"You don't need a coffee to work out Maggie!" I called from the living room as I heard her rummaging around in the kitchen for the coffee we kept hidden from her for a reason. "If I don't have a coffee I will legitimately hurt someone, do you want to be a victim?" I scoffed and let my leg drop down and leaned forward, thumbing my page, putting my book on my lap and looking up at the entrance to the kitchen. "You are 5'2" woman, you slapped a mosquito once and it slapped you back, relax," I said with a soft smile at the playful banter. (Xavier's 5'6", this is back in high school) "Ugh!" She groaned and came stomping out. "Just take some vitamins," I offered and she glared at me. "I will fight you if you don't tell me where it is," she warned and I laughed. "Please! You're a tooth pick and who did dad train the most?" I countered and she growled. "Alright alright, that's enough you two," Our dad said as he walked out into the living room from the hallway, and pinched the bridge of his nose. "You're gonna wake up your mother if you keep this up," He said and we both recoiled away, scared shitless by the idea of waking mom. "Sorry Dad," we said in unison and I heard my watch go off. I quickly turned it off, put my book on the corner table, got up and grabbed my back pack that was already ready and was sitting at my feet by the couch. I made for the door only to get stopped by him. "Where do you think you're going?" He asked and I rolled my eyes. "Just to hang out with some friends, dad," I answered and paused, waiting for him to say something. "Fine whatever, just don't get into trouble." I pulled the door open with a small smile. "I won't dad," I half lied and walked out, shutting the door behind me and taking off down the side walk.

I panted as I ran into the alley to see Joshua standing there. "Hey man!" He called and I gave him a big smile as I waved. "So- what shit are we doing today?" I asked and he pulled out his phone. After a minute, he showed me his phone. The location was of a old abandoned building that was in ruins, like there were barely any walls on the thing. "We're going here," he said with a proud smirk on his face. "I told my dad I wouldn't get in trouble, if he finds out-" he stopped me, "He won't find out. As long as we stay hidden in the building and away from the walls, we should be fine." I rolled my eyes. "Whatever you say."

When we arrived, I hoisted the backpack up a bit on my shoulders and looked up at the building. From the looks of it, it used to be an old dorm building. "Wait- if these are dorm rooms then where is the school?" I asked, looking back at Joshua who was looking up at it. "It got demolished years ago," He answered without turning to me. I turned my body to face him. "But then why didn't they destroy this?" I asked and he glanced at me. "Some kid died in this place and the parents practically begged for them not to destroy this place," he said and I shuddered. He looked at me and chuckled. "Are you scared?" He asked in a surprised tone and I glared at him. "In your dreams, dumbass." He laughed and I just rolled my eyes. I loved his laugh, I couldn't really tell you why but I just did. It was always so filled with emotion even if he was just playing with me. I jerked back to reality when I noticed him snapping his fingers in front of me. "You alright man?" He asked and I shook my head lightly before nodding. "Yep!" I reassured him and he gave me a worried look before turning back to the building. "What all did you bring?" He asked and I put my hands in my pockets. "Figured something like this would happen so: Two Flashlights- since from what I can see you didn't bring anything- "Hey!" a crowbar "Where the hell did you get that?!" none of your business. Two big bags of trail mix and two water bottles. Pliers, a hatchet, and two masks," I finished labeling them off and glanced at Joshua. "Why masks?" He questioned, raising an eyebrow. "Dust, smoke, chemicals. Who knows what's in there," I said and he bobbed his head to the side. "Fair point," he mumbled before taking the hair tie off of his wrist and reaching back to pull back his shoulder long light blue hair with highlights of darker blue through it to give it a shading look. "What about first aid?" He asked and I nodded. "Always." He huffed and walked forward, hoping the fence easily as I followed closely.

