Chapter 1

Sitting with her legs dangling off the edge of her apartment building was a girl no older than sixteen, her black hair whipping around her pale face and her nails dug into the brick beneath them. She wasn't frightened by the twelve story drop, she barely even noticed it as she stared up into the sky, trying to see past New York's light pollution and see the stars.

She flinched slightly at the sound of something breaking and raised voices from the apartment below her, the one she shared with her parents. Shifting her gaze from up, to down, she thought on her life. Her parents were addicted to alchohol and drugs, they had been for as long as she could remember, and with that came the beatings. Even now she had an impressive black eye, finger shaped bruises round her throat and a split lip.

Not everything was bad though, she may have really shitty parents, who beat, starved and abused her; may not have any friends at school or out of school for that matter, but... she had nothing. She couldn't think of anything she had that was good, maybe the air in her lungs? The fact that she was alive? Her eyes began to water, a lump rising in her throat making it difficult to breathe. Slowly she leant forwards, drowning in her pain.

"Please don't."

Straightening in shock, her eyes flitted around looking for the voices owner. Empty rooftop met her gaze,

"Hello?" She called, "Who's there?" Her eyes roved the roof frantically, wiping her eyes. A shadow moved to the side of her and she twisted, keeping the dark blur in sight before it settled in the shadow by the roof access door behind her. She couldn't see much, just that whoever it was, was quite tall.

"Please don't jump." The voice repeated.

A sarcastic laugh echoed across the roof, she barely recognised it as her own,

"Why shouldn't I?" She spat, anger rising suddenly, But left as soon as it arrived, leaving her drooped in exhaustion, facing the drop once again.

"I have nothing stopping me."

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His heart beat rapidly in his chest, when he had gone on patrol earlier that night, he had not expected to come across a suicidal young woman. He couldn't leave her there, knowing what would happen.

"There must be something?" He questioned a little desperately, "Even something small?"

The replying scoff pulled at his heart,

"I have nothing, my parents would celebrate my death and I don't have friends so no one would miss me."

His mind worked frantically, trying to find a way to stop her jumping. He only saw one way, one that he wanted a lot, so he steeled himself with the thought,

'Aww man, Leo's gonna kill me.'

"How about I give you something to stay for?"

She turned to face him, well his general direction, with a skeptical look on her face.

"Like what?" The hesitation in her voice didn't offend him, he had just appeared out of nowhere after all.

"We could be friends, come up here at night and chat and hangout, it would be awesome dudette!"

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She sat there stunned,

"Really?" She asked almost desperately, "You want to be my friend?" Before the voice could answer, her face fell,

"You are only saying that so I dont kill myself, aren't you?" The reply came almost instantly, laced with shock,

"No! I want to be your friend because it's so not right to not have any, so I want to be yours!" She was honestly touched, she could tell they weren't lying and it made a large smile grow on her face,

"If it's not a pity friendship, then I would love to be friends with you, My name is Louisa, what's your name?"

"My name is Michaelangelo, but you can call me Mikey."