Bradie's P.O.V

"Shaun hurry up, you'll be late," he sighed and rolled over on the lounge so he was facing me,
"I'm not going," I rolled my eyes and grabbed his wrist attempting to pull him off the lounge yet failing miserably,
"Yes you are, you didn't go at all last week, if you miss too much you can't graduate. Plus that music assignments due today," his brow creased at the mention of an assignment he obviously couldn't recall, "The one where you write your own song and show the class doofus," he groaned and stood up heading towards the bedroom, "What're you doing?" I called out after him as he headed up the staircase.
"Getting changed and fixing something up, I'll be back down soon," I sighed, at least he was coming.

We finally got to school, Shaun's hand still looked pretty bad but he said he could manage; we had music first so at least all the worries about the assignment would soon be shoved away. The two of us took our usual seats up the back and Cindy soon joined us looking like she was severely lacking sleep,
"You okay?" I whispered and she nodded, her breaths all ragged and hands slightly shaking,
"Perfectly fine, absolutely fine, I… I didn't sleep until late and almost missed out coming to school," I nodded and she took her hand in mine,
"Okay class, today is the day your assignments are due, I will collect all your sheets therefore you cannot make any changes, we will get through who we can today and the rest during our next meeting." We all sat there quietly avoiding eye contact so that we wouldn't get picked first, my eyes ventured over to Shaun who was sitting there with his laptop open, why did he even have it out? The mark on his palm was slightly healed but still then it would easily attract attention; he'll probably jig PE and Science. "Any volunteers?"
"Yeah I'll go," the whole room turned in shock right at Shaun,
"What're you doing?" I whispered angrily towards him,
"Getting it over and done with duh," he pushed his chair back and got up with his laptop in hand,
"But Shaun… your—"
"It's fine," I groaned as he walked to the front of the room, "Do you have any speakers I could use sir?" the class was judging him, Cindy and I could tell. There were snickers around the room and people pointing at his bandaged hand; the teacher gave him a weird stare and brought out the chord so Shaun could wire up the laptop,
"Would you care to explain what you're doing Mr Diviney?" he flashed a cheesy grin at Sir before showing it to the whole class,
"Well, I had a bit of an accident right?" He showed everyone the cut on his hand bound up with bandage, it was as if he'd had a sudden confidence boost, I hadn't seen him this proud in years. "So I thought to myself that I'd record the song, because obviously I can't play guitar if my hand is bad can I? So uh… here it is." He pressed the play button and cranked up the volume as the starting bars came in, soft piano chords building up before the first line of vocals. My forehead creased and I looked over at Shaun who winked at me before silently laughing,
"That's not—"
"I know," I cut Cindy off with a small whisper, that wasn't Shaun's voice at all, it was Andrew's, yet the class had no idea, Shaun barely spoke to them let alone sing in front of them in order for them to tell. His voice didn't come in until the chorus, the song was 'Back of My Head', he'd played it to me once before. The final notes came to a close and there was a faint clapping as he unplugged the laptop,
"Great work Shaun; full marks, next?" the whole class went back to the usual chatter making it hard for the teacher to get everyone's full attention yet again,
"Great job Shaun, I didn't know you or Andy could sing so well," he shrugged taking his seat beside me,
"There's a lot people don't know here, you probably know a lot more than some though."

Shaun's P.O.V

I must admit, I was rather proud of myself, maybe it was because I was acting so cheerful? It was rare for me to be this upbeat and happy; I think Bradie had already noticed because he kept giving me strange glares every so often. I slipped my earphone up my jumper sleeve and rested my ear against my palm, the earphone nice within listening range to The Black Parade album. The rest of the songs performed were highly boring to me, the same things from guys again and again about fucking chicks and getting drunk, the same thing from girls again and again about falling in and out of love and boys; it was almost as if I was the only one with a little originality in my veins. I was highly curious as to what Cindy and Bradie had written, Bradie probably wrote something about Spiderman or did some techno remix, Cindy though, I had no idea; maybe that was why he and I were so blown away. The task was to write your own song, but Sir explained that due to personal issues she was performing a cover… a cover of 'Terrible Things' by Mayday Parade, her eyes locked onto Bradie as she sang; her voice quivered slightly and I could see her eyes beginning to water.
"Now son I'm only telling you this because life, can do terrible things," her voice cracked at the end and she stood up leaving the piano and running out the door, the class fell silent. Cindy Parker, the most popular girl in our year during the start had run out of the room crying. Bradie went to ask permission to after her and Sir nodded before he got the chance to speak, Bradie ran down the hallway and I was left sitting there feeling awkward, I wasn't going to ask permission to leave; Cindy and I barely knew each other, well I barely knew her, she'd found out all my stuff by accident.

