Player 1 Player 2

Chapter 2 pt.5

"Be careful Alex!" Cloud smiles and gives me a thumbs up to congratulate me, but I can tell he's still a bit worried like always.

Everything freezes the moment my eyes lay on Blaze and Jordan, Jordan is staring down at his phone while Blaze glares at me with her arms crossed. She grins and I know exactly what she's saying, jump. You don't deserve to live. You're just as useless as your friends. Jump. I look down slightly not caring to see anyone now. I step back and let go to make it look like a slipped, but I let go. I let go.

"Alex!" Everything goes black the second after I can register that it's Cloud and Eliza's voices.

Everything is dark again, just like passing out, only this time...I'm dead. But maybe not, I end up opening my eyes to a bright room. Not Heaven, but the clinic at the zoo.

"Oh thank goodness you're awake." I look over slightly to see the blurry image of Cloud sitting next to the bed.

"Are you feeling okay Alex?" I hear Eliza's voice from the same side as Cloud and soon her blurry image comes into view.

"You're so lucky to be alive right now." I look at Emily and Peggy on the other side of the bed.

"What...happened?" I can tell they all look at each other for a second.

"You slipped from the tree you climbed. The nurse here said you were lucky not to hit your head, you would've been dead if so." Emily goes quiet now.

Slipped....yeah, I slipped. I sigh and push myself up into a sitting position carefully, Cloud hovers his hands near me as Eliza does the same. I simply wave them off, but I can feel the pain rushing through my body. Little stabs to stinging to complete of fire pain, mostly my back has the most pain. I glance around for a clock but can't focus enough to find one, my head hurts too much. I go to grab my phone but it's gone, Cloud must've put it away in my bag since my bag is in his lap.

"How long have I been out?" I sit up straight and try to adjust to the pain for now.

"Almost three hours." Emily looks at her phone and agrees with Eliza.

"The buses should be leaving soon, we should start heading there." Cloud stands and slings my bag on with his, what a gentleman.

"There's no teacher here with us?" I look around more as my vision fixes itself, no teacher or adult around.

"We kind of rushed you here after some kids tried catching you and waking you up. We were all panicking so much, some kids started crying thinking you died or even....killed yourself." Eliza looks over at me slightly hooking onto the bottom of her shirt, I act a bit surprised and it seems to fool her.

"Why would I kill myself? That wouldn't make sense..." It's just enough to fool them, but I'm not so sure about Emily.

"Yeah..." Eliza let's go of her shirt and gives a small smile.

"The first person to start crying was surprisingly Blaze, I think she might have thrown up too. Not sure yet." I look at Peggy who just waves it off and crosses her arms, she wanted me to know that.

Eliza comes over and helps me up, she wraps her arm around me to keep me from stumbling down and hurting myself again. We hurry to the buses and get on without being questioned. We take our seats, Peggy again in the front and Eliza with Emily next to our seat. I lean back in my seat not caring about the pain. I look at the back of the bus at Blaze. Jordan and Brook are trying to calm her down, she's crying her eyes out and looks paler then usual. I turn back and ignore her, and then everything goes silent. Before I know it were back at the school, Eliza helps me off the bus and to the nurses office so I can rest. Both her and Cloud stay with me to keep my company the rest of the day.

"Alex?" I look over at Eliza as she gives me a small worried smile. "Is everything okay? Life wise."

I knew one of my friend would ask this, but I can't bring myself to the truth. Not yet, maybe even never.

"Tell them Alex." This time I know I heard Adrian's voice, no doubt. "It's going to make anything better if you don't. Please, tell them the truth."

"Well...I've been feeling down a lot....depressed in a way." I can tell both of them are fully worried now. "I haven't told you cause I didn't want anyone to worry about me."

"It's a friend's job to worry about the people they love." She sets her things down on the floor next to my and Cloud's bags. "That's why we're here with you instead of in class. If we didn't care then we wouldn't have taken you to the zoo clinic or even helped you back to school. It's what we do. And don't worry, if you're going through something...talking to others can help relieve some of that. Depressed, worried, frustrated, anything, we're here for you."

I stay quiet, cause I know she's right. She's always right. I shouldn't doubt myself, or even hurt myself. Everything's fine, I'm happy.

"Yeah, she's right. You mean more than you know to us, I'd say you're worth every half penny." We both look at Cloud with half smiles. "Just sayin'."

"Half pennies aren't even possible Cloud. At least I don't think so. I stand my ground unless proven otherwise." We all laugh.

We laugh, talk, joke, smile. I'm glad I'm still here, glad I'm still alive. I'm glad I can call myself Alex, that I can be me. Even if he's not here...Thank you Adrian.