And Then There Was Us

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER ONE

BERTRAND

I pick up my phone and dial her number.
When she picks up I only say five words. "It's about mom. Come quick."
~months before~
I woke up that morning, and all I could think about was suicide and death.
It's the first day where death is all I could wish for.

I squirm in my bed as I hear my alarm clock go off. The clock read 6:50 AM, September 1st.
It was the first day back to school. I was starting my junior year.

“ Berty get up honey” my mom shouted.
“I’m already up mom” I shouted back.
Berty is my nickname but I hate it. I hate when people call me by it. I prefer my original name, Bertrand. It’s a French name my mom chose for me. She was in a “boulangerie”, French for bakery, when she heard that name and fell in love with it.

I didn’t want to get out of bed, I don’t know if it was because I was still so tired or it was just nervousness.

I didn’t like going to school. I hated school. For me, school was like hell, it was seven hours of me getting bullied non-stop.
One of the bullies used to be my best friend. Ash and I were inseparable. We met in elementary school, we had an art class together. I remember that day vividly like it all happened yesterday. The teacher divided us into groups of two. Ash and I were paired together. The teacher assigned each team to draw something that reminded them of love.

" I want to draw my mom." Ash declared.

"I want to do that too. What does your mom look like? " I inquired.

" My mom has beautiful blonde hair with green emerald eyes. She's skinny." He said in response. "What does your mom look like?" He added.

" My mom has dark hair with blue eyes. She's also skinny. But not too much." I Retorted

" Does your mom work? " he interrogated.

"No. She doesn't. She takes care of me and my sister." I replied.
"What about your mom does she work?" I add.

"Yes. My dad told me that my mom works with God and his angels. That's why I never see her. She left us two years ago. According to my dad, she got a promotion and she was forced to leave us. But dad told me that I will see her again." He responded.
"That's a really cool job." I replied.

But now that I'm older I realised that his mom doesn't work with God. His mom was dead. She died due to a drunk driver hitting her car as she was coming back from work. She used to be a journalist. A really big journalist. She was one of the biggest reporters New York has ever seen. She was an extremely driven woman. She was really passionate about her job.

After that day, Ash and I became inseparable. We shared lots of moments together. We were there for each other no matter what. Our relationship was one of a kind. Even though we were kids, we always understood one another. We could read each other's minds. We thought of it as our superhero strength.
Our connection was growing more and more until the sixth grade.

In the sixth grade, a new family moved to our town. The Reed family. Josh, their eldest son was in the seventh grade and his sister was my age. At first, it was all nice. I actually, thinking about it now, used to admire Josh. He was this guy that could destroy you in a matter of seconds but yet he's the friendliest person you could ever meet. However, Josh was not the friendliest person to me. Josh was my bully. It all started during the second half of the school year. It was nothing at first. He just used to make fun of me and my friends. With the progression of time, it got more intense. He sometimes would lift me by my backpack and fling me across the room. One day it got so bad that I went back home with a black eye. He used to beat me sometimes. The school did take procedures against him but it was nothing too crazy.