Dale felt nothing.

He lay in the ditch he'd been thrown into when he crashed Maggie's car, not moving. He knew she should do something, check for damage, feel his neck, blink, anything, but he couldn't. It was too hard to move. His whole body felt like jelly, not allowing him to move. So he continued to lay in the ditch, lying on mud and with a nettle stinging his leg.

Finally, after a few minutes, the numbness stopped and his reflexes kicked in; he blinked. After that, he wasted no time in getting back on his feet and getting the hell out of there. Maggie's car was trashed.

The whole front of it was completely obliterated- Dale didn't want to look. By looking at the tree, he could tell that it wasn't good. There were scratches up and down the vehicle, paint had come off and one of the taillights was smashed in.

Yeah, Dale wasn't sticking around to see Maggie's reaction.

On wobbly knees, he made his way back to the school house. The sun was peeking through the sky, but when Dale hid behind a bush and checked his watch, he saw it wasn't that late. He could probably make it back before anyone realised that he was gone.

Creeping in through the front door, Dale could see Maggie in the kitchen. She'd probably just come downstairs and was starting to make breakfast. Trying to be as quiet as possible, he crept in behind her- he hardly breathed.

Then he was past her and dashing up the stairs. Of course she hadn't caught him- nothing interesting like that would ever happen.

Making it back to his room, Dale sat and thought. He couldn't believe he'd crashed Maggie's car, but whilst it had been scary, he was glad he'd done it. That fear, that rush of adrenaline- it had been brilliant. He'd almost got his old buzz back. Almost.

On the subject of that old buzz, Dale needed to do something else to get rid of that numb feeling. Opening one of his drawers, her went to the back and took out his stash of weed. It had been fairly easy to get the weed, as he'd known where to go looking from

The dealer, Rick, had seemed pretty cool when Dale had talked to him, and had sold him some pretty good stuff.

Rolling the joint up expertly, Dale was startled by a knock on the door. Startled, he quickly covered the joint with his cot.

Lennie stepped into the room in a towel- he must have been the one that Dale's heard showering earlier. At the sight of his friend, Dale instantly relaxed.

"There you are." Lennie asked, as if Dale had been lost.

"Do you wanna knock?" he snapped.

"Sorry- you woke me up at half two. I heard you, sneaking out." Lennie told him.

It was easy to come up with a lie: "Yeah, I couldn't sleep. Went for a walk."

"Must have been a pretty long walk." Lennie said.

Somehow, Dale didn't think Lennie believed him.

Dale just shrugged.

Finally, Lennie let it go. "Anyway, I'll see you at breakfast, mate." He closed the door behind him.

Alone at last, Dale continued to roll up his joint.

Yoghurts weren't enough.

Every lunch that El came to Waterloo Road, he'd have the yoghurt that was always in her lunchbox; he'd suspected that she'd started to pack it for him. He was on better terms with Lennie, now that his anger had cooled down... but still, yoghurts weren't enough.

The weight was dropping off him. Every day used the bathroom, he would strip off and use the old scales Maggie didn't know he knew about-they were hidden behind a bathroom cupboard- what a terrible hiding place- Dale thought. Then, we would jot down his weight in a notebook that Maggie also didn't know about, and, sure enough, the weight was dropping off.

On one hand, Dale felt ecstatic. He was less fat, there was less (but still some) jiggle when he walked and he looked better than he ever had- imagine how quick he would be on a bike! He would have had his fastest times ever- he might have even broken some team records!

On the other hand… Dale didn't feel so good. He supposed they were side effects of such a drastic diet, so Dale tried to ignore them- if he didn't think about them, they weren't there… But he'd noticed that since he'd stopped eating, he'd been getting more tired than usual, got more headaches and he sometimes got dizzy when he stood up too fast.

"Not much of a sacrifice, though," Dale told himself. Every time he saw his weight was dropping off, a swell of pride bubbled in his chest. He was doing it. He was actually losing weight.

But the numb feeling was still there. It had gotten worse during the week, and instead of being a weight in the centre of Dale's chest, it had spread across his body; it gave his pins and needles and made him feel like he was freezing to death. It had started to keep him up at night, so last night, he'd decided to do something to get rid of it- to drive in the pitch black, and to run the risk of getting caught.

But it hadn't worked. Even the adrenaline rush he'd felt the last time was gone. What else do I have to do? Thought Dale.

Slowly, his thoughts drifted to other things- in particular El. That feeling in his stomach hadn't stopped- in fact, he'd noticed it had been getting stronger. Also, he'd started to notice other things about her, like how she had a beauty spot on the right side of her face, how she chewed her nails, and how she was sometimes insensitive in the things she said (odd and sometimes rude) without noticing it- she just kept smiling at him like she always did.

