Live For the Sake Of Living

School had started up in the beginning of September. I had turned 17, taken my driver's test, and got my license. Now all I had to do was make it through school in one piece.

You might be able to imagine the looks I received when I showed up at school in that beautiful car of mine. People couldn't draw their eyes from me and I felt really uncomfortable; last year, when I was a nothing, no one paid a solid amount of attention to me except for my druggie friends.

I found a parking space and entered the school. People kept staring and whispering to one another as I walked past them.

"Is that Charlotte Haner?"

"She looks so... different..."

"I heard she went through rehab."

"I believe it.. she looks healthy."

"I heard she hooked up with a dealer last year."

They were all basically like those and they whispered loud enough that I doubt they cared if I heard them or not.

I made it to my locker and I started to put my things away when someone walked up and slammed the door closed. I turned to see a familiar face. Though, if I hadn't been friends with her before, I wouldn't have recognized her. Demetra looked worse off than I ever did; she was probably into heroin like I had been.

I just started at her as she stared back. She had also changed her look. She wore tight-fitting clothes, all black, and had cut her hair into a choppy, short look. She still wore a lot of heavy eyeliner and dark lip stick. I wondered what had made her give up the look she had obtained for so long.

"So... Charlie... talk of the town is you hit up a rehab joint," she sneered as she leaned against the locker next to mine.

"Well, talk of the town is wrong."

"Really? Then how did you get off it? It's a tricky business... the withdrawals alone would have been enough to kill a weakling like you," she smirked and picked at a nail.

"I had help... Why do you care?" I asked, my voice full of exasperation.

"I just wanna know what could have made you stray away from us.... from Aryn.... What? Weren't you happy? You could have had your hands on anything you wanted."

"No, I wasn't happy, and it took a lot to finally get that through my head," I said as quickly as possible. I wanted to say as little to her as I possibly could and just get away.

"It was Daddy-o, wasn't it? Did he guilt trip you until you felt bad?" she said with a fake pout on her lips.

"No, but I realized that I was acting selfish and that it was time for me to grow up and act a little more mature than that," I sighed again. "I gotta get to class," I said as I turned and walked down the hall.

"Of course you do! Wouldn't wanna ruin the non-existant reputation you have of being a good girl, now would you?" Demetra called to me down the hall.

I hurried down the hall just to get away from her, and in my haste, I bumped into someone, almost knocking them over.

"Shit. I'm sorry," I said as I grabbed onto the person's shoulders to keep either of us from falling.

I looked up into another pair of familiar eyes.

"Rhiannon..." I said quietly. I had to admit it was good to ee her again. She had been my best friend, with or without drugs in the mix.

"Hey Charlie.. You look good. Do you wanna... skip first period and go talk?" she asked.

"Um..." I said, uncertainty in my voice as I let go of her arms.

"Listen... I'm done with that shit, okay? Just... come with me, please? I really wanna talk to you," she said, almost in a pleading manner. Rhiannon was not one to plead for anything, so I nodded and we escaped from the building, finding a place outside to talk where we would be out of sight from the security cameras.

"I see you got clean," Rhiannon smiled as we found a placed to sit.

"Yeah, andit was no picnic. It took forever, and Demetra was right... the withdrawals are enough to kill a person," I sighed as I leaned back on my hands in the grass.

"Demetra? When did you talk to her?" Rhiannon asked with a questioning look on her face.

"She hassled me in the hallway, just before I bumped into you. That was why I was trying to get away so fast. I don't want to have anything to do with her," I mumbled, picking at a piece of dried grass as I shifted positions again.

"Yeah... right after things went downhill with you, Demetra kinda went berzerk. She chopper her hair and completely changed herself just because Aryn wanted her to. Those two ganged up on the rest of us and I decided I finally had had enough when they tried to force the heroin on me... like they did to you," Rhiannon said.

"So... are Demetra and Aryn like... together?" I asked, not that I even really cared.

"Kinda... I don't even know. I ducked out on that shit about a week after no one heard from you... What happened? Did Brian send you in for rehab?" she questioned.

"Actually no. He completely took control of the situation. He didn't really know what to do at first, which was why the withdrawals were so bad. So he called up his friend Zack and they took me off of it little by little. It took a long time," I said, and then paused. "Brian actually had me tied down because I would thrash around and I bit him... at least thats what he said. I don't remember it all that well, which is probably a good thing. So.. how'd you do it?" I asked.

"I went completely cold turkey. It was tough, but probably not as tough as it would have been if I went in as deep as you did," Rhiannon said, and trailed off. "Look, Charlie, I don't want anything to do with drugs or Demy or... or any of them. We're still friends, right?"

"Of course. Our friendship is too solid for something like that to come between us," I smiled, and pulled her into a hug. We spent the rest of first period just talking about everything that happened over the summer. It was just like old times.

The first day, overall, wasn't that bad. I got rancid stares and glares from all the drug scene kids, but why the hell should I care what they think of me?

I went out to my car, but as soon as I was about to unlock the door, I was slammed forward into the metal body of the car.

"Well well well... Hello there, darling. Fancy seeing you again after so long," I heard the venemous voice coo into my ear. I cringed.

"Get off me, Aryn," I spat, and he actually let go and I turned to face him. He'd gotted the bridge of his nose and his labret pierced since the last I saw of him, and had tattoos crawling up his neck. He looked utterly ridiculous to me.

"So babe, how have you been? We've all missed you," Aryn said smoothly with a sly look in his eyes, and I rolled my eyes at him.

"I don't want to talk to you," I growled.

"Oh, but sweetie, I wanna talk to you. Do you think you're too good for us now?" he spat as he pushed me into the car, his body pressing against mine. I felt sick from his touch.

"I missed you baby," he said silkily into my ear.

"Get OFF of me!" I yelled and mustered all the strength I could to push him off me. Aryn just stood there with a sick smirk on his face as I got in my car. The kind of sick smirk that just told me that I would be seeing him again, and soon, whether I liked it or not.

As I left the parking lot, I glanced over at him, only to see Demetra at his side. And I just knew that this wouldn't be the end of my harrassment.