One.. two.. three. Three more cuts. Three more cuts for the three words I've never heard. I love you. Nobody loves me. I'm alone. I wipe my tears and pull down my black and rainbow sweater sleeves. I take off my grey and blue striped phone case and put my razor back in its secret spot. It's time to go to school. Again. Fuck. I walk down the stairs trying to be quiet. I hear loud snoring coming from the couch. Thank God he's still passed out. I hate him when he's hungover. I hate him, period. I lace up my navy blue converse and grab my torn up camouflage school bag that I've had for 3 years now. I open the front door slowly trying not to wake my father. It squeaks and I freeze. I hear a groan from the couch. I quickly slip outside and sprint to the bus stop just in time to see the ugly yellow bus pull up. I climb on the bus that smells like something died in there and took my regular seat in the front, by myself of course. The bus door squeaks shut and we start moving. One stop. Two stops. On the third stop I see an unfamiliar looking boy in black jeans and a pale pink t-shirt climb onto the bus. He looks for an empty seat but the bus is full. He takes a seat besides me. I turn towards the window. "Hi" I hear a quiet voice to my right squeak. I turn. "Hello" I say in a monotone voice. I'm about to turn back to the window when the strange boy starts to speak again. "My name is Garrett. I'm new." I sigh. "I'm Carter. I'm not new." I say trying to be funny. He smiles crookedly and I notice that he has a scar above his lip. "Well I'm not sure what to say now." He laughs nervously. "Oh, um." I pause trying to think of something to say. "Where'd you live before?" I ask. "Arizona" he says and his emerald green eyes twitched oddly for a moment. "What brings you to Ohio?" I ask trying to make small talk. "Well, um, family problems." He said looking down and his sandy blonde hair falls in his face. "Oh" I whisper wanting to ask more but he looked uncomfortable enough as it is and I didn't want to scare him away. We pull up to the school and the doors squeal open. Garrett walks with me down the concrete path to the school. There's an awkward silence. "I like your sweater?" Garrett spoke as if it were a question. I look down at my black sweater with rainbow sleeves. "Thanks" I quietly say and look away. Why am I blushing?
"Do you happen to know where room 324 is?" He asks while looking at his schedule quizzically. "Um, yeah. That's where I'm going first." I say quietly, secretly excited that we have the same class together. "Okay then we should go." He says in an eager tone.