El was strange- maybe that was one of the reasons why Dale liked her.

Dale knew what the feeling was; he wasn't a Moran. The last time he'd felt that feeling was when he'd gone out with Angelia Smith- and that had ended it a field with less clothing that he'd started with.

Dale liked El liked her liked her and he told himself that there was going to be no more waiting around- today he'd ask her out.

Whilst he'd been thinking, his joint had burned down. His finger brushed over the now- very- close flame.

"Fuck!" He hissed. He hadn't felt a thing.

After he'd gotten dressed, Dale went downstairs to breakfast. He sat down. He wasn't happy- he hated breakfast; he hated being pressured by Maggie to eat.

When he'd sat down, Maggie had smiled and quickly walked over to him, holding a plate or scrambled eggs that had been waiting for him. She sat down next to him- she was going to watch him eat. Now, Dale eyed the late of eggs and sighed. How long would it take him to burn all those calories off? How far would he have to walk? Dale also hated it when Maggie sat with him when he ate. She had good intentions, but it was making Dale angry- she was the whole reason why he had this numb feeling- why couldn't she just leave him the hell alone?

He picked up a fork and looked at Lenny, happily eating his cereal. He could see some of the food in Lennie's mouth as he chewed, all the sugar and carbs. It wasn't fair! Lenny ate like a pig but he as thinner than Dale ever would be without even trying.

"Uh…" Maggie started. "I think you might have forgotten to go to your counselling yesterday."

"I didn't forget, I just chose not to go." Dale said truthfully, holding his fork that now had egg on it. He could see the oil on it now, the calories basically oozing off it. That councillor was a moron- with a body as round as a table, how did he understand Dale's problems? And the talking. There was always so much talking. Dale couldn't understand it. If people had problems, why should they have to talk about them? His problems were buried for a reason.

"Well, it's not gonna work, is it, if you keep missing sessions." Maggie snipped.

"It's a waste of time, Dale shot back, slamming his fork on the table. "Like this!" He shouted. He pushed the eggs off the table, where they smashed on the floor. He stormed out.

2

Dale sat in English class.

"Not one would mind, not bird nor tree, if mankind perished utterly. And spring herself, when she woke at dawn, would scarcely know that we were gone." Carrie finished.

"There will be soft rains by Sarah Teasdale." Said Mr Fitzgerald. "Tell us why you chose it, Carrie."

"It's about nature, and…" she frowned, thinking. "… How it wouldn't care if all humans were wiped out by war. It's sort of depressing, and not at the same time." Carrie sat down.

"Any questions?"

The poem was stupid. Of course nature would care if humans were wiped out by war, thought Dale. Who would feed his Aunt's cat? The fat flea ball would be able to hunt for itself.

"It's a lie," he said. "Some nature would care if humans weren't around. My aunt's cat would die if she didn't feed it."

"Well, you don't know that, Dale. Your aunt's cat might prove to be very resourceful."

Hardly.

"I wouldn't care if it died." And it was true. It was weird to be jealous of a cat, but when he'd been living with his aunt, he had been. Sometimes it had seemed like his aunt had cared more about that cat than she had about him.

"I'm sure it feels the same way about you." Vaughn said, and everybody laughed. Dale rolled his eyes.

"Okay, Dale, since you're so keen to make an active contribution, maybe we should hear from you next."

Dale sighed, but he didn't mind talking so much now. The one good thing about feeling numb all the time was that he no longer felt nervous.

"Bet he hasn't even bothered." Said Lisa.

God, Lisa. Did she ever say anything nice? Dale had never really spoken to her, but he'd listened to her. Really, it was just one snide comment after another. How could the sister of Lenny, of all people, be so horrible?

"Actually, I have, so keep this" he pointed to his nose, "out." Standing in the centre of the classroom, he began: "My most memorable piece of writing is from Spiderman No More-"he was cut off by everyone laughing at him.

They thought he was having a joke. "I'm not gonna do it if you're gonna laugh." He told them.

"Enough." Vaughn said.

They stopped, and Dale began again. "Okay, so, Peter Parker's Spider man. This amazing superhero. But it's like no one appreciates him for it, so he just quits- throws his Spidey costume in the bin and walks out."

"And?" Vaughn asked.

Dale paused. "So memorable he can't even remember it." Lisa snipped. Again, everyone laughed.

"Shhh." Mr Fitzgerald told them.

