This is a dare, right?

She sat in shock as a short and skinny boy clenched his fists and yelled at the rest of his class with his rather colourful variety of profanities, his point of 'bullying this girl is not okay with me!' being embedded within what he was saying.

She didn't know if she was supposed to be happy about someone speaking up about the exclusion and ignorance of her existence because of her obviously different ethnicity and skin colour. Perhaps not; he was friends with these people. These people had made a game out of not wanting to sit with her.

So as coldly as she could possibly sound, she said exactly that, completely shutting down his attempt of being a hero by walking away before he could reply.

She thought she would've been left alone again, ignored, marginalized, but this little twerp didn't seem to take any of it seriously. She found it hard to comprehend just how comfortable this guy was being around her. The very next week, he was using her shoulder as a pillow to snore (and drool) on while her History teacher's soporific voice waded around the room. The fact she had to wake him up and carry his school bag just to get him out of the classroom was an added bonus to the new levels of strange she was experiencing.

It didn't help that he'd began to take the seat next to her, which had ultimately stopped the flow of the class' "game" not long afterwards. He'd act like a complete tool in front of everyone just to make her laugh. He'd even gotten into trouble at least three times for waiting for her outside the girls' change rooms for sport, not knowing that she had already lined up in the hall.

Eventually, she realized she had a friend. A really close friend that she'd really want to grow up with and continue to talk about games and music and anime in an apartment with ninety-nine cats while they worked on developing his latest RPG game and her next bestselling novel. She treasured him more than she knew it.

So the idea of losing him to an argument with his parents… about her…

She thought she'd have been able to stay strong and provide support as per usual. The problem was, he wasn't having any of it this time, and it got to a point where she just sounded desperate. He just continued to send text message after text message, all of which were filled with hate and anger toward his own parents… and the idea of suicide.

The fact that he was arguing with his parents to defend her made her cry in frustration. Her eyes would blur with a fresh batch of salty rivulets as she read more and more about his parents disliking his choice of friends; more specifically, her.

I mean, what else could I possibly lose if I were to lose the right to have everything I want, no, need, just because my parents said so?

She couldn't reply to that, nor could she sleep that night.

"Hey, did Piko text you at all? He never said he wasn't going to school."

She failed to make him realize that a bunch of insults directed toward her was not going to hurt her.

She failed to keep what mattered to her the most.

I'll just let the readers think what they wish about that depressing ending.T^T

This is the result after trying to write something in the horror genre and suddenly reflecting upon my own life -.-

Initially, this was supposed to be a 500 word story for a major writing competition around Australia, but well, I wasn't bothered to actually write it until now.

Thank you for reading!

- Jae