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Chapter 1: Exhileration

The world is a dark place, deceit, death, disaster, dystopia. We are only a mere light form to this place, and our only goal is to survive our own mind. -Unknown 

JEROME P.O.V
"Come on! You have one more!" Isaac exclaimed, putting his hand under the metal bar that I was pushing up.

"I don't know if I can do it!" I said, pressing all of my power up onto the three hundred and sixty pounds that pressed down on me.

"Come on! Do it!" Isaac said. Isaac and I had been friends since the first grade, we would do everything together. We were like brothers. Now we were seniors in high school, still doing everything together. I pressed hard against the bar, feeling my muscles bulge and shake. My entire body burned as I lifted the bar high into the air. I dropped it into the rack with a loud slam, standing up away from the bench press and smacking Isaac's hand.

"Woo! That was great!" I said, looking at my grey iPhone. "We gotta go! It's already seven!"
We walked into the locker room, hopping into both showers in the small bathroom. I turned on the water, jumping back as my skin tingled under the ice cold water. "Ahh! Jeez!" I screamed, as the water got hot.

"You alright in there?" Isaac asked, I could hear him smirking.

"Yeah! The water was just cold." I explained.

"Mhm. Sure." Isaac said, laughing to himself. I rolled my eyes and let the water caress my body. Loathing my body with soap I thought about the assignments due today.

Section 5.3 for Spanish IV, literature project, speech for speech class.

I rinsed off and hopped out, drying off with the towel on the rack and slipped the pair of jeans that I had in my gym locker on, along with a long sleeve shirt.

"Hey, Isaac, we gotta go." I said, as he came out of the shower room with a towel on. He slipped his clothes.

"Gotcha, I'll be at your car after I get a drink." Isaac said, walking over to the water fountain. I walked out of the front gym doors into the warm sunny morning weather. The slight wind felt good against my skin as the smell of pine trees filled my nose. I pulled the keys from my black shorts pocket and unlocked my 2004 Black Pontiac, climbing in the drivers side. Then my phone buzzed. I checked the caller and smiled as I answered.

"Hey babe." I said, smiling.

"Hey, I missed you last night, why didn't you go to the party?" She asked.

"I... I had a lot of homework..." I lied, knowing that I was really with Bailey. Her beautiful red hair and blue eyes, her lips that always turned to crescents when we kissed.

"Oh, okay. Well I will see you at school, bye." She said, waiting for my response.

"Bye, Allison." I said, hanging up the phone just as Isaac hopped into the front seat.

"Who was that?" He asked, throwing his red checkered duffle bag into the backseat.

"No one." I said, starting the car and pulling out of the parking lot. I drove us to the high school, pulling into the large empty parking lot and shut the car off.

"Hey, Jerome." Isaac said, putting his hand on my shoulder. I turned to him and looked into his blue eyes. "Thanks for all that you do for me... I don't know what I would do without you." He said with a smile as he grabbed his bag and hopped out of the car, slamming the door on the way out. I sat in silence, letting his words ring in my ears. "I don't know what I'd do without you." Isaac came from a home where he found out in ninth grade that his mother wasn't really his mother, she was his step mother. That was very hard for him as he found that I was his only friend. I smiled slightly as I sat in the front driver side seat, sprawled out as far as I could, watching the cars pass the drug store across the road. Then there was a knock on the window. I turned to find Alison peering through the window. Her curly brown hair and green eyes.  I rolled the window down and responded.

"Hey! How's it going?" She ignored my greeting and kissed me. I barely had time to respond as I kissed her back, continuing with more passion. She pulled away and smiled.

"You missed something great last night." She said.

"I really wish I could have come!" I said, rethinking about Bailey.

"Yeah, we could have had such a fun night." She said teasingly, biting her lower lip. This excited me, but I didn't want to show it.

"I'm sorry! I was swamped with work!" I exclaimed, climbing out of the car. She wrapped her arms around my hips and looked into my big brown eyes.

"Well maybe tonight we could do something." She said, smiling, burying her face into my chest.

"Actually... I have plans tonight..." I said, feeling my heart race.

"What do you have going on?" She asked, looking up at me with a concerned look in her eyes.

"I uhh... I'm hanging out with Isaac tonight... We are going to play some basketball at the Gymnasium in Springfield with a group of guys." I lied, knowing that I was really going on a date with Bailey. It killed me inside to hide the fact that I was seeing Bailey, but it felt so exhilarating to sneak around and do things that I never thought I would do.

"Okay..." She said, putting on a pouting face as she backed away from me and walked over to her 2014 Yellow Jeep. She opens the side door and grabbed something out of the back, forcing me to wonder.

"What do you got there?" I asked, smirking slightly.

"Oh... You know... Just your birthday present." She said, peering back at me with a devious smile caked across her face. I walked up behind her in her white linen dress and put my hands on her hips.

"Oh really now, let me take a look?" I asked, putting my head onto her shoulder.

"Ah. Ah. Ahh. No looking, before your birthday." She said, turning around, leaning up against the backseat.

"Waiting is so hard..." I said, teasingly, staring into her eyes, biting my bottom lip.

"Aw. Poor baby." Alison said in her most obnoxious baby voice that made me smile brightly. I leaned in, touching my lips to hers, feeling my heart race as we continued.

"Hey! Get a room!" A guy said, hopping out of his Corvette. I turned to find Ash Peterson wearing his black leather jacket, his dark hair slicked back and his beard trimmed down. He was the schools bad boy; one time he spray painted the principles forehead. He had been suspended multiple times. At first glance, he seems like a cool guy, but once you get to know him. He's a real asshole.

"Shut up, Ash. You are just jealous of this beauty." I said, turning back to Alison. Ash didn't respond, walking into the school. "Now. Where were we?" I asked, leaning in, only to be stopped by her finger.

"We need to go to class. Remember? You want to go to college!" Alison exclaimed, nudging me off of her.

"But... College is another full year away!" I said, taking her hand and leading her over to my car.

"I love you." She said, closing her eyes and smiling, making the weirdest face.

"I think that you are the weirdest human being alive." I said, taking my backpack from the backseat, then turning back to her. "And I love it." I said, smiling brightly, tapping her on the nose. We interlocked hands and walked into the school for another day at the workplace. More like my personal hell.