Somebody Else ✔

Sweetheart P2.

Cole.

Edited.

Part two.

Someone slapped me across the face, hard. "Oi St Michael! You piece of shit!" I groggily opened my eyes and found Aggie standing over me, her hands on her hips.

I rubbed my eyes and sat up against the tree trunk, the protruding roots digging into my back. I checked my phone. It was dead, and the sky above purple and blue. Oh, shit.

I was shivering, and drenched, my finger tips blue. "I — I—" I chattered and Aggie crouched beside me, taking my face in her hands.

"You're a fucking idiot." She nodded. I had a smartass reply, I was sure of it. My throat was so dry that I couldn't speak. Butterflies teetered on the edge of my vision. I tried to stand, but Aggie shoved me back down. Aggie took a deep breath, pointing up to the branches above us, and said pensively, "Johnny Wallace hung himself in this tree." I flinched away from it like it hurt me. She slapped me again. This time, my teeth bit into my cheek, and blood filled my mouth.

"Ouch," I said, as I spat red blood against the dark roots of the tree.

Aggie ignored me. She stood up, and cracking her knuckles. "He left Dad's cause the bullying was so bad. It stopped for a bit when he was at Easts, but the same people from Dad's just kept hounding him." I felt my stomach knot. I hadn't know that. I mean, I remembered some stupid photo going around once but that was it.

I was gonna throw up. Was I? Yeah. I turned my head and threw up blood and chocolate and toast and fucking god knows what else.

"I didn't realize you were close with him," I mumbled, wiping my mouth.

I remembered back to year nine, and the days of ask.fm. Even I coped shit on that site, anonymous people telling me to drink bleach and telling me no one likes you.

I got off it, I guess is what happened. I got off of it and started getting good at footy and fighting and being a dick. They all soon left me alone, after that.

J was a nice kid. We hadn't been that close — he ran in a different crowd to us. But then again we'd ended up on the roof of the Maccas playground together once. We'd both ran into each other, after walking out of a party. I hadn't even noticed him at the party. I'll never forget, instead of tutoring me for an Economics exam, we stole the answers from the teacher and circulated them.

Johnny Wallace. The second out of the five boys to die, when all those guys killed themselves last year. I couldn't stop shivering.

She glanced up to the branches, waving in the wind. Aggie closed her eyes. "He was a good guy. He didn't deserve half of what he got." I wanted to talk to her and reassure her, but I couldn't do shit.
Aggie's cheeks flushed. "We met through like, this anti bullying program we both did."

"Is that why you left Yorkie?" I dug my fingers into the dirt and brought myself up to my knees.

"Yeah."

"Was it Izzy?" I struggled over her name, and my head turned and swayed.

"It's complicated," She whispered, after a moment.