Life's a Bitch, but I'm Friends with Her Sister

I liked the weekend. I didn't have to get out of bed early, and I didn't have to face reality if I didn't want to.

Of course I didn't want to, but I had to. Alex was a friend, and a friend don't just watch the other get hurt and hurt themselves.

I rolled out of bed, disheveled, and ruffled my hair. I really had to get it cut.

I trudged down to the kitchen five minutes later. My mom was surprised to see me.

"Oh hello there! What are you doing up so early?"

"'Morning mom... I've got to go meet Jordan soon, to... Yeah, school stuff."

She gave me a look, knowing that I wasn't meeting with Jordan for school stuff, and I grinned sleepily as I grabbed the cereal and milk.

"What time do you plan to meet him?"

I thought for a couple minutes. I had no idea what exactly my plan was. I didn't even tell Jordan I wanted to meet him... The little voice inside me just screamed "Hang out with Alex!". Maybe I should listen to it.

"Actually... I don't know. I think I might hang with Alex..."

"The new kid, right?"

"Yeah," I smiled. I didn't know why I was smiling. It was an automatic reaction. Luckily mom had her back to me, otherwise she would've questioned me for hours.

"You should bring him over sometime! He sounds like a nice kid."

"Yeah... Yeah, maybe I will sometime."

"Good, good. He came all the way from England, right?"

"Yeah."

"He must be a bit homesick..."

"Maybe..." I mumbled.

"What do his parents do?"

"Why d'you ask?" I asked, tensing up a bit.

"Out of curiosity!"

"Uh, right. I don't know..." I answered honestly. What did they do for a living?

"Oh, okay. You'd better get dressed if you want to meet him for lunch."

"I never said I-"

She turned around and gave me a look. I sighed. "Mom, no, stop. Alex is a friend!" A friend who is pretty attractive whom I need to help.

"Aw, alright. Go get dressed."

I ran up the stairs, grabbed my phone and texted Alex.

To: Alex
Hey Alex, wanna hang out today?

I sat on my bed and impatiently waited for him to answer. Just as I was going to give up on waiting and roll back into bed, my phone beeped. I scrambled for it, probably happier to see "New message from: Alex" on the screen than I should've been.

From: Alex
Sure, when? :)

"Good question," I mumbled to myself.

To: Alex
In 20 minutes?

This time, the wait was shorter.

From: Alex
Sure! I'll meet you in front of the ice cream place? :)

To: Alex
See you there :)

So that was settled. I turned to my cupboard and sighed.



I grinned excitedly. Both my parents were already at work - it was 11, after all, and they worked the weekend. Why would they want to stay home? Anyways, it was best for us all this way.

I pulled on some skinny jeans, a plain black tee shirt and my favourite hoodie, the one with the faded Blink-182 bunny on the back. The sleeves were frayed and climbed up quite often, but I was so used to pushing them down that I didn't worry about it. I headed out, but not before double checking that I had my keys and my phone.

I got into my old car and drove to the ice cream place. I was a bit early, but I forgot about that when I spotted Rian standing in front of it. I parked my car and walked over to him.

"Hey!" he said, grinning when he saw me.

"Hey! Did- Were you waiting long?"

"Oh no, no, don't worry about it. I just got here."

"Okay, good. Um... So... Why'd you- Why'd you wanna hang out... With me? I don't mean to sound rude or anything! I'm just... I mean... Me?"

He laughed. "Cause you're my friend, Alex! And you're cool!"

I blushed slightly at his words. They weren't much, but they made me happy.

"Where do you want to go?" he asked.

"Um, anywhere is fine."

"What about the music store?"

I grinned. "Sure!"

We walked down, chatting about classes and music. He really was adorable. There was just something about him that made me feel comfortable.

But I wonder how he'd react when he found out the truth about me, and my life. He would probably stay away. No one ever wants anything to do with me once they get to know.

"Alex?" Rian's voice broke through my thoughts.

"Hmm? Sorry, I was... Distracted."

"It's alright! I was just saying that I like your hoodie."

"Oh, um, thanks," I smiled, and he grinned back.

We reached the store a couple minutes later. He pushed the door open, and held it open behind him for me.

"Thanks," I mumbled shyly.

"What do you want to check out first?"

"Um, anything, whatever you want."

"The guitars?"

"Sure," I grinned. He chuckled and I blushed. Gosh, I feel like a girl.

We walked over to the guitars. I ran my hand over one particularly nice one, an Ephiphone, and sighed. I was saving up money for it but I was nowhere near buying it.

"That's a nice guitar," Rian said, nodding.

"Yeah," I chuckled slightly, flicking my hair off my face. "I... I've been saving money to buy it, actually."

"Really?" Rian smiled, and I nodded. "That's cool."

I smiled back. "Do you want to go check out the CDs?"

"Let's go."

We headed to the CD aisle, and I walked to the Gs. I stretched my arm out to pick up a Good Charlotte CD and didn't notice my sleeve climb up.

"Have you heard this?" I turned to ask Rian, but he wasn't paying attention. He was looking someplace else.

My arm.

I hastily shoved my sleeve down, and looked at Rian again. He looked back at me with a sad and... Disappointed look? What?

But now wasn't the time to analyse that.

"I've got to go," I mumbled, turned around and ran out the door. I didn't know where I was going, but one thing was for sure: I wasn't going to let him know. I couldn't.