//TW// MENTIONS OF ABUSE AND SELF HARM

Haley awoke to a loud crash in the bathroom, she sat up quickly. It scared the shit out of her but she knew that it wasn't anything good.

They both ended up staying at Emersons place that night. So if something happened it was only her and Remington in the house. After getting out of bed she walks to the bathroom to see what had happened.

Another crash is heard, this time followed by sobbing. Haley tried opening the door but it was locked, panic filled her, she began knocking on the door to see if she would get a response.

"Remington?" Haley asks, "are you okay?"

"I-I'm sorry," he sobs, he must have been near the door if she could hear him. Even then she had no idea if he was even talking to her or to himself. He wasn't talking very loud so it didn't seem like she was supposed to hear.

"Remington, please, open the door..." she pleads knocking on the door once again, this time a little harder.

There was no response, she heard nothing other than heavy breathing and loud sobs from Remington. She didn't even know what to expect if he did open the door, he could have just broken something or he could have seriously hurt himself. She didn't get any response even after nearly a minute.

"Remington?"

"H-Haley?" He asks.

"Rem, what happened?" She asks.

"I-It's just overwhelming... Everything is overwhelming..."

"I know, I know, just tell me what happened, I want to help you..." She says.

"Just don't be mad..." He says, it almost sounded as if he was scared.

"Remington, I promise you, I won't be upset," Haley promises.

She sits outside the bathroom door waiting patiently for him to either begin talking or open the door and show her. She heard no noise other than crying for the next minute or so. It scared her to death not knowing if he was hurt, for all she knew he could have cut himself, or even worse...

Suddenly, the door cracks open, and Haley saw Remington at his all time low. It was much worse than Emerson or even Sebastian had seen him before. She slowly opens the door the rest of the way, trying not to make him even more overwhelmed than he already is.

She looks around processing everything. The mirror is broken, the glass being on the floor in a pile, which meant he had moved it, likely by hand. The part of the mirror that hung on the wall was torn off as well.

Haley goes and sits down next to Remington, he looked at her trying desperately not to cry any harder than he already is.

"I'm sorry..." He says quietly.

She wraps an arm around Remington trying to comfort him.

"It's okay, I know things are hard right now. They're harder than ever. Emerson was important to you, I know you were close to him, please, just don't hurt yourself over it. It's not what Emerson would want, you know." She says.

"D-Do you think he'd be disappointed?" Remington asks.

"Emerson, he wouldn't have been disappointed in you, Remington, he cared about you so much and never would've thought less of you,"

He nods, hesitantly hugging her back. She knew he was broken, in more ways than she even knew. The reasons why he was broken were the same reasons why Emerson was. Yet all of that was something they both hid. Remington could barely speak so Haley just waited for him to calm down before asking him anything.

"I'm sorry..." Remington mumbles. His head buried in his knees, and his breathing uneven.

She looked closer at him. When she saw his hands she almost freaked out. There was dry blood on them that ran from his knuckles down to his fingertips. She knew that he must have gotten himself with the glass. She assumed he punched the mirror then tore it down.

"Remington, I need to see your hands," Haley says, she doesn't grab his hands. She just waits for him to tell her she can take a better look at them.

He doesn't say anything but instead puts his hands out so she could see them. He thought she would be mad but she wasn't, how could she? The poor boy lost his brother only a week ago and had already been fucked up as it is. Not that she knew a lot about it, Emerson never talked to her about it.

She sighs cleaning the cuts on his hands. Remington winces pain shooting through his hand. She pauses removing her hands from his.

"J-Just get it over with." He sighs knowing she was scared to continue.

She nods looking down and his hands. She uses the rubbing alcohol to clean his other hand. She didn't like that it was hurting him, she saw how pained his expression was and wanted to stop but she didn't. She finished cleaning them out and then wrapped his hands.

"Is it too tight at all?" She asks.

"I-It's fine, thank you."

"Are you okay? I'm sorry, that's probably stupid to ask." Haley sighs.

"It's fine," Remington says, "I just don't know what I was thinking."

"Rem, it's okay, I know you were scared..."

He nods. At the end of all of that he was barely even crying anymore he calmed down a little bit.

"Being here just reminds me of my childhood. I'm sure Emerson must have said something about that." Remington says after a while.

"He didn't," She says shaking her head, "He said it didn't matter..."

"It doesn't, really. It was just hard growing up and thinking that everything that happened back then was normal," Remington sighs.

"What happened, if you don't mind me asking?" She asks.

He shakes his head, "I- I don't know if I should talk about it..."

"I'm not saying you have to, but if you want to I'll listen."

He nods, wondering how he could be this close to telling someone he only met a few days ago about his past. Something that made him scared for so many years and still haunts him every single day.

"My father, he was... He was abusive towards us, for the most part it was only me and Sebastian but eventually he targeted all three of us. He would leave on and off for nearly a month sometimes less sometimes more, and then come back and it'd be back to how it was. This continued until I was about thirteen or fourteen. Then he left without any goodbyes, he never came back... I was scared he would come back but a part of me wondered if he would come back. That if he did, maybe he could change... I'm sorry, I probably sound ridiculous right now, don't I?"

"Remington... You have absolutely nothing to be sorry about," she says.

"I-It's all my fault... I could have stopped this, when I was asked about it years ago when the abuse still happened I defended him... I thought if I said something he would hurt me even more," he began to tear up, "I could have prevented him from getting to Emerson, and I could have stopped him from hurting Sebastian. I got scared, I didn't know what to do so I told the school that he didn't do anything to me..."

She wraps her arms around him once again. Trying her best to make him feel any sort of comfort. Yet the only thing that helped him release any of his pain was crying. All she could do was watch him cry, because no matter what she said he would still be just as broken as he was before.

"Remington, please, don't blame yourself for this, okay. It's going to be okay..."

"Emerson is dead, how is anything going to be okay?" Remington asks.

"Remington, he didn't die because of you... What happened in the past was because of your father, your father was the one who hurt him, your father was the one that made you believe that you shouldn't say anything." Haley says, "Absolutely nothing was your fault, there was nothing you could have done to save him... You did the best you could've to be there for him, he knew you cared. Trust me... He knew..."