Authors Note: Hiii. This is my first story back from a very, very long hiatus. So, sorry if it's a little clunky, I will become more refined as the story goes on, pinky swearrr. This book touches on sensitive topics such as eating disorders, self harm, and suicidal thoughts. If you are sensitive to this kind of stuff, this may not be the book for you. Anyway, attached is a picture of Ava that I made in Sims lol. I made all the characters thus far, so each chapter I will drop a new one so you have a better visual. Anyway, please enjoy! <3 ALSO PLEASE VOTE COMMENT AND SHARE WITH YOUR FRIENDS IF YOU ENJOY THIS THANKSSS

My friends giggle behind me as I look in the direction of the new kid, his floppy dark hair hanging around his face, covering his eyes. "Do it," one of the girls whispers, gesturing to him. "Talk to him."

Lexi, the only girl in that group that's not part of the cheer squad, sighs. "Look at him," she says with sympathy, clicking her tongue and shaking her head. "He wants to be left alone. What are you even going to say?"

I shrug, grinning at her. "Hello, do you have a gun in your backpack?" The other girls laugh, causing the new kid to look up. When he sees we're all watching him, he gives us a blank stare before turning back to his notebook, doodling and listening to his music through his earbuds.

I watch him raise the volume on his phone, shifting uncomfortably under our gaze. New Kid pulls his jacket tighter to himself, digging his nails into the palm of his hand, his cheeks now a light shade of pink. Lexi sighs again, turning away from the other girls and myself. After a few more taunts, I finally stand up and make my way towards the edgelord.

"Hi," I say to him, sticking my hand in front of his face. He stares at it for a second, before dragging his gaze up to me. His eyes are piercing and dark, his stare intense. I shift my weight between my feet for a second, before clearing my throat and dropping my hand. "Uh, I'm Ava... You're new, right? I'd just like to welcome you to our school. My friends and I-" I point at my friends, who all wave in sync. "-just wanted to say-"

"Not interested," he cuts me off, going back to drawing on his notebook. I catch a glimpse of what he's doodling: It's a scribble mess, vaguely human shaped. There's a bigger scribble figure, this one less human, it's teeth bared and it's claws massive. When the kid catches me staring, he quickly covers it up, glowering at me. "I feel very welcome. Now, can you leave alone?"

    After a stare down for a second, I take a step back and hold up my hands. "You got it," I respond, grinning a little bit. "Listen, if you need anything-" I lace my fingers together behind my back, smiling at him. Before I can finish again, he stands up. I didn't notice it while he was sitting, but he is tall. His large figure looms over me, his sharp features contorted in frustration. He holds up his hand, shaking his head.

    "Leave. Me. Alone," he says quietly, before walking past me and leaving the classroom. He keeps his shoulders hunched forward as he leaves, almost as if trying to make himself smaller.

    "Milo," Mrs. Thompson calls out after him. She quickly walks towards the door, peeking her head out. "You need to ask to leave!" He's gone before she can finish the sentence, causing our teacher to sigh. She grumbles under her breath about ungrateful kids, before going back to her desk to work.

    Milo. That's his name.

    I sit back down next to Lexi, who shakes her head in disapproval. "That was not nice," she chastises, shaking her finger. Laughing, I bump my shoulder into hers. She can't help but smile, but still rolls her eyes. "If he shoots up the school, I don't know you people, got it?"

    "If?" Riley, one of the other girls on the team, asks. The other girls giggle, and Lexi sighs. "You mean when, right? Kid looks like he's one second from ending it all."

    Lexi stands, shaking her head as she collects her stuff and moves away from us. I shoot Riley a glare, but follow it up with a wink, and move to sit next to Lexi. "Your friends suck," she grumbles. "Like, seriously suck."

     I nod in agreement. She's not wrong.

     Lexi has been my best friend since we were in diapers. She's been through everything with me, from when I first fell in love to when my dad left. She's the only friend that I have besides my cheer friends. Lexi waves her hand in front of my face. "Did you hear what I said?" She demands, her tone edged with irritation.

    "Of course, you were just... you were just saying..." I look around the room, tapping my finger to my chin. When I look back at her, she has her arms crossed over her chest, an eyebrow raised expectantly. "I wasn't listening, I'm so sorry. Your beauty was just too much. You know how it goes."

    Despite her rolling her eyes, she laughs and shoves me. Lexi's red hair falls into her face as I shove her back, and she whines, trying to fix it. "I asked if you wanted to come by later, but I take it back," she complains jokingly.

    The bell rings, and kids nearly fly out of the classroom. I say bye to my cheer girls, and Lexi and I walk out of class with our arms linked. "I'm going to Brad's tonight," Lexi sings in excitement, looking over at me.

    "Are you finally going to give it up?" I ask as we get to our lockers. I unlock mine, looking into the mirror as I fix my lipstick.

In the reflection, I see Milo rummaging through his locker, his hood pulled over his hair. He drops off his books, exchanging them with new ones, before closing his locker and turning around. He catches my eye in the mirror, and glowers for a second, before continuing down the hall.

    "Probably not," Lexi says, breaking me up from my trance. She fixes her bra, popping her lips after she applies some gloss, and turns to me. "But I'll probably finally give him a blowie."

    Squealing excitedly, I jump up and down around her. "That's my girl!" I cheer, grabbing my pom-poms from my locker and shaking them in front of her. "One, two, three, four Lexi's gonna be a whore! Five, six, seven, eight, Brad's gonna feel fucking great!"

