"Hello?" I whined out as I tried to stay awake.

"Did I wake you up?" a very perky voice asked.

"Mhm." I looked over at my alarm clock to see it read 11:30 a.m.

"It's almost noon and you're still in bed?"

"It's the weekend, of course, I'm still in bed," I said in an annoyed tone, then it dawned on me, I had no clue whatsoever as to who I was currently talking to.

"Wait who is this?" I asked, sitting up in bed.

"It's me, you know Mia," she said as she giggled at my sleepy confused state.

"Right," I said, rubbing my eyes, trying to get them to focus.

"Wait why are you calling me?"

"Good lord Alex, do you just not remember anything."

"Not when I wake up."

"We're getting together today for our art project, remember now?"

"Oooohhhh, yeah I totally forgot about that," I said causing her to laugh again.

"Do you still want to do this?"

"Yeah, when do you want to meet up?" I asked.

"Well now that you're up, how about I come pick you up and we can go get lunch then hit up the arts and crafts store?"

"Sure."

"Do you still live where you used to?"

"Yeah, the same place, there will be a black truck in the driveway."

"I'll let you know when I'm there," Mia said, hanging up before I could reply.

I quickly ran to the bathroom, did my morning business before I took a quick shower. I turned the water off in the shower, pulling back the shower curtain, I stepped out onto the rug, grabbing a towel as I started to dry myself, I walked into my room, picking out my outfit for today. After I was fully dressed, I checked my phone to see Mia hadn't called or texted me, I placed my phone in my back pocket of my jeans, I picked up my house keys and my wallet, before I walked out of my room and into the hallway.

I closed my bedroom door, as I tucked the keys into my front pocket. Opening my wallet to see how much money I had, I released a sigh of relief when I saw I had enough to cover today, it was bad enough that I was about to have to go wake Kevin up to let him know I was leaving, but adding me asking him for money wouldn't have been pretty.

I walked over to his door, lightly knocking on it before opening the door. Kevin looked to be half awake when I entered his room, he was leaning against the headboard to his bed, smoking a cigarette.

"Yeah?"

"I just wanted to let you know that Mia is about to come get me so we can get started on our project."

"Ok, do you need money?" Kevin asked.

"No, I have enough."

"Here, take this ten anyway."

Kevin picked up his wallet from the bedside table, pulling out a ten-dollar bill, before holding it out to me.

"It's ok, I have enough," I said.

"Just take the money, it's only ten bucks."

"No really it's ok, I have enough."

"I said take it," Kevin said, his voice coming out more stern than before.

I walked over to him, hesitantly taking the money from him.

"T-Thank you," I said, hating myself for stuttering.

"It's fine, go have fun. I'm about to lay back down, I have the day off so I'm going to try and catch up in some sleep," Kevin said as he put out his cigarette.

"Ok." I walked back to the door, closing it behind me.

Once I was in the hallway, I let out a breath that I didn't even know I was holding. What was Kevin up to? Maybe he's about to kill me, that has to be the only explanation for him being so nice to me.

"God Thomas, get a hold of yourself," I said to myself, shaking my head, trying to rid myself of such ignorant thoughts.

I walked down the hall, mentally checking to make sure I had everything with me. After I was sure I had everything, I walked to the front door, unlocking it before opening it, relocking the door from the inside I stepped out onto the porch, shutting the door behind me. After making sure the door was shut, I walked over to the porch swing, sitting down as I waited for Mia to get here.

Leaning back, I laid my head on the back of the swing, closing my eyes as I began to lightly rock the swing back and forth. Letting out a deep breath, I could feel my body relax as a light breeze passed by, today seemed like it was going to be a good day, I just hoped I was right, I could use a good day. A day without being hit, a day without stressing, a day like how it used to be in the past.

Why couldn't life just go back to how it used to be when I used to be happy instead of numb feeling, back to when people actually gave a shit about me. Back to a life when I was wanted, or needed. I opened my eyes when I could hear a vehicle come to a stop, looking over I saw a blue car sitting in the driveway, the passenger side window rolled down as Mia's blonde head poked out.

"Hi," she happily yelled at me as she waved me over.

Smiling I waved back at her as I stood from the swing, walking down the steps I made my way to the car. Why was Mia in the passenger seat? When I got closer to the car I got my answer as to why she wasn't behind the wheel and that was because her jock boyfriend was driving.

"Shit," I muttered under my breath.

It's not like I had a problem with him, it's just well he's a jock, most of them are airheads and assholes. I know all jocks aren't like that, but most of the time they are, and in this case, Brent was. He's never done anything to me, hell he probably doesn't even know my name and I want to keep it that way, I've heard a few stories from some of the kids he picks on, and I don't want to be on the receiving end of Brent and his little goons 'fun'.

"Hey, Alex-" there went all hope of Brent not knowing my name, at least she didn't say my actual first name. "-Brent and Marcie are teamed up for the same art project, so they tagged along, hope that's ok?"

"Yeah that's fine," I told her, but it wasn't, it wasn't fine at all, I hated being around people I didn't know.

"Great, you'll have to get in on my side cause Marcie is behind Brent," she said, her voice full of excitement, how the hell was she always so happy and chipper.

I grabbed hold of the door handle, pulling it as the door opened, getting in, as I closed the door behind me.

"Hi," Marcie said, with a kind smile.

"Hi," I said quietly, as I buckled.

____________________________

"What about this one?" Mia asked for what felt like the millionth time.

