A two-shot alternative ending to Party of Peril where Bradley, who wasn't included in Milo's party, feels rejected and goes off the road...

This is based on a Tumblr art belonging to dawhitebag; The crying Bradley cover also belongs to her. Do not reuse without her permission.

Enjoy :)

WARNING: Suicidal! Bradley ahead.

Ha ha ha!

Hey Milo!

Best party ever Milo!

Those were only some of the various words of praise Bradley can hear as he watched through a tiny hole in the wooden fence of the Park where he heard of a certain event taking place. Beyond the border, he can clearly see his classmates having fun at Milo's birthday party. While the bespectacled kid could have felt happy for the Murphy boy, anguish with the tint of betrayal filled his heart.

Melissa, Amanda, Chad and even Mort, his best friend, have attended the event. Or more particularly, all the eighth graders in his class are invited. Except for him. And perhaps what hurts Bradley the most is that none of them, including the very few acquaintances he had, didn't care to point him out or even notice his absence.

Behind the eyeglasses, Bradley's eyes started to water the longer he continued to watch the joyous scenario before him.

At the same time, past memories started to resurface, causing him to mentally break down even more.

His past birthdays, nobody cared to acknowledge or even offer greetings. Bradley shut his eyes tightly knowing that it's no fault of his friends since his family isn't the type to make a bash out of events like these. Although kids like Mort did sympathise with him, it wasn't the same as what Milo gets from his own buds; Sincere words of comfort when he's down and presence whenever he needs them the most.

Mort didn't even ask me if I wanted to come, he thought bitterly as he felt the salty tears slide down his cheeks. No one did! His glistening eyes widened as a dark realisation struck him like an arrow dipped into poison and piercing right through his already weakened heart; All of his past experiences of being looked down upon on and their affects are all starting to make sense in a way that it formed a horrible picture.

His attempts of getting everyone's attention only for Milo to grab them unintentionally, the looks of boredom he received from classmates whenever he tried to share stuff and the fact that they just couldn't understand him. "I can't help it…" Bradley muttered as he recalled how somewhat mean and arrogant he is towards them which is why he gets such negative responses.

Truth to be told, he doesn't know why he's even like this. What can be done about it? His parents are no different from him and they basically posessed the trait in raising Bradley for his thirteen years of life. And those parental influences passed down to him and became part of his lifestyle attitude. But then again… Not his fault. At least not literally.

They never liked me for the way I am

His lower lip trembled as more tears started to fall.

They see me as nothing

His eyes narrowed and he gritted his teeth in pain.

Nothing but a mere waste of time and friendship.

He opened his moist eyes, his pupils dilated as he took slow but hoarse breaths.

It's always Milo who gets everything

His eyes narrowed as anger started to rise within him.

While his shadow falls dark upon Bradley

Unable to control himself any longer, the thirteen-year old clasps his hands in his hair and lets out a loud but pained screech; Letting out whatever negativity he contained for ages in a shrill cry of anguish.

"I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"

A shouted-out-loud sentence followed by a scream of agony startled a certain ginger girl along with her brown banana-haired friend. Melissa frowned briefly before it turned into a look of concern. "What was that?" She asked Milo who stood beside her. Milo raised a finger to speak but the sounds of audible whimpering followed by running footsteps behind the fence entered their ears. To Milo, the voice sounded very familiar and he recognized who it belonged to at once.

"Bradley?!"

Milo's exclamation caught the attention of his classmates and they immediately faced the wood fence where the screech last came from.

Having the same thought as Milo, Mort was the first to react and worry overcame him. "Yeah that was definitely Bradley. But yet he isn't here," His words made Milo frown in question. "Bradley's not here?" He scanned his large group of visitors and saw his words to be true because there was an obvious lack of a black haired boy in glasses. "Wasn't he invited to the party?"

All eyes aside from his are now set on Melissa and Zack knowing that they're the ones who handed out the invitations. "We made invitations for the whole class," Zack explained and scratched his head. "But I didn't have Bradley's invitation in my pile of handouts." He then faced Melissa. "Did you have Bradley's invitation with you earlier?"

Melissa nodded in response.

"Yeah I had it with me," She recalled. "It's the last of my invitation stack and I was going to give it to him. But then I remembered that he had co-curricular activities outside of school which is why I didn't see him when I was handing out." She narrowed her eyes at somebody in the crowd. "But I did entrust a certain somebody to give it to him which is an absolutely big mistake." One of the kids who visited chuckled nervously as he was now rounded on. "Yeah I was supposed to give Bradley his invitation," He admitted meekly before shivering. "But he scares me!"

Standing behind Melissa and hearing his words, Amanda felt her lower eye twitch as she stared wide-eyed. "Wow… I am not the only feared pupil after all," She philosophically quoted and glared at him. "Really your foolish mistake made Bradley Nicholson hurt thinking that he is the only one who is not invited to Milo's birthday!" She raised a fist but Milo quickly stood inbetween her and the guilty kid to prevent anything from happening any further.

