Me and
@Dirty Pretty Lies worked this out for our characters relationship in-show, is good to put under the relationship tab
@BrutalBx?
They met at a drug house, because, of course they did; two kids willing to get so high that they forgot 'problems' and 'troubles' were actual words. At first, it was purely for the physical release of it all, for the high that came from their contact so that they could find another escape from their terrible realities. He resented her at first; she'd grown up in a privileged house, with no abuse or scars to speak of. Sure, she was neglected, but Mordechai would have given anything to be ignored by his parents and their fists. He began to see her issues were valid, though, and the relationship developed emotions that neither were ready for in their fragile states.
When he found out about her bulimia, he tried to get her to stop, but what kind of rolemodel was he? So it ended up being that he had to find her, curled around a toilet and trying to force out what wasn't there, and make a deal that he wasn't even sure he could get behind. If she quit purging, he would try at school, and get away from his parents and buy an apartment with the money he made at the garage; giving her a place to go when she was hurt and vulnerable, and giving him a safe space of his own. Surprisingly, they were both able to make good on those promises.
Their relationship was off and on since then. While they'd always stay friends, Decky didn't have interest in sharing much emotion with anyone outside his precious baby brother. This left her starved of the very interaction she'd been trying to gain from her parents- though she had rebuilt a relationship with them at this point. While she still crashed at his apartment occasionally, they didn't get too far beyond physical contact and sharing each others' problems out loud; you could say their little theraputic sessions started Lanie on her realization that she wanted to do social work. They tried- really, they did- but everyone knew a relationship between the two wouldn't last.
During his junior year, they were finally starting to blossom into a proper relationship; they'd stopped most of their drug use, but still drank and took the occasional hit, and Lanie hadn't purged since mid-sophomore year. It was all looking up as they slapped the boyfriend/girlfriend labels on for the first time in their history.
Of course that's when it had to go so horribly wrong.
The loss of his brother sent Decky on a quick downward spiral that had him leaving town as soon as his brother was buried. He'd told no one but Phil, who would later inform Lanie himself when she stopped by the garage to ask about him. She had no idea where he went, if he was still alive, or why he didn't tell her.
Ok, that last one was a lie; Decky still had a lot of problems sharing his thoughts and feelings, so it probably made sense to him in his grief riddled haze to just hop on his motorcycle and skip out of the emotional hell-hole he saw this town to be.
Lanie uses his story as inspiration for troubled teens when she can. "I knew this guy in high school. His parents were so cruel, so abusive and he fell into a bad life before I'd even met him. But for his little brother-"
'and for me' she'd add silently- "he turned his life around, got emancipated, and with his job at a mechanics garage, got an apartment. It was small, and broken and dirty, but he seemed so happy there, and he'd let other troubled kids crash there as well. With his brother, he didn't need much else. Just find someone to hold on to, and you can make it through this with help."
She'd use her own story for the bulimic kids she dealt with, under the agreement that they don't share anything about it outside the room.
When a dying Phil called her and told her he'd left the Garage to Mordechai, she didn't know what to say; her life was on track and she'd tried to- and gotten- over his leaving. Did this mean he was coming back? Would they even recognize each other? What would their relationship- with their last contact being over his brother's cooling body- be now?
Only time will be able to tell.