You Are My Sunshine | ✔

The Game of Life - Part Seven

      Everyone's broken.

I'm staring at Matthew. His name is on my chapped lips and I wish I can see into his soul. I'm wearing my hopes like a crown, an outspoken soliloquy of dreams. He doesn't look up.

Everyone's broken. They just like to pretend they're not, it's like a mask that no one wants to take off.

"This is yours."

I watch in silence as my backpack, slightly ripped and damaged, is passed to Stella.

Jessy is swearing and I want to tell her to stop, tell her that she has never sworn in her life before and she shouldn't start now. Tyler's yelling, his voice is echoing around the room and Lily Grace is flinching, and so am I, because Tyler never yells, never shouts.

I look at Matthew sitting there, hands folded in his lap. My necklace lies on the floor, forgotten, and sorry Matthew, but I want that f**king thing back.

      It's 5:17pm and Matthew is opening the backpack. He sees a photo album, torn and battered.

--- START FLASHBACK ---

"Alexis, what are you doing?" I ask. I lean over and try to read what she was scribbling. She looks up at me, a thousand emotions flashing across her dark brown eyes before breaking out into a grin.

She closes the notebook, leans over, places her hand on my face and pushes me away. She smells like vanilla and bread. "No peeking, Matthew," she laughs.

I fake pout, "But what's in it?"

"It's my list of people I hate."

I tilt my head, "Am I in it?"

She laughs, "Matthew, what you have got to understand is, you're the first name there."

I stare at her and she rolls her eyes, "I'm kidding."

"I knew that..."

She just shakes her head and laughs.

"Can I see it?" I ask.

"You know the answer is no," she tells me.

I lean over and grab it, standing up and holding it above my head. I look down at her and stuck my tongue out. Alexis climbs onto a chair and stands on her tiptoes. The chair wobbles and she grabs my shoulder.

"Careful, Alexis, you don't want to fall," I warn.

She glares at me like she was going to punch me, but then she did something that surprised me even more.

She kisses me.

--- END FLASHBACK ---

     It's 5:20pm and I'm flicking through the photo album.

There are pictures of us, of me, of Alexis. There are happy pictures, sad pictures, everyday pictures. As I flick through, one catches eye.

I pause and stare. It's a simple picture, a picture of a chalk drawing on the side of a road.

--- START FLASHBACK ---

"There, done," Alexis says with a flourish, throwing a piece of chalk at the bucket. It misses and lands on the grass. I laugh as she glares at it.

"What is it?" I ask.

Alexis turns, waving her hands dramatically, "well Tyler, you see, this is the future."

I squint at the chalk and turn my head, "I don't see it."

She rolls her eyes, "Of course you don't. This is what I think the future looks like, you're going to have to draw your own future," she adds, pointing at the bucket.

I pick up a stick of bright yellow chalk and begin to draw. Alexis sits on the curb and watches quietly. I was just adding the final touches to my drawing when it begins to rain.

"Aww," I say loudly looking as the drawing begin to fade.

Alexis doesn't move, her face turned up to the sky, watching as the rain fell.

"Alexis? Alexis, you're going to catch a cold," I say, shaking her lightly.

She looks at me, her eyes shining. "Look!" she shouts, grabbing a piece of damp chalk. She bends down and writes her name in large yellow letters. She stands in the rain and stares until the rain watches every last trace of the chalk away.

"What was the point of that?" I ask later, when we were safely back under cover.

She shrugs, "I just wanted to let the universe know that I'm here. That I won't give in to the rain and that when something bad happens, I will stand here and I will not budge. I will make a mark on the world."

"A mark?"

She nods, "yeah, a good mark. After all, we are people and people have ways of passing on pain."

--- END FLASHBACK ---

We are people and people have ways of passing on pain.

"Alexis..." I breathe.

A/N: Soooo, we're reaching the end of this! Also, if you guys haven't figured this out already, the second part of this was in Adam's POV and for the craziest reason, I was really excited about writing in a different POV so I might be doing a few more bits in a different POV. I'm not sure which character's POV to write the next bit in so if ya'll could leave some suggestions in the comments, that'll be great! Thanks for reading!