Soren awoke, his neck was sore and his stomach was rumbling with hunger. The brunet groaned, stretching his back and neck, and got up from the floor with some difficulty. He glanced at the digital on his nightstand and saw that it was seven o'clock. Am. Which meant that he was late for school.

Well, that was just great. There was no way he was going to get a ride from his parents. They'd be most upset with the teenage boy if they found out he'd over-slept from staying up way too late. And he had a chemistry test today.

Life officially sucked.

How did he even get on the floor in the first place? He had fell asleep at his desk typing an essay on his laptop. He looked up at the desk seeing his laptop still open and on. Oh man, what if it overheats? The brown eyed boy quickly shut down his laptop and looked at the alarm clock again. Only 5 minutes had past but it felt longer than that.

Sleepily, he decided to skip a hot, relaxing shower and skipped eating something as well. He didn't have time no matter how appeasing it sounded. His stomach rumbled again and he rubbed it. He could wait until lunch. School was more important that feeding himself. He couldn't get another tardy or else it was a phone call home. He had just 20 minutes to make it to school which was 2 miles down the road from his house.

Grabbing his school bag, he hastily shoved the school work he had left on his desk prior the night before and rubbed his tired eyes. He looked in the mirror, seeing dark bags etched into the skin below his eye lids. He looked terrible and felt it to. He shoved his feet into his red beat-up converse shoes and exited his room. He was wearing the same clothes he had on the day before but they didn't smell bad so he figured it would be okay for one day. He ran his fingers through his wild hair, failing miserably to tame it. He could still hear the TV in his parent's room. The weather man spoke in a mundane tone about how hot it was going to be in the afternoon.

He only had 15 minutes to get to school now. There was no way he could run 2 miles within 10 minutes even if he was on track and field team at Arkport Central High School. He was wearing a pair of blue skinny jeans and it was already hard enough to move in them. Maybe if he asked really nicely, one of his neighbors would take him.

"Soren," someone called out, a loud rumble from engine louder than and Soren first didn't hear it, "Soren! Need a ride?" The person shouted loudly.

Soren's attention was captured as red Porsche and a vaguely familiar blonde inside. The brown eyed boy squinted his tired eyes towards the blonde. Who was that? His name was on the tip of his tongue but he just couldn't think with his lack of sleep. Having terrible memory didn't help his case either. He knew that boy looked similar but he was only getting a headache thinking so hard. The boy had to know him since his name was called out. He stretched the cramps of the bad sleep from his limbs and quickly ducked off the side of the road towards the blonde's car.

An unfamiliar wave of doubt washed over him as looked at the blonde in the driver's seat and rifled through his head. He sighed and stood at the passengers side. He was running late, he had to get in. He opened the door and sat in; feeling awkward. His parents always told him to never take rides from strangers even if his friends knew that person. Soren shook his head to himself, he did know this person. Somehow.
Soren replaced his backpack on the floorboard of the passenger's seat and hummed the lyrics to a Beatles song. He wish he had remembered to charge his iPod last night before passing out. He drummed his fingers to the beat of the song he had in his head onto his tight jean clad knee. He was really tense and didn't know why. He didn't like being in this car with the blonde teenager; he felt not welcomed in some sort. He was in a car with a jock. Soren didn't really like jocks. He always thought they were the stereotypical dunderhead that dated all the pretty girls in school.

Soren knew he didn't really believe that in some ways, but it's what he had to keep telling himself. He wasn't jock himself but he was into some sports like soccer as a child. If he let himself remember that this was one of the most athletic high schools in the country and he'd wanted be on the track team at their since as long as he could remember, his nerves might get the better of him. Or if he let himself remember that he was only here because the coach had soft spot for for him; consequently he could lose his spot on the team at any time, he might begin to panic. His grades were terrible and he had a bad attitude with most of his peers and teachers.

