(Brendon)

"Staying in my play pretend where the fun ain't got no end! Can't go home alone again. Need someone to numb the pain. Oh oh."

Ryan sang the words. Waiting for me to repeat them. Learning a new song was harder than I thought. Especially a song with such explicit lyrics. I would never listen to this type of song on my own.

"Stayed up in the play pretend. The fun doesn't have to end? Can't go home again. Need something for this pain?"

Ryan laughed. "Close enough."

"This song is extremely sexual."

"It's actually really sad, B."

"Sad?" The only thing I heard her talking about was sex, going to clubs, throwing up and getting high. But I wasn't about to disagree with Ryan.

"Yeah. Some douche bag broke her heart. And it messed up her whole life. Now she has to do things like go to sex clubs and smoke and fuck ugly dads to keep herself busy." He was staring out the window as he spoke. "Because if he over thinks or is sober or bored for even one moment, he remembers how alone he really is. And people can do crazy things when loneliness takes over."

He rubbed his hand over the bandages covering the deep cut on his wrist. I don't even think he realized he was doing it.

I wasn't even going to mention the fact that he'd used he instead of she near the end of the explanation. The singer was clearly a female. But Ryan wasn't talking about her. Ryan was talking about himself.

Now I knew the reason he'd tried to kill himself. He was heartbroken. And he was lonely. I knew suicide was against the bible. But Ryan was different. Ryan didn't just do it for no reason. He wasn't like that. He must have felt it was the only way out. Surely God could forgive him for that.

We didn't speak for a while. We just sat in the car with that same song playing on repeat. Ryan kept his gaze set on something out his window. My gaze was set on Ryan. The volume was almost too low to hear. It set a weird mood in the car.

I sighed and looked out Ryan's window. Trying to follow his gaze. And then I realized he was staring across the street. At the cafe. What if he was planning on doing it again? I leaned forward and switch the song off. Ryan snapped out of his little trance and turned to face me.

He was smiling now. It was weird. Like he just cut the sadness off when the song cut off. If that were the case, I wanted to make that song disappear forever. I placed my hand over Ryan's.

"You know you're not alone anymore right? I'm here. I'm your friend."

He shook my hand off and snorted.

"It's not my song, B. I'm fine. She's the messed up one."

"Of course." I glanced at the time on the dash board. Holy crud! It was almost eight thirty. "I have to go! I'm gonna be late!"

"Okay. I'll pick you up at 3:00."

"Your school hasn't started yet?"

"My school starts at 7:45."

****

(Pete)

Nic and I held hands as we entered our second class of the day. Holding hands with Nic didn't feel as weird as I thought it would.

We were the first ones in Mr. Stump's class. Usually it would have been Brendon and his friends. But Brendon came into music a few seconds late today and that bitchy Sarah girl looked pissed. Which was weird because I thought Sarah was the friend who drove him to school.

She stopped him outside of music as soon as the bell rang. I didn't hang around long enough to hear what she was saying. But I'm pretty sure it had something to do with God, school and working hard.

Mr. Stump turned around when we entered the class. He stopped and stared at our intertwined fingers. His brows furrowed and he glared up at me for a millisecond. And then he smiled.

"Good morning, Nicholas and Pete."

"Good morning sir." Nic batted his lashes.

"I uh, I see today we must be using the buddy system." He joked.

Nic smiled. "No. Pete and I are together."

"Together?"

"Dating." I clarified. "Nic is my boyfriend."

He turned back to face the board. Continuing to write on it. But he pushing down a little harder than before.

Nic let go of my hand and threw me a thumbs up. Others began filling the class. Again, Brendon was a few seconds late. Which sucked because he had to rush all the way to the front of the classroom. And when I said sucked I meant it sucked for him. It as entertaining as hell for me.

Patrick sat at his desk in front of the classroom. His head in his hand. His other hand being used to write something quickly on the sheet in front of him.

The whole class was watching him in silence. Waiting for him to begin the lesson. He seemed to realize this and he looked up.

"I'm so sorry, class." He smiled warmly at us. "I shouldn't have stayed up so late last night partying with Lindsay Lohan." We all laughed.

"I'd like to party with her." Someone called from the back of the class. It was probably Travis.

"Alright. Alright." Patrick stood up. "The first assignment is a simple one. I want you to describe your mindset today in six lines. Go."