text: [Themes: love & dating]
  
  You never thought it would come to this. Hiding out in the bathroom stalls at school, playing on your phone during your lunch period so you wouldn't be seen alone. You would have laughed at someone doing this back in elementary, but now that all of you're friends have found new people to hang out with your stuck alone. You keep blaming yourself for not seeing this coming and making new friends when you had the chance. Now its too late, or at least that's what you've concluded whilst sitting in this dingy stall.
  
  After losing your friends and talking with classmates, you came to the realization that you were a drifter. You could hang out with anyone you wanted, everyone was somewhat friendly to you but you were scared. Scared of being rejected and looking like a loser, which you already were but you didn't want to think that.
  
  The familiar bell rings giving you another sense of dread as it's now your free time, you save your angry birds level while silently slipping out of the restroom before anyone gets outside, god knows you wouldn't want anyone to see you. Lunch Period is over and now you have thirty minutes of free time. Being a loner for the past months has given you experience on what to do to not act like a loner.
  
  You can go to a teacher's room and catch up on work to look busy, you could go to the library and pretend that you're doing research for something that has been ordered by your teacher.
  
  Finally you can go eat lunch as you warned yourself that if you kept on skipping lunch you would start to become anorexic.
  
  > go to the Cafeteria
  You felt your stomach rumble as you started to head to the cafeteria. Over the past months when you started to hide in the bathroom stalls you hadn't eaten lunch at all always skipping it. You started to get used to it not feeling as hungry as you did the last day. But you tell yourself that you're going into a bad habit and you had to eat once in a while before you didn't eat at all.
  
  As you enter the cafeteria, you see most of the tables are empty as everyone has already gone outside to to do their own thing, but some of the tables are still filled with groups of girls talking to each other.
  
  You felt uneasy whenever you came to the cafeteria as you always thought they were staring and whispering about you. You just bought you lunch and had your back face them as you started to dig into the Chinese food special the school had today.
  
  You stopped coming to the cafeteria after the first few days of school when you saw no where else to sit. When you went over to where a table was full you looked around panicked that there was no more room when someone saw that you were troubled and told everyone at the table to scoot down for you. You can remember all the pitied faces that you saw around the cafeteria as everyone gave you room. That was enough reason for you never to go back to the cafeteria.
  
  As you silently ate the food in front of you a shadow came over you. "You don't mind if I sit here Web do you, I can't stand those girls over there and i don't want to be bored sitting alone."
  
  You look up to see Stephanie, it was the girl that everyone always talks about, about the stuff she did in the beginning of the year with the other guys.
  
  The stories first spread from the guys she had done it with, as soon as the girls heard it though most of them wanted little to do with her as she was branded now. The only people she hangs out with are the guys who want to get into her pants because they heard she was easy.
  
  You nod as you slurp the noodles in your bin wanting to leave and get away from this awkward moment. "Hey, are you ok?" She asks a little concerned as you notice yourself trying to eat at a fast pace.
  
  "Yeah, im fine, just want to get outside that's all." You smile as you swallow your food. "Really, I don't see you outside that often." she says, tilting her head in wonder. You ignore her and continue to eat.
  
  "I see you go to the bathroom after 4th period and don't see you till 6th when lunch is over, why are you alone in here?" She continues.
  
  She's on to you stupid, she knows what you are.
  
  You finish your Chinese food and start getting up to throw your trash away when you hear her behind you. "Please stay until im done." You hear from Stephanie.
  
  You know she wants to question you further, why does she pester you so? You want to leave, but then again a little bit of you wants to stay and talk to someone other than in class when people don't have much of a choice. What should you do?
  
  > stay with Her
  You walk back over to the table and sit down across from her. She continues to stare as you try to avoid eye contact. "Im alone because all my other friends are outside busy doing there own thing and they don't want to waste their time being in here with me while i eat my food." You explain not wanting to tell her the real reason.
  
  "I can understand that." She nods as she swallows her food and looks you in the eyes once more as if studying you. "So why are you in here so late?" You ask wanting to stop her gaze. "Oh well I was just busy." She quickly says looking back down at her food.
  
  "Say you want to come with me once im done?" She asks after a a awkward silence. You already know how to answer that "I don't really think the people you hang out with are the kind of people i would be able to stand." You reply smiling a little. " I was talking about just me and you." She says with a annoyed look on her face.
  
  "Really?" You didn't expect that from from her. "Yeah, honestly those guys pissed me off earlier today which is why their not with me at the moment, I actually think I'm done with them."
  
  That statement almost makes you laugh at how untrue it is as you always see her sitting alone, away from them during class one day and seeing them together like best friends the next. But i also makes you a little mad, were you just her next boy to try to seduce.
  
  "What are you waiting for, let's go." You see Stephanie up with her trash thrown away. You give a little sigh as you get yourself up and walk with her outside.
  