We walked around the first floor, the lobby, finding old worn out books, a can of broth in one of the cabinets which we put in my back pack, a fleece blanket that wasn't torn apart, and a box of matches that was opened. I picked it up. "Well now we know what happened to this place," I said, looking back at Joshua to see him reading over a book. "Josh," I said, a bit louder and he looked up. "Yes?" I raised an eyebrow. "I said 'now we know what happened here'... what are you reading?" I asked, putting the matches down and walking over, peering over his shoulder. He closed the book and put it back on the book shelf- on a shelf that hadn't fallen over- and just sighed. "Nothing, absolutely nothing," He muttered, kicking at the ground. I gave him a soft smile and put my hand on his shoulder. "We still got like three floors left to search around on and anyway-" I took my hand off his shoulder and went back into the hallway, looking up at the stairs. "What were you expecting to find in here? Didn't the site say that they found the kid's body?" I asked and looked back to see him walking over with his hands in his pockets. "Yeh, but still." I rolled my eyes.

We walked up to the second floor and I glanced at Joshua as he looked at all the dorm signs... or what was left of them. Joshua was 5'8" and had shoulder length wavy light blue hair- that his parents never approved of- he also had beautiful crimson red eyes- no one knows how he got them, seeing that all his DNA tests told them that he was human- his skin was a light tan and freckles speckled his nose and shoulders and he had wide rimmed glasses, almost like my own, but smaller and the rim was a dark purple- which earned him a couple bullies back in middle school- instead. I've been friends with him for 4 years- ever since 6th grade- and I've never, not once, seen him this distressed in his life. Sure I've seen him come to school with bruises, black eyes, cuts, a broken arm once but he never cried about it, he'd always push himself up and keep going- that was until his older brother died while he was in high school. The media covered it up since Joshua's family was in control of a very big company that gained them all the money they could need- Joshua never brought any more than he needed whenever he'd come to the mall or go shopping because he didn't like being treated like a spoiled brat... though people bullied him for it still- so I never found out how his brother died.

I watched as Joshua ran into a dorm room with a red sign on the front of it that was still intact. I took the bottom of it in my hand and read it. "Richard Re-" It stopped after that, the rest of the sign scorched and blackened. Wait... Joshua's older brother's name was Richard and their last names were Renegade (don't judge me, I couldn't think of anything)... holy. I pushed the door open more to see Joshua frantically searching around the room for anything that might've symbolized his brother. "God dammit!" He yelled and threw himself down into a heap of burned blankets that were on the floor in the middle of the room. He covered his face. "Joshua, is this why you wanted to come here?" I asked him, making my voice the softest it's ever been since I met him. He didn't say anything and I realized that his shoulders had started to shake, he was crying. I tilted my head to the side slightly, giving him a small sad smile and walking over. I knelt down behind him and hugged him, wrapping my arms around his waist and resting the side of my face against his upper back. My eyebrows furrowed as I noticed a small metal red box underneath a shelf. I pulled back from Joshua and walked over on my knees then picked it up. A small pad lock was attached to it and I pursed my lips before putting it down, taking off my back pack, and pulling out my pliers.

I snapped the loop on the box and the lid popped open. I heard shuffling behind me and Joshua appeared at my side, peering down as I opened the box.

A small silver pocket knife with two initials on the middle of the red handle. Joshua picked it up and turned it over twice before noticing that the initials were of his brothers, two R's. "T-Thank you," he said quietly and I gave a small smile before putting the pliers back in my bag, slugging it over my shoulders and standing. I offered a hand down and he quickly grabbed my hand, allowing me to pull him to his feet. I looked down then bent over and picked up a small note in the box and straightened. I opened it but closed my eyes and handed it to Joshua. I felt him take it and I opened my eyes and shoved my hands in my pockets, looking around the ruined room. Joshua let out a small chuckle. "He never did follow the rules," he mumbled and I huffed. Joshua's brother was one of the outcasts in the family. He never followed the rules and worse of all he was gay. I'm not saying I'm homophobic or anything like that, hell I'm fucking pansexual. What I mean is his family disowned him for it, threw him out of the house, and forced him to live at one of his friend's house and forbid Joshua to visit him. After Richard moved into the dorms it just got worse, - even though Joshua was allowed to visit him- he got into fights, trashed his dorm room more than once either because of a small party or his anger issues, got caught by the police a couple times from trespassing and raiding small areas, he even got arrested once for assaulting a guy- I don't blame him since I heard him testifying, he kept saying that the guy was trying to rape his date and kept harassing them, even tried to use force once. He caused the family a lot of their reputation in the town and in the business community. Later- closer to his death- he started smoking and underage drinking, going to clubs with his friends and not telling anyone- not even Joshua- about it. I only know this because... he let me come along. I never smoked, never drank, and never really participated in anything since I was mostly there to make sure he got out alive and not caught. I looked up to him, thought of him as an ideal, even if no one saw that, he was like a god to me. When I heard the rumors that he had died I was devastated, I had always thought that Richard was unbeatable- not that he couldn't get hurt because god knows he got hurt so many times you would've thought that he'd have PTSD afterward- and would never die... but he did... it broke my heart. I wasn't myself for a year and a half. I couldn't sleep and I didn't eat as much as I usually did and I was always late for classes, my grade dropped a bit before my dad finally addressed the situation. Before then I was never friends with Joshua, even though he was Richard's younger brother, never talked to him once besides a "hi, how are you". My dad forced us to meet up and soon after Joshua became my best friend... and crush, I gotta admit.

