*Ross - Point of View*

"Ross! Come down for lunch sweetie!" I heard my mum yell faintly, my game music blasting through my headphones.

"Coming!" I shouted back. "I got to go guys." I said to my two blocky friends who went by the alias 'Trottimus' and 'Alsmiffy'.

"I should get going too." The Walrus said, opening the cube chest behind him, shoving his items inside.

"Guess that leaves me then. Bye guys!" Alsmiffy's Minecraft character popped away, and Trott followed quickly after. I stood in the marble tower I had made; where my friends and I lived, and kept all of our belongings. Well except for the wizard tower Alsmiffy had built; containing all of his magical, dangerous items.

"Ross?" My mum yelled one again. I sighed and logged off, chucking my headphones down onto the seat. I ran down the stairs, holding onto the banister as I slipped around the corner, sliding into the kitchen. I sat down in my seat at the table and my mum placed a sandwich down in front of me. I took a bite, she put in more cheese just like I like it. "I would like it if you went to play outside." I rolled my eyes but continued eating. I looked outside and the sun was shining down; not a cloud in the sky.

It had been summer vacation for a week now, and I had spent most of the time in my room, playing Minecraft with Trottimus and Alsmiffy. I had meet them on a server; we made a team on a 'Hunger Games' map, and we won. Since then our friendship has just grown. We only know each other by our in game names, but we have begun speaking on Skype while gaming together now. We have a shared server so we can play in peace.

"Fine. I will go outside." I huffed, finishing the last of my sandwich and putting my plate into the sink.

"Thanks sweetheart. Don't forget sunscreen!" I rolled my eyes. This is Bristol, not California. The likability of me getting a sunburn isn't as substantial. I still put on some however; just for her sake.

"Bye mum!" I announced, walking out into the light of the day. I grabbed my skateboard, hopping on and skating down the street.

"Be safe you two! Stick together!" Some woman shouted. I slowed down and looked over to my left, and saw two boys my age walk out of a home, waving to what seems like their mother. However the two didn't look like they were related.

"Bye mum" They both chirped, walking down to the sidewalk across the lawn. Huh, guess they are related. One of them looked over to me and gave a weak smile, waving towards me. I looked around to see if he was waving to anyone else, but there was no one else around. I nervously waved back. I had never had friends in school; only online. I just found more comfort in confiding in people online, I don't know why, but I do. The two boys walked over to me, the taller one smiling kindly whilst the shorter one kind of trailed behind cautiously.

"Hi! We are new here. We moved in last week. The names Alex." Alex reached his hand out for me to shake. I kept my head down and shook the boy's hand. It was warm, soft. Nothing about his body language seemed off, so I calmed down a little, looking up at Alex's eyes. They were a deep blue like his own, and his hair was messy; ginger in colour.

"My names Ross." I finally replied, before releasing the handshake. Alex seemed to gently push the other boy forward, to which the boy slowly put out his hand.

"I'm Chris..." He whispered before backing away behind Alex again. Chris was a weird character, he seemed really shy, but at the same time seemed like when you got to know him he would be the most outgoing. He had dark brown eyes that matched with his chestnut hair. He was shorter that Alex by a few inches, but perhaps he would grow. If I were to guess their age, I would say 16; the same age as me.

"Do you want to hang out? My mum is making me go outside. Claims I spend too much time on my PC." I chuckled weakly, scratching the back of my neck. The two nodded and followed me down to the skatepark a few blocks down.

***A few hours later***

I walked back into my house, the sun outside was setting, the streetlights slowly turning on. I kicked off my shoes, walking into the living room to see my father sitting on the couch watching the news. My father worked an office job, he was a lawyer assistant. He had graduated from Law School, but it became too stressful for him, so now he does filing and reception. He wishes he could get back into the field, but his therapist thinks it is best if he doesn't.

"How was your day dad?" I asked, taking a seat beside him on the couch. He looked over at me and smiled.

"It was fine. The same as always. Johnson has a new case," Johnson was the lawyer he assisted "and it seems pretty interesting. Homicide." I just nodded, I knew my mum wouldn't want him talking about such negative things in the house. "How about you?" I shrugged.

"I went to the skatepark. Meet the kids who moved in down the block."

"Supper!" Mum called, and I hopped up to the kitchen. "Set the table please." I did as I was told, setting the placemats and plates where we all sat, before taking a seat. My father followed behind, taking a seat at the end of the table. My mother walked in with the dinner before we all dug in.

***After supper***

"Hey guys!" I excitedly said, followed by two more hellos mashed in with each other. "What you get up to today?"

"We went for a walk in our new area. We just moved into a place." Trottimus answered, putting his armour on from the armour stand.

"Yeah, you were telling me a few weeks ago. How is it?" I questioned walking over towards them to the garden in the back where we sourced all of our food.

