I did not expect my neighbour to be crying in the rain. I had finally moved all of the boxes into my room and looked out the window at the street. It was pouring outside, typical London weather. So much for hanging out outside. I thought to myself as I put my hand to the window, sitting in the bend built into the window. I looked around the street and saw a boy with red hair sitting on the curb. He was only wearing a T-shirt and black skinny jeans. His shirt was black sleeves and a galaxy background with a grey cat on it. The cat had a crown and a cape, and looked very young. The boy's eyes were puffy from crying, and his hair was drenched. I grabbed my jacket from my bed and pulled up the hood. I walked into the kitchen where my mom and stepdad were talking. "Are you really going to go outside now?" My mom asked, looking at the clouds in the sky.
"Yeah. Just gonna take a look around. I'll be back before 6." I promised. I looked at the clock, 4:48, plenty of time.
"Okay. Have fun." She replied. I headed out the door, being sure to close it behind me. The rain hit hard on my head, some of it bouncing off of my and some soaking into my clothes. I walked up to the boy and sat down next to him.
"Hey." I said to him, looking at his face. He had blue eyes that were puffy from crying, and there was snot dripping down his septum piercing. "Are you okay?"
"Ha, yes I'm doing just great." He laughed sarcastically. "My dad hits me yet again and tells me to kill myself, the perfect day."
"I'm so sorry."
"You don't have to be sorry. You didn't hit me. You didn't tell my dad to hate me. But enough with the sad stuff I guess." He wiped the tears from his face and smiled, what I guessed, a fake smile.
"Do you want to come to my house. There's barely any of the furniture since the truck isn't supposed to be here in a few days but it's better than sitting out in the rain." I suggested, fixing my fringe.
"Sure. Sorry if I get your house all wet." He sighed. He fixed his hair and licked his lips, also licking his snake bites. We both stood up and walked across the street to my house. I opened the door and my parents looked shocked to see a dripping wet emo boy next to me.
"Can we have towels?" I asked sheepishly. My step dad rolled his eyes and walked over to some boxes labelled: clothes. He dug threw it and grabbed two towels and tossed them to us. "Thanks." We dried ourselves off and my hair started to curl. "Follow me." I told the boy. He followed me to a hallway into my room. "Do you want a change of clothes? My clothes might fit; we look the same size."
"Uh, sure, it's better than having clothes this wet." I grabbed a shirt from a box in my room and dug around for jeans. I tossed the clothes in his direction and he caught them, and took a look at what I gave him. He was holding my Blurryface T shirt and some black skinny jeans. "Uh, where's your bathroom?" He asked awkwardly.
"At the end of the hall. Last door to the right." I told him. "Oh wait! I never got your name."
"Jaxon. Your name?" He replied.
"Alex."
"Nice to meet you, Alex." He said as he walked to the bathroom. I waited for him to change, sitting on my bed, which was a sleeping bag for now, playing with my skeleton hand necklace. He came back in wearing the T shirt, which fit him perfectly. "Ugh sorry if I'm an inconvenience being here." He sighed.
"No it's fine." I told him, crossing my legs on the sleeping bag. "Not to be invasive or anything, but if something like that happened before where would you go?" I asked, still fiddling with my necklace.
"I would usually go to my cousin's house since she lives right next to me but she's on a vacation for the rest of the weekend so I'm stuck at my hellhole of a house." He laughed, pain prominent in his eyes.
"Since it's Saturday you could stay over at my house, but we just got here so there's almost no furniture unpacked." I suggested, shrugging my shoulders. His face brightened up and he looked at me with hope, which reminded me of a puppy.
"Really?" He asked, surprised.
"Of course. I'm sure my parents will be okay with it. But are your parents going to let you stay at my house?"
"My dad doesn't care where I am." He mumbled.
"What about your mom?"
"She's dead." He sighed. "I know, my life sucks. I've heard it before." He paused looking at the window, then turned back to me. "Let's stop the 'depression session' and do something fun. Any ideas?"
"I don't know if there's much to do since I just moved here, but I have a laptop." I pulled my laptop out of my galaxy backpack. I looked at my clock and noticed that it was 5:48 pm. "Oh right I have to ask my parents if you can stay first. Be right back!" I ran into the dining room where my parents were still sitting and slid to a stop. "Can Jaxon sleepover?" I asked, jumping up and down excitedly.
"Sure," my mom replied. "Does he need to stop by his house to get clothes?"
