Flashback:

Kayvan, Collin and Titus came right before desert.

"Sorry we're late. Hey miss K, hey Brianna. Wassup Marcus?" Collin says.

"Hey dude." Marcus Says.

"What's up? Food already been ate?" Titus asks.

"Yes but we saved leftovers for you. You can eat them and then eat desert. We'll wait for you." Karolina Says.

Kayvan comes up to me and hugs me.

"Hey." I say.

"Hi."

They all sit down and eat, then we eat desert.

"So, there's kind of been an issue with Kayvan recently." Titus blurts.

"Titus!" Kayvan warns.

I look at Kayvan. He looks sad.

"What's wrong?" I ask, directing my question to Kayvan.

He shakes his head.

"He has a bully at school." Titus Says.

"Well boys, don't you think you should've let Kayvan say it?" Karolina Says.

"He wouldn't have said it. We wouldn't even know if we hadn't seen him get bullied twice."

"Yeah, the first time he was shoved up against a locker and made fun of. I had to go stand up for him, and Kayvan was mad at me for interfering. Then at lunch, that same group of guys knocked his lunch plate over on top of him and recorded it. Now it's all over Instagram and Kayvan is all sad and stuff."

"Kayvan, you can't let them bully you. If you won't listen to them, please listen to me. I know how bullying feels, and you have to do something about it." I tell him.

He just shrugs.

They drop the subject but I can't stop thinking about it. I try to bring it up more later, but he wouldn't respond.

So I had no choice but to drop it.

December 7th, Saturday

Kayla and Noah had each gone out somewhere. Me and Marcus were hanging out at the apartment.

His phone rings.

"Hello?" He answers.

I of course, hear nothing but mumbling from the other end of the line.

"Okay we're on the way." Marcus Says, hanging up.

"What wrong?" I ask.

"Apparently Kayvan has locked himself in the bathroom at his house. His parents are on a trip for a week and Collin and Titus are trying to get him out and he's not responding at all. They hear nothing."

"How do they know he's in there?" I ask.

"He's no where else. When they call his phone, it rings from inside the bathroom."

"Okay let's go." I say.

We get in the car and head over to Kayvan's house.

We walk inside the house and Marcus leads me to the bathroom.

"Hey guys. He's in there. He won't talk and I haven't heard anything. I can't get the door open." Collin Says.

Marcus goes up to the door.

He juggles the knob. When that fails, he try's to break the door to get it open.

"We've tried picking the door lock and everything, nothing's working." Titus Says.

"Why did he lock himself in there?"

"He got in a fight at school. I didn't see the fight, but I saw Kayvan leave the school and he ran to his house. Me and Collin come over here, and his phone was in the bathroom. Since it's locked I'm saying he's in here."

"A fight?"

"Yeah. It was the same guy who bullies him."

What ran through my mind, horrified me.

Had Kayvan killed himself?

Is what lies beyond this door something that nobody in this room can handle?

I try to help Marcus get the door open. I try to call out some encouraging words to Kayvan.

Eventually, I think of something. What if he hasn't killed himself yet, but he plans to?

With that in mind I look at Titus.

"Call the cops."

They listen to me and call 911.

The police arrive. They break down the door and inside is Kayvan.

He's there. Living, breathing.

He was sitting against the wall, facing the other wall, with his knees held tight upon his chest.

His face was badly bruised. His lip and nose were busted. He had a black eye, if not two.

He didn't flinch. He didn't look at the police officers flooding the room. He didn't resist when the police picked him up.

He didn't move when a cop gave him to me to hold until an ambulance arrived.

He wasn't that hurt, but his current mindset made it seem like he was.

"Kayvan. What's going on?"

After a minute or two, he looks at me.

"A fight." He says emotionlessly.

"Why did you lock yourself in there?"

He shrugs, but winces at the pain.

"Where are you hurting?" I ask.

"My shoulders, my back, my mouth, my nose, my eyes, my head." He says.

"Give me their names."

"No."

"Why not?" I ask.

"Because I got this. I can fix it."

"Okay, Van. But if Titus or Collin says one thing about you being bullied again I will find out who it is."

He nods.

Collin and Titus come to try to talk to him, but he doesn't respond.

The ambulance arrives and we head to the hospital. Collin and Titus had to go home.

Nothing major was wrong with Kayvan. None of it could be fixed. Just some pain pills and a little bit of cleaning to prevent infection.

I hoped this would be the last of Kayvan's problems, but it wouldn't.

February 11th, Wednesday

8:00 p.m.

Titus' POV

Kayvan hasn't been around much. I haven't talked to him in about a month, and it wasn't a big conversation. It seems like he's been occupied since the fight, but I haven't seen anything between the two.

Kayvan's POV

flashback

December 15th, Sunday

"Hey Jaylon. You told me to meet you here?" I ask.

