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The next day went as the last had, but with Julie less present in her and Alyssa's interactions. Even in her and Midnight's.

Her mind had spun throughout every hour, with the urge increasing to understand what she had never understood.

That night, Julie sat on the edge of her bed in a tee and pajama pants, trapped in just as much thought.

Alyssa had gone to the restroom to shower.

Midnight sat beside Julie's thigh and laid his chin on it while she rubbed the back of his neck, but her eyes weren't on him and hadn't been.

"Julie!" Alyssa called from the hall and pushed the bedroom door open. "Why is the cold water cold and the hot water also cold?"

She sighed. "That's happened before... something with the pipes." Julie grabbed her phone from behind her, put it in her pocket, then stood and went to the door, slipping past her. "I'll go tell Mom."

"Ask her why the cold water's cold and why the ho-"

"Not asking that," Julie replied while going down the stairs. She spotted her mother sitting on the couch and watching the cooking channel as usual.

"Mom," Julie said as she reached the bottom, where she stopped.

Her mother turned with a slight grin. "Yes?"

"Alyssa says the hot water's not working. Didn't that happen before?"

"Ugh, years ago. I'll check on it tomorrow. May have to call someone to come fix it."

"Okay..."

She eyed Julie. "Everything alright?"

"Yes, just..." Julie took a breath. "I had a question."

"About what?"

"You and Dad."

Her mother looked at the TV and picked up the remote to turn it off, then set it aside. "Why don't you sit, sweetie?"

Julie joined her on the couch and sat at a distance so they could talk. "I want to know what happened, I guess. You don't have to tell me everything, but..."

"You have the right to know. You're old enough." Her mother waited a beat. "Your father and I tried our best to make things work for your sake. We never wanted to break the unit and leave you stuck in the middle. We vowed this after our marriage. Unfortunately, it became more difficult to keep than we could ever have imagined."

"But what caused it?... The affair?"

She held her breath. "It permanently broke our trust. We attempted everything from counseling to thorough communication."

Julie swallowed. "Could I ask who had it?"

She stared, looked down, then stared again. "It was me."

Julie winced a little and momentarily averted her eyes. She stared back; they started to gloss, with tears following. "Why?"

Her mother's eyes held utter disappointment and sorrow.

"Why, Mom?" The tears started welling under her eyes. She wiped them with her wrist while her breaths skipped. "Why?"

Julie stood and watched her. Her mother's gaze was on the floor. "Mom..." her voice wavered.

"Julie, I came from a family of total dysfunction. I left the moment I could support myself, cut them off, and took a different path. I married your father, and we raised you on an even better one far away from them." She looked back up. "I was only ever strong because of him. I had to force what remaining strength I had to uphold you and hoped I could do a decent job."

"Then why didn't you let him take me?"

Her mother shut her eyes while firming her lips.

Julie took a step back. She took another and turned to the door, putting on her shoes and opening it.

"Julie..."

Julie went out and paced to her bike, her rapid, shallow breaths creating foggy puffs in the air. She crouched and fiddled with her combination.

"Julie!" Her mother stood at the door and watched her daughter toss the lock aside and mount.

Julie rode across the grass and down the pavement in the dead of the night, lit only in spots by streetlights while her mother shouted after her. She pedaled faster.

She didn't bother stopping at crosswalks or slowing before driveways. She didn't bother wiping the tears that impaired her vision and that streamed down her cheeks. She didn't at all consider answering the phone vibrating in her pocket.

Julie sucked in her lips and tucked forward while pedaling faster, shivering as the wind rushed past and let her hair drift in its slipstream.

She took a right at the next corner and rode north, venturing deeper into a distant residential area and reaching an incline that forced her to pedal harder.

No cars but a few occupied the roads, which Julie turned onto to avoid the occasional pedestrian she came across.

Her breaths quickened and strained through a slew of tears streaming in rivulets. She reached the incline's zenith and coasted down, building speed and approaching a crosswalk.

Julie raised a hand from her bar to wipe her eyes and clear her vision while holding her bike steady with her other. Her handles and front tire started wiggling, so she reached to grab her free handle. As she did, her tire veered, abruptly stopped her bike, and sent her off it with a gasp.

"Ughn!" She hit the asphalt and slid several feet, rolling onto her back with wide eyes. She opened her mouth without uttering a noise at first. "Uh- uh... hnh," Julie groaned, completely rigid with a sucked-in tummy. She couldn't breathe, and when she could in spurs, they heaved. Searing pain flared in her forearm, elbows, and knees, and her head throbbed with a strong dizzy spell that shot her eyes around the blurred darkness.

"Uggnn... hhn." She lay on the road for several minutes while the pain gradually set in. Her breaths wheezed; an occasional sob or grunt would roll from her throat. She quivered and kept her eyes open, often dilating them to try her best to stay conscious.

"Oww," she mewled at a high pitch as the acute pain blared at full force-- nonstop-- all over. "Ghhuh."

She eventually was able to shift onto her stomach, where she waited some more, before holding her breath and pushing herself off the ground with a tight wince and clenched teeth. She sat up and brought her hand to touch her forehead as something warm ran down her cheek from the side of her forehead. Julie rubbed some of it with her quivering fingers and lowered it to see red before her eyes.

She pulled out her phone and eyed several more cracks beside her main one. Sections of her screen were also loose. Julie turned her device upside down and let shards of it fall and land on the road.

She slowly stood, her jaw shaking while her knees bucked. "Ngh." Julie dragged herself with a limp to her bike and picked it up, mounting again and sitting on the seat. With a rough sigh, she started pedaling again.

