Fix You ~Completed~

Act Forty-Four

I scratched out the heart and leave a little block after the last E in EDDIE on my cast while the blonde guy and his scrawny black haired friend were singing about being swift as a coursing river. Ed wasn't exactly thrilled about it, but he didn't argue.

We left Karaoke Night later than usual due to the fact Gale decided to A.) get Edda's number so we- yes, all of us- could hang again, B.) hook Edda and Jimmy up because they're apparently perfect for each other, C.) get Gabe's number against his will, D.) get Kaito's number because why the heck not, and E.) didn't tell Ed and I he was walking Dame home until twenty minutes after the event was already over with. I didn't complain and neither did Eddie; we hung around the front door of the café, discussing plans we had for the weekend.

"Kyla said he wanted to talk when I get home, so maybe he wanted to do something fun," I suggested, picking at the edge of my cast as I imagined all the sweet, romantic things we could do. Whatever it was, I was sure it would make up for our earlier fight. It would wipe away any self-destructive thoughts I had and make everything truly okay.

Eddie sucked on his bottom lip, his eyes pointed on the campus lying before us through the window. "Or maybe he wants to break up," he murmured quietly, probably hoping I wouldn't notice it.

I glared at him. "Eddie, don't say that!"

"Sorry," he apologized. I could tell he really meant it, so I shrugged it off. "It's not like it would be a bad thing though, Clemmy. You have to admit, your life would be so much better if he wasn't in it."

"I'd be dead without him," I snapped, taking a large step back from Eddie.

Kyla saved my life so many times without realizing it. I'd never told Eddie about what my world looked like before Kyla came into it. All my best friend knew was that I was alone. I couldn't fathom telling him about the bullying or those long days spent at home by myself at ages where no child should be alone. I didn't have parents to protect me. I didn't even have a babysitter. I just had me. Of course, he'd never understand that. Eddie had never been alone. He always had Gale and his parents and his girlfriends and his sister and other friends, I'm sure. Neither of the three people I held close in my life understood what it truly meant to be isolated from everyone.

By the time Kyla started school with me, I was already considering the pros and cons of surviving another day every spare moment I had. When there were lulls in classes, during my walks between periods, the hour I spent by myself pressed against the edge of the lunch table.

One day, I was paired up with the moody new kid in life science then he sat down beside me during lunch that day. For some reason, he kept coming back. Kyla and I didn't talk much when we first became friends; neither of us were very good at it, so we just sat together in silence. The closest we came to conversations were little post-it notes he'd slip onto my lunch tray that I'd scribble responses on before tossing back to him. Sometimes, he formed the notes into paper airplanes and sent them soaring across to me.

Most of the notes had silly questions like Favorite movie? or Ya like Green Day? Occasionally, I'd get a weird one like Your opinion on JFK's assassination?

The question that got us talking was Why don't you have real friends?

I scribbled back, I'm bad with people.

He smiled when he read it. The black pen he wrote with barely touched the blue paper before he slid it back over to me. To my surprise, he didn't even release the note; he left it in his grasp, willing me to take it from him manually. I am too. My name's Kyla. You're Clem, right?

It was so cute and innocent. I blushed pink and nodded at him.

Kyla folded up the note and slid it on his empty lunch tray. "People are difficult," he spoke to me in an oddly gravelly voice for a seventh grader. My eyes probably grew three sizes too large. He chuckled at this. "You have the best expressions. No one else here seems to react so much."