Everybody's a Little Messed Up

New Friends

The art room is really good at our school. An art class was required to graduate, so it was this or theater. In art, I started a landscape. It was a small painting of a sunset. My teacher actually commented on it and said what a good job I had done. I liked art, it let you go anywhere. I wasn't very good, but that didn't really matter. I was just getting into my painting when violet paint splattered on my slippers.

"I'm so sorry!" a boy said, while I looked at my jeans for paint. I looked up to see a pair of heavily lined, nervous blue eyes. He was biting his pierced lip and shifting his weight back and forth.

"It's okay." I mumble. I have a strange gift for remembering names, so I know this guy is called Zach. I don't really know anything about him, except I think he has a twin.

"I'm Zach." he said with a small smile. "Nice sunset." he said, after a moment of awkward silence.

"Thanks." I mumble again, staring at my painting.

"So what's your name?" He asks nicely.

"Jay." I turn to look at him and he hands me a paper towel. I clean up my slippers and the purple blends in with the black. I look up at Zach and realize he sits next to me. I look at the painting he was working on. It was a nighttime shot of a cliff with the ocean below. You could almost imagine someone standing there, hair blowing in the wind. I look back to Zach and he smiles.

"Do you like it? I've never been very good at landscapes, but this one is my best attempt." he says.

"Like it? It's amazing." I say, with more enthusiasm than I've used in the entire conversation combined.

"Let me show you my portrait." he says, walking to the counter full of our unfinished portraits. Our teacher, Mrs. Rutherford, believes it's good to work on multiple projects to stimulate creativity. She's a little zany, but a cool teacher. Zach pulls out a partially done portrait of a handsome boy. Even though it's not done I can tell it will be amazing.

"Wow, your good." I told him, looking more closely at him. He had the classic goth/emo look with the black hair in his eyes, pale skin, and piercings. His naturally red/pink lips made him look like the male version of Snow White. He was also in mostly black with a purple striped long sleeve shirt being the only color. He watched me take this once over with an eyebrow raised.

"Mr. Daniels and Ms. Bartlett, please get back to work." Our teacher says, moving gracefully around the room. We walk back to our easels and work for the rest of the period.

At the end, Zach waits for me to get my stuff and we walk out together. We walk in the same direction in comfortable silence for a while, until Zach cleared his throat.

"I'm going this way, but you want to eat lunch together tomorrow? We have a table in the Arthur Hall." he said, as we stood blocking traffic. I nodded and he smiled as he turned a corner. I went to P.E. thinking I might have actually made a friend.

After school, while I was waiting for my mother, I sketched a few people around me. It was stalkerish, but a good exercise. My mom picked me up and I actually got to go home, no therapy. I won't torture you with the rest of my boring day or the nightly pattern I've fallen into. Sleep, nightmares, reading.

The next day it was raining. I looked at the crying sky and sighed. Why do bad things happen? Honestly, things weren't that great before the incident, I just had enough energy to pretend it wasn't crappy. I got up and dressed without my mother telling me to. I eat some toast and she dropped me off at school. By the time I got under the awning, my hair was soaked. It was awkward, being huddle with the other students, trying to stay dry. There was no way I would see Erica this morning. I went through my class, my mood matching the weather. I liked to lo at the rain and I wondered why it always had to portray sadness. I resigned myself to try and draw happy rain. By lunch, I had almost given up when I got a beautiful sketch on a rain-covered rose. Clichéd, yes, but it was romantic none the less. Romantic, not sad. Score one for Jay. I walked out of my English class and straight into Erica.

"How'd you get here so fast?" I asked. Her class was on the other side of the school.

"I ditched the end of math." She said, grinning. "We need a new place to eat, the bleachers are soaked." I remembered Zach's offer and told it to Erica.

"I've never heard of him, but I swear this school is huge! I doubt I'll know half the people in our class by the end of the year." She said, "So, where is Arthur Hall?" We walked off toward the hall, just chatting about our day so far. When we got there, I immediately saw Zach at a half-full table. I didn't really think about eating with anyone but him, but of course he has other friends. He spots me and waves, so there's no turning back.

"Hi, I'm Erica." She says when we walk up.

'Hi Erica, I'm Zach. This is Ashley, Kylee, Jace and Blake." He said, pointing as he went. Ashley was a pretty Spanish girl who looked like she could land any guy at the school with her black hair and eyes. Kylee was a strawberry blonde, in normal jeans and a t-shirt, with black glasses framing her hazel eyes. Jace was an exact copy of Zach, but with purple streaks in his hair and dressed more colorfully. Blake was a classic jock, with brown hair and green eyes, in a football jersey. He was the boy in Zach's drawing.

"I'm Jay." I mumble, a bit intimidated by these people. They are all looking at us and I realize we've been just standing there.

"Sit down!" Kylee says, moving some stuff away. Erica and I sit, looking at the other members of the table to start conversation.

"Well maybe you two could help me with my boyfriend problem." Ashley says. The others groan as she glares at them. "He says he was at a party last week, and said he didn't hook up with anyone, but I found a Hello Kitty ring in his pocket afterwards. He's got to be cheating on me, right? But he's really sweet. What do I do?' she sighs dramatically.

"Don't listen to her, she always has drama. I don't know why we keep her around." Jace, Zach's twin, said. Ashley glares at him, putting her red lips in a pout.

"You all love me and you know it." She says. "Besides, if you want annoying, look at your brother."

"Hey, I have no boyfriend drama." Zach says.

"Except we all practically had to force you and Blake together.' She yells. So Blake and Zach were together. Zach is gay, or at least bi. Well that explained the portrait. I looked at them and saw they were holding hands under the table.

"Are you guys out?" Erica asks and starts eating her lunch.

"Yep." Blake says. "We've been dating for five months and never hidden." They quickly kissed, just a little peck and Erica said 'awww'. I had to admit, Blake didn't look how you thought a gay man would look, but that's why stereotypes were wrong.