Brittle

Introduction

For Kacie and Taylor, the greatest friends I've ever known.

As with most teenagers his age, Liam found high school boring. Why shouldn't he? The only class he excelled in was math and let's be honest who really wants to hang out with the kid getting straight A's in AP math? 5'11" and barely 115lbs with blue eyes and tangled blonde hair that reached past his shoulders, he was your average looking teenager. He never thought much about dating, actually, he didn't really mind being single. A friend, however, now that was something he had often found himself wanting. Of course, being alone for as long as he could remember certainly did not help his social skills which meant even if he felt interested in talking to someone he would just dismiss the idea completely.

Given these traits Liam would spend his time listening to music and scribbling in his notebooks. For now he was content in life, although, he had contemplated making at least one friend to share his interests with but who? No one his age was interested in him or really seemed to notice that he existed. Perhaps it was because he attended the alternative school for troubled youth. His guidance counselor had thought he might do better there than in a regular public school given his lack of interaction with other kids his age and maybe if he were around other students who shared similar social barriers perhaps he might fit in a little better.

Unfortunately, most of the youth in that school weren't shy like Liam. They instead were the youth who got into fights with other students or even teachers. This combined with his personality made friendship seem impossible and he certainly wasn't able to articulate how he felt nor did he have any interest in fighting. So what was his plan? He just wanted to graduate and get out of there. The only thing that really helped him cope with the idea of being alone all the time was his job, it wasn't much, but at just sixteen years old finding work wasn't exactly an easy task. Since he had no car to get in to town he opted to take the first job available to him which turned out to be working in the local coffee shop washing dishes.

The pay wasn't great but since he had no expenses that didn't matter to him. He loved his job, he worked alone without a boss hovering over his shoulder all the time and for the most part never had to deal with customers which meant his lack of social skills didn't matter. Plus, since he only worked during the week after school from four to eight it wasn't like he had long hours or had much to do while he was there. Aside from not having any friends life was going well for Liam or at least he thought so. With just three months left in the school year all he could really think about was asking his boss to pick up more hours over break so that he wouldn't be stuck at home all summer. Plus he needed to save for a car.