Tommy: (sitting on his side of the line, glaring at me.) Why has it taken so long for you up date!

Adam: (sitting on the line.) Calm down Glitter baby I'm sure she had a good reason for waiting about 3 months to update. . . (looks at me with a raised brow.)

Me: (bites bottom lip.) Welll. . . .for starters i had a major case of writers block, then i went on vacation, then when i got back i had an idea for another story so i started working on it, then i started college and i've had a crap ton of homework but now i think i will be able to do regular updates. . . . (smiles Adam and Tommy's direction.)

Adam: Told you she had a good reason!

Tommy: (shakes his head)I don't care. . .

Adam: (rolls eyes) you're such a drama queen. . .

Tommy: (glares at Adam.)

Me: (To the readers) Im gonna let those two sort this out and let you guys read the chapter!

"If everyone cared and nobody cried

If everyone loved and nobody lied

If everyone shared and swallowed their pride

Then we'd see the day when nobody died"

Mrs. Hunt was about as hardcore Catholic as they came and due to my sexual preference it became obvious she didn't like me. Whether she knew for a fact that I was gay I really wasn't sure. I hadn't told anyone, especially my narrow minded principle. It seemed no matter where we were, she always stayed at least three to five feet away from me, as if my homosexual-ness would somehow rub off on her and she would be damned to Hell for all of eternity. The way I seen it she already was, but that was beside the point.

It only seemed natural that when I set foot in her brightly lit, musty smelling office, she pushed her chair back a little more. I did my best to ignore her childish behavior, and sat in one of the chairs placed in front of her desk.

Her strawberry blond hair was pulled back into a tightly wound bun, causing the skin on her forehead and eyebrows to stretch. The expression the hair due caused made her appear to be in a permanent state of shock.

Mrs. Hunt fidgeted in her desk chair a moment before finally saying something.

"What's the problem Mr. Lambert?" she pried with cold hazel eyes.

Luckily I had learnt to ignore her problems with me and was able to move on to the current situation without thinking she hated me.

"I thought there was a no bullying policy at this school." I stated.

She waited a second before responding. "Yes, do you have a problem with that?" she asked.

I shrugged. "No. But you might try actually in forcing it once in a while. I'm sure there are some kids who would appreciate it if you did."

"And who might this 'bully' you are speaking of be?" She air quoted the word bully with her boney fingers as if the thought of someone miss treating another kid was complete blasphemy.

"Steven Daniels." I noted.

Mrs. Hunt laughed humorlessly. "Mr. Daniels? I'll have you know that Steven is one to the best students this institution has. I don't see how Steven Daniels applies to our no bullying rule."

My eyes narrowed. "Well I don't see how his grades have anything to do with how he treats his peers.

The smirk on my principals' face turned from a smirk into a frown. "Do you have a problem Mr. Lambert, or are you here to tell me how to run my school?"

"Yes, Steven Daniels is my problem. In the past two weeks, he's hit me at least five times, and locked me in the janitors' closet!" I explained as calmly as my anger would allow.

It took a lot to make me mad, but this entire conversation was sparking a fire that would soon consume me.

"Then maybe you should stop instigating it." she spat.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the double meaning her words implied. What she said worked though. That shut me up- shut me down. Why I thought she would even consider trying to help was beyond me.

The empty, alone feeling drifted back into my body- extinguishing the small fire in me. Without another word I stood up and walked back out into the crowded halls. Class had let out for lunch, and students scrambled around me in a haze, trying to get to the lunch lines before anyone else. My talk with Mrs. Hunt made me lose my appetite, so I went out the quad and sat alone on top of one of the pic nic tables.

The sky over head was gray and a chilling breeze was blowing my thick locks of ginger hair out of my face. As I sat here I began to wonder if life was really worth everything I was going through. There wasn't a day that went by when I didn't get beaten up or picked on. Now even the teachers seemed to be taking the kids side.