"Yeah. On Friday you asked what you can do to get us to leave you alone."

"Yeah?"

"So imma show you. Follow me."

I follow them. We had met in the back of a store. We walk down the street until we get to a small house. It appears to be abandoned.

"This is my crew. You've met some of them at school. The others are freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors in high school."

"Okay and?"

"We first met the high schoolers when we were at a high school party. We snuck in for fun and they let us stay. They ended up letting us stay, giving us free drinks and weed and shit."

"Once again, and?"

"In return we became a part of their 'gang' as they like to call it. It was mostly beneficial. We get to do cool stuff like street art, smoking, stealing, drug dealing, a bunch of stuff that gets our names feared in the streets, even though we're kids."

"Mostly?"

"Yeah. Obviously there was always the risk of getting put in juvie, or for the addys, jail or prison."

"Addys?"

"It's what we call the 18 year old seniors, since they're legal adults."

"So what?"

"So..we obviously need more members. We only have 10 people. Most of em are sophomores. Second majority are seniors. We need younger kids. Me and you in eighth grade. Young kids are tinier so they look more innocent, blend in and can escape faster."

"So you want me to join?"

"Yeah. You get free alcohol, weed and other drugs or whatever you want. You don't gotta pay, just do what CJ says."

CJ, a senior, walks up to me.

"What's up?"

I return his hand shake.

He hits his vape and blows the smoke out of his nose and mouth.

"So you in? Or would you rather have us pick on you until you graduate?" Jaylon asks.

I sigh.

"I'm in."

"K. Street name?" He asks me.

"KV, I guess." I say.

"Aight KV. Come sit."

That was the first of many times I would smoke marijuana and drink beer.

It got less awkward as time went on. I was involved with robbing the houses of enemies they had, stealing from stores, graffiti/street art, beating up people who ran into problems when we were dealing and I was out a lot. We had ran from the cops plenty of times. They never saw our faces because we stuck together. I didn't know people so rude were capable of working together.

February 11th, Sunday

9:00 p.m

We were sitting in the abandoned house we hung out in, when CJ and his girlfriend get up.

"We're robbing a house on Wilmer street. It's real nice. After studying the house, I realize they only got one window, and it's small."

"What kinda house has one window?"

"This one apparently. Only KV can fit." CJ says gesturing to my small figure.

"So what does that mean we do?" Jaylon asks.

"Half of us will wait at the front door, the other half at the back. Then KV will unlock the doors from the inside."

"What if the window is locked?" I ask.

"Doja over here already visited the house. The widow was unlocked so she propped it open and set something in it to keep it from closing completely."

I nod.

We get into CJ's SUV and drive to the house. We park in front of it, pulling up quietly with our lights off. We hadn't left for a while so it was around 3 a.m.

We all get out. They point me in the direction of the window, and I head around to it.

When I look inside the window, it seems like it leads to the inside of a bathroom.

I open the window and crawl inside. I open the door, and try my best to tiptoe to the back door first, since it was closest. I manage to let them in.

We are walking, them taking items as we move towards the front door. Then as we get to a certain part of the floor, an alarm goes off.

It's super loud, and the rest of the crew rushes to open the front door, escaping through it. They look at me.

"Go shut the back door to avoid showing how we got in. Make sure you shut the bathroom window too. We will pull to the side of the house to pick you up."

"Okay." I say.

I run to the bathroom. The house was empty. I close the window and the bathroom door. I then go out the back door.

I run to the side of the house, expecting to see CJ's SUV.

Instead, I see three cop cars pull up, and behind it, CJ's SUV leaving, not coming back for me.

authors note:

Word count: 1756 (before I touched it with this authors note)

Remember, the last chapter of this story will be published in February! It might be the first week, might be the last. The most chapters this story could end up having would be 50, but I plan to make the chapters longer, so maybe 45 or 46. 50 is more likely though because my plot chart is wonky.

leave ur thoughts or whatever lol.

Also I've been getting a lot of messages on Instagram from people from Wattpad recently, and Instagram hasn't been letting me read all of them! It'll say I have a message request, but won't let me open it. So I had to decline them to get the notification away.

So plz, don't think I'm ignoring you ❤️

If you reached out, please try again because Instagram is being dumb.

I love you guys so much, and thanks for reading.

Also don't forget about the Spotify playlist of depressing songs called "Brianna's Bops HLP"

I don't recommend it if u

A.) don't like sad music

B.) are in a bad headspace

C.) are listening for the wrong reasons

Remember that you guys are all lovely and deserve the world and things will get better.

Things will always get better, but not if you don't live to see it.

2020 is our year, guys 🥰

let's rock it

July 2020 update: never mind 2020 sucks but still, make the best of it 🎉