Warning: This story contains mentions of mature themes such as self-harm and homophobic language. These themes reflect none of my own opinions and are just part of a story. If you are uncomfortable with any of these themes, please do not read.

Rod Robyns walked into Avenue Q Town High. It was his first year in high school and to say he was nervous was an understatement. Rod was never good with making friends. It wasn't because he was anti-social or mean, quite the opposite in fact. Rod was one of the kindest, most friendly people on the earth. The only reason he didn't have friends was because people didn't like him. For some strange reason, no matter how hard Rod tried to make friends, they just seemed to walk away before he could utter a simple 'hello'. No one ever wanted to give him a chance. If it wasn't bad enough that Rod couldn't make friends, it was even worse that others decided to pick on him. He was bullied quite often and stuffed into his locker or beaten in the bathroom. Rod often wondered what was wrong with him. What did he ever do to make everyone hate him so much? Rod thought maybe it was his clothes. He dressed on the formal side every day. Often times it would be a button down with nice trousers. What was wrong with being a little fancy? If he was going to be an investment banker, he had to dress the part one day so why not start now? Rod had started to hurt himself not long after the start of middle school. It started with just small things like punching walls to bruise up his knuckles, but then it progressed to dangerous things like cutting himself. He had numerous scars on his arms from his self-harm. It helped him get used to the hurting and it took his mind of the emotional pain. He never rolled up the sleeves on his button downs or everyone would just hurt him more. Rod hid his pain from everyone and treated everyone kindly. Maybe one day someone would see the pain behind his eyes and save him.

Rod walked to his new locker and put his books inside. He adjusted his glasses on his nose and sighed. He picked up his bright blue backpack and closed his locker. He turned and jumped as he was startles by three taller boys wearing football jerseys. He awkwardly readjusted his glasses,

"Hello gentlemen, can I help you with something?" Rod asked politely.

"Don't talk to me, fag!" the tallest snapped. Rod jumped at the tone.

"Now there's no need for hurtful words." Rod said calmly. Suddenly his small, fragile body was slammed into the locker. Rod winced at the pain flaring in his back. "Please don't do this!"

"Shut up! Listen here, gay, we don't want trash like you stinking up our school's hallways! So as a warning, you better stay out of our way and maybe we won't pound you every day." The leader threatened. Rod nodded quickly. The leader smirked and threw a punch into Rod's face. Rod fell to the side with a cry of pain. The jocks walked away laughing. Rod sat up with tears in his eyes. Why couldn't jerks like them leave him alone? What did he ever do to them? He wasn't even gay so why did they assume? Rod buried his face into his knees and sat there crying. All he asked of whatever god there is was to give him one friend, one true, reliable friend. Rod felt pain pounding around his eye from the punch. It was definitely going to leave a black eye. Rod felt a shadow cover him. He refused to look up just to get bullied again.

"Hey, ya know, it's gonna be kind of hard to talk to you if your face is covered up like that." A friendly voice said jokingly. Rod dared to look up from the sanctuary of his knees. He saw a friendly face with dark, messy hair and a goofy smile. He had a brown New York sweatshirt on and ripped up jeans. "You look sad, buddy, what's the matter?" he guy asked sincerely.

"Nothing," Rod said looking down again

"C'mon you can tell me." The boy encouraged as he sat next to Rod on the ground.

"I said nothing." Rod argued

"Don't get defensive I just want to talk to you." The boy said calmly

"Well I don't want to talk, so just say it already!" Rod ordered

"Say what?" the stranger asked confused

"Aren't you going to call me names like everyone else? Aren't you going to call me gay?" Rod asked egging the other boy on to start with the verbal abuse already.

"Gee, I wasn't going to say anything like that. I just wanted to talk to you since you looked so down." The boy said sheepishly. Rod looked at the boy with widened eyes. This boy was nothing like the rest. He didn't seem mean spirited at all, "I thought you could use a friend right about then, but if you want me to go…"

"No, no…" Rod started, "I'm sorry, I'm just not used to anyone talking to me without calling me names." Rod said apologetically.

"Oh, well, I wasn't going to call you names, but I wanted to tell you mine. My name's Nicky, Nicky Lipkin what about you." The boy names Nicky said with a hand open to shake.

"I'm Rod Robyns." Rod said as he shook Nicky's hand, "Thank you."

"No problem." Nicky said happily. There was a moment of quiet, "So…are you?"

"Am I what?" Rod asked

"Are you gay?" Nicky asked curiously

"What!" Rod squealed

"Well I was just wondering since you said people call you that!" Nicky defended.

"If you must know: no! No I'm not gay!" Rod said as he turned a bright red.

"Okay, I was just asking, so I knew!" Nicky said, "But you know, if you were gay, that'd be okay."

"But I'm not gay." Rod defended

"But if you were!" Nicky replied, "I'd like you anyway."

"You barely know me, Nicky." Rod said

"That doesn't mean I don't like you." Nicky said happily. Rod turned to look at Nicky with a confused glance, but Nicky's eyes filled with concern. "Hey, who did that to you?"

"Did what?" Rod asked turning his face back to hide the bruise again. Nicky gently took Rod's chin in his hand to turn his face so he could see the damage again.

"This! Who hit you?" Nicky asked concerned for his new friend's being.

"No one hit me!" Rod claimed weakly

"Obviously someone did!" Nicky said irritated at the one who had hit his poor, defenseless Rod.

"Don't worry about it." Rod said turning away once more. Nicky sighed in defeat.

"Well when you do feel like telling me, just go for it." Nicky said, "It isn't fair for people to get bullied."

"Thank you Nicky." Rod said

"Hmm, thanks for what?" Nicky asked confused

"For wanting to be my friend." Rod replied.

"No problem! You seem like nice guy, so let's hang out together more often!" Nicky said. He pulled Rod onto his feet and they started running to class, "We could go over to my place sometime! I have all the game systems! Or we could go see a movie, there's new one out! Or we could go to the arcade! There's so much we could do!" Rod almost laughed at Nicky's childlike excitement. Nicky's carefree attitude was almost cute. The two ran off into their class and the rest is history.

That was the first time Rod met Nicky. From that day on they were the best of buddies. Every once in a while they had their spats, but the two were inseparable. Throughout the rest of their high school careers Nicky and Rod stuck together. Nicky defended Rod from bullies and Rod helped Nicky with his homework. Through all those years, Nicky never found out about Rod's self-harm. Either Rod was too good at hiding it or Nicky was too oblivious. He had stopped after he met Nicky. All the scars he had were from years ago. So he only wished that he could forget that part of his life. Now they were living together as roommates and Rod was dating Ricky. Nicky was proud he did something good for Rod for once, but he slowly started to grow resentment for the clone and he had no idea why. Nicky didn't know that Rod was not happy with Ricky. Rod only dated Ricky because he thought it was making Nicky happy. Ricky turned out to be not so sweet. Rod would deal with it just to make Nicky happy. He would do anything for Nicky to make him happy. And if dealing with an abusive boyfriend would make him happy, he would do it.