"It's really nice." Alsmiffy responded. "We even meet our first friend today. He took us to the skatepark." I stopped walking and took my hands away from my keyboard. The two turned around, looking towards me.

"Are you okay Dj?"

"Where did you two move to?" It was silent for a moment before Trottimus answered.

"Bristol. Why?" I sat in silence for a moment gobsmacked; before I burst into laughter.

"Was the guy's name Ross?" I managed to say through my laughs.

"Yeah."
"Yeah, believe it or not; but you meet me." It was silent again except for my desperate attempt to steady my breathing.

"Wait actually?"

"Yeah, you two are called Chris and Alex. Alex, you have blue eyes and ginger hair. And you're tall. Taller than me. And Chris, you have brown eyes and hair, and you are the shortest of us."

"Oh my god, it was you!" Chris giggled, running circles around me.

"What a funny thing to happen." Alex sighed, before we continued on our adventures through Minecraft.

*Alex - Point of View*

Ross, Chris and I had been friends for almost a year now, we were all in Year 11, and I was scraping by in most of my classes. Ross was doing just fine; and Chris was just whizzing through.

"I don't understand. Why do we have to learn about the Romans? Cool they did stuff. What about more important things like... anything else?" I complained, tossing my textbook down onto the wood floor of the treehouse in Ross' backyard. The treehouse was like any kids dream, you climbed a ladder to get up here; and the treehouse was covered up. There was a door that locked, and windows that kept the cold out and the warmth in, but one of the windows slid open just in case. The inside had a small chest to put random stuff inside, and there was a hammock hanging from the exposed branches inside. They had also managed to get a small futon in here. On more than one occasion we had all slept over up here, enjoying the seclusion from our parents.

"I don't know. I hate it too." Ross mumbled, closing his textbook and putting it down nicely.

"What do you mean guys? This is so easy." Chris spoke, flipping through the pages of the book on his lap. "Look, they used to kill people as a sport. And here. They had a great government..." Chris droned off as he saw me and Ross yawn, rolling his eyes in annoyance. "I am just trying to help you two pass."

"The only thing I want to pass right now is time." I moaned, falling back onto the wooden floor. "Hey your parents are gone for the night right?" I ask Ross to which he raises and eyebrow and slowly nods.

"With your parents. They went to that work thing up in Swindon for the night. Why?"

"Why don't we go have fun?" I said, walking out the door and jumping the few feet the the grass below. Ross and Chris stumbled behind me, Ross hesitantly jumping down and Chris taking the ladder.

"Alex, what are we doing?" Ross questioned as I walked into his house, kicking my shoes off at the door, jumping to the kitchen. I stopped and turned around when I got there, Ross looking confused and Chris worried. I went into the fridge and pulled out some coolers, examining the faces in front of me. Even if History wasn't my strong point; people were. I seemed to have a sense when someone was lying. I could tell there emotions from their body language. Simply: I could read people like a book. And Chris was uncertain, but Ross was fully agreeing.

"Chris?" I smiled, shaking around the alcohol. Chris looked down at the ground but when he looked up he grinned, grabbing the cooler from my hand. "Awesome. Ross, do you want to take some and take it to the treehouse? We will get some from ours so it doesn't look like we took any." Ross nodded and me and Chris wandered across the street to our home.

"Is this okay?" Chris asked as we took a bottle of whiskey from the liquor cabinet. I shrugged my shoulders, standing up tall.

"It will be fine. If you don't want to we won't." Chris shakes his head.

"No, I want to." I smiled.

"Come on then!" We trudged back across to Ross', our backpacks clinging to the noise of glass hitting glass.

"Come on guys!" Ross giggled, before disappearing into the treehouse again. When we were all up I could see that Ross had brought up some water bottles and made the futon onto a bed. "It wouldn't be safe going down that ladder when we are drunk." Ross said, taking the alcohol and placing it with the rest.

"What about when we have to pee?" Chris asked, looking red in the face.

"Stand outside and pee onto the grass." Ross answered, pulling out his iPod. He plugged it into his portable speaker.

"Don't come outside then..." Chris whispered before walking out of the house onto the small porch that held the ladder.

"Seriously Chris?" I teased, and Ross chuckled.

"I need practice! If I can't do it sober how can I do this drunk? I also don't want to drink on a full bladder."

"Good point." I said, stepping out onto the porch. Ross sighed and followed behind.

"Guys!" Chris whined, turning away from us.

"Chris, it isn't something we haven't seen before." I chatted. Ross still giggled at how ridiculous this situation was.

"Whatever." Chris mumbled. When we all go back inside Ross turned on his music, loud enough for us to hear over speaking, but not loud enough for someone to complain about the noise.

"Here is to friendship. And let's hope it lasts for years to come."

"Cheers!" We all sang, taking a long sip of our drinks. This was going to be a fun night.