Within ten minutes, she neared the edge of the pocket of neighborhoods and saw Northern Goldenrod's skyline in the far distance, complete with an abundance of city lights.

Everything still burned; she was lightheaded with raw, red cheeks from tears. Julie rode alongside a gradual increase in traffic, people, apartment buildings, convenience stores, and traffic lights, forcing her to slow her pace.

Her phone vibrated nonstop in her pocket. Julie stopped pedaling and pulled to a curb, where she finally took it out. She couldn't see the screen but hit the lock button on the side with her thumb to take the call, holding it to her ear.

"Julie? Julie, where are you?"

Julie listened to her frantic voice.

"Julie, I know you're upset. You have every right to be, but it isn't safe out there at night... Where are you?"

"Up north," she mumbled.

"Please come home."

"You broke me."

"Sweetie, I-"

"Mom..." Julie whimpered.

"I live with it daily." Her voice quavered, her tone of gentle yet incensed regretful apology. "I have to live knowing you'll be on fucking pills for the rest of your life! I had to worry always about coming into your room and hoping I wouldn't find you dead... You don't know how hard it was for me to let you leave for Unova, Julie. The only thing I could do was ensure you achieved what you wanted. If there was the slightest chance, I wanted you to be happy. It was all I had left. It still is."

Julie took a deep, shaky breath. Never had she heard such raw emotion from her composed mother.

"Julie. You can hate me. You don't ever have to speak to me again, but I do not want to lose you. I'm asking you not to go any farther."

Julie wiped more blood trailing down the side of her head and pressed the lock button to end the call, putting her phone back in her pocket.

She shifted and turned her bike around, standing for a moment, then started riding back into the neighborhoods while the pain rang like an unending reminder; however, she couldn't process it much, so she didn't.

She dragged her bike up the incline she'd fallen at and rode slowly the rest of the way down vacant streets without a thought entering her exhausted, disconcerted head, soon approaching her home and pulling onto the sidewalk, where she stopped.

She saw her mother standing at the door and got off her bike, letting it hit the ground and collapsing on her rear beside it.

Her mother jogged out and met her. "Julie..." She crouched and hugged her but pulled back after Julie moaned. "What happened? Did you get hurt?" She glanced over her and stood while helping her up. "Come inside."

She got through the door with her mother's aid, where she sat Julie on the couch before pacing to flip on the living room light.

"M-My Arceus..." She covered her mouth while approaching her daughter. Her wide, bewildered eyes scanned the moderate bloody cut on the side of her forehead, her cheek stained with dry blood, and the deep scrapes on her knees through tears in her dirty pants. "Stay. I'm going to get wrap and ointment."

Julie contorted her face while leaning back against the cushion, though she kept her arms hovered over it.

Her mother returned minutes later with a tube of ointment, a roll of gauze, a damp cloth, bandages, and a bottle of pills. "I don't even know where to start." She eyed her daughter's several injuries with teary eyes and fixated on her head. "Lean in. I'm going to get your head first."

Julie did and braced as her mother set everything but the cloth on the floor and reached up to dab the wound. "A-hs..." She clenched her teeth with a wince, slightly pulling away.

"I know, I know. I just need to clean it." She dabbed and gently pressed a few more times before pulling away. She set the cloth behind them on the table and looked at the cut, then grabbed the ointment.

Julie watched her open the top and squeeze some onto two fingers.

"I'm going to rub this in."

She shut her eyes and held her breath, going stiff and wearing a scowl while her mother rubbed the ointment over and around the wound. Julie released and opened her eyes after she was done.

"And..." Her mother lastly went for the pack of band-aids and peeled one out, placing it over the cut and pressing its ends. "Okay." She sighed and sat back, looking over the bright red scrapes on her knees. "Julie, how did this happen?"

"I rode down a hill too fast."

She sighed again. "I'm glad you're alive. I really am."

Julie looked at the floor and kept her eyes on it.

"Alyssa and Midnight were down here, but I had them go back up. I figured you wouldn't want everyone hovering over you."

After several moments of silence passed, Julie's mother sat back up. "Let me see your knees."

---

An hour had gone by. Julie's mother had wrapped her knees, elbows, and arm. She'd also given her two pills for the pain and left the glass of water on the table.

Julie lay on the couch in pitch black under a thin blanket covering her.

Her mother had checked on her, along with Alyssa and Midnight at some point after time had passed, but Julie hadn't been responsive, so Alyssa had taken him back upstairs.

Julie hadn't shed another tear, and Arceus knew she wanted to bawl her eyes out, but what for?

She couldn't move without hurting, and she couldn't sleep. She closed her eyes, but they shot open as her phone vibrated in gaps, rattling against the table.

Julie closed her eyes again and let it stop, but less than a minute later, it started vibrating again.

She opened her eyes and stared at it. She extended her arm with a wince, her breath held tightly, and grabbed her phone.

Julie pressed the power button and brought it to her ear.

"Hello, uh, is this Julie?"

"...Yes." On the other end was a man's voice.

"I apologize for calling so late. I've been fighting myself to do it. If this is a bad time, I can call tomorrow."

"It's okay."

"I wanted to ask if you're familiar with a girl named Angie?"

Julie's breath cut. "...I am."

"I know this is going to sound strange, but your name was in her diary, and I found your contact via her phone."

Julie squinted in confusion. "Wh-Who is this?"

"I'm Angie's father." He paused. "The reason I'm calling is because... she committed suicide in her dorm room over a week ago; you seemed to be the person she was closest to. She wrote a lot about you and-"

Julie lowered the phone from her ear and held it over the floor while his distant muttering continued. After a moment, she pressed the lock button and let it slip from her hand. It hit the carpet.