Be Somewhere

"The camera is rolling guys, do what you do best!"

The voice of the young woman was distant and unrecognizable to Dr. Marques; as he figured it was intended to be. The point of the film wasn't her, it was Ricky, Danny, and Brad; the main focus of her social studies project on different cultural groups in a modern world. She had spoke before this too. 'Hi, I am here to talk about a specific sub culture in our world that is greatly misunderstood; The Emo. Fragile in nature, we have asked them to allow us into their world and they have graciously accepted.'

Dr. Marques shook his head as the camera followed the group of friends around. How did kids do this to each other? How did the teachers allow it? In his day there was labels and bullying just as there were now; but to film it? These children felt bad enough as it was , why on earth would they agree to expose themselves so rawly to their peers? They knew that no good could come of this... so why do it in the first place?

~----------------------------------------------------------------------------~

The stupid bell rang again and again as Ricky groggily decided to answer the door. 8am... on a Saturday. Someone was going to pay for this with their life. Ricky heard the gentle, hungover snores of his parents and the rhythmic breathing of his four year old sister. He was the only one awakened by the annoying ringing sound. Oh yes, someone was going to pay for this big time.

He expected Danny or Brad, maybe his older sister, them showing up unannounced just to piss him off was perfectly plausible. There could have been an emergency with Danny or Brad's parents; a situation that they needed to hide from. But he never expected who was at the door.

He never expected Lily.

"Is there something you need?" He sighed. His friends were one thing, a little popular, stuck up bitch was something else entirely.

"We were friends once... weren't we Ricky?" he nodded. "And friends do each other favors?"

"You obviously forgot the key word in that sentence, Lily. Were." She widened her eyes and pretended that she might cry. "Save the tears for someone who gives a shit. We don't like each other. End of story." He shut the door and went back upstairs. They hadn't talked in 8 years and she came to his door to ask him a favor? At 8am on Saturday morning, no less. The bitch wasn't only stupid, she was crazy.

He climbed back into his bed and heard the phone start to ring. He groaned. Was his life to be determined by the never ending ringing?

"Someone had better have fucking died, or someone will have; because I'll kill you." Ricky heard his fathers soft tinkling laughter on the phone. Not Richards, his fathers. He pulled in a deep breath and tried not to scream. "I have a restraining order, you know." He whispered.

"Oh honey, didn't your mom tell you? That was revoked because of lack of testimony. You refused to testify, remember?" Ricky gulped and slowly hung up the phone. He was breathing hard and wasn't sure what to do.

"One... Two... Three... Four... Five... Six... Seven... Eight..." His normal routine to avoid a panic attack wasn't working. He focused on everything in his room. He blinked excessively and tried to hold his breath. The only thing he didn't do was take his anxiety medication. He figured out later that he should have.

He ran out the door and started to shout. He really should have stopped to put on a shirt. In retrospect, running out onto a street at eight thirty in the morning in nothing but your boxers makes you seem slightly psychotic. He ran out onto main street and was pleased to find her.

"Lily? Lily I changed my mind!" She turned around to face him and gasped at the site. He realized that he did look quite interesting, if not terrifying. Bruises that had been hidden by the door were now clear in the early morning sun. He didn't have his usual make up on so every mark on his neck was visible. The black eyes were fading, but could still be seen. And the dozens of cuts and track marks up his arms... Lily couldn't pry her eyes from them.

"Ricky... wh-what happened?" He looked her up and down for a second, and then he looked at himself. They may be helping each other; but she was still a popular, bitchy, drama queen. he couldn't risk it getting out before he wanted it to.

"Can you keep a secret?" He whispered. She nodded enthusiastically, the exact same as she had done with many friends whose secrets were now all over the school. "You'll find out when we make the video, as long as when you're making it you can keep your mouth shut."

She was going to find out more than she wanted to, he was going to make sure of that. Then it would be everywhere that he had died and his parents would be charged with abuse and his sister would be put into adoption or foster care. He could rest easy knowing that she was safe.

He had to do it this way... logic and reason weren't available options at the moment.