Chapter Two

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That afternoon, Donnie walked me to the bus stop. "I don't go home by bus.. I have to go somewhere," he told me, not looking into my eyes.

"Where do you have to go?" I asked, hoping I didn't sound nosey. Donnie shook his head as if the topic would erase itself. "Is it embarrassing? C'mon, you can tell me."

"I go to my therapist," he caved. There was a defeated look in his eyes. "My parents didn't think I could get better on my own. So now I have to take medication." I didn't know how to respond to that, so I wrapped my arms around him.

"I'm sorry," I whispered into his chest. He returned the hug and chuckled.

"Don't be, you're not the messed up one," he found it amusing but I didn't. If he had problems, so what? Doesn't mean he's messed up.

"Donnie, you're not messed up. You're just struggling and need help with things. It's ok to need help sometimes."

"Thanks for that," he said. A car pulled up, presumeably for him since he slowly broke the hug. "Bye, April." His ride, which I assumed was his mother, waved to me as Donnie got in the car. He waved as his mom drove off. I felt a little empty when he left. I wish I knew how to help him.

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"I don't know, I just felt pretty sad after he left," I told Bayley as we did our homework.

"You like him, don't you?" She leaned over, inches from my face, grinning at me in suspicion.

"So far, yea. I feel attracted to him in some way that I can't explain but he seems so perfect," I rambled. "It's probably just a phase and I'll soon only think of him as a friend."

"If you wait a little, maybe you can tell him how you feel. Who knows, maybe he feels the same."

I told her how he had held my hand on the bus and asked me to tell him about my life. Bayley squealed.

"That sounds romantic. Damn I wish that would happen to me," she sighed. "He's a dreamboat." We both laughed.

"He lives around here," I implied. "We're both the first stop. Could we go ride our bikes and see if he's out?"

"Of course, you hopeless romantic. Didn't you say he had errands to run with his mom or something?" She asked.

"Yea but I just want to see if he's back or not," I responded absentmindedly. I put away my assignments and trudged to the garage. "I'm still going. I just gotta write a note for my mom when she comes home with Dylan from his drum lesson."

"Ok fine, you sucked me in April. Let's go search for this dream boy of yours," she huffed, following me to the garage.

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At that point in the afteroon, the sunshine wasn't blocked by very many clouds so everything had a pretty light to it. If you stood completely still for a second, you could feel a little breeze. "Fall's coming soon," I said in a singsong voice. Bayley laughed.

We sped up around a corner and rode down the next block. I looked at each house, wondering which could possibly be Donnie's. Halfway down the block, I saw a tall boy in his backyard on a trampoline.

"It's Donnie," I whispered to Bayley excitedly. We pulled over in the grass and waved, trying to be subtle. We caught his attention and he walked over to us.

"Hey April, hi Bayley," he greeted. "Going for a bike ride, huh?" I nodded, putting down the kickstand.

"We decided to ride around and then that's when I spotted you.." I told him. "How was your errands?" I asked, hinting to his therapy session.

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