By Your Side

I spent the night at Tom’s that night. I felt terrible for waking him up in the middle of the night, especially when we had school the next day. My parents had been so… weird lately. I was hoping that they’d get over it but, from the way they were acting last night, I highly doubted they would. It was just my wishful thinking. I now knew what those other kids that had separated parents or problems at home felt like. It. Sucked.

“What about your bags?” Bill asked as we headed for school. Luckily, for me, Simone had left early so she didn’t know I had stayed over. It wasn’t that I didn’t want her to know I was there; I just didn’t want her to worry about me or my parents. That and I didn’t want her to be mad at Tom for letting me sleep in his bed. We hadn’t done anything except sleep but we all know what assuming does.

“I’ll let my teachers know that I didn’t have it. They’ll believe me. I’m not Tom,” we all laughed.

“Anna,” Tom looked at me, a worried expression on his face, “What are you going to do… about home, I mean.”

“I have to go back,” I sighed. “I was upset yesterday and needed to get away.”

“You know, you never did tell me what happened… Do you want to talk about it?”

“They’re getting a divorce.” I said simply.

The twin’s looked at me wide-eyed. “I had a feeling they were going to,” I admitted, “I just didn’t want to believe it.”

“Are you going to be okay?”

“I will be.”

“Who are you going to stay with?”

“Uh... guys if you don’t mind I’d really rather not talk or think about it until I have to.”

“Right, sorry.” They both apologized.

By that time, we had already arrived at school. I really didn’t want to be here today. It was bad enough that I didn’t have my book bag and none of my homework finished, but now I would have to explain to all of my teachers why I didn’t have it.

“You know, we could ditch class,” Tom came up from behind me.

“Shouldn’t you be in first class, Kaulitz?” I raised an eyebrow playfully.

“I wanted to follow you and—“

I stopped him by giving him a kiss (which we could get into major trouble for but I didn’t care). I needed to have some reassurance and at that moment, that reassurance came from Tom’s lips.

He took that as a sign that I wanted to ditch so he pulled away, taking my hand. We walked to the park like we did the day he asked me to be his girlfriend. It was easier today, though, because I wasn’t a nervous wreck and I didn’t have a bag to slow me down.

We sat on the swings, Tom giving me a quick push, and then I told him everything. All about my mom being drunk (though, I had already told him about that already, I elaborated a bit more) about my dad sleeping on the couch, our “family meeting” last night, and most of all that I was scared and confused about the whole thing and I didn’t know what to do.

He was very helpful –the best he could be, anyway- about the whole thing. Mostly, he would just hold me in his arms and tell me everything would work out. It was comforting just being with him, I wasn’t so sure about ‘everything working out’ but at that moment it didn’t matter.

“Where were you guys?” Bill asked. We had beaten him home and were waiting for him, Georg, and Gustav to come by so they could practice.

“We went to the park,” I told him. I would never lie to Bill. He was my best friend and he deserved to know what we were doing.

“Why?”

“We didn’t feel like going to school and Anna wanted to talk,” Tom finished for me so all I did was nod.

“Tom…” He sighed. “You’re the last person that needs to be ditching class.”

“I’ve got fairly decent grades,” he shrugged and I laughed, “Besides, Anna really needed me.”

“It’s true. I told him lots of stuff.” Bill looked somewhat hurt. “Don’t worry,” I gave him a hug, “I was going to tell you, too.”

He smiled and nodded. I couldn’t tell him now, sadly, because the G’s had pulled up in Gustav’s mom’s car. I was going to have to tell them as well.

I did exactly that; I told them everything, also adding on, “don’t worry about me, though, guys. I’ll be fine.”

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Gustav asked, kindly. I loved that kid, like a brother, he never said much but when he did it always seemed to be the perfect sentence at the perfect time.

“Actually, yes,” I smiled, “Will you guys play a few songs before I have to leave?”

“But of course,” Georg said at the same time as Gustav, Bill, and Tom.

After they finished a few songs we sat there talking and laughing. Tom was making fun of Georg and Gustav sat there quietly, watching like he always did, while Bill was trying to get all the attention focused on him. I laughed to myself. These guys were my best friends in the world. I enjoyed hanging out with them and would never want us spending time together to change, ever. I had a feeling we’d be friends forever.

Sadly, I didn’t know that things never last forever. No matter how badly you want them too.