    Lexi snatches my pom-poms from my hands and throws them in my locker, hiding her red face in her hands as people look over at us curiously. "I hate you," she hisses, grabbing her bag and blocking me from looking at her as she runs to our next class.

    I laugh, almost doubled over with how funny I find it, as I follow Lexi. When we reach our next class, I walk in and spot Milo chatting with the teacher. I catch a snippet of their conversation- something about his parents and not being able to make it. I shrug it off, settling into my usual seat next to Lexi, who is noticeably more flushed than usual.

    "I hate you," she reiterates, flipping me off with her perfectly manicured nails. "What if someone heard that?"

    I shrug, wrapping my arm around her. "We are practically eighteen, Lex. I don't think anyone is going to really care. If anything, the guys will be happy a pretty lady like yourself is finally giving it up."

    Lexi whacks me on the arm once more with a string of incoherent grumbles, sinking deep into her seat as the teacher starts the lesson. Milo sits back down in his seat, his hood pulled up over his fluffy hair. I watch him curiously as he pulls out his notebook, one arm hooked around it to shield the page.

    I watch as Milo breaks out a set of pen and pencils, meticulously dragging each one across his notebook, the sounds of scribbling drowned out by our teacher droning on about world history. Nudging Lexi, I nod towards Milo. "Should I-" I start, looking at her with a wild grin.

    She meets my gaze and gives me a blank look, shaking her head. "What did I tell you? Leave that poor kid alone. I mean, look at him. Look at his clothes- He wears the same thing basically every single day. Doesn't look like he has a good home life to me. Maybe we shouldn't push it even more?"

    "What if we're the reason he can have a more fulfilling life?" I ask her with a mock pout, clasping my hands together and placing them under my chin. Lexi rolls my eyes, pushing my hands down. "Oh, come on, you are sooo boring."

    "Whatever you want to do, fine, but I want no part of it." Lex crosses her arms across her chest, turning her head away from me with an exaggerated huff. The great thing about having a friend in theater- All the dramatics.

    Class goes by like normal, Lexi and I get yelled at about talking too much, Aaron in the front row gets yelled at for sleeping, and Milo gets a stern talking to for not paying attention. The bell rings not too long after, and the class files out of the classroom quickly. On my way out, I notice Milo's notebook is dropped underneath his desk, the words "KEEP OUT" written across in big, red letters.

    I pick it up, waving it in Lexi's face. "Should we read it?" I ask with a giggle, walking to our lockers to switch our books around.

    Lexi looks down at the book, back up at me, and then back down to the book. "No," she says, irritation lacing her voice. "We shouldn't. What about 'keep out' makes you go yeah... yeah, I'm going to read that?"

    "Ugh, boooring," I drawl, opening the notebook anyway. I flip through the pages, the first few just being some notes from various classes. The deeper in you go, however, there are a countless drawings, the pages nearly full of scribbles.

    Despite Lexi's words, she can't resist peering over my shoulder as I flip through the sketches. The drawings are nightmarish, the stuff straight from a horror movie, each page more unsettling than the last. Yet, amidst the disturbing images, there are a few strikingly good portraits of random people, some pretty nature drawings, too. The last page, though, captures my attention- an unfinished sketch of a girl with long pigtails and devil horns jutting from her head. Her wicked smile is accompanied by the word "bitch" scrawled around her, giving the drawing a menacing edge.

    Taking a closer look, I squint my eyes and turn to Lexi. "Is this...?" I start, my eyes wide as I hold up the notebook next to my face in comparison.

    Lexi lets out a snort, looking between the drawing and me. "He captured your essence," she jokes, laughing as I shoot her a glowering look. "I know what you're being for Halloween! Sexy devil!"

    I laugh a little, but still shove her. "Why would he-?" I'm cut off by the notebook being snatched from my hands, and turn around to see a wall in front of me. I drag my eyes up to find a very angry Milo, his face bright red in a mix of embarrassment and anger.

    "What the fuck are you doing?" He hisses, flipping through the pages to make sure they're all there. He relaxes a little when he sees that the notebook is mostly untouched, but still stays tense, his ears on fire.

    "I was going to give it back to you," I start, and when I turn to Lexi for help, I notice she's disappeared. Fucking bitch. "Y-you dropped it in history, and I was going to bring it back to you, but-"

    He glowers down at me, holding up his hand to stop me. "But you decided to go through it first despite it saying not to... Did I get that right?" Milo's intense gaze makes me shift uncomfortably, my eyes dropping to the floor.

    After a second, I mumble a half-assed apology, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..."

    Milo laughs humorlessly, shaking his head. "What, your hands became possessed and opened it by themselves?" His voice low and gravely, drenched in sarcasm.

    "Is that... Me?" I ask curiously, pointing at the back of the book. Milo holds the notebook tightly to his chest, as if afraid it's going to grow legs and walk away. His face once again turns a bright shade of crimson, the red flushing his pale cheeks.

    Without saying a word, Milo takes a deep breath,  spinning on his heels and stalking down the hall. He disappears down the corridor in barely three steps. I watch him go, my own cheeks tinged pink. Despite the harsh depiction, there's a strange sweetness to it, and it's not like he made me some grotesque monster. He actually captured my essence quite well.

    Lexi reappears a second later, shaking her head. "No part of that," she repeats. When I don't say anything, merely watch the mostly empty hallway, she grins. "I don't think I've ever seen you speechless before."

I continue to stay silent as we walk to our next class, the bell ringing to indicate we're going to be late as usual.