Different (Scomiche)

four.

I got my nails done and it's the hardest thing in the world to type so it might take longer to update...sorry guys.

It had been a long, long time since I had showed up to Drake's Den without Kirstie. I wanted some time alone and there was simply no other place to go. Thankfully it was Thursday. We didn't have class on Thursday.

I had made sure to give Drake his minute of silence when I came, even without Kirstie. I look up at the top of the Den. It was white just like everything else was.

I felt safe when I was here, like no one could ever find me. I smile. I liked the thought of being somewhere alone for as long as I wanted. I could disappear and no one would notice. Well, except Kirstie.

Maybe it would be better if I had disappeared. Kirstie wouldn't have to deal with me. I am a big risk on her life. She was a Normal, and frankly, she acted like one. But I didn't. And she put up with it. I questioned everything. I wanted to leave this place, and go to the place where freedom was actually a thing.

But Kirstie was upset with me when I told her about these things. She never told me when she was upset, but I could see it in the way her eyebrows lowered and her facial expression dropped. It made her uneasy.

Sometimes I think that she is just like me. That she has the same thoughts and opinion. She just doesn't like to voice them, which is a good idea and something that I should probably do.

My mom told me when I was little to keep to myself, that making friends was a risk. She said I got lucky with Kirstie.

She would always frown when Kirstie showed up. I don't think she knows how close we really are. I try to explain our friendship to her, but it's hard when I can't tell her my own thoughts about society. You couldn't really tell anyone.

I don't even know why Kirstie knows in all honesty. I guess being by each others sides for so long has developed a thick layer of trust.

I was a Normal for a long time. I never had any of these thoughts until I turned fourteen. I never shared any of these thoughts with Kirstie until I was fifteen. I always thought she wouldn't understand and I didn't want to risk being turned into a Different.

But she could always notice when I was acting weird or when something was on my mind. I guess that's why she is my best friend.

I remember the first time I told her. I was crying while we were laying in Drake's Den. She was holding me and telling me that it was okay. She said it was just a phase, but I didn't know of a phase that lasted this long.

She told me that she wouldn't tell anyone and that it was our little secret. I'm glad she kept to her word. It means a lot to me.

When I met Kirstie, she was the happiest little girl I had ever seen. We were seven years old. She told me that she liked to imagine beyond the white and pretend that each little things had its own color. I wish she was still like that.

After she got a better understanding of how this society worked, she quickly threw the thoughts away like they were absolutely nothing anymore. I wonder if she still thinks like that.

Drake had always had those thoughts, up until the day he was taken away. He told me that sometimes you'd have to picture yourself in a world full of people who care. He told me to always stay true to myself.

But when he was being taken it was a little different. He told me to not make the same mistakes he did. But he still reminded me to be true to myself, just don't let anyone else know except the people that already did. That was only him and Kirstie.

The last time I saw him was when I was about to turn fifteen. He is three years older than Kirstie and I, so our friendship was more of a brother-type of bond. He gave us the best advice and told us that we were our own people.

He explained that it was impossible for everyone and everything to be the same. Everyone had something different about them. For example, he pointed out that my eyes curved down on their inner sides. He told Kirstie that her eyebrows had a natural curve at the end and it made them unique. Most of them had an arch in the middle.

And that was the start of my thoughts. Because Drake was right. Everyone was different in their own way. No two people could be exactly the same, not even identical twins. Everyone has their own thoughts and beliefs.

Like the blonde boy, the one that was a Different. He thought me that I should stay away from him, but I thought I shouldn't. I knew it probably wasn't the best idea, but he was so unique. He didn't seem to fit the societies description of a Different at all. The door to the den creaks opens and reveals her Kirstie. She sighs in relief when she makes eye contact with me. She crawls in fully.

"I've been looking for you everywhere, Mitch." She says, sitting in the corner of the room.

"I'm sorry. I needed some time to think." I say. "Had a rough night last night."

"Talk to me about it?"

"You'd be disappointed. I hate letting you down." Kirstie sighs. "I'm sorry I'm not the same person you made your best friend."

"Don't say that. Of course you are."

"Kirstie, I'm not like you. I'm a Different in disguise."

"You're my Different in disguise." She reminds me, a smile on her face. "What happened?"

"I couldn't fall asleep. So I went for a walk at almost three in the morning. That's my first mistake. Normals don't do that. Then I walked past a Different, and it was the blonde boy. He fell and I helped him up. I touched him." Kirstie winces at the words. "I thought I scared him. I also thought he was going to turn me in, but he didn't. And then he touched me. And then we walked for a little while and sat down at a bench and had a conversation. I touched him again." I shake my head. "I'm awful."

"You aren't awful, you're confused. Mitch, you have to be more careful."

"I think I'm a Gay. Like those people in the other place I told you about." I say, looking off into nothing.

"Please don't say that. You talked to one boy that wasn't like everyone else. There is a reason he is a Different. He is strange."

"I found him so interesting and mysterious. He wouldn't even tell me his name. I was able to tell him things that took me years to tell you. I told him I was a Different and he said that he knew already. He is so intriguing to me."

"Are you going to see him again?"

"I don't think so. He told me I shouldn't and then left me alone. So I went back home."

"And he was right. You shouldn't see him again, Mitch. You'd be putting yourself in a lot of risk."

"But that's the thing, Kirstie. I think I like the risk."