October 23rd 1:35 AM 

Ellie’s POV 

I woke up to yelling and someone crying. I opened the door slowly. Danny was curled up in the corner of the hall near his door, Asher was on the couch with a “What the fuck, just happened?” look on his face and Fiona was just standing there, shocked. 

I stepped towards Danny, “What happened?” 

“Mason was just with me for a bet,” My eyes widened, I looked towards Asher and Fiona, but their reactions stayed the same. 

He slowly stood up, wiping the tears form his face, and went to his room. “Wait, what happened? Mason was with Danny because of a bet?” 

“That’s just the main idea, it’s not exactly that, but it's the basics,” Asher responded, I just gave him a confused glance, so he explained, “Yes, the bet was a reason, but wasn’t the biggest reason, Mason likes Danny, he has for a while, i think his idea was, ‘getting my crush to like me, and 100 dollars, hell yeah.’” 

“One question, how the fuck did you get to that topic?” 

“Like how Danny found out or how Mason got betted?” 

“How Danny found out?” I asked, i wasn’t even sure if i wanted to find out. 

“It was partially my fault, but basically, i may have been crying about kissing someone, who when sober was extremely upset about us kissing, and that person happened to be Devon, who had bet Mason, and when he was pissing me off... i said that he was the one who agreed to a bet made by him, a little too loudly, which probably caused Danny to start listening, and heard Mason mention the actual bet,” Asher said softly. 

“So, it was partially a misunderstanding in a way, like Danny didn’t know about the extra details, just knew that it was for a bet?” 

“Essentially,” Fiona said. 

“So technically, i could tell Danny the details, and this might all blow over?” 

Asher and Fiona stared at me, then the realization hit Fiona, but Asher was still confused, “Like the 2015 plan?” Fiona asked, and i nodded. 

“What the fuck is the 2015 plan?” Asher asked, and me and Fiona gave each other, “so who is gonna explain it to him?” look. 

Fiona broke the silence, “Basically, a week after me and Ellie got together, we broke up for 2 weeks, but in those 2 weeks Ellie got into an extremely depressive state, and i basically had to work with Danny to get her out of it, given that we broke up for a similar reason, it might work, but that would mean we would need Mason, and Danny, no doubt, will slam the door in our faces if we try.” 

“Then we do it without Mason, might not work fully, but it might help, at least a little,” I looked at her, she sighed and nodded. 

“If this makes this worse, I will be telling Mason it’s your fault, Ellie,” She chuckled, she wasn’t lying. 

I walked towards Danny’s door and knocked softly, “Can i come in?” 

“No,” His voice was soft, and i could hear him sobbing softly. 

I opened the door; he was sitting in the farthest corner of his bed away from the door. I saw him quickly roll up his sleeves as i came in, his sleeves began to stain a reddish hue. 

My eyes widened, “Danny?” 

“I told you not to come in Ellie,” He hid his hands under the blankets. 

“Danny, i- I thought you stopped,” 4 years, i think, down the drain. 

“And I thought my boyfriend fucking liked me; we were both wrong.” 

I walked out, closed the door behind me, “I’m doing this shit on my own.” 

I entered the bathroom and grabbed the first aid kit from the cabinet. I reentered Danny’s room, “What are you-” 

“Wrists.” 

“What?” 

“Show me your wrists Danny.” 

“No,” He looked away, i sat on the edge of his bed. 

“You wanna spend 3 days in the Emergency room? Like the last time you relapsed, when you got an infection from your cuts,” Hesitantly, he pulled down his sleeves, it was worse than last time. 

I started to clean the cuts and wrapped them, when i finished, i grabbed him a new, clean, shirt. “Thanks.” 

“You ready to talk about what happened with Mason?” 

“I- I thought he liked me, I really did, but he- it was just for a bet, just for a fucking bet, he probably was gonna take the money and break up with me,” He leaned into my side. 

“Fiona did almost the exact same shit, remember?” 

“That’s different, Fiona actually liked you, Mason was just fucking with me, he didn’t care enough to think of how much it would hurt me,” His voice cracked, “he lied to my face, saying he loved me.” 

“How do you know he didn’t mean it?” 

He just looked away, “because no one will ever fucking love me, people only ‘like’ me because they get paid to.” 

“What?” 

“People get fucking paid to ask me out all the time, and i was fucking naive to think Mason wasn’t the same... just something about him made me believe he was different,” I heard the door creak open slowly, Fiona and Asher stood behind the door. 

“I’m not dealing with the slander of my twin, he can be an asshole, but he never would fuck with you like that,” Asher stood in the doorway, Fiona was behind him with a, “I told him not to,” look on her face. 

“How do you know?” 

“Maybe because Mason just isn’t like that, and if you maybe would have heard more of the conversation, or didn’t ignore certain things, you would have realized, he said one of the few reasons he asked you out, was the bet, not the only fucking reason, Danny, he did like you, he fucking loved you.” 

“Liar.” 

“Daniel, are you fucking dense? He loved you, and you just won’t believe it,” Asher started to actually get angry. 

In a small voice, Danny said, “I just need some time.”