What's So Good About Picking Up The Pieces?

As we walked through the front door, Isobel guided us to the kitchen where she offered us food and we talked for a bit. She said Alex was in his room with his friends, but she wanted to get to know me first, but of course my mom did most of the talking. I didn’t mind, I wasn’t in the mood for talking anyway. As they conversed, I ate the left over pizza Isobel offered me and drowned myself into my thoughts. I thought about school. It was starting in a couple days, less than a week actually, and for once I actually worried about whether I’d make friends or not. It was my senior year after all. I wanted at least someone to spend it with. The fact it was senior year was what scared me most, since that meant everyone would have had their own group of friends or something. I was also scared that someone would find out what I did to myself behind the bathroom door. I knew for a fact that I hid it well for a while, but it helped that I didn’t talk to anyone either, and as I was planning on making at least one friend this year, I would have to try my best to hide the cuts with things other than long sleeves and bracelets.

Just as I was finishing off my pizza, my thoughts were cut off by the sounds of screaming, which I presumed were the boys upstairs.

“JACK YOU FUCKER!” a voice screeched, “STOP HIDING THE DAMN REMOTE YOU DICK!”

“I DIDN’T TOUCH IT!” another voice I presumed to be Jack’s yelled, “AND DON’T DENY THAT YOU LOVE MY MOTHER FUCKING DICK!”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP! I WANT TO WATCH THE MOVIE IN PEACE!” yet another voice shouted.

“BUT I WANT TO WATCH THE RAVENS’ GAME DAMMIT!” yelled the voice that called Jack a fucker, “AND I DO NOT LOVE YOUR DICK JACK!”

“BUT WE WATCHED THAT LAST WEEK ALEX!” a fourth voice complained.

“BUT I LOVE THE RAVENS!” cried Alex, it was soon followed by a loud BANG! and more shouts and cries from Jack whilst the others laughed, and I was pretty sure he fell down or something.

By then I was almost falling off the chair, laughing so hard that I nearly cried. My mother though, she looked mildly horrified, eyes seemingly bulging out of her skull, and the sight made me laugh even harder, if that was possible. Isobel was just smiling slightly –which I noticed she did often– and shook her head a bit. “I’ll have to apologize for that.” Isobel said, still smiling, “Alex and the boys always bicker, despite being so close. But I assure you Mrs. Holmes that they are wonderful boys, and they’d be great friends with Nicki.”

“Alright, I was just a bit surprised I guess. And please, call me Helen for goodness’ sake! Don’t make me feel old!” my mother replied, “And I’d like Nicki to be friends with them, it’d be interesting to see such loud boys with my quiet daughter.” Both Isobel and my mom laughed at that, and Isobel beckoned the boys down.

I took in their appearances as they climbed down the stairs. They all wore band shirts, they each had a Blink 182 shirt, a Face to Face shirt, a New Found Glory shirt, and a Fall Out Boy shirt respectively, and I found myself smiling slightly at their beyond fantastic taste in music.

“Boys, I’d like you to meet our new next-door neighbors, Nicki,” Isobel pointed at me, “and her mother Helen,” she pointed at my mother, “I’d like you boys to make Nicki feel right at home as I talk to Helen, you are going to be seniors at the same school after all. Just don’t shout too many profanities at her okay? Don’t think we didn’t hear you upstairs!”

“Sorry Mom,” said the boy with the Blink 182 shirt, and looked at me smiling, “Hi. I’m Alex.” He had dark brown hair and caramel eyes as opposed to my black hair and blue eyes. He was probably 6’0” and lean, but not too skinny or fat. I also noticed he had dimples, and they were pretty cute to be honest.

The boy wearing the Fall Out Boy shirt walked up to me and shook my hand, “I’m Zack, and that’s Rian.” he pointed to the boy with the New Found Glory shirt. Zack was fairly tall, almost Alex’s height. He was pretty muscular and had a nose ring. His hair was a bit long for a boy, and it was straight and dark brown, like Alex’s hair, but it fit him and made his blue-green eyes pop. Rian was the shortest of them, but that’s considering the fact that the other three were pretty tall. He had a buzz cut and a beard, a combo of which I didn’t normally approve, but he made it work, and I was fairly close to applauding him for that.

“AND I’M JACK!” the boy with the Face to Face shirt screamed, pummeling into me and giving me what was quite possibly the tightest hug I had ever received. Jack was definitely the tallest of the group, towering over my 5’3” frame, and he skinny. And by skinny, I mean really skinny. He also looked like he skinned a skunk and glued it onto his head, but it looked good on him.

“Air… need air!” I gasped into Jack’s chest.

He quickly jumped away from me and mumbled an “I’m sorry” before standing next to a laughing Alex.

“Don’t worry about him,” a still laughing Alex said, “he can get a bit hyper.”

“Yeah,” I said, my eyes finding sudden interest with the floor, “I’ve noticed.”

Rian must’ve noticed how shy I was and gave me a meek smile and said, “It’s fine Nicki, we just want to be friends, that’s all.”

“See?” my mother interrupted, “You’re making friends already! You need friends Nicki, you didn’t really have any back in L.A.” I cringed at what my mother had said, I didn’t want her to embarrass me, and I had felt embarrassed enough when Jack hugged me.

“You didn’t have friends in L.A.?” Jack asked curiously.

“Not really. Just the marching band during lunch, but that was kind of out of social conformity to be honest.” I replied, still staring at the floor.

“Hey,” Alex said, pulling my chin up so that I was looking at him, “you know what? We’ll be your best friends from now on, and we’ll show you just what you’re missing!” he turned to look at the boys, “Right guys?” they all nodded and cheered, except for Jack. He was jumping up and down like a kangaroo, which made me chuckle.

“You know what this means?” Zack said, “That means we better be taking her on a tour of Baltimore!”

“We’ll even show you our secret places,” Jack whispered to me not so discretely, winking as he did so, “if you know what I mean.” The boys laughed and we left my mother and Isobel at the kitchen to head outside.

As we stepped onto the porch, the wind blew hard, making our go in all crazy directions, so I just tied my hair. It was a bit cold, since summer was coming to a close, and became glad I had decided to wear my brother’s sweatshirt.

This was the first time I was hanging out with friends outside of class since elementary school, and this was the highest amount of friends I had ever made in one moment, and for that I was glad, but I was also scared. Scared that one day they’d find out, find out about the scars, and that they’d think I was freak and leave me alone. I quickly pushed those thoughts out of my head, and filled them with hope that maybe this school year; I wouldn’t have to face it alone.