I wake up to the sound of my alarm blaring again. I slap it hard with something sounding like it cracked in the process…fuck I broke it. I get up and saunter to the bathroom, mourning my alarm clock. I take a shower, thinking about yesterday. Was I too hard on Trish? Just leaving her there for Reed to discover? …Nah, she’ll be fine. Reed’s got her back. I finish up and make my way to the kitchen to make myself some eggs, my first time cooking anything since I left home. Well, unless you count dino nuggets getting thrown into the microwave. Just hope I don’t fuck this up…somehow. I make a couple of scrambled eggs and grab a cheap paper plate to put them on. I sit on my bed and start scrolling through my phone, taking a bite of my soft eggs with each scroll. Like a poorly oiled machine until my fuel runs out. I grab my stuff and head out the door. As I approach the school, drawing closer to the steps, I’m stopped by a voice coming up from behind, “Anon.” It sounds like Naomi, but it can’t be. The voice is way too…worn out. She clears her throat and speaks again, “Anon!” I turn to her, and she has that plastic smile on her face, “Hey Naomi, what’s up?” She looks disheveled, and her hair has a glean to it. Bags under her eyes are clearly visible, and lines from tears cried reflected in the sunlight. Makes me sad looking at her in this state, lonely and not taking care of herself. Reminds me of myself at Rock bottom. Naomi tries to clear her throat again to no avail. It’s hoarse. “Hey…I just wanted to say I’m sorry for going off on Fang; I didn’t want to tell her in person. Mainly because I’m sure she doesn’t want to see me right now. No one does…. ” I try giving her the same smile I gave Fang at Moe’s before she played. “Alright, thank you. I’ll tell her you said sorry.” As I turn to walk away, she grabs my sleeve, “A-and tell Naser I’m sorry too…for everything…” she loosens her grip as her hand falls down to her side. She’s clearly lost in thought, spacing out. I rub my neck, “Uh, yeah, of course, I’ll tell him.” She slowly looks up at me with a warm smile, “Thank you, Anon, I’ll…be seeing you.” She scuttles away up the entrance trying not to make eye contact with any of the students that crowd the stairs. I follow not too far behind and see Fang sitting on the stairs playing something on her phone. I plop down next to her, “What’re you playing?” Fang looks deep in focus, “League of Wizards.” I giggle a bit, “No fucking way you actually got into that.” She nods, not looking away from her screen, “That video on YouSnoot you put on got me hooked. I’ve been playing it since.” I watch her play, and she seems surprisingly good at it. She huffs a little, glancing at me with a glare and back to her screen, “What do you mean surprisingly?” I continued watching her play, “I dunno, I just didn’t expect you to be good at these games.” I see a victory screen flash, and she lets out a sigh of relief like she’s been holding her breath since the beginning of the match. “Hey, so I wanted to tell you something….” She puts her phone in her pocket, “Yeah, what’s up?” I rub my neck, “So Naomi pulled me aside a little bit ago. She wanted me to tell you that she’s sorry for going off at you a few days ago in the cafeteria.” Fang glances up towards the entrance expecting to see Naomi and sighs, “I’ve pretty much already moved on from that. I’m more pissed at Trish than anything. Naomi, even though she was a super manipulative bitch, didn’t attempt to ruin anything like Trish did.” I nod a little, “Yeah…speaking of which, I told her yesterday to not talk to you until after graduation.” Fang scoffs a little, “Hope she doesn’t talk to me ever…still can’t fucking believe her. I would choke slam her ass into the stairs if she were here.” Note to self… don’t make Fang pissed. The bell rings to go to the first period. I hug Fang goodbye and start heading to English. I plop down in my seat to see Naomi missing again, weird. I swear I saw her walking into the school. Whatever, I listen to Mr. Tsuki as he attempts to say anything coherent, and before I know it, English is over, and I’m off to math. Reed and Trish look at me with discontent written on their faces. I sit down and don’t feel a wad of paper hit my nape…man why is everyone so depressed today. I turn around, and Reed glances at Trish and back at me. He sighs and gestures for me to come