"Calm down Amanda! Anger doesn't solve everything! It never does!" He gave everyone in his surroundings a look of determination. "Right now, we have to get Bradley here. It's still early and it's a saturday night! We can always finish later!" Melissa nodded firecely and punched the air. "You heard Milo! We cannot continue the party without Bradley any further!" She makes way for the center as the rest made a clearing for her as she started to make her inspiring speech.

"We all know Bradley has disliked and avoided Milo for a lot of whatever reasons he has, and he may be aloof, boring and inconsiderate at times I admit. But don't you remember the middle school code? Nobody and I mean nobody gets left behind!" She stressed out the last phrase sending the feels into the hearts of some as they saw the point she was bringing out.

Milo grinned at this and sided with Melissa.

"Melissa is right guys! Bradley Nicholson is our friend and I want to celebrate my thirteenth year of life with everyone including him! So I say we bring him back so we can finish together with him. Who's with me?!"

At once, Zack raised his hand and went to stand next to his pals. "I'm in!" Mort and Amanda followed suit and one by one, all the seventh graders had their arms raised and even Milo's family raised theirs since they've been listening to the issue at hand and knew that their youngest member is doing the right thing.

Milo smiled delightedly and ran outside the park but not without informing his watchers. "I'll look for him. All of you get things re-prepared! Or whatever the right word for that is!" He left with Melissa following him as a searching partner. His parents, Martin and Bridgette waved after their son as he left. "Be careful out on the streets son! Alleyways are always dangerous at this hour!" Martin called out as his son and Melissa disappeared out of view..

Meanwhile farther ahead of the search party couple, Bradley stood hidden in the dark but dimly lit alleyways flinging glass bottles against the walls. The crashes of glass breaking strangely satisfied him but also fueled his self-rage even more. 'I'm not worth it to them, they won't need me or notice me when I'm gone' Bradley bitterly thought as he smashed yet another bottle against the wall.

The remaining part of the bottle clutched in his hand remained unbroken but it's edge where Bradley smashed it is now jagged with sharp and threateningly pointed edges. On the floor, a shard of glass ended up in Bradley's view and he dropped the bottle to pick up the sharp object. Grasping it with no caution made cuts into the tween's palm but he didn't care. Emotional pain is worser than anything right now… And he desperately needed to relieve that pain. Even with drastic measures.

Seconds later, Bradley's fingers held on to the glass shard and it was raised above his wrist for a brief minute as if its owner needed the time to locate a fatal cutting area. Behind his eyeglasses, Bradley's eyes couldn't help but widen in slight surprise. Of all of his self-harmed areas, his wrist, artery in particular, is about to join the rest of his physical but hidden scars. A scar that will no doubt kill him in 20 minutes or less depending on how deep he cuts into it.

At most, Bradley's usual cutting spots are his arms above his elbows where the scars are safely hidden under his grey flannel sleeves. The thirteen-year old merely smiled as he closed his eyes, the glass piercing his wrist and it went deeper and deeper as more pressure was applied to the hand that held it.

I won't be suffering anymore

Bradley's darkly serene thoughts clouded his mind from the pain.

Everyone will get what they want; Me to disappear from their lives for good

The glass hit a pressure point and blood started to seep from the wound; Droplets staining the ground. His eyes opened halfway as he suddenly remembered yet another person in his life. Not someone he strongly disliked like Milo. No. Someone… He's been striving so hard to get but failed constantly.

Melissa

"Melissa…" Bradley hoarsely whispered as tears flowed from his eyes. By now, the bleeding from his wrist worsened and the blood is already seeping and staining his flannel. His eyes shut tightly as he pressed harder into the glass as it made his already deep wound much harder. The artery is yet to be cut but was almost there. "She won't need me…She has Milo to be with." He inhaled shakily as he felt something rupture in his wrist.

The artery has been cut and the darkening blood gushed out.

Bradley didn't care about the intense physical pain he is causing himself. What else could he live for if he ever died this way? High-standard parents force him to be like them, friends who aren't even real friends that sincerely care about you, some kid who steals attention and making things socially difficult for you…

Wow, a ton good reasons to keep living for.

Not

His eyelids' tightness started to lessen as the tweenager felt his body give way, slumping forward with his head against the walls; Only his knees and limp hands touched the floor.

Goodbye cruel world. Milo has you in his hands from now on. He'll take great care of you. The world and all I'm about to leave behind

A soft, hoarse breath sounded from the barely conscious boy as his vision blurred before passing out; Audible footsteps and the recognisable and distressed screams of Melissa and Milo managing to reach his ears for a good second before nothingness took over…

Bradley finally succumbs to his own self... Will he survive? Find out in the next chapter ;)

Special thanks to dawhitebag from Tumblr for her awesome Hurt!Bradley piece; The big inspiration for this fic! :)