</Operation_X.com>

</Alone?>

#7 - Alone?

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{Autumn's POV}

'Alone'

adjective (used predicatively)

separate, apart, or isolated from others: I want to be alone.

You could ask anyone in this school to describe me with one word, some would say badass, some would say rude but most would say alone. I only have three people in my life I would class as friends: Olivia, Sasha and Riven.

No one knows of Riven, he's not part of my "social" life - as some would put it. I've been friends with Riven since I turned one. My mother and his were best friends, so not only have we been friends for sixteen years but he's been the older brother I never had.

I've known Olivia for almost as long as I've known Riven. Riven and I met her whilst at Day Care together. Olivia and I hit it off straight away, it took Riven a little bit of warming up before accepting Olivia into our 'friendship group'. We all grew up together, as a slightly dysfunctional, family.

Sasha was a totally different story. I met her one night when I was fighting. I'd just won my third match in a row and had decided to call it a night when she ducked into the ring and challenged me. Just looking at her, I could tell she wasn't thinking straight. She had dried tears on her face and red, puffy eyes. She was too small to fight me anyway, so I declined but made her an offer. I would teach her how to fight properly in exchange for her promise to join a business I would be starting up. She had no idea at the time, but my business wasn't exactly going to be a legal one. Later I introduced her to Olivia and Riven and from then on, it's been just the four of us.

All four of us are part of my business. Me being the leader and Riven my second in command. Olivia and Sasha didn't want 'important' management parts, so they just work for me.

But even with the other three. The three who know me better than anyone else ever could. I still feel alone. And, I guess, from the outside, it's noticeable. So noticeable, that as I walk through the empty halls of my school - skipping lessons - I notice it myself. Constantly being alone and blocking people out is what I do best though. I mean in my line of work, it's either be icy or die, and to be honest, I don't know which one I would prefer.

My mother would say that's a bad thing. Her exact words would be, "Autumn Charlie May! I did not raise you to have depression, sort yourself out now!". I would scoff at her formal telling off, but on the inside, I'd be screaming at her. Telling her it isn't okay to say that to someone who is depressed. I'm not. I can't be. But sometimes my mind does wander off to the red door in the back of my mind and opens it to listen to the dark things. And, to be truthful, I wouldn't say that's a good thing.

"Autumn?" his voice snaps me out of my daze as I stop dragging my feet forward and spin round, "S'up nerd?", the words slipping so easily off my tongue. "Aren't you meant to be in lessons right now?" he asks as a pink hue creeps onto his face.

"Yeah but doesn't mean I'm actually going to it," I muse with a confident smirk on my face as I watch him walk over to me. He's changed out of the red and black checked shirt he was wearing this morning and was now wearing a simple white tee with his black skinny jeans and Timberlands on. His laptop bag hanging from his left shoulder, like always, was open.

"You know that's open, right?" I ask with an almost genuine smile. Almost. He was lucky when he saw one last night, but from now on he won't. "No, I didn't, thanks." The sound of the zip being zipped up stilled the silence between us. I don't know why but Jake made me nervous, nobody but him made me feel this way. I can never predict what he's going to do, unlike so many others, yet I feel almost, comfortable in his presence.

"Did you, uh. Did you wanna, maybe, get outta this dump? I've finished for the day, and you don't look like you're going to any lessons, so.."

"You're spiralling."

"Sorry?"

"You're spiralling." I point out with a smirk, I love doing shit like this, "Some call it rambling, but you were on the spiralling level. I'm just glad I stopped you before you died of suffocation from not breathing."

"Uh." He just stands there awkwardly as I walk past him.

"Are you coming?" I ask, snapping him back to reality as I hold the door open. I get a quick nod before he follows me through the door and out to the car park. I get on my bike and chuck him a helmet, "Where to?"