My watery eyes glanced at my wrist. The skin was so thin and translucent, it wouldn't take much to break through and slice the veins. With a sharp enough razor there wouldn't even be that much pain, and once my heart finally stopped, there wouldn't' be anything at all. How much could a human body bleed out before the heart gave up and quit pumping? It would take two long cuts up the arm instead of across; the bleeding would be more excessive that way, causing death to come quicker. . .

After a while I didn't want to think about death anymore. Nothing good would come from killing myself, except freedom from everything- which sounded more appealing then I wanted to admit.

"Why are you out here all alone?" A sudden sweet, familiar voice asked.

I turned, and there was Elizabeth, her big emerald eyes gazing at me, full of that compassion I thought was gone.

"What do you want?" I asked somewhat skeptical of here sudden interest in my life again.

The tone of my voice appeared to hurt her feelings slightly, but she placed her small frame next to me on the table. "Whats up with ya?" she asked lightly, ignoring my harsh tone. "I saw you coming out of Mrs. Hunt's office."

My brain wasn't able to process why the hell she was asking me all these questions, let alone speaking to me again. She sure didn't care what was up with me the last two years of school.

"Isn't someone expecting you?" I asked coldly.

"Stevens not here today. Now tell me what's going on with you." her voice wasn't pushy but she was stilly prying.

"I could ask you the same question." I scoffed.

"What do you mean?" Her thin eye brows pulled together.

I met her eye to eye when I spoke this time.

"For the last two years you've acted like I didn't even exist. High school started and for some reason I wasn't good enough to hang with anymore." I explained.

Elizabeth bit her bottom lip and focused her attention on something other than me. I could tell she was trying to deny what I'd said, but couldn't.

"That's not entirely true Adam." she said. "It's just with Steven it's . . . complicated."

"You still could have said something." I argued.

"Look, I'm sorry Adam. I really am."

From the look in her eyes I could tell she really was sorry, but I wasn't sure if an apology was enough. My best and only friend had ditched me to hang with the popular crowd, leaving me to finned for myself. Friends didn't do that to other friends. But with the way my life was currently, I was in desperate need of a someone to talk too. This might have been my only shot.

I sighed. "I believe you."

She smiled.

"Look, class starts in ten minutes. Why don't you stop by my house tonight and we can catch up on the last two years. You still remember where I live?"

She nodded. "Of course."

I smiled slightly. "Okay. I'll see you then I guess."

"Absolutely." she assured.

~oOo~

On my way home I couldn't help but to smile a little. Regaining my friendship with Izzy may not have solved all of my problems, but it sure made me feel better. Neil noticed right away the shift in my mood when I picked him up.

"What's the matter with you?" he asked.

My delighted composure seemed to upset him.

"Well for starters," I began "I didn't get hit in the face during gym. . ." or beaten up at all. I added in my head. ". . . and I talked to one of my old friends at lunch."

Neil shrugged, no longer interested and turned up the radio. Had I not been in an immensely better state of being, I would have fought about his choice of station. Rap was not music; it was just noise and words.

I was forced to go to a McDonalds drive up before I could make it home, simply because my idiot brother forgot to take money for lunch at a school, and he dramatically explained that he would die before we could make it home if he didn't eat something.

"Let me have a french fry." I demanded watching Neil shove half the cheese burger into his mouth.

He reached over to my side of the car with the red container filled with golden fries. I took a handful and Neil grunted.

"I thought you only wanted one fry!"

"You'll survive." I chuckled.

Neil frowned, and I just laughed. I was using every possible moment to enjoy this feeling I had gained ever since lunch. It almost felt odd to be somewhat happy again. I'd grown accustomed to feeling so shitty all the time, that happiness was unnatural.

But that feeling suddenly escaped me when I caught sight of the bright yellow Corvette parked in front of my house. That was Stevens's car. My heart started pounding and my face broke out in a nervous sweat.

What was he doing here?

I parked behind the Chevy sports car, and Neil didn't hesitate to remove himself from the front seat. The yellow paint on the other hand had me locked in a trance and I was un able to make my body move. All at once I felt worthless again.

