Challenge :A.C.M:

5.

Holy shizzie already at 1K😊 Thank you💗💗

:griffin:

I barely got any sleep last night. My moms words kept floating through my mind. Why does it matter if I not the same person I used to be? Change is a good thing. Looking back, I don't miss who I was. I was a naive little shit, I've grown up, I've learned the ins and outs of this cruel world, enough so that I can never be the same. I don't miss who I was, but I miss how I lived.

At one point I was so carefree, nothing bothered me, I had no problems. But now, I can barely go outside without checking over my shoulder every ten seconds. After everything happened, I stopped going outside, I wouldn't even look out a window. Therapists classified it as agoraphobia, but it wasn't. I wasn't afraid of leaving my home, I simply didn't want to.

I mean, I didn't even know Austin lived next door. I remember my mom telling me 3 years ago about a new neighbor, but I never gained the strength to go outside to meet them. Yesterday, if I hadn't gone on the roof, who knows if I would've found out he's my neighbor. I hadn't been on the roof in so long.

It felt good to be there, it felt like for a second, everything was normal. That nothing bad had ever happened to me, that everything was like it used to be. I didn't need Richard. It was just like old times.

"What are you doing back here?" Someone asks, coming to sit beside me under the bleachers. I turn my head to see an unfamiliar face, and I turn away, ignoring them "Nothing?" He clicks his tongue "I'm Dean" He tells me, and I just stare off, not acknowledging anything he's saying.

"Hey, what are you two doing?" A strong voice booms, a voice that belongs to the gym teacher and I roll my eyes, darting out from under the bleachers, and bolting in the direction of the school, my bag clutched tightly in my hands. I slip through the doors of the locker room as the gym class files out, my shoulders bumping into other people's making my heart thump harder in my chest.

When I make it to the class I'm supposed to be in, I open the door and walk in, sighing in relief when I see our teacher isn't here and we had a substitute instead. I walk to my normal seat, the old lady in the front marking me present using the seating chart. She walks over to me and places a packet on my desk, smiling down at me.

"Welcome" She says, and I roll my eyes grabbing a pencil and reading over the packet. I work on as much of it as I can before the bell rings and I walk out of the classroom, the same guy from under the bleachers running over to me.

"Hey, you run really fast" He chuckles, and I nod "I never did learn your name"

"It's Griffin, can you leave me alone now?" I say in a bored tone, but he shakes his head.

"No can do. Headed to lunch?" He asks.

"Yeah" I answer shortly.

"Wanna sit with me and my friends?" He asks.

"Nope, I'd rather be alone" I shake my head.

"Oh come on, they'll love you. We can sit outside, since our time under the bleachers was cut short" He chuckles.

"My time" I correct and he looks at me in confusion "My time under the bleachers was cut short"

"I'll let you claim it, if you sit with me" He smiles.

"I don't need to claim it that bad" I shrug.

"Are you going to make me beg?" He pouts.

"Isn't that what you're doing already?" I raise an eyebrow.

"No, more like bargaining" He shrugs "Come on Griffin" He pouts, and I sigh looking around the nearly empty hallways.

"Fine" I agree, and he cheers, leading me out to the courtyard. We sit down at one of the tables, a boy and a girl sitting on one side of the bench, hands folded on the table.