Sapphire swiftly walked to the house. One of her friends closest friends was throwing a party, and she felt obliged to go, out of politeness. She carried herself lightly, back straight, hands clasped, feet partly tapping on the dark pavement. It was nine o'clock, and Sapphire would honestly prefer to be at home. But she didn't complain. She wore a pal blue dress, a denim jacket, and little blue pumps. She waited expectantly as a small grey car turned the corner. It stopped in front of her, and she stepped into the back. Pearl was driving, and Roses bouncy pink curls created a halo around the back of her chair. Rose jovially greeted sapphire, and Pearl said hello. Awkward silence followed. She and a feeling they could tell she didn't want to come to this party. She decided she should break the silence, but before she could do that, they had arrived. Who ever's house it was had loud music thrumming out of every pore, and people where lazing around everywhere, most of whom were drunk. Sapphire grimaced and followed Rose and Pearl. All she could smell was people, there alcoholic breath filling her nose. Soon, they reached the back garden, where a group of teens where hanging out. They made their way over, and greeted the group. There was a lanky boy in the corner, his face ever so close to his phone, the screen illuminating his glasses and spiky blonde hair. A blue haired, pretty girl stood next to him. When she saw her friends draw closer, she muttered to the boy

"Peri, it's kinda rude to be on your phone! Say hello!"

He grunted, mumbled hi and returned to intently reading his screen, while chewing his lip. The girl laughed and gently ran a hand though his hair. Next to her was a slightly short, clearly intoxicated plump girl, with lavender hair and a sly smile. Then there was a short, muscled, stocky teen boy with an almost square, bouncy head of hair, and a deep read headband. He wore a black leather jacket, a red t-shirt and a dark maroon pair of jeans. He smiled at Sapphire, and she smiled in return. They were good friends, all of them, but there were those that Sapphire felt a lot more comfortable around than others. She had a very, almost, lonely attitude, and she was only comfortable with a few, trusted friends, all of which were standing before her. Rose was as cheery as ever, greeting everyone and asking how they were, asking this and that. Sapphire suddenly heard her phone ping. She reluctantly pulled it out her bag, and read the message. It was from an unknown, blocked number. It read

"Enjoy life while you can, I'll make sure it won't last much longer."

Sapphires breath hitched when she read this. Not many things could surprise her, but this did. And the short boy noticed it. He carefully moved to talk to her, but Sapphire needed time and space an solitude. So she swiftly made her departure, without saying a word. She slipped up the stairs of the house, and finally finding an unoccupied room, entered, closing the door behind her. It was a small, plain bedroom, and Sapphire paced up and down it carefully. This could just be a prank, she reminded herself. But on the other hand, it could just as easily not be. She allowed her thoughts to mull over, getting more lost in the jungle of worries and observations, that when a firm knock came at the door, she didn't notice it. And she had her back turned when someone entered the room. So when she turned round, she was rather surprised to walk into someone that hadn't been there before. Sapphire sucked in a breath, before noticing a familiar red tshirted boy before her. He shot her a shy smile, scratching he back of his neck sheepishly.

"Sooty, I didn't mean to disturb you, I just thought you looked a bit shocked and you left really fast, and you didn't answer my knock so I thought I would come in"

Sapphire sighed, and sat down on the edge of the bed. The teen, clearly aware of the solemn situation, cautiously took a seat beside her.

"You wanna talk about it?"

Sapphire sighed again. This boy was one of the only people she truly trusted. She knew it was safe to share it with him

" I received a... Threatening text message. I though it best to remove myself so I could consider what to do"

The boy gave a small nod.

"Do you know who sent it?"

"No. The number was blocked."

"They're safe... For know. I would have beaten the pulp out of them if I knew who it was"

Sapphire couldn't help but give a small giggle at that. The teen smiled.

"You have an amazing laugh. Have I ever told you that Sapphire?"

Sapphire suddenly stopped, and looked away. She wasn't really used to receiving praise. But if it was to come from anyone, she wanted it to be those whom she trusted.

"Er, no"

The boy scuffed his shoe on the worn carpet. He suddenly kicked his trainers off, and shuffled to the back of the bed, leaning his back on the pillows. He beckoned for Sapphire to join him. She reluctantly slipped of her pumps, and gingerly shuffled back to him. She suddenly felt arms around her waist, and before she could do anything, she was nestled comfortably in his crossed legs, his chin gently rested on the top of her head, arms around her, protecting her. Sapphire felt like removing herself. She wasn't a fan of physical contact. But some unseen force made her stay. The teen whispered softly, his soothing voice tickling Sapphires ears.

"Il be here for you, ok? No matter what"

Sapphire let a smile escape her lips.

"RB, what's your dad like?"