In a dreamlike state, I shut off the engine and got out of the car. I couldn't shake the feeling that somewhere in the tall hedges, Steven was hiding, waiting to strike. If anything happened, at least I was close enough for my parents to my aid if it got bad.

Somehow, I made it to the front door and inside without any confrontation. I breathed a little easier and my heart beat returned to a normal rhythm when I was safe inside.

"Hey Adam!" Izzy's sweet voice echoed from down the hall.

Before I could comprehend who had spoken, a small body bounced into mine. The embrace was quick and heart felt.

"Sorry." she giggled and apology from almost knocking me down.

I smiled at her, realizing that she must have driven Stevens's car.

"Told ya I still remembered where you live." she teasingly bumped my elbow with hers.

"It's really good to see you Elizabeth." I said.

It'd been so long since the two of us had spoken, I wasn't sure if I should call her by her old nick name or not. She made as sour face, when I did use her full name. "Eww yuck. Don't call me that." she stuck out her tongue and added. "Izzy, remember?"

Mom came around the corner then, smiling. "She's been waiting on you."

I shrugged. "Neil didn't eat lunch at school again. I was forced to take him through a drive up before he died."

Izzy laughed. "He hasn't changed then?"

I chuckled. "Nope. Not at all."

We wondered our way to my room, and soon it was like we were thirteen again; laughing and joking. I hadn't felt this good for at least two years, and now that I was feeling it again, I didn't want it to end.

"Oh wow." Izzy laughed. "That was fun." she said thinking back to when we were younger. "I miss this." she sighed after a while.

"Me too. . ." I agreed. If only she knew how much I missed this.

There was a long pause and I feel a shift in the atmosphere. The change really wasn't uncomfortable, just different.

"What happened to us?" she asked, pulling absentmindedly at a loose thread on her blouse.

I shrugged. "We grew up. And high school happened. It's not as easy as being a kid."

Izzy shook her head. "I know that. What I mean was, why did we let this between us?"

Our eyes met at that moment, and I thought I saw the beginnings of tears forming in her beautiful green irises.

"You got popular." I whispered. "I didn't. Everyone loves you. . .and then Steven. . ."

I stopped.

I didn't want to bring up Steven. Just the sound of his name made me cringe.

"Yeah . . .Steven.. . ."

I wasn't sure how to read her statement, it sounded odd to me. My room fell quiet again and I sighed.

"I guess I should tell you something before you decide we wanna be friends again."

The timing seemed weird, but I needed to officially tell someone. Izzy was the one I used to tell all my secrets to anyway, so it was only natural that I would come out to her first.

"What it is?"

"I . . . um. . . I'm gay."

She shrugged. "I know. It's cool. . ."

The look of complete and utter acceptance on her face and in her tone almost knocked me over in surprise, even though I knew almost everyone had already figured it out. I'd prepared for the worst, and gotten the easiest and calmest reaction. If only everyone was like that, then maybe I wouldn't be afraid of being me.

"You know?" I questioned, raising a brow.

She smiled. "Adam, you played dress up with me when we were kids, it's not that hard to figure out."

My cheeks turned a vivid pink and I bit my bottom lip. When she put it that way, it seemed as clear as night and day.

After that, our conversation was even stronger and opens with each other. It felt so good to have someone to talk to again. By the time nine thirty came around we were digging through old pictures of us from elementary school.

"I should probably get home." Izzy murmured glancing at the clock on my wall. "What are you doing tomorrow? I could come by again."

"Yeah!" That'd be great!" I said, probably too excited.

We both walked outside to the sports vehicle. The air was chilly, but the sky was clear.

"Well I'll see ya tomorrow." she assured with a smile.

"Cool."

I shut the car door for her, and watched her drive away feeling better than I had in a very long time.

A/N: SOOOO SORRY its been forever! but i really have done all that i said in the disclaimer. . .leave me a review! *prepares for hate comments about not updating in what seems like years*