, then walked outside.

"Oh, oh no maybe I shouldn't have said that." Abigail sighed.

Mickey sat up, "what?" Then looked at her worried.

"I mean-" she sighed, "I joke about walking in on him all the time and you know- seeing what I saw, and he laughs about it. But... actually considering the stuff that happened in his life recently- maybe I shouldn't have said that."

"What stuff?"

"I'm not really sure if I can tell you, also it might you know... make you upset."

"Oh... assault." Mickey looked down.

"Yeah..." Abigail rubbed her arm, then glanced at Cypress to make sure he was still breathing, he was.

"Wait- so Ethan was assaulted? Like sexually?"

"He got drugged by one of his exes at a party... that's all I'm saying okay?"

Mickey nodded, then looked over at the door when it opened.

"I told Hailey, she's picking him up." Ethan closed the door, "Mickey can I stay the night?"

"Of course, you okay? You look a little... like you're not feeling good." Mickey got up, unfortunately he knew the dangers of recalling trauma- specifically sexual trauma. Before Mavis, Mickey was in a very sexually abusive relationship with a man.

Ethan nodded, "just tired." He then smiled and walked past Mickey, "I'm gonna lay down in the guest room." He then closed the door to the guest room.

He laid down and immediately started to cry, his heart was racing and his head felt heavy. It wasn't a good feeling. It wasn't a good feeling at all.

AN: A lot to unpack in this chapter, but I really wanted to dedicate this part to Ethan, who is probably the most complex character next to Cypress. Also I wanted to make sure Mickey was shown as more than just a druggie, since stories tend to have a habit of doing that to characters like him lol. I also wanted to say that next chapter is a continuation of this scene, but it will be focusing more on Ethan and Mickey. Cypress is frankly just high as shit, there's nothing really else to that, he's not overdosed. Abigail WILL get her moment to shine, just not now! She is very very important of course, and so is Evelyn!!! Jesse is uh, he's a special guy.