He couldn't bare to see his parent's disgusted faces another time within just a few months. They were strict and hated who Soren was down to the core. They always wanted to know why he changed his outlook and appearance in high school. His older sister; already in college always said he looked like a drug addict and was going to wind up in prison for murder. Soren could only scoff at the idea but the more he heard it, the harder it was to assure himself he wouldn't end up a nobody that was looked down on.

That was horrible. Mind-numbingly, psyche-traumatizing-ly horrible. Soren hated that short ride with burning passion. It was things like that; made him shy and withdrawn from his peers. At least this one had good taste in music as Soren hummed to whatever CD was playing. He liked all music and was addicted to his headphones and iPod that he'd failed to charge.

Soren couldn't help but watch the driver out of the corner of his eyes, peeking from under his chocolate brown fringe. He was tall, strong yet thin. His skin was a shade or two darker than his own and he was wearing name brand clothing. He was kind of handsome...for a mindless jock anyway. It doesn't hurt to ogle at the older teenager.

He was thankful at the least that the ride was silent. The brown eyed boy reached into his backpack at the last moment before they had got to school to check to see if his phone was tucked safely into the inner pocket of the bag. He sighed in relief and pulled his head up as the car came to a stop only suddenly collided with the dashboard, dropping his cell in the process. He gripped his skull, feeling a migraine coming but blow it off as nothing.

Soren looked up at the blonde, seeing his hand out. Oh, he wanted a handshake, He held out his left hand to shake but quickly retracted it and held out his right hand; the correct hand for handshakes. He shook the blonde's hand; looking intently at his own hand. The nails were bitten and short; a bad habit Soren had when he was nervous while the other's was flawless. He wasn't jealous at all, he didn't want what the other had that he didn't. At least his hand was warm but he pulled away before he held too long and would be considered strange by the other.

They arrived two minutes before the first bell. The bonde teenager looked over at Soren, he smiled, holding his hand out, "Nice to see you again, Soren. We should hand hang out sometime soon. Like the good ol' days. But maybe without the frogs."
He laughed at his own joke, before grabbing his bag and stepping out of the car. Moving over to the passenger seat, he opened Soren's door, the butterfly door swinging up with grace. The bell rang and Zach smiled, looking over to Soren once more, "Do you have a first hour? Or do you have study hall?"

"Uh...Oh! I know how you are now. Zackary. Not that I've forgotten or anything, hah." Soren was thankful there wasn't an 'S' within any of the words he'd said, he always hated his lisp. It was his worst enemy in his younger years; his peers had always picked on him for his speech impediment. He pulled his hand towards his mouth and bit the nail, nervous. He had been staring at his childhood friend thinking he was handsome and ogling the poor guy like candy; how low can he get. Soren wasn't good at socializing to say the least. He has always preferred his music and books to any of the dunderheads that went to his school. He barely made friends with his school's track team this year but now Zackary was here. Why hadn't he saw him at their school before? He did have a habit of overlooking things but he wasn't thickheaded.

Did old friends open car doors for each other? He had always seen the act being done in romantic movies and even an article he saw while browsing the internet said if a guy opened the car door for you, he liked you. He wasn't reading an article for girls for entertainment or anything taken into serious content but he was curious.

Soren grabbed his back and stepped out of his friend's car, holding his backpack to his chest tightly. He was shy around most cute men due to being gay but he didn't act meek like he was now. it must he because he hadn't seen in in years. Yeah, that was it. It wasn't because he was attractive, Soren wasn't a pervert.

"Thtudy hall..." He grunted, he hated his lisp sneaking out of his mouth but Zackary's smile was bright and contagious. He quickly smiled along with the boy; trying not to act so meek.

Something you needed to know, Soren and Zackary were best of friends as children. They had been friends when they were kids. He remembered their adventures as kindergarteners. Climbing trees as if they were stairs. They had attached a string between their houses and passed notes on fish hooks back and forth, late into the night. Zackary had breaking an arm, and Soren crying alongside with him, just so he didn't feel like a baby. They had been inseparable, attached to hip until Zach was sent to stay with his Aunt on the other side of town. They used to go out and collect fogs, playing by the creek in the mud.