Dale began again. "Saving lives is what Spiderman was put on this Earth to do. He was miserable as a superhero, but he finds it, trying to be a normal guy, is even worse."

You could've heard a pin drop in the room, it was that silent. Dale thought on it, and maybe he wasn't talking about Peter Parker at all.

Later, the bell went and Dale was walking out of the lesson when Mr Fitzgerald called him back.

"How's the therapy going?" He asked.

It wasn't, but Dale wasn't going to tell Mr Fitzgerald that. "Therapist doesn't need to discuss it with anyone."

"Quite right. But you're eating properly?"

Mr Fitzgerald genuinely seemed to care, and that was harder to lie to. "Yeah," he said quickly.

Mr Fitzgerald took a deep breath. "The thing about Spiderman is that he did put his Spidey costume back on and continued saving the world." Dale stared straight ahead, thinking. "He just had to want to."

Maybe Mr Fitzgerald knew Dale hadn't been talking about Spiderman, either. But the advice was stupid. Of course he wanted to cycle again! That's all he wanted. That's all he'd kept asking his therapist, his doctor- anyone who could give him answers.

But it was impossible. Everywhere he'd turned, everyone he'd turned to had been a dead end. Except maybe El. But Dale knew he'd just have to come to terms with the fact that he's never cycle again.

"You look even more depressed than usual."

Dale came out of stupor, and looked over to where El was sitting next to him, doing both of their science worksheets.

"What?" he asked.

El frowned at the worksheet, working a particular difficult question out. Dale didn't know which questions were hard or not- he was hopeless at science; even more so now the numb feeling had spread over his life. Suddenly, El's face smoothed out again, and she wrote the answer on their worksheets, before looking up at Dale.

"You look depressed. What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he grunted. "Just thinking."

"About what?"

What was he thinking about? It was harder to tell nowadays. Biking, he was always thinking about that, even now. Sometimes he'd just be in his room, or in class, and he'd all of a sudden be imagining himself on his bike, riding.

He was also thinking about his diet, obviously, and the ways he could get rid of this bloody numb feeling now Maggie's car was out of action. More drugs maybe. And El. Dale was thinking of El and just when to make his move. He probably would have felt nervous if he wasn't so numb.

But he couldn't say any of these things, without giving away how he felt.

"Nothing-"El frowned, worried. "I'm fine, El, really, stop worrying-"

"I'm not worrying-"Dale raised an eyebrow. "Really, I'm not! I'm just…" she searched for the right word, squirming in her stool. "… Worried."

Dale snorted.

"Don't laugh! Dale, I'm worried. You hardly talk anymore." She pointed to the worksheets. "And you're making even less effort with the worksheets than usual. Should I bring in more food? There's these really nice jellies in the fridge-"

"Miss Avington!" Mr D'Olivera shouted, cutting El's worried rant off, saving Dale from making another excuse- he didn't know if he could say no to that worried gaze.

"Stop talking!"

El turned her attention onto Mr D'Olivera. "Sir, you love me really."

"I'd like you much more if you did your work instead of talking about food!" Mr D'Olivera said, and the class laughed.

El smiled with the rest of them, and pointed to her worksheet. "In the process of doing so, Sir."

She shut up whilst Mr D'Olivera explained some other part of the copper extraction method that the class might not have gotten, but soon whispered: "I'm sorry Dale. I don't mean to be full on- I'm just worried, that's all."

Dale whispered back. "Its fine, El. I'm fine. Really," he said, when El continued to stare.

"Okay."

"Oy, Posho," Lisa hissed from the next table, while Mr D'Olivera's back was turned. "Shut up!"

"I'm not a Posho…."

"You are." She did an impression of El's voice, a high pitched, posh accent. "Oh, Dale, I'm just worried, that's all!"

El looked annoyed. "It's not being posh- it's called pronouncing your words properly."

"Ohh!" Shazneey and Lisa laughed at El's obvious irritation.

"You sound like you're off Downton Abbey," Shazneey said.

"Posho!" Lisa shouted out, and the rest of the class laughed.

"My name's El; not Posho. You can either call me El, or you can call me nothing."

"Alright then, Nothing!" The class burst into nothing, and Mr D'Olivera spun round, annoyed.

"You f-"El muttered.

"Oy! Both of you, be quiet, or you're both going to the cooler!" Mr D'Olivera shouted.

El and Lisa both shut up, and the lesson carried on.

Dale looked at El. "You do talk kind of posh, though."

"Shut up!" El hissed, but it was the kind of talk where you could hear the laughter under the words, just waiting to spill out. That made Dale like her even more. Her face, when she smiled, well, if Dale hadn't been numb, he might have felt butterflies.

