The Lake House [ Justin Bieber ]

ten.

Justin

I drew another angry slash on the calendar hanging on my wall. It was the middle of the second week of school. 38 weeks left.

Every day was pretty much a bad day but then there were those few that were just worse. Today had been just as shitty as normal.

I usually sat in the back of every classroom, took notes and pretended like I wasn't there. Teachers usually ignored me like everyone else. But my Calculus teacher decided to make me his pet project this year and prove exactly what an asshole he could be.

He thought she was doing me a favor by calling on me to answer a question, a question he knew no one in the room could figure out, and I could hear the snickering. I could feel the stares and the glares and all of the smirks thrown in my direction.

I had...anger issues. Sometimes, they were so bad that I could barely control myself. Like something inside me snapped and I turned into someone else. The spectrum ranged from angry to blind rage. I'd grown accustomed to suppressing it, especially in public, but I still had my moments.

I ate a silent dinner with my uncle. He often tried to make conversation but finally gave up. I blamed him for my pitiful lack of a social life. I wanted nothing more than to disappear the second I turned eighteen but I felt guilty wanting to just leave. Richard raised me and I doubted I could function on my own.

"The anniversary is coming up." I was doing the dishes when Richard came up behind me, placing a hand on my shoulder.

I shrugged the hand off. "Is it?"

He sighed, "Justin...."

I dropped the glass in my hand into the sink. I dried my hands on the dish rag and turned around. "I'm going to bed."

My walls were bare and white, as were my sheets. It reminded me so much of an asylum. I stripped out of my clothes and jumped into bed.

Sleep was my favorite thing. For just a few hours, I got a break from it all.

I walked to school every day, even when it was raining. I had my license, I'd taken drivers ed my sophomore year. But Richard wouldn't buy me a car, even though we had enough money for one. I knew of a shortcut through the woods and the world would have to end before I ever took the school bus.

It rained over night and was drizzling as I carefully made my way through the soggy leaves, my socks getting wet through the same sneakers I'd worn since middle school. My hair was soaked through my hood and my backpack was weighing me down as it got soaked too.

This should have been a sign: Turn back, shitty day ahead.

I threw my locker door open and hung my bag on the rack. Shuffling through my papers, I growled; the ink on every single page of my homework ran together in a stream of nothing. I closed my eyes, taking a few breathes through my nose.

People started coming in as it got closer to the first bell. I kept my eyes trained on the inside of my locker. I couldn't escape to the library until it opened in ten minutes.

In the corner of my eye, I saw Ana come up to her locker. My chest ached as I saw her take her books out with a grave look on her face, like she was trying not to look at me either.

She stopped trying to get my attention by the end of last week. By Monday, she was one of them. I just wanted her to understand that I was doing this out of her best interest. They would make her life hell and I didn't want her to know what it was like to regret waking up each and every morning. I didn't deserve someone like her in my life anyway.