Cindy's P.O.V

I couldn't believe myself, I hated myself at that very moment; you broke down; at school; in front of everyone, well not technically everyone, but enough people to make me feel even more like shit.
"Cindy!" my head snapped up and I could just see Bradie through my tears, "Hey sh, sh, it's okay, I'm here," he sat down next to me and brushed my hair off my face simultaneously wiping away my tears. "Do you want to talk about it?" I shook my head and rested it onto his chest, "You going to be okay?" I nodded; faint tears still rolling down my face, "What did Sir mean 'personal things'?" I sighed knowing he'd ask eventually,
"I'll tell you one day I promise, when I come to your house with tears down my face and a backpack of clothes to last me a week I'll tell you," he didn't respond but instead pulled me into him closer, the two of us sitting there against the cold walls of A block just down the hall from the music room.

The bell rang harshly signalling the next period, I had science as did most of the year, Shaun having P.E instead, I walked into the classroom, my hands slightly shaking from crying before; luckily my emotions had settled and my face wasn't as red anymore, I needed to breathe, Beau came and sat next to me,
"You alright?" I nodded slightly and he smiled pulling out his books, "Is Shaun here today?" I chuckled quietly and nodded yet again,
"You care so much," he shrugged,
"You'd care if you knew his problems,"
"I do." He looked over at me confused, "Bradie kind of told me not to mention I could tell, he lets loose at home and when I was there you could see all his scars and how Andy has such a protective hold over him. How'd you find out?" he stiffened a little and let out a ragged sigh,
"Well, I was on the way home with dinner for me and Jay and walked past the park a few streets away, you know the one nicknamed sex park?" I laughed at little at the memory, my group of friends nicknamed it that after a power walking session with school, Josie told us how people apparently fucked there at night so that's what we called it, "Well I walked past it and I saw this guy with a blade in his arm and blood on himself; then I realised… it was Shaun," his voice was a shaky whisper and I couldn't blame him, he'd found out pretty full on, "That was last week, he hadn't come to school and naturally I worried,"
"Wait… you said on his arm right?" he nodded at my query and hummed perplexed,
"Why?"
"Because he has a bandage on his hand but not his arm, there's a scar because I could see the edge of it but he had all this stuff wrapped on his palm,"
"He's done it again," Beau whispered and I shrugged,
"It's not really our place to judge, we're friends; I don't even know if he considers you that. To him Bradie is like a brother and Andy is his boyfriend, we don't really get a say in it," Beau sighed and nodded slightly in agreement and we began our work for that lesson.

Shaun's P.O.V

I almost leapt out of my seat in joy as the bell rang for recess,
"Praise the mother fucking lord," I muttered as I walked over to the side of B block, a nice little quiet spot it was, people walked past me but no one cared enough to dob me in for being out of bounds or care as to why I was. I saw a shadow on the ground and smirked having a good feeling who it was, "Hello Beau," I heard him chuckled and move to sit in front of me,
"Good to see you back Shaun," I half smiled and tugged down further on my sleeves, "What're you hiding? Its okay, it's hot you should pull your sleeves up, no one is looking." He was telling the truth, no one was looking and it happened to be one of those warm winter days. I pushed them up to my elbows and raised an eyebrow at him,
"What about you? Yours are pretty far down," he shifted uncomfortably and pushed up the left side,
"There," I shook my head and he chewed his lip before pushing the right side up, now I knew why he probably cared about me so much. A purple scar ran across his right wrist, it was strange to see it on him, "Please don't look at it," I tore my eyes away knowing how uncomfortable it was to have someone stare at your scars, "It was stupid, I wanted to know what it felt like, I had a fight with my parents and was curious, I regret it." I nodded and put a hand over his,
"It's alright, I won't tell anyone, I promise." He smiled and leant forward giving me a gentle hug, it felt strange to say the least,
"Thank-you," I shrugged and he sat up,
"You saved my life, I owe you more; look Andy's planning this party for me this weekend, how about you come along? It'll only be small I guarantee it," he nodded and grinned like a little kid. Oh how amusing it was to see someone other than Andy act like this, maybe I could get used to having Beau as a friend; it was just strange, no one had really taken an interest in my life after I turned fifteen, I'd already gained Bradie and Andy by then, maybe the future was brighter than I thought.