He walks up to the place where the loudspeakers and microphone are.

"Could the lovely people and/or family who accompanied Brianna Rose to this dance please come to the corner with the cleaning supplies at this moment?" He says into the loud speaker.

Oh no. I search the room to see my father and Belle's reactions. Belle looks confused, and my father looks annoyed. Marcus comes jogging back towards me.

"Or I could do that." He says, catching his breath.

"Why the hell did you do that?" I snap.

"To find your family." He shrugs.

"No, I didn't want-" I say.

I stop because Belle and my father are heading this way.

"Marcus, can we run?"

"Run? Why?"

"Because they are coming because of what you did!"

"Why would we run from your family?" He asks.

Maybe because my dads abusive and is dating a girl who is in the same grade as us! I wish I could say that.

They approach us.

"Why exactly are we over here?" Belle asks me.

Marcus steps in front of them to greet them.

"Hi, I'm Marcus." He says.

No. Why is he meeting my dad? That's horrible. Can I run now? I'm feeling nauseous. Are the walls closing? Cause it sure does feel like it. Who cut the heat on?

"Hello..?" My father says, but it sounds more like a question.

"You must be her dad, I'm her friend Marcus. We have classes together at school."

Where else would we have classes together? I'm so scared I am sweating, and I get even more worried when he says,

"Hello ma'am, you would be...?"

"Marcus!" I interrupt.

He looks at me.

"You are wasting their time, they don't care, probably, can't we just go get punch or something?" I ask nervously.

"Sure..?" He says.

He waves goodbye to my father and Belle.

"Why the heart attack, Brianna?" He asks calmly.

"I don't want you to meet them." I say.

"Why not?"

"Because. Stop asking so many questions."

"Can you at least tell me who that girl was? Is she your cousin?"

"No.." I mumble.

"Step sister?" He asks.

"No.." I mumble again.

"Family friend?"

"No..."

"Your friend?"

"No.."

"Your girlfriend?" He smirks.

I look up at him like he's insane.

"That must be why you neglect me, you like girls." He jokes.

"No. I don't like girls." I reply.

"Than who is she?" He asks, his manner becoming serious again.

"I don't wanna tell you." I respond.

"I thought we agreed to be friends. Friends share secrets." He says.

He puts his hand on his hip.

"Girl, Samantha is a total prostitute, don't you think? And josh totally likes me! Don't you see it? Anyway, what's up girl?" He says, pretending to be a girl.

I laugh.

I think about whether or not I should tell him. I really wanted to. I don't know why. So I decided I would just tell him.

"Don't tell anyone."

"Secrets safe with me." He says.

"That's my dads girlfriend.." I mumble.

"What?" He says.

"That girl. She is my dads new girlfriend."

He looks surprised for a second, but recovers quickly.

"Oh. How old is she?"

"She's in the same grade as us. She's a couple months older than me."

"Wow. She doesn't have high standards. She's into dads."

"Yup. She's 18, yet she seems to like 38 year old men. Not to mention ugly 38 year old men." I say.

"Did you just call your dad ugly?" He laughs.

"You can't fight the truth." I reply.

"I guess you don't get along then..?"

"You can say that.." I respond.

"What about your mom?"

I give him a half smile.

"Oh, sorry." He says, looking down at his feet.

"Don't say sorry. You weren't the one driving the truck that hit us."

"So what's that young girl like?" He asks.

"Annoying, to say the least." I reply.

"Ah, just my type." He jokes.

"Not exactly. She listens to gospel and gospel only, she dates old people only, and she acts like an adult when she's only 18." I say with a smile.

"Yuck. No fun anywhere in that sentence." He says.

I laugh.

"Do your best impression of her." He says, a smile on his face.

He has a nice smile.

"Okay" I reply. I cough. I stand up.

"You be me." I tell him.

"K."

He backs up and then walks towards me.

"I'm home from school." He says in an emotionless voice.

"Cool, do you want help with your homework?" I chirp.

"No. I'm not doing my homework. I'm just gonna go lay in my bed and listen to music in my headphones." He says in the same emotionless tone.

"Oh but don't you want a snack first?" I ask in a high pitch voice.

"Nah, I have to stay beautiful." He says, winking at me.

"Are you sure?"

"You're not my mom bro!" He yells.

"You know there's help out there, you need Jesus." I say in high pitched voice.

"You mean hay-sues." He jokes.

I laugh.

"Where are you from?" I ask.

"El Salvador." He says.

"Cool." I respond.

I'm thankful for all my medications otherwise I would have snapped at him by now because of my IED. The medication works very well. All seven of them. I almost can't even tell all those illnesses are there. Except for depression and anxiety. I can always feel them. And my scars are constant reminders of my self harm and blood addiction.

"Hey, you look stressed." He says.

I was stressed. I didn't want to get to close to him. I don't want to get close to anyone. They might turn on me. They might break me more.

"I will go get us a drink. Whatever one I can find over there."

"We're underage." I say.

I honestly didn't care, I just didn't want to get caught.

"You're my friend now, you have the right to get to know me. I'll be back." He says quietly.

Did he mean that I have the right to drink with him? Does he not drink with his friends? I mean, homeboys?

He goes over to the table with the food and drinks. He grabs two bags of chips and two entire bottles of what looks like beer. I'd drank before but not a lot. He comes back over.

"Come on." He says.

I follow him outside. We sit by the side of the church.

"Here." He says, handing me a bag of Doritos and a bottle of beer.

I grab it. I eat some chips and open the beer.

"How the hell did you open that with your hand?" He asks in surprise.

"I don't know." I shrug.

I actually have no clue.

He used a bottle opener to open his, and we both take a swallow at the same time.

We sit in silence.

"Why aren't you talking?" I ask him.

"I don't want to make you leave."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"I know if I say the wrong thing or ask something, you might leave."

I stay silent.

"You're different, Brianna." He says, slurring his words.

"As drunk as I may be, I mean it." He says.

I laugh.

"I never thought I'd get drunk at a church event." I say.

"What's so secretive about you, Brianna?" He asks out of the blue.

"What?" I say.

"Why are you so important to me? I've never cared for any one like that. You're the only person I've called my friend. I have homeboys and distractions. And then I have a Brianna Rose who is so cold yet so interesting." He says.

"I'm not interesting." I say, taking a swig of my beer.

"You have a secret. Even if you don't tell me. I know there is one."

"There's not." I lie.

I know he was only this emotional and poetic because he is drunk.

"It's probably a sexy secret." He jokes.

"What?" I laugh.

"You're probably like a spy who wears, tight, sexy clothes."

"Mhm sure. We can pretend that."

"No we can't, otherwise I would have to kiss you." He says.

"You are very open when your drunk." I say.

"Nah." He says.

We are silent until both of our bottles are empty.

"Can I hug you?" He asks.

"What?" I say in shock.

"I want to hug you. I've wanted to hug you ever since you agreed to be my friend."

"Why?" I ask.

"Because you just look like you need a hug."

I look down at my feet. Those words. I've always wanted someone to hug me and tell me that everything will be okay. Now that someone realizes that I need a hug, that I need someone to help me pick up the remains of my soul, I don't know how to react. He reaches over and hugs me, holding me. He scoots closer. I give in, and decide to hug him back.

a/n: I guess they cute or whateva 🙄