The Willow Tree

I slammed the door shut behind me making sure to lock it before running to my room.
Unfortunately while I sought refuge from the outside world my mom arrived home trailing something unfortunate and vile along with her. Tyler.
“Max, someones here to see you” she called. I groaned in response and opened the door to greet her.

Tyler’s POV

I held my arm which was actually bleeding. Shit that girl had teeth! I was on my way to my house when who do I run into, one other than Mrs. Seville. Of course I introduced myself and told her I was a friend of Max’s, she seemed curious about it so she invited me over saying any friend of Max’s was welcome.

We arrived at her home, a small white house with a grey roof and old curtains in the windows, the paint peeling from the porch roofs supports making it looking old and unkempt.
Her mom lead me inside and called for Max mentioning she had a friend to see her. Oh boy was she wrong I wanted revenge for the nasty bleeding black and purple mark on my arm.
A small groan could be heard from the only closed door before it opened and a small white haired girl stepped out. Her light blue eyes were filled with shock and a hint of worry and anger.
“Hi Max” I said smirking at her. I was going to have fun with this one.
Max was one of those girls who is super pretty but strange. She had natural silvery white wavy hair that fell to the middle of her back and light blue eyes that were always framed by thick black eyeliner and smokey eyeshadow making her seem dark and mysterious. She stood at about 5’2 and was thin and frail looking not to mention pale. I mean she had flawless paper white skin. She always reminded me of a porcelain doll.
I actually had a crush on her when I was younger, hell a lot of guys did but that all changed when she began distancing herself from everyone.
She stopped talking and retreated into her shell. She put up walls that no one could knock down.
I began to find it fun to pick on her, teasing her made me feel as if I could force down those walls and find the girl I liked. Eventually I gave up on trying to find the real Max and instead bullied her and those like her to make myself look bigger, tougher, better.

Max frowned when I spoke to her and wandered off.
“Max, say something to your guest!” her mother snapped flashing me an awkward smile.
Max walked back out holding a granola bar of some sort and glared at her mom.
“Hi” she growled and turned to walk back to her room when I called out “Max wanna work on the history project together?”
She spun around and looked from me to her mom then back to me. I thrived off the panic registered on her face.

“Max, that sounds wonderful” her mom piped in. You could clearly see her trying to get her daughter to socialize but was not succeeding. I felt almost bad for both of them. I felt bad for Max because she seemed to hate her mom. I also felt bad for her mom because she was doing a poor job of being a parent but you could see she was trying.
“Fine” she said crooking a finger signaling for me to follow her. I walked closely behind her. She plopped down on the bed and told me to close the door, I did as she asked and looked around for a place to sit before giving up a flopping down in the chair at her desk.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” she said gripping tightly into a fist.
“I just came over because one we have a history assignment do and we are allowed to work as partners and two I would like to try and start on a different foot so maybe we can get along” I replied.
She was taken aback and seemed to search her head for the right words before finally settling on something and said “You lost your chance when you called me a freak and made school a living hell!” she snapped.
I wasn’t at all shocked by her words.