It was currently four in the afternoon, the four of us had gone out for Chinese food, I have now discovered that Marcie was an angel. She has to be the sweetest person I've ever met aside from Mia of course. Now Brent, well Brent was like how I expected to be honest, he was an asshole, I honestly had no idea why Mia was with him, I guess she was blinded by love, or something else.

Then there's Kenneth or as he prefers to be called, Max. After lunch, we went to the mall to hit a few of the art stores, and that's where Max comes into play. He was leaving one of the food courts when Brent spotted him, after that he just kind of tagged along with us. I was a little nervous about being around Max, mainly because he was Brent's friend, but Max was the complete opposite of how Brent acted.

He was nice to everyone, he was very chatty but I didn't mind, it was nice having someone to talk to. From what Max told me he and Brent are childhood friends, they're both on the football team, he was dating Marcie and if I was being honest, I don't think I've ever seen a more adorable couple before, they had to be where the term 'Couple Goals' came from.

"Yo Alex, are you even listening to me?" Mia asked, looking a little annoyed with me.

"I don't think that pink will work," I stated.

"Why not?"

"We both agreed on a snowy theme, where the hell would you use that bright ass pink?"

"It's not that pink."

"It literally says neon on the bottle Mia," I said, Mia was starting to get on my nerves, this was why I don't like working with other people.

Mia mumbled something before, putting down the paint bottle, very aggressively may I add, before walking over to where Marcie was at.

"Looks like you're on her shit list," Max said, chuckling.

"What's new there," I said, rolling my eyes.

"So Mia said you two used to be friends?" Brent asked.

"Back in middle school."

"Was that all you two were?"

I looked over at Brent, who was giving me a weird look, what the hell was he trying to imply?

"Yeah, why?"

"Just wondering that's all," Brent said before looking away from me.

"Damn man you don't have to interrogate him, just cause you're the jealous type," Max said.

"Whatever."

And with that Brent walked away from us, heading straight for Mia.

"I'm sorry about him, he didn't use to be like that," Max said, staring at his friend with what looked like sad eyes.

"Don't apologize for him, you did nothing wrong."

I have a feeling that he does that a lot, apologizing for the stupid shit his friend does.

"So are you seeing anyone right now?" Max asked, catching me by surprise.

"Uh, no not at the moment."

"Wow really?"

"You seem surprised."

"I am, you're a nice guy, most girls eat that shit up."

"Yes, well if you haven't noticed I'm completely ignored at school," I said, it's not like I was saying it to get attention, it was true.

"Oh," was all he said.

"Hey what happened to that one girl you used to hang out with all the time?"

"What girl?" Mia asked as she, Marcie, and Brent walked up to us.

"You guys remember that girl that Alex used to hang out with all the time then she moved away in I think Sophomore year or something like that, she was short had brown curly hair," Max said, causing my heart to clench, why did he have to bring her up.

"Oh yeah I remember her, her name was Lisa I think," Marcie said.

"No that wasn't it, her name started with a b or something like that," Max said.

"Her name was Briana," I said, correcting her.

She went to school with them for years and they still can't get her name right.

"Yeah, that's it, what happened to her? you two were tied at the hip?"

"She moved away,"

"Well yeah we know that but what happened to her after that?" Brent asked.

"She died," I said, causing everyone to go quiet.

The truth was she killed herself, Max wasn't wrong we were tied at the hip, we loved each other. We had talked on and off throughout the years, but we didn't get close until halfway through Freshman year.

She had found me having a severe panic attack in one of the unused classrooms, I thought I had locked myself in, but when I opened the door and walked in, I found out I was wrong. Instead of running away or going to go get a teacher, she asked me if I was ok, and when I didn't answer she sat by my side and let me have my moment.

That moment had started something special between us, after that, we started to talk more, then that led to us hanging out all the time, we eventually started dating. After a few months of dating I found out our lives were more alike than I had ever thought, she was dealing with the same shit at home like I was, the only difference is that it was her mother.

We had talked about running away a few times, but we never did, then one day she came to me crying, saying her mother and her were moving away. I had felt like my heart had been stomped on, my life had gone from actually having color in it again to black and white once more. So we did it, we actually ran away that night, but we didn't get far, we were caught almost immediately, the beating I got from Kevin that night was the worst I've ever gotten.

Briana and her mom left that same night, we continued our relationship long-distance, I felt like things were going well, but I guess my happiness blinded me from seeing how depressed she was. I didn't notice her fake smile, her sad eyes, or how she didn't laugh anymore, not until it was too late, I had been texting and calling her for a whole week with no reply, well that was until one night her mother picked up and told me the bad news.

Her funeral was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, I often wonder if this is how mom had felt when dad died. It's been two years now and her death still weighs heavily on me, I feel so guilty, I feel like it's my fault that she killed herself.

"Shit man, I'm so sorry I didn't know," Max said, breaking the silence.

"It's fine. So did you pick out the colors," I asked Mia, changing the subject.

"Huh? Oh, uh yeah, here," she said, showing me the colors she got.

"Those will work well with the scene we're doing."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"I feel like you bought most of the stuff for this project," Mia said, staring down at my four bags of art supplies then down at her one bag.

"Most of this is to resupply at home," I said, I was down to one canvas at home and was completely out of pages in my sketchbook.

"Are you sure?."

"I'm sure."

The rest of the day wasn't too bad, Marcie and Max forced me to swap numbers with them. I know I complain about being lonely a lot but a part of me is very anti-social, mainly because I feel like I couldn't trust anyone anymore. Everyone has left me so far, so why wouldn't they? All I could do was hope they were different, I had to admit it was kind of nice being able to goof off again, being able to just let go again.