Now Soren could hardly beileve it. Zackary was a tall and muscular football jock; one of Soren's most hated high school stereotypes. Soren was a skinny and average height punk-rocker who often looked like he came from hell and back from the scene kid gods. Soren couldn't help but blink; becoming frustrated. This couldn't be the Zackary he knew. Zach was a huge cry-baby and was smaller than him as a little kid. He always had needed to be guided around and was picked on. Soren bit his lip so hard that he broke the skin and a small string of bleed oozed down his mouth.

Zackary' blue eyes widened and he pulled a napkin out of his pocket of designer jeans. Soren narrowed his eyes, why did he have napkins in his pocket. He then saw that napkin in his line of view and a bronze hand that belonged to it. No, don't you dare touch me! Soren smacked Zach's hand away and huffed his cheeks out. The offend hand pulled away and a frown appeared on the blonde's face. Frowns don't look good on Zach, stupid jerk! Why was he offended, hadn't the other heard of personal space?

A hall monitor saw the two boys and rushed over to them. She was a brunette with pigtails and purple eye shadow all over his lids. Pigtails are so middle school and purple was not her color. Soren knew she was going to hassle them about not being in class after it had already started. It was only 5 minutes for Christ's sake! She opened her mouth to speak; bitch perhaps. Oh like we're made your job so much harder. He aggressively wanted to slap the frown off of both their faces and had to restrain his hand.

His hand often twitched like it had a mind of it's own but that wasn't the problem here. He looked down at the ground, towards his shoes. Soren stared intently on the white boarder of his red converse shoes, noticing scratches of dirt along the fading white. He needed to tell his mother he needed a new pair soon. He would only tell her when she was in a good mood or she would yell at the 5'7 teenage boy.

He couldn't let the girl know his name or else she's report him to the office for being late. The only option was to run; so he did. He leave behind his old friend and the girl with the pigtails. He was glad his school was large; holding almost 4 thousand teenagers of every kind. He ran for his sacred place; the library. He had read hundreds of books within the vast collection within his three years of being in high-school. He didn't like skipping class but it was necessary this time.

He set his backpack on one of the tables and sat down, pulling out a red oak chair. He loved the smooth chairs in the library and they were comfortable. It made him never want to leave to go back to those metal desk with the equally metal chairs connected to them. Soren hated those things with a passion. He couldn't pull his chair out and it was totally unbalanced due to the fact the desk top was slanted upward. His pen would often roll off the surface and onto the floor and Soren would bend over to reach the pen only for his desk to flip over with him still in it. The other kids would laugh at him.

Soren pulled out a mirror from his backpack to inspect the damage done to his lip. It wasn't bad at all. The blood was already dried but man; he looked like shit. He bet Zackary thought he was a hideous beast with his deeply bagged eyes, tousled, messy brown hair along with several facial piercings. His red side fringes were even a tangled mess.

He pulled out a brush and attempted to tame the wild, shaggy mess of hair when he suddenly stopped. He set it down and set the bag on his lap and opened the secret compartment. No phone. Oh God, he opened all the pockets and went through everything. He knew he had it earlier, were did it go? Soren began to freak, his eyes wide with fear. Last time he lost his phone, some creepy guy found it at a park and went through all his text messages and tried to get Soren to blow him off for his precious phone back.

It was sick and disgusting, Soren hated himself for having to do it but his parents would have done much worse if he has lost it. It was a two hundred dollar smart phone all together; including the apps he has parents bought him. Soren covered his eyes with his hands; slightly shaking. He wouldn't cry, he couldn't. This time it wasn't like this. It couldn't be. He wiped his brown eyes slightly and looked in his backpack again.