NOEL WASN'T sure how long he was at that bus stop for, what he did know was the sky had turned a menacing inky black and the wind had picked up in speed. Sighing to himself he made his way back home, keeping his face trained directly to the floor, he didn't have the heart to put his hoodie over his head again.

Slipping through the door to his house, he heard a loud clatter of noise and fragmented conversations seeping in from the dining room, normally Noel would have ran up the stairs two at a time and buried his face into a pillow (well in this case he would have had a long shower). But today wasn't a normal day (and he was hungry--food makes everything slightly better).

He tentatively pushed open the door to the dining room, where he could see Ron and his mom sitting across from each other, while scoffing down a potato and laughing heartily. What Noel didn't expect to see was Myron sitting closely to Cheryl, one hand wrapped around a fork and the other wrapped around her lithe hand. She had her head tilted to the side so it was resting on his shoulder and was busy talking animatedly to Ron and Noel's mom.

They looked so happy.

The noise from the room quickly died down when Noel's appearance was made aware, he coughed quietly to himself, slowly shifting his body out of the room. For some reason it felt so cold.

"Where have you been? It's seven o'clock! I've called you seven times!" Kim stood up defiantly, though she had been enjoying her meal, her mind wouldn't stop worrying about Noel, he never was late coming home.

Noel tried to look at everywhere but his mother, his eyes honing in on the portrait of a baby Noel, with curly hair and big cheeks. He kept his face firmly planted to the floor, he should have just went upstairs when he had the chance.

"I got a call from your school saying you weren't in your last two periods!"

Noel saw that Cheryl's expression looked unbothered, her head still rested on Myron's yet her eyes were glinting with mild amusement. Myron watched the scene silently, Noel was glad his gaze was on the floor, because he could feel Myron watching him curiously.

"Look at your mother when she's talking to you!" Noel wasn't ready to hear Ron's voice spike out in the dining table. "She's been worried sick!" Anytime Noel heard Ron shout it made him spike all over, it was clear in Noel's mind now, he didn't like Ron one bit.

"Are you listening to me! Look up!"

Noel slowly lifted his head up to look at Ron, he could feel the surprised gasps surrounding the room until it was deathly silent. Noel couldn't tell how bad his face was, but he was sure that it wasn't good.

"What happened to you?" Kim creaked out, she walked closer to Noel, her concerned eyes snapshotting his features carefully. Noel stepped backwards, his lips unconsciously trembling.

He didn't know what to say, but he couldn't get there horror stricken faces out of his mind. "Let me not disrupt your meal." Then Noel hightailed it out of the dining room, storming up the steps to do what he originally planned out in the first place – a warm shower.

_________________________

Noel was lying on his bed watching old Tom and Jerry cartoons, he had previously sneaked downstairs to grab a bag of Hot Cheetos and was now munching them while wallowing in self pity. Suddenly there was an abrupt knock, then the door was forcibly pushed open.

Cheryl was standing there clad in her pink silk pajamas. Her auburn hair was squeezed into a tight ponytail, yet her face was fresh and clear from makeup. She walked into the room confidently, stopping at the foot of Noel's bed.

''What are you doing here?" Noel wasn't in the mood for Cheryl's presence at the moment.

"Your mom was really worried about you, you know. Even Myron, strangely."

Noel stared at Cheryl's seemingly perfect face, he was so tired.

"We're dating you know. Like official. Anyways I heard about what happened to you. It's a shame..."

"Is there a point to this conversation?" Noel couldn't filter the blunt sound to his voice if he tried.

"Yeah, if you had just listened to me before and let me give you the Clearasil you wouldn't be in this mess."

Noel looked past Cheryl to the peeling Steven Universe posters, the ends had curled up and scrunched, given it a crestfallen look. He then looked to his wardrobe, it was half open, his new bright clothes stuffed at the bottom, its vivid colors taunting Noel silently.

"You can't keep on going around like this, do you know what you're doing to your mom! You're the sole reason for her unhappiness right now, she's living with her boyfriend and finally moving on with her life, she also has another girl to talk too, but whenever something horrible happens, it's always you Noel. I'm surprised my Dad can even put up with you. You're always moping around, shutting yourself up in this room. Oh, poor you! It'd probably be better for everyone if you weren't here at all."

"I don't-" Noel stammered out unsurely.

"If you cared about anyone in this household at all, you'd get some help. I don't care what anyone says, it's pathetic and there's no use in me or anyone else entertaining it."

Cheryl shot Noel one last sneer, her auburn eyebrows twisting in an alarming manner on her rouged face. She reached into the pockets of her dressing gown before throwing a half empty Clearasil bottle at Noel. The impact of the bottle hit Noel's pale stomach, his blue-green eyes meeting Cheryl's unsteadily.

"I'm not the enemy here Noel...you are."

And with that Cheryl spun out of the room, her unnecessary mission completed for the day.

Noel looked down at the Tom and Jerry cartoon playing, it was the last episode where Tom sat at the train tracks, his face mangled into a depressed frown.

For what felt like the fifteenth time that day, he felt hot tears splash down his cheeks, his face flaming in embarrassment, as he wiped them away fiercely.

He closed the cartoon and went onto YouTube. His recommendations were usually snippets and clips of animated series but for some reason there was another video on his recommended, of a boy/man (Noel couldn't really tell) with blonde curly hair and a solemn look on his face, the video was titled 'HOW I GOT RID OF MY ACNE' and next to it was a before comparison, where his face was nearly as bad as Noel's.

It'd been a long time since he had watched those acne videos, when his face had started to get increasingly bad in sophomore year he had binge watched so many of these videos, he was pretty sure he was an expert. Ordinarily he wouldn't have clicked on the video, but for some reason it intrigued him.

"HEY GUYS WELCOME TO MY CHANNEL!" Noel winced at his obscenely loud voice, he had a large smile plastered across his face, as he babbled on about merch and meet and greets. Noel wondered when he was even going to talk about his acne.

"So I used this product called Banish Zone, it's only $100 dollars for the small bottle and $350 for the large bottle!" Noel was about to click of the video in annoyance, as if anyone was willing to pay that much money for a spot treatment, he's already spent so much already. However his perky voice babbled on as he set the expensive acne products on the table down.

"What changed for me the most was my mindset. I stopped thinking of myself as the guy with acne, and started thinking of myself as someone who mattered, I smiled more, I talked more, you can't let something like a couple of pimples shape who you are as a person. You can't let it label you, and I'm going to say something very important. People don't care if you don't care, if your acne is always something your worrying about, people pick up on that and manipulate that, if it isn't something you care about, it isn't going to be for other people. I promise you that it will get better. Now if you input this code you can get the Banish Zone Kit for 3.25% off, just head to the website www.banishzone.com and remember, Change. Your. Mindset."