[REDACTED]

II

chapter title: 1

(quick A/N, at the beginning of each chapter, will be a list of songs I was listening to while writing if you'd like to listen to them as well, they normally fit the mood fairly well)

-Alien Blues

-Mulberry Street

-Enemy (from Arcane)

-Money (the drums)

-Chandelier (will Panquin)

-My Axe (icp)

-revenge (XXX)

-them changes

-verbatim

-are we still friends

-boys will be bugs

-colorblind (anuka)

-can't hold us

- - -

Karl -

- - -

Walking through the mall was one of his favorite things to do, especially on a day when it wasn't very crowded and there were no rude people out-and-about. Karl's mother had given him the keys to the car for the day, telling him to go into town and do something. He had chosen to go to the mall not only to get an idea of the people in the area but also to get some clothes for school. He had plenty of things to wear already, but he wanted to get a nice new pair of shoes, a set of sweats and a t-shirt, and a nice backpack.

He walked into the hot-topic on the left side of the walkway and started to walk around. He saw lots of interesting things on the walls, backpacks, shirts, shoes, smiling he realized he could get all that he needed in this store. He heard someone move something and turned to the counter, seeing a boy that was most probably his age. At a closer look though, Karl realized that the boy behind the counter very closely resembled his ex, Conner. Karl was a bit thrown off but decided not to show it. He simply continued to walk around the store and look at things.

Karl eventually had an armful of things he was gonna get, so he walked up to the counter where the same boy was standing and laid all the things on the counter, the other boy began to smile and ring everything up. Karl watched as he did it, the dark brown nirvana shirt first, next to the loose black jeans, the chain jewelry, a new bottle of eyeliner, a tan and brown backpack, a pair of black hightop converse.

"45.68" Karl handed the boy his card which was quickly swiped, the receipt printed as the boy behind the counter bagged everything.

"Are you new here?" Karl was surprised he was being spoken to.

"Uhm, yeah moved in yesterday."

"Do you go to Westbrooke?"

"Yep, the first day is tomorrow." The boy behind the counter handed Karl the bag and took the receipt from the printer, he also grabbed a pen and wrote something on the back of it.

"I'm George, here's my number, text me. I'll pick you up tomorrow for your first day, assuming you're a sophomore." Karl nodded, "Thanks, George. I'm Karl by the way, would love to talk but I have to get home. I will text you though." George nodded and waved as Karl left the store.

Karl managed to walk all the way to his car without stopping because he knew that once he did stop that he was gonna get dizzy, which he did. He quickly threw the bag in the backseat and sat down in the driver's seat.

- - -

Karl woke up and groaned his phone had woke him up because someone was calling him. He picked up and set it next to his ear.

"Hello?"
"Hey Karl, it's George by the way, I'm outside but we have like 30 mins."

Karl groaned before telling George he'd be down soon. Karl got up and changed into some good clothes for the first day of school. He slid on a black skirt, black fishnet stockings, his black converse, and his Nirvana shirt before fluffing up his hair and grabbing his bag which had all of his things in it.

As Karl slung the bad on his shoulder he felt his wrists move to far and his cuts from the previous night open up.
"fuck fuck fuck fuck..." he rushed to the bathroom, putting bandaids over the slices and then dressing his arms in a hoodie over his shirt.

Then Karl ran downstairs and outside to George's corvette that was sitting in the driveway. Karl got into the passenger seat and smiled at George as they began driving to school.

George started taking as they began walking through the halls.

"The entire school is decently chill, along with most of the teachers, it's a really nice school in all honesty. Also, you should sit with me and my friends at lunch today. Don't feel pressured but i'm sure they'd love to meet you."

Karl smiled at George as he walked into his first block classroom, glancing around at the students who were there, still 6 minutes until class started so it wasn't full or anything. Karl waked to the teachers desk.

"oh you must be the new student, go sit anywhere you like." The man smiled nicely as he continued to cut papers with scissors, as Karl walked to his seat in the back his thoughts ran off.

if I could snap those scissors in half then i could slice with the blades

The thought caught him very off guard and he physically stopped waking. Karl looked at his hands and then back at his desk before continuing to walk, slower this time.

The day's morning classes went by fault quickly and the boy in a skirt soon found himself half-asleep with his head down at a lunch table with George while they waited for other people. Eventually Karl felt more weight at the table and looked up to see five sets of eyes on him.

George motioned around the table. "Bad, Skeppy, Clay, Nick, Alex." then he looked at Karl. "Boys this is Karl the new student."

lunch went by as normal, except for the constant intrusive thoughts Karl couldn't get rid of.

How much force would it take to get that pencil in your gut

wonder if you could use those earbud wires to make a choke cord

how many cuts from those scissors until my arms are done

Eventually someone noticed Karl spacing out, Clay did. He motioned for Karl to follow him and so the shorter did. They ended up standing in the hallway.

"Karl, I know you've never met or talked to me before but are you ok? You have really big eye-bags, keep rubbing and itching your wrists, you look really tired and are jumping slightly every few seconds...you can talk to me."

Karl was taken completely off guard and stunned he hesitantly backed a bit away from Clay. He opened his mouth to say something and then shut it again, tapping his foot on the floor quickly before looking away from Clay.

"I'm fine, thanks."

Karl quickly looked at the boy again before walking away, leaving Clay to stand there concerned for the smaller boy. Karl had sat down at the table for only a few seconds when Clay sat down back across from him, he slapped his hands down on the table.

"Party at my place tonight, just all of us, and you new kid. Be there at 5, anyway I gotta go, I have Sherri next." Clay stood up to leave, saluting to Nick before walking away.