back to sit with them. I move to the back of the room and sit down next to them. Trish has her head turned to look out a window. Reed looks like he needs a break. I honestly feel sorry for the guy. He’s had to put up with Trish while Fang and I duck and weave her presence. Reed finally speaks up, “So how are you, man, and Fang? How are they?” I scratch my head, wondering if I should tell them that Fang isn’t non-binary anymore…I might as well, “Well… I’m doing alright, and Fang’s doing fine. She told me yesterday that she’s decided to not be non-binary.” Trish flinches at the words coming out of my mouth and snaps her head to me with the same look as Naomi, disheveled. Tear lines from hours of crying are visible on her face. “How would you know?” I shrug, “She just told me yesterday during music.” Trish looks at Reed. Reed shrugs as well, “What? I don’t listen to every conversation they have. That wouldn’t be right. Give them some privacy, y’know?” Trish sighs and shoots daggers at me before returning to looking out the window. Reed and I make some small talk as the period flies by. By the time the bell rings, Reed looks a little better; I guess this is the only break he’s gotten from the stress of the past couple of days. As Fang and I talk while walking to lunch, I feel that pit return to my stomach. I can’t help but feel like I fucked up yesterday talking to Trish. We’ll just have to see. - - - Anon and I sit down to eat with Naser. Hopefully, Naomi won’t be around to bother us this time. Before taking the first bite of my sandwich, I need to use the bathroom. I haven’t since I woke up. “Hey, Anon?” He pauses the conversation he’s having with Naser and smiles warmly at me. “Yeah?” “I need to go use the bathroom. I’ll be right back….” “Don’t fall in.” Anon giggles a little bit. I punched his arm softly, “It was one time, damn it!” Anon’s giggle develops into a cackle as I walk away. I hear Naser start laughing too. I’m gonna punch them both when I get back. As I walk into the bathroom closest to the cafeteria, I’m instantly hit with the smell of…blood? I see a pool of red substance forming from under one of the stalls, and I feel my heart drop to my stomach as I get closer. As I creep over and crack open the stall, I see… Naser… my baby brother… he’s dead. A gunshot to his chest. I look down and see my own hands covered in blood as I’m holding that… fucking revolver. The entire floor is now covered in blood. I look at Naser, my heart racing and my breath escaping my body. Naser’s looking at me… stop… stop fucking looking at me… I don’t want this… I drop to my knees and close my eyes tight, gripping my hair and threatening to pull it out. I inhale sharply as my eyes shoot open, and I sit where Naser sat. The bathroom is back to normal. My breath sounds like I just ran a marathon. But that smell doesn’t fade, and a pain in my arm makes itself more and more noticeable. Tears are rolling down my face as the pain increases tenfold in the span of seconds. I looked down to see blood slowly dripping down my arm to the tile floor and small feathers scattered in the blood. The only thing audible is my breathing and the blood dripping, forming a puddle. I take a moment to calm myself and wrap up my arm with the cheap one-ply school toilet paper. As I get up, I can see a cloth rag on one of the sinks left behind by the janitors. I clean up my face, mascara making black lines down my cheeks. I attempt to clean up whatever I can. Some of the blood around the edges of the small puddle has dried. How long have I been here? The bell ringing signaling music tells me I’ve been here the whole lunch period…fuck. I replace the one-ply toilet paper with another layer, my arm already starting to scab. Red pinpricks dotted my arm’s bald spot where feathers used to be. I walk out, head to the lunch room to grab my stuff, and quickly make my way to music. Anon’s probably worried about where I went… As I enter, I notice no one…there. What the hell? I checked my phone to see if I should’ve been heading for science. I was in the bathroom for two hours. I see about five missed texts from Anon, all asking if I’m okay or if I skipped… fuck how am I gonna tell him I was preening…. Thankfully the bald spot is on the inside of my arm, so it’s relatively easy to hide. I hurriedly make my way to science, taking off my makeshift bandage along the