It started the summer after 8th-grade year. She went away to ballet camp and I played summer league basketball. If you didn't know us, to you, we would be complete opposites. But we got along decently and we knew so much about each other. But that was dangerous. She went off to her princess camp met some girls who were going to our high school and left me in the dust. And that didn't bode too well with me. So I started to tease her and be rude to her because I was hungry for her attention but she fought back. She started spreading rumors about me but they were true. That's the worst kind. Then my dad died. Two huge people in my life just leaving me. It tipped me over the edge. And what didn't help, as she didn't say a thing. Call me selfish but I couldn't do it anymore. I retreated into myself lashing out in a very...creative way. I played "practical jokes". But they were bad and I kept getting in trouble. So I decided to just end it all. And that's where the picture came from. The school tried to help me but it just made everything worse causing me to be horrible to her. So they sent me away.
"Max?" I looked up. It was Adrian. He was such a good kid. I didn't deserve him.
"Hey, Adrian." I put my head back down between my knees.
"Is what that article said true? That you tried to kill yourself because your best friend moved on and your dad died?" His voice was filled with pity. It made me so mad, but I couldn't be mad at him.
"Yeah, something like that-" I looked up again and cut myself off. What was that thing on the windowsill? I watched it slide underneath the pane of glass and I could finally get a good look at it.
It was an Akuma. It was coming for me.
Adrian followed my gaze, seeing the purple insect. He reacted immediately, trying to push me away from the moth. But I wouldn't let him do that. I twisted around and the akuma landed on my headphones. I could see his face change from shock to fear to determination. I could almost hear his thoughts...
"I'll save you, Max. I will, I promise."
Promises are such fickle things.
Hello Max.