*Ross - Point of View*

9 beers, 6 shots and 3 glasses of whiskey later; and it was safe to say Alex, Chris and I were drunk. The buzz ended after the 2nd shot, and the music could be playing; but I had stopped listening hours ago. We were all sat in a circle, talking about random topics, doing silly dares.
"Hey, Alex, Chris?" I slurred, tapping them on the shoulder.

"What's up?"

"I have always wondered, are you two related? You look nothing alike." Chris looked down at the ground, Alex took another swig of his beer.

"Can I tell him Chris?" Alex asked, and Chris nodded in return.

"When Chris was younger; only about two years ago, his parents died. It was a freak accident; drunk drivers. After they died, Chris came to live with me. That's why we moved out here." Chris looked up at me, sadness washing through his warm brown eyes.

"Sorry to hear..." Chris shrugged, going over to grab another beer.

"We don't talk about it really." Alex whispered, looking me in his eyes. I looked down, feeling bad about what I asked. "Ross." I looked back up at Alex. "Wanna do dares?"

"Sure, why not. Wanna join Chris?"

"Sure." Chris answered, sitting back down in the circle.

"Ross," Alex drooled, looking around for something for me to do. "Every round you have to flip this coin-" Alex placed a pound coin on the floor. "-if it lands on heads you have to remove an article of clothing. Tails you can put something back on." I stared at the coin, looking it over.

"Sure." I responded, flipping the coin. Heads. I sighed and removed my top, chucking it down beside me. "Now Chris." Chris nodded, taking a sip of his beverage. "I dare you... oh. If I flip three heads, you have to do this dare Alex did with me." Chris sighed and nodded. and I flipped the coin. Heads. I took off my socks; tossing it with my shirt.

"Okay Alex." Chris started. "If you get under 80% on the History test coming up you have to ask out the girl you fancy." Alex raised his eyebrows and had a small smug on his face before taking a small sip from his glass.

"What if I don't fancy girls. " Alex smirked, wiggling his eyebrows. Chris just looked at him slightly shocked as did I. Alex was quite a lady's man; the girls swooned for him like he was the newest Justin Bieber. But he never seemed interested. I always figured it was because Alex was more of a romantic, falling in love as time went on until he finally picked up the courage to ask them out. But if it was because Alex was gay; that would explain a lot.

"If you are gay... Kiss Ross." Chris stuttered, pushing Alex towards me. I nearly managed to let out a cry of resistance before I felt Alex's soft lips on my own. The kiss wasn't deep; it was much more like a first kiss. Delicate and cautious. It was... Nice. I kissed back a little, and I could feel Smith smile as his face was pressed against mine. "Okay okay stop now." Chris whined, pulling us apart from each others hold. The cool rushed back around me as I realized I wasn't wearing a shirt. I blushed lightly and Alex laughed, picking up his drink again.

"How about that Trott." Alex grinned, mischief twinkling in his eyes. Chris rolled his eyes, smiling back at Alex. "Oh, are you jealous?" Alex teased, moving closer to the brown haired boy.

"No I-" but Chris' sentence was cut short as Alex pressed himself against him. Chris muffled a little before falling into the kiss, his eyes closing. I chuckled. Was this Alex being his normal teasing, flirting self? Or was this actually, as he said, something more?

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

So at the end of every chapter we will put some helplines just in case. If you are triggered easily by things such as suicide, depression, self harm, or anything else; please get help. We are always here to help as well. If you want us to add any numbers just send  us a message. Also, if you feel we should add another trigger to the top of the chapter then simply tell us. Nothing will seem to silly or small. Thanks. <3

Helplines:

Australia:

- Kids Help Line (kidshelp.com.au) is a 24-hour nationwide service that provides access to crisis support, suicide prevention and counselling services for Australians aged 5–25 [1800-55-1800]

Canada:

- Kids Help Phone (kidshelpphone.ca) is a nationwide 24-hour, toll-free, confidential crisis line and counselling service available to Canadians under the age of twenty. [800-668-6868]

United States:

- The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (suicidepreventionlifeline.org) is a 24-hour, toll-free, confidential suicide prevention hotline available to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress [1-800-273-8255]

- The Trevor Project (thetrevorproject.org) is a nationwide organization that provide crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth [866-488-7386]

France:

- Suicide écoute : [01 45 39 40 00] (24-hour) : suicide prevention helpline (volunteers).

Germany:

- Telefonseelsorge (24/7, no cost): [0800 111 0 111] (Protestant), [0800 111 0 222] (Catholic), [0800 111 0 333] (for children and youth)

United Kingdom:

- PAPYRUS Prevention of Young Suicide (papyrus-uk.org) is a registered charity. It is the national charity campaigning for prevention of young suicide. It operates a helpline providing short-term support and advice for anyone concerned about themselves or a young person they know. PAPYRUS also offers training such as the international ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) program and bespoke packages. [0800-068-41-41]