Don't Give Up On Me

Chapter 1

"Hey Jordan! How was the concert?"

"It was great not that many people came, but it was successful if I do say so myself." Laine Smith is my popular and openly gay best friend. Most people accept him, but the few that don't, well to Laine it doesn't matter because he believes they don't understand him. Laine isn't your stereotypical gay person he doesn't wear sparkles, he doesn't use colorful and vibrant words, and he loves sports. People think that because I hang out with him I must be gay too, well that's what Shayla Caldero thinks. Nate Kaufman says it's because I'm in theater and I love spending most of my time singing.

"You going to third period?" Laine says with a smirk on his face.

"No."

"Dude, this is the second week in a row!" Okay, so I might ditch third period a lot, but only because I am in desperate need of help in math. Sure you can say I need help because I ditch, but truth is I just don't understand how numbers can turn into letters, but that's just me overthinking things. Which is why I have constantly been pushed around and otherwise ignored in school.

"Hey, Jordan! Laine! Wait up!" Thea Blackwell, the most beautiful girl in school... at least in my eyes.

"Jordan are you ditching third again?"

"Yeah, why?"

"No third for me remember?" Thea always had the weirdest luck; this is our Sophomore year of high school, and the office managed to mess up her schedule by giving her a free third and fifth period. Luckily, for Thea today is Thursday which means she only has one class out of the entire day. She stays for lunch because she hates going home right away.

"Wanna hang out?"

"Yeah! What do you wanna do?" I answer way too excited.

Please let her think I'm cool. I live for the days that I get to hang out with Thea, just the two of us.

"Let's go get smoothies!" Too scared to answer quickly again I shrug and walk towards the campus exit. She gets

the gesture so she waves goodbye to Laine and we go get smoothies. I always make sure I listen to her because it seems like nobody understands her. Thea has struggled to get to where she is, and sure she has a large group of friends and people around school say hi to her every time she walks by now, but it wasn't always like this. Thea lives two different lives, her life at school where she is bubbly and social, and her life outside of school where she is silent and troubled. In middle school Thea was bullied and people didn't like her so they started an Anti- Thea movement basically an extra-curricular club for those who truly hated Thea. Why you ask? Apparently, she was too skinny so she started binge eating, but now too skinny is not her problem.

"So even though I ate a small lunch today I think I'll skip dinner." She says looking down at her thighs

"Thea you should eat an actual meal." I suggest even though she seems to ignore me.

"If I get a large smoothie I shouldn't be hungry later." Thea is 5'7 and 165 pounds of straight beautiful, but she doesn't think so. She is not the most confident person when she's outside the walls of Edenbury High, even though she is the second best actress/singer in our Musical Theater class. I tell her all the time what an amazing person she is, but she still refuses to see herself the same way that I do. Her parents work way more than they'd like to admit and her brother is stuck on drugs, leaving Thea and her little sister, Tatyana, alone everyday.

"Why don't you just tell your parents that you're bad at math?"

"That would mean admitting that I'm ditching school almost everyday."