At the end of the lesson, much to the dismay of the class, if the groans were anything to be learnt from, Mr D'Olivera gave out homework. Not just any homework- oh, no. This was a project, evaluating the best ways of copper extraction and ways metals could be extracted from their ores more cheaply.

As soon as he heard, it, Dale groaned. That's gonna take hours, he thought.

That's if he did it.

Dale probably wasn't going to do it.

El, however, had other ideas.

"Wanna go to the library at lunch? That way, we can get it other and done with."

Dale stared at her- did she not know how you did homework? Acknowledge that you have the homework, watch the deadline creep slowly closer and then do a rushed version on the last day, or don't do it all.

Dale usually did the latter.

But working with El meant that he actually probably would have to do much work, wouldn't fail the homework- and, Dale suddenly thought, I'd be alone with her in the library.

Yeah, it was perfect- hardly anyone came into the library at lunch, which meant they'd be alone, which meant it would be the perfect place to make his move.

"Sure," Dale said.

They left the classroom and made their way to the library. Havalock was staying until after lunch because there was another lesson after- it was a split double. So Dale would have the entire lunch break to make his move.

They chatted as they made their way to the library- well, El did, and Dale grunted occasionally in response. It wasn't that he was nervous, no, he was too numb for that, but he didn't want to mess up Did El, even like him, or did she just feel sorry for him now? Plus, as Dale walked past the sports hall, he couldn't help but still mourn his biking career.

All in all, it wasn't a nice jumble of thoughts.

When they made it to outside the library, with El saying something about the large hadron collider getting revamped to look for material reality, a kid pushed right past Dale, slamming him hard in the shoulder.

The kid, who couldn't have been more than fifteen, didn't even bother to say sorry, instead just talked to his friends. Dale still felt numb, but knew he should feel angry. He wanted to feel angry. He wanted to feel adrenaline.

Almost in a trace, Dale walked up the kid, tapped his back, and when the kid turned round, punched him square in the nose.

"Dale!" El screamed, running over. "What are you doing?"

He didn't answer her, though, instead getting the dazed kid on the floor, putting his arm under the kid's neck and continuing to punch. Huh. Finally, his fighting days were coming in handy.

"Shove me, will you?" Dale seethed. "I'll show you!"

Now, as small crowd had gathered, including the kid's friends and El. The kid's friends tried to get him off, but Dale stayed firm. He didn't budge- and the kid's nose was beginning to look like a bloody pulp.

In the end, it was El that got him off.

"Dale!" She screamed again. This time, though, she ran into the circle, grabbed his shoulders and with all his might, pulled Dale off the kid.

The crowd went silent. Dale could see the kid on the floor, his nose bloody. He was hardly moving.

"Come on, let's go." El said, pulling him into the library. No teachers had come yet- they were all probably in the staff room or dining hall.

Once inside the library, they made their way to the computers. Dale was still in his trace. He didn't notice that El looked shaken, as you would be after seeing someone getting batten up, never mind it being by your friend.

They started on the project, saying nothing. What could they say? Dale could still save it, though. He could still ask El out.

El typed, Dale helping out very little. They sat close, very close, so close that Dale could feel the heat on her skin and smell her hair- apple shampoo.

Dale leaned in. "El, are you alright?" he asked. As he did so, he drew his hand closer to her leg.

El ran a hand through her hair, which was now sticking up. "What… what did you… do that for-"she paused. Dale had started to run his hand up her leg as she'd talked.

Still in the trace- like state, the next thing he knew he'd been pushed back in his chair, shoved.

"What the fuck ae you doing?" El shouted. She was seething.

"I thought you wanted… don't be like that, El. isn't this what you wanted?" He asked.

"Oh God… Oh God, Oh God, Oh God…" she whispered, standing up, rubbing her leg where Dale had touched her. Charming.

"What the fuck is wrong with you Dale? You're moody, you're mean, and you're monosyllabic…. And now you beat up a kid and try and feel me up? Is that what you thought this was? Some feeling free- for- all?" She looked so angry, Dale thought smoke might come out of her ears.

"I thought we were friends, Dale." She finished.

"We are…"

"Friends don't do this!" El shouted. "Friends tell each other what's the matter! Friends don't try and feel the other up!" she paused. "I've got to go," she said, grabbing her satchel. "Don't follow me."

And with that, El left.

He'd ruined it all. His last friend, gone.

Dale was alone.

Thanks for viewing my story!

Please review- I'd really like to know what you all think. :)