way. I sit down next to Anon, who has his head down; he’s taking a nap. I poke him, and he shoots up. - - - I feel a claw poke my side, and I shoot up, “HUH WHA- oh hey, Fang.” Fang giggles a little, “Sorry, Spears pulled me in to talk about Naomi again.” I sigh, relieved, and smile softly, “How’d that go?” Fang returns the smile, “Felt like I was being interrogated. He wanted to know exactly what I said to her and then gave me a lecture about being the better man and shit, Spears stuff.” I nod a little, “Yeah, I get that. Speaking of which, have you seen Naomi at all today? I saw her when she was walking into school, but I haven’t seen her at all after that.” Fang thinks for a moment before slowly shaking her head, “She passed me on the steps up to school, and that was the only time I saw her today.” I sigh a little, “I’m a little worried about her. She looked awful this morning.” Fang looks at me curiously, “How so?” I lean back in my chair, “She looked like she hadn’t showered in days, and looked like she hadn’t slept in days either.” Fang mocks my body language, “I’m sure she’s fine. Everything’s probably just hitting her at once, y’know?” I nod a little, stretching, “Yeah… yawn …I guess you’re right.” I look out the window; it’s raining outside. It would be a perfect time for a nap. Fang and I attempt to talk about our day as we doze off next to each other until the bell rings. I hug Fang and peck her on the cheek. The rest of the day flew by, mainly because I slept through all my classes. I decided to skip the last period and hang out outside. The rain’s always pleasant to listen to. As I walk out and I’m hit with the smell of rain; I don’t know how dinos aren’t able to smell this. Maybe I should take biology in college and get a doctorate…but then again, that’s five years without Fang… I’ll figure it out. Sitting outside, I pull out a cigarette Fang had given me a few days prior. I’ve been saving it for something like this. As I light the tip and take my first draw, I look up at the gray sky as it pours over Volcadara. I text Fang, and…nothing; she must be busy. I sit admiring the sounds of the rain, enjoying the nicotine rush. I take the last draw of my cigarette and throw the butt into the parking lot. A raindrop hits the ember, making it sizzle before fading. As I hear the last bell ring out for the day, I turn my head from the place I was locked on to see Naomi sitting near me. I jump back a little, “How long have you been here?” Naomi gets up, dusting herself off, “not long, about halfway through your cigarette. It’s nice, isn’t it?” I look up at her and glance around, “What?” She scans the horizon, “The rain, the rain’s nice.” I follow her gaze, “Yeah, the rain’s nice. So-” Naomi looks back at me, “I’m moving, Anon, far away from here.” I slowly get up, grunting in the process, “Where too?” Naomi sighs, “I don’t know yet, just…somewhere that’s not here.” I lean against the wall, “I understand. I-” Naomi tries to speak, holding back a sob, “You’re the only one to understand, Anon… How do you do this?” I look at her, confused, “Do what?” She slides back down the wall sitting where she is crying a little. Her tears blended with the rain, “How can you be so okay with being invisible? It’s like…like, people don’t even see me anymore. Like they’re looking through me….” I sigh a little bit, “I don’t know… it’s always been like that for me. I only just recently have been seen by someone other than myself. It’s just been how I lived for as long as I remember.” Naomi looks at me, distraught, “I’m so sorry, Anon. I’m so sorry I put you and Fang through this….” I look at her, confused, and try to reassure her, “Through what? You’re the one that put us together. Without you, Fang and I wouldn’t be in the position we’re in right now.” Naomi’s tears begin falling much faster, “Whatever…just… I’m sorry….” I sigh and nod, “I accept your apology, I guess.” I look around and see the parking lot empty of cars. I guess it’s time to go. I extend my hand to Naomi, who glances at it and then at me before taking it. I try to help her up but almost get pulled down to her level. How are dinos this fucking dense? Naomi rolls her eyes before walking home in the rain, “Rude.” I watch as she disappears around the corner before I grab my stuff and start heading to Moe’s. I hope work is easy today… I need a fuckin break and a half...