With My Last Breath

Chapter 1

The people I worked with were amazing and so was our boss, Amanda; who I had become very close friends with. Amanda was one of the few people that actually gave me hope for anything. She had a caring personality and a smile that always touched her eyes, letting anyone that saw her know that she was there for you as a friend and someone you could tell anything to. Her positive attitude made the place run well and we all knew that without her, half, if not all, our customers wouldn't bother coming back.

I've been working with Amanda for nearly two years now and I really can't find anything wrong with her; aside from her habit of getting back together with her jerk of a boyfriend, Jason. Aside from that, she's perfect in every way. I'll be the first to admit that I do have a bit of a crush on her, but in this town being bisexual or full on gay makes you the target of some serious hate; which is one reason why Axel hates my guts and why Jack is super protective of me. As far as I know, no one has ever admitted to being anything but straight ever since two boys threw someone over the bridge just because he admitted he was gay...It had made the front page of every paper in the state four weeks in a row; especially after the two guys were sentenced to fifteen years of prison each. I think they should have gotten life... I still remember crying when I first saw the headline and the name on it.

Teen boys arrested for the murder of 19 year old Alexander Hawthorne...

From everything I heard after that, his family had pressed serious charges against the parents of the two guys and had actually won the case. Not many people were pleased with that but they understood and never spoke out against them since everyone knew the Hawthorne name...they're one of the richest families around and hold a lot of power within the community; yet they are very nice people from what other's have said about them. Jack and I had known Alexander before he graduated from school and he had been one of the nicest people with dreams of going to the big city and becoming a runway designer. From what I saw of his work, he would have made millions with his clothes. It's a shame he'd never get to make his dream happen.

After hearing about that, I had kept my sexuality a secret for as long as I could until Axel found out and made it a public event. Since then, I've been the target of a lot of hate from people in town and the people I go to school with; but Jack always had my back when things got really rough...I'm a little afraid of what will happen when Jack finally goes to college next week. I had finally finished putting on my clothes and makeup then quickly tied my hair up into a tight ponytail, revealing the scar that I had on the right side of my face; a scar that had been caused by a knife followed by a three week coma thanks to Axel's drunken rage. Jack had nearly killed him after that from what I had been told, but he was more concerned about my life. If it wasn't for Jack, I probably would be dead by now.

I quickly made my way downstairs into the kitchen where my bag was waiting along my usual pop-tart for the walk. I walked out the door as fast as I could before Axel had the time to notice me or say anything and began walking to the school. Since it was Jack's last day, he didn't have to be there until a little after nine for the pre-graduation ceremony in the gym so he couldn't bring me to school today. Today was also the day that students from other grades got recognized for their efforts, good grades, and athletics. The basketball and football teams were bound to get a big speech for their "fantastic sportsmanship" and for getting our school the championship prize at the national games in Seattle, Washington; something that apparently hasn't happened in like ten years. It was also the day Jack would get recognized for the amazing performance he did during our school's last concert. His playing and lyrics were so good that the judges gave him all 10s and first prize; I couldn't be more proud to have him as my older brother.

As I continued walking, I slipped my headphones on over my ears and let the music of Mayhem fill my ears and slow down my racing thoughts. I had a playlist of all their best songs and listened to them more than any other band on my iPod. A lot of people never heard of them before and those who looked them up eventually thought I was insane for liking them at all; especially after they heard about the...incident...with one of my favorite band members. As strange as it sounds, I'd honestly give anything to see him alive in person to know what he was really like before his death.