“Wanna hang out tonight?” Kelly asked. She was leaned against the locker beside Nate’s, typing away on her phone.

He shrugged in response. Only a few days had gone by since his first meeting. The second was right around the corner. In all that time he hadn't managed to convince his uncle the so-called support group was nothing but a bunch of hacks.

Considering they'd had alcoholics in their lives, he couldn't find any way to justify their behavior. To him, it sounded more like they were trying to excuse his mother's behavior and place it all on something, even they admitted, she had some control over.

He slammed his locker shut. "Where?"

"Uh, bowling alley?" She turned to him, letting her phone fall to her waist and grinned. "Look…"

He turned. The scene before him was like something out of a movie from the 90s. Adrian was holding Simon's book above his head, letting the short boy jump inevitably. He wondered if this was because they were a small town. No one at his school would do something this lame. At the very least they'd steal Simon's things and put them in the girl's bathroom.

"So?"

Kelly scoffed. "What? Isn't it funny."

"Oh, I get it." He deadpanned. "'Cause he's short, right?"

"Duh."

The way she said that made him wonder exactly how old everyone was. And why they couldn't think of funnier pranks to pull - instead of playing keep away.

"Whatever." Kelly yawned. Expectedly no one else was paying much attention to anything Adrian was doing. "Meet me after school, 'kay?"

"Fine."

He set his things down in geometry, his last class of the day. It was a class he, unfortunately, had with Simon. During downtime, the people at his desk would test his hearing by making various clicking sounds. Some he heard, some he didn't. But Nate was about to snap with all the damn noise. Of course, the teacher didn't seem to care. She put in her headphones and went on with grading her homework.

Nate groaned quietly to himself, scrolling through music on his phone, hoping to do the same. His thumb stopped moving when the chat app on his phone opened with a new message from his mother.

Hi sweetie, how are you?

His jaw clenched. How was he! His blood started to boil. Considering what happened the day before she abandoned him on the island, this was all she had to say to him? He wasn’t even after an apology. Just something. Anything to acknowledge what happened that night. Maybe even an explanation. Anything, really, he’d take it.

For a moment, he swallowed back his rage and hovered his thumb over the letter pad. What did he even want to say to her? Given the situation probably, Mom! Are you okay? Or even, Hey, about the night you went to the hospital. Instead, he played her game.

I’m fine. You?

He sat back against the chair. What am I doing - he thought.

When he was about ten, his mom and dad had taken him on a trip. They never really had a lot of money. His father was a school teacher and his mom worked as a waitress at a family restaurant in the city. Each of their trips was taken to a park called Limekiln. So named for the kilns that, back in their day, used to burn lime. The path that took you through the woods used to be train tracks. The three of them would spend every Saturday there. Walking through the woods and stopping for a picnic once they’d reached the end where the river flowed over a bridge. He’d sit there with his dad, identifying the different birds and plants nearby, or some days they would sit there in silence and listen closely as the wind rustled through the trees.

It was almost incomprehensible that just a half year later when Nate was eleven all of that would take a drastic turn. One day he was saying goodbye to his dad before school, the next he was saying goodbye to his dad as they buried the casket.

Since then, there were no more picnics. And his mother had changed.

I’m doing very well. I’m at a halfway house now, if you want you can come and see me. I would like that.

He clenched his phone. Didn’t she understand he was still angry at her? Didn’t she understand the severity of the problem? He felt like no one did. It seemed that way. As if rehab or a halfway house would fix the underlying problem.

“Well, you look upset.”

He flinched at Simon’s voice. He quickly did a look around the room, noticing everyone was gone. “I look what?”

“Upset.”

“Why do you care?”

Simon held his hands up in defense, backing up. “Sorry… I just thought since, you know, your mom… I know what it’s like in the first stages of forgiveness so-”

“Dude, just shut up.” Nate got to his feet and collected his papers. “You may have a similar situation to mine, but we don’t know each other.”

“I know…”

Nate glared at him. “Don’t act friendly with me at school. People are going to think we’re friends or something.”

“Yeah…” Simon sighed, shoving his fists into his sweatshirt. “I know you're new so you probably don’t get it yet, but Kelly and Adrian are not good friends.”

“Oh, and you would know? What, with your plethora of friends?”

Simon’s cheeks turned a bit pink. “You know what ‘plethora’ means?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“‘Cause you’re dumb. At least, that’s what Kelly and Adrian say about you.”

Nate bit his cheek. He actually didn’t doubt that, but hearing it from Simon just pissed him off. “Shut up. No one likes you.”

“Wow.” Simon deadpanned. “Brilliant come back.” He rolled his eyes at that. “You seem to think that no one gets you. Like your some sort of ambiguous character shrouded in mystery. The truth is you’re just a boy with a drunk mom who probably let him do whatever he wanted and now that you’re with Carter, you actually have to take responsibility for your actions.”

“You don’t know what happened.”

“I know you drove Carter’s car into the lake. Do you know how hard he worked to get that car? You must have known he loved it if you decided to sink it as a way to get back at him. If it were me, I would have fucking killed you. Instead, he let it go and continues to try and help you. He’s the one that found Alateen, didn’t he? There’s no way you went out looking for it.”

“Knock it off…”

Simon clicked his tongue. “You really annoy me. You act like your life is shit.” He laughed. This entire thing was actually funny to Simon, in a sort of sadistic way. “You actually have a family that cares enough about you. And a mom whos willing to get help. You have friends at school, albeit shitty friends, but friends nonetheless.”

Nate stepped forward, towering over Simon. “You wanna turn this into a contest?”

The two of them stared at each other, each armed with their own glare. Around them, the room was silent, save for the crowd exited the school and occasional shouting from friends. Suddenly Simon huffed out a laugh, turning his eyes to the floor. “I’m not turning this into a contest. I just don’t understand why you can’t be a little more grateful for what you have.”

“You don’t get to decide how I feel about my situation.” Nate seethed. “It’s none of your business.”

The door flew open. “Yo. Nate!” Adrian paused, letting his arm fall from its position on the door frame. “Hey, little shrimp. What’s up?” He took a few steps into the room, grabbing Simon and pulling him back. “Wanna hang with us at the bowling alley?”

“No.” Simon pulled his hand back. “Leave me alone.”

“Com’ on, little shrimp. It’ll be fun!”

He looked up, watching Kelly leaned against the door. There was a grin on her face. “N-no… I have something to do.” He tried leaving, but Kelly blocked the door. “Move.”

She cocked her head to the side. “Let’s hang out. It’ll be like old times.”