"Xavier!" I was snapped out of my thoughts by Joshua shaking my shoulders lightly. I focused on his eyes, he was looking at me worriedly. "What?" I asked and he frowned. "You're crying," he said and I gave a confused look. I wiped my cheeks with the back of my hand and realized that they were wet with my tears. "O-Oh," I stuttered and he let go of my shoulders. "Are you okay?" I looked up at him and wiped my eyes once. "Yeh, I'm fine. I was just thinking of Ricky," I answered, giving him a reassuring smile but he sighed. "I um-" I gestured my hand at the note in Joshua's fist, changing the subject quickly. "So um what did it say?" I inquired, clearing my throat and he took a step back. "That he wanted to give this to me before he um died and never thought it would be this soon, he was writing it in a hurry and the corners were burned and dried up so I think he was writing it as he um as he d-died," Joshua's voice cracked and he cleared his throat, looking away and taking in a deep breath.

"HEY! YOU TWO, GET DOWN FROM THERE!" We heard a voice yell that snapped us out of our sad reveries. We looked out from the broken wall to see a security guard standing outside the fence. "Fuck," Joshua muttered. "Alright Alright!" I called down and Joshua sent me a glare. "What the fuck are you doing?!" He hissed and I winked at him. I took my back pack off and handed it to him with a stern look, making eye contact with him. "You lose this and I'll cut off one of your fingers," I muttered and his eyes widened as he stiffened. I never would but it worked and it was efficient. "This is gonna hurt like a motherfucker," I huffed as I put a leg over the wall and then the other. Joshua put the back pack on. "What are you doing?" He asked under his breath, worried. "Hey kid! Go around the other way, you'll get hurt!" He called up and I looked down at the ground. "It's only 18 feet, I've jumped from higher," I called down and chuckled. I actually have jumped from higher. Hell I've jumped from 70 feet before... with a glider in my hands. "How does he calculate it that fast." I heard Joshua mutter and I narrowed my eyes as I jumped. I landed in a crouch and groaned as I straightened up, rolling my shoulders and turning to look up at Joshua only to see that he was already gone. I slightly limped over to the fence and jumped over, wincing as I put my full weight on my right leg to jump over. "You really shouldn't have done that, you-" the cop started to chide me and I rolled my eyes. "Yes yes, 'or you could've gotten hurt' I know all the dangers," I mocked him and his eyebrows furrowed. "Who do you think-" he was cut off yet again by Joshua hopping the fence, panting slightly. "That was really cool Xav!" He praised me and I nearly beamed. It felt so good to be complimented by him. "Cool but dangerous," the cop muttered and looked down on us with a huff. "I'm letting you two off with a warning since this area wasn't really labeled as 'off limits' but if I catch you two back here then we're gonna have some trouble," He said but I was already walking off. I spun on my heel, walking backwards and Joshua quickly caught up to me. "Yes sirre!" I  saluted to him and he rolled his eyes. I spun around again and took off with Joshua by my side, laughing.

(Richard Renegade, 16)