Sapphire suddenly felt the body she was against stiffen, and she immediately regretted the question.

"Er, that was out of the blue huh? Umm, he's my dad? I guess, ha ha um yeah. I mean, you know my mums dead so it's just me and him, but I go out a lot. Out of the house, just to get a break from it all, I guess"

RB mumbled, rambling on like he did when he didn't want to talk about something, or he wanted to avoid a subject. Sapphire didn't want to pry, so she let the matter go. She soon found herself drifting off to sleep, the stress of the day catching up on her. The rising and falling of RB's chest comforted her, reminding her she was not alone. And before she could question this feeling of content, she was fast asleep.

Sapphire woke to the sound of gentle snoring. It wasn't very loud or disturbing, but snoring all the less. She suddenly was jolted back in time. The party, the text, the conversation with RB. She wearily rubbed her eyes. RB's solid arms where still around her waist. She tried to remove herself without waking him up, but he was jolted awake by her movement. He yawned and rubbed his eyes.

"Hey Sapphire"

"Good morning"

"Woah wait, is it morning already! Crud what time is it?"

Sapphire pulled out her phone.

"8:53"

RB grumbled and quickly roused himself. As he was gruffly pulling on his shoes, he said.

"Oh, do you want a lift? I need to get to work, but I can drop you off somewhere?"

Sapphire didn't like to be a burden, so she decided she would text one of her friends to pick her up.

"No I'm fine thank you"

"Ok, we'll see you later!"

And with that he bolted out of the house. Sapphire sighed, pulled on her shoes, and left the house. There were people lying all over the place, but she carefully picked her way through the bodies. When she was outside, she took out her phone. It read nine group chat messages, and four missed calls. Sapphire quickly opened the group chat

Rose: Has anyone seen Sapphire? Neither I or Pearl can find her! 11:56 pm

WaterWitch:I saw her go and RB went with her. Try calling him. 00:02 am

Rose: Neither of them are answering. Maybe they went home? 00:07 am

WaterWitch: yeah, prolly. Amethyst was completely done, so she wouldn't of noticed them if they punched her in the face. Peri saw nothing. 00:13 am

ETERNAL FLAME: Hi guys, Sapphire is still there, I think she didn't want to be a burden, you might wanna go pick her up 8:57 am

WaterWitch: what did you guys do last night ? ﾟﾘﾉ 9:02

ETERNAL FLAME: fell asleep 9:03

WaterWitch: shame

Sapphire stood expectantly again, on a littered pavement. She decided she should probably text them

FrostyTheSnowman: Hi everyone, could I please get a lift? 9:07

FrostyTheSnowman: RB, can you do me a favour and murder Peridot for me? 9:07

DoritoZero: Sapphire, we all know you like the name ? 9:09

FrostyTheSnowman: Hacking someone's account is illegal, is it not? 9:09

DoritoZero: Nah, not when it's for a good cause. Like good ol frosty 9:10

ETERNAL FLAME: With pleasure ? 9:12

Sapphire: Much better. 9:15

DoritoZero: Later CLODS! 9:16

Sapphire sighed and waited patiently as a small silver car slid round the corner. As soon as she got in she was bombarded with questions involving where she went, what happened. Sapphire dryly responded to each in turn, before the three resumed their silence. Rose finally broke in by discussing college stuff with Pearl. They dropped Sapphire off and bid good bye.

She sighed and walked up the drive to the sensible, small house. It was an inheritance of Sapphires, when her parent died. She hadn't really known them that well, so it didn't hurt much. That's how she had met most of her friends. They had all faced traumatising experiences, or had terrible parents, or had been friends for years. They were bonded that way. Sapphires phone pinged again. It was a normal text message from RB. It read

Hi Sapphire, I got out of work, wanna go to the arcade with me and Peri later? Amethyst was gonna come but she's slightly more than hungover. Rose is going to go see Greg, and you know what pearl is like. Don't feel like you have too ;) it's just that we were gonna go to the movies tonight, and we now got a spare ticket. Laps will prolly join us later. I can pick you up at six?

Sapphire didn't particularly like the arcade. It was noisy and crowded, but she had nothing else to do, and it would take her kind of things. She replied

Ok thanks that would be nice

RB replied with " great, see you then ?

Sapphire sighed and switched off her phone. Her depression had been putting her through a lot recently, and she was fighting it as hard as she could. She went through lows like this every now and then. It just took her a while to get out of the hole. She knew the best ways were social interaction, and avoiding solitude. Keeping yourself busy. Sapphire did try, she just was someone who had a lonesome attitude in general. She was pretty sure RB knew about her depression. She couldn't remember if she had told him.

Hi guys, please review and follow and all that jazz. Thanks for reading! New chapters every few days. Please excuse typos.