"No, he'll be fine." I told her. "Thanks!" I yelled as I ran to my room. I slid inside, closing the door. "My parents said you can stay!" I exclaimed happily. I heard my parents arguing through the walls, but I tried to ignore it and make the best of meeting someone new. I dug through a box labelled Chris's clothes and got out a shirt and sweatpants. "I'm going to change into my pajamas. Be right back." I walked into my bathroom and slipped off my sweater, the cloth rubbing over newer scars on my arm, making them sting. I slipped an oversized Starset T shirt over my head. I slipped my skinny jeans off and pulled up the grey sweatpants. I walked back into my room and saw Jaxon awkwardly sitting on the ground. He looked up at me and raised his eyebrows, keeping his eyes at my arms as I sat down.
"You too?" He asked, amusement in his tone.
"What?" I asked, trying to figure out where exactly he was looking. He pointed to my wrists where my many scars were. "Oh. What do you mean you too?"
"Oh it just seems like everyone I know is depressed and cuts or whatever." He showed me his wrist, moving his wristbands out of the way. He had burn scars on his hands and scars from cutting on his wrists. He pulled up the sleeves to the shirt and showed his shoulders, which had more scars. "My friend Makena has a shit ton of scars as well. She doesn't burn but she's still pretty bad." He bit his hand, lightly chewing at the skin. "Shit. Wasn't supposed to tell you that. She doesn't like me telling people about it. Just forget I said anything."
"Uh, okay." I said, surprised he would share such personal information with me. "I have Netflix. We could watch some pictures or somethin'."
"Sure. By the way, did you move from Ireland?" He asked, adjusting his bracelets.
"Yup." I replied. "Could you tell from the accent?"
"Haha, yeah. Kind of a dead give away." He laughed.
"Aw, feck, I'll have to work on that." I laughed, covering my mouth.
"Can I ask a random question?"
"Fire away."
"Why does that box say Chris?" He asked, pointing to the cardboard boxes in the corner filled with my clothes.
"Oh, my birth name." I sighed. "I'm biologically male but I identify as agender and Alex is more gender neutral." I paused. "I must sound off my nut to you right now." I sighed, amusement in my tone.
"No, I'm gay actually. I know a lot about the LGBTQ+ community." He smiled. Why is he being this open to me? I thought to myself.
"So, what should we watch?" I asked. He grunted, laying on his stomach facing the computer.
"I dunno. You have any suggestions? As long as it's not netflix and chill."
"Are you bolloxed?" I laughed. "Anyways, I doubt you've heard of this, but it's on Netflix. It's called Fairy Tail. It's an anime."
"I love Fairy Tail!" He exclaimed as I quickly typed my password into the computer. "I'm only on episode 28, though."
"Oh I'm on episode 143." I laughed. "Let's start at the beginning just for nostalgia."
"Why not?" I clicked on Fairy Tail and it began to play. I grabbed two pillows and gave one to Jaxon. He looked content, as if he could relax for the first time in his life.
Jaxon and I managed to stay up until 12 Am and finished half of what was on Netflix's selection of Fairy Tail and stopped when my step dad came in to tell us to go to sleep. He opened the door and peeked his head inside. "Okay, you boys should get some sleep. I'll get another sleeping bag for Jaxon." He walked into the hall and came back with a sleeping bag. He tossed it to us and closed the door. I closed my laptop and climbed into my sleeping bag. Jaxon crawled into his and we sat next to each other, leaning against the wall.
"Uh, so you go by they, them pronouns, right?" He asked me, biting at his hand again.
"Yeah." I replied.
"I hate to break it to you, but if you're openly gay in our school you're gonna get one hell of a beating."
"From the students or the teachers?" I questioned, now concerned about my new school.
"Both." He sighed, a hint of a laugh coming from his mouth. "You have no idea how bad my friends and I get beat up and teased for being gay or emo. I was wearing a pride pin one day and now I get punched or kicked at least once a day. Makena get beat up because of the way she dresses. Adrian doesn't get beat up 'cause they can fight so people stay away from them. Elliott get beat up by students and teacher for 'dressing like a boy.'" He rolled his eyes. "Life sucks. Doesn't it?"
"Cheers to that." I replied. We pretended to hold wine glasses and stuck our pinkies out. We pretended to toast and laughed, our heads clashing together from laughter. "To death?" I asked, holding up my invisible glass.
"To death."