  "Didn't we go to elementary together Web, I think i remember seeing you but I'm not entirely sure." You silently nod remembering the sweet girl everyone liked, the girl you would see kids trying to impress or the girl that always got valentines. You see how things changed once she came to middle school, the once lovable girl now every ones toy.
  
  A few years back you would of thought you were being a little to harsh on her, but over the years you've seen her habits and how she continues to go on her way.
  
  "You know you space out a lot Web, most of the times I don't even know if your listening." Stephanie's voice cuts in as get out of your thoughts. "I'm just have a lot on my mind." You reply as you look up into the sky. "About what exactly." Stephanie says with a laugh. You don't answer her question as you just look at her for a moment and look away.
  
  "Do i make you uncomfortable?" She says raising a eyebrow. You think about the question she asks. Are you over your head with all your thoughts on her. Or should you get away now before things get out of hand. But you come to the conclusion that she does make you uncomfortable at the moment, but should you tell her that?
  
  > Yes
  You look into her eyes again as she does the same. You want to tell yourself that your wrong and that there's a good girl deep inside but you look away with a sad look. You have your morals and you won't lose them for a good bang.
  
  Stephanie see's your analysis of her and just looks at everyone else playing at the field. "It was nice talking again Stephanie." You say as you leave her alone and head out into the field. You don't want her seeing you heading back into the building so you go out and sit at the bleachers as you watch the guy's play soccer with groups of kids sitting around you talking with one another.
  
  Normally you would worry about everyone seeing you alone but your mind is busy at how your reacted to Stephanie. Whenever you doubt your reasoning you just think of all the things she's done over the past three years. You keep that in your mind as you rest your head on your hands and silently wait for the bell to ring.
  
  Over the next few days you expect to see Stephanie back with her usual friends but that doesn't happen. She just sits alone away from everyone else during class and sits alone during lunch when you go in there to get food after everyone is gone.
  
  She seems lost in her thoughts as you always are but she seems different. As each day passes you think about what you said and your doubts take control. You feel the need to apologize but a tiny bit of you stops you each day.
  
  It's been a week and nothing changes as she continues to sit alone with her hands covering her face. You see people walk by snickering to the person next to them as they look to her.
  
  You hypocrite, you cry about being alone and yet you caused her the emotions you run from, How dare you.
  
  Halfway during the next week as you walk home from school you see her silently walking ahead of you on her usual route when she takes a sudden turn into a alley. You see her carrying a paper bag in her hand.
  
  You tell yourself that she's probably off to go with another guy she found out of school and that they were going to do weed. But a tiny bit of you wants to follow her. You tell yourself that she wouldn't forgive you, you went to far last week and she would ignore you. You were probably right.
  
  What do you do?
  
  > follow her
  No, you had to stop denying your worries and grow some balls for a change. You made a turn around and silently followed her into the alley. You thought she would look behind her to see if anyone was following her but she didn't, as she just kept her legs moving with her head down.
  
  Around the middle of the alleyway she came to a stop and put her back against the fence. She slowly sat down and started to open the bag.
  
  She first pulled out a needle, then a medication bottle, another needle, and more bottles. She put them all on her lap and started to open the bottles, dipping the needles into some of them before letting them spill onto the floor.
  
  Without thinking you ran over to her and kicked the bottle she had in her hand with the tip of your toe. As the contents spilled out onto the dirt floor she silently looked at you with her hand still out, as if surprised that you of all people would be there.
  
  "Is this how you want to go out Stephanie, drugging yourself in a alleyway?" You asked her as you kneeled down to her level. She said nothing, her eyes were just fixed on you as they always were. You always were curious whenever she gazed at you, as if you could see all her problems by looking through her pupils.
  
  "Are you going to answer me Stephanie?" You ask grabbing her by the shoulders. Her poker face turned into one of hatred. "What the hell do you care, You pretty much told me that sluts like me made you uncomfortable and just walked away like a douche, why the hell are you here!"
  
  Her outburst made you step back. You could see the tears rolling down her eyes as she got up off the floor. "What now you care, now you want to talk to me after I just wanted to hang out with you, who the fuck do you think you are!"
  
  You bowed your head as you knew she was right, you deserved whatever she said to you. It was the slap to the face that made you look back at her. You felt the blood where her nails had dug but silently just stood there ignoring the searing pain.
  
  "I'm sorry Stephanie." Is all you could say. You weren't going to argue like you did in your head, you were just going to take it as you knew there was no place for you to complain.
  
  Stephanie saw your look of sorrow towards her and just looked up into the sky. "Web.....do you think we could be friends, could we just ignore everything we know about each other and just be friends."
  
  You don't know how to respond to the request she gave you, all you do is walk over and give her a hug. "I'll change if i have someone to change with me." You reply. Stephanie returns the hug and you can see a smile form across her face
  
  "I wouldn't let you go through it alone"
  
  It takes two ending