Things Change

The Beginning

"Well I'm glad you stood up for him, but how am I supposed to get this out for tomorrow? I didn't exactly expect you to run into the middle of a bloody fight on your first day." my mum said, inspecting the stains. I would have extras, but the shop where we got the uniform was shut.

"Just find a white top to wear and tell the teachers you lost it or something." she told me, and I nodded.

After a couple more questions, I ran upstairs and lay down on my bed, scrolling through my social media websites. I searched for Leo on them all, but he didn't seem to have any. This was understandable, considering what happened to him in school.

I managed to find Kat on the majority of them though so I pretty much talked to her all evening until I got tired and fell asleep with my phone in my hands.

The next morning I was allowed to walk, having seen the way both in the car and on the way home. I met up with Kat outside my house.

"What lessons do we have together today?" she asked, and I quickly opened up my planner/timetable thing.

"Uhhh..music. Which is good. Maths...not so good. Then art, which is alright. The rest, I'm alone." I laughed.

"Hey, at least you have Leo." Kat pointed out, and I nodded.

"That's the good thing."

Leondre was waiting at the school gates, ignoring a few hateful comments from students passing by.

"Hi Taylor!" he greeted me eagerly, and I pulled him into a big hug.

"I'm stuck with you for three lessons, so you'd better be good." I warned. Leo stuck out his bottom lip and made a sad face. He looked really cute.

"Aw okay, I'll be nice." I added, and he cheered up.

The three of us walked towards the school, huddled together and silent. This was pretty much all we did at break unless one of us had an outburst of news. It suited us all just fine - we didn't need to talk when we had each others company.

Over the next few weeks of school, I got closer and closer to Kat and Leo. I'd made a habit of staying by Leo's for about an hour after school whenever I could. I met Leondre's sister, Matilda and his brother, Joey. He was in a band called Overload. I listened to them on YouTube, and they were pretty good. I loved Leo's family, I'd begun to feel more at home in their house than my own.

"Are you sure you can't sing?" I asked him for the hundredth time that afternoon. Leo nodded.

"Positive." he insisted.

"Well you must do something. Sing? Dance? Play? Rap?" I asked again. He twitched at the word rap.

I sighed and sat down by a small wooden chest of drawers by his bed. I slowly opened one.

"What are you doing?" he asked, pulling my hands away and holding them tightly.

"I want to read this!" I protested, grabbing a piece of paper with a lot of writing on it.

"Don't!" he said, taking it away.

"Why?" I asked.

"...Cause I said so." he shot back.

I rolled my eyes.

"Just let me see it for a minute?" I pleaded. He shook his head.

I gave up. We talked for another ten minutes before Victoria called Leondre downstairs. He signalled he'd be one minute. Here was my chance.

I didn't really want to go behind is back, but I was really curious. Once he was out of sight, I opened up the drawer and pulled out the piece of paper to read it.

please help me God, I feel so alone

I'm just a kid i can't take it on my own

I've cried so many tears yeah writing this song tryna fit in where do I belong? I wake up everyday don't wanna leave my home my mamas asking me why I'm always alone

I carried on reading the words, or lyrics I assumed. Rap was written in the corner, so it was probably a rap. As I was scanning over the last word, Leo came back in. I looked up.

"Taylor! I told you not to look at that." he mumbled, coming and sitting beside me on the floor.

"I know, I'm sorry. I feel terrible - but I'm glad I read it. It's amazing, Leondre!" I explained. I only really used his full name when I was being serious about something.

"When I used to get bullied really bad - before you came...I wrote my feelings down in raps. It was the only way to express my feelings properly." he sighed, taking the paper and reading through it himself.

"I knew you had some sort of musical talent." I teased, and he laughed.

"Are there anymore?" I asked, looking through the draw again. There were many more. I read through them with him, and he even performed some to me. I couldn't stop myself from crying, it was just too much. I hated to imagine Leo going through so much.

"Princess? What's wrong?" he asked, concern spreading over his face. I guess that was my new nickname.

"I...I don't want you to feel this way. I don't want you to be sad." I whispered, and he pulled me into him.

"I'm fine now. I have you, and Kat." he replied quietly, and I smiled to myself.

"Yeah, you do." I repeated, sitting up and wiping my eyes. He hugged me again.

There was a knock at the bedroom door, and Victoria came in with a small smile. We slowly pulled apart.

"Hey, I just realised something. I've never been to your house." Leo said suddenly. I thought about it. It was true.

"Hm, maybe you could come along tomorrow? But I still prefer your house, any day." I said, absentmindedly tracing circles on his palm with my finger.

"That tickles." he said.

I looked up at him, eyebrow raised.

"Oh yeah? Well does this tickle?" I asked, quickly tackling him and starting to tickle him all over. Leo laughed loudly, trying to get out of my grasp. He nearly kicked me in the face.

"Whoa, watch it dude!" I shouted, and we carried on with this tickle fight for about twenty minutes until we both collapsed on the floor, out of breath.

"So do you think my raps are good?" he asked randomly.

"Yes!" I laughed, and he smiled.

"There's this guy...Charlie. We've been talking over facebook-"

"I didn't know you had Facebook." I interrupted.

"Well I do. I made it like a week ago." he said, then carried on.

"Anyway, we were talking over Facebook a lot and he thinks we should be like a duo. He can sing real good." Leo explained.

"Go for it!" I encouraged him. This Charlie guy seemed pretty nice - from what Leo showed me of his covers, they'd go great together.

"I'm meeting him tomorrow." he said.

"So you won't be coming to mine?" I pouted.

"Maybe..." Leo winked.

I rolled my eyes.

"Alright, I gotta go. Seeya tomorrow." I said, getting up and grabbing my bag.

"Bye." he said, and I went downstairs. As I walked through the kitchen, Victoria turned around.

"Oh, Taylor - has Leo told you about tomorrow?" she asked.

"Oh, yeah yeah." I assured her.

"That's good, I just want to make sure you knew he won't be walking home." she said.

We said our goodbyes, and I made my way home. I crashed down on the sofa next to my mum. While we were talking, I added Leo on Facebook.

hi Xxx :)

I messaged him. I was pretty tired from PE last lesson so I decided to go to bed when it started getting dark.