My crew consisting of three girls and a boy crowded the small room of Susan's. Susan and I sit on the grey bed together, Hannah snuggles with a stuffed teddy bear that is holding a red heart at the foot of the bed, and Jay lays on the floor with his legs crossed as he stares at the popcorn covered ceiling. For a few moments, an awkward silence washes over the room. Jay sighs being the first to break the silence, "So... What we all gonna do? I'm always hanging with y'all girls and people be thinking I'm some kind of player. Maybe I should hang with some guys or something." He crosses his arms over his chest and reluctantly stares at Hannah. Hannah and Jay were childhood friends. Their families are really close, they're basically siblings.

Hannah takes a lock of her golden hair between her fingers and twirls it around her middle finger. During a truth or dare, a year ago, she told us that she loved the feeling of soft hair sliding between her fingers and sometimes even her lips. "Oh, please. JJ boy!" She sneers, playfully. "You know that you love us too damn much for you to go hang out with stupid, smelly boys. We are a riot and guys are idiots, except for you. No offense." She bats her eyes at Jay, who chuckles in response, enjoying her sarcastic wits. He shrugs in agreement.

"But still what are we gonna even do?! Why'd we all come here, anyway?" Jay whines leaning back on the wall with bored eyes.

Susan shoots him a death stare, knowing exactly what Jay was implying. "I'm sorry I'm not rich like Hannah!" She yells at Jay, Hannah tilts her head clueless. "We are here because Shane needs company and we promised each other we would be here for each other no matter the reason," she huffs.

I let out a groan. I roughly tug at my hair. "Sometimes you all can irritate me. I'm not some broken ass puppy that needs saving. I can take care of myself. I'll be leaving that hell hole soon and when that happens I will try my best to turn my life around," I sigh, feeling defeated, "You don't need to save me. I can save myself." I really don't want to burden any of my friends just because my mother is the devil herself.

Hannah laughs, "Don't be so serious, Shaney! We are just here to support you in everything you do and support each other too." I scoff at the nickname she is always giving us a nickname that she thinks makes our name cute. She crawls onto the bed, towards me. Suddenly she has me pinned down, inching her face closer and closer to mine. I don't move away, but I know my eyes show how surprised I am. She giggles at how flustered she made me. My heart is racing. Hannah moves toward my ear, "You're scared. You don't want us to go our separate ways, but don't worry because no matter what happens we all will be together even if we go our separate ways. We made a promise and we won't break it. We love each other too much for that." Hannah wraps her arms around my boney frame and snuggles into my non-existent breasts.

How did she figure out my secret. It was as if Hannah could read my mind. As if she can sense my deepest secrets. I then decided to smile warmly at her and I returned the friendly embrace. Tears slowly burned down my cheeks, "I love you guys."

Jay and Susan stood up and dog piled on top of Hannah and I. The dog pile of friendship! We all laughed at me when I began to whine about not being able to breathe and they rolled off of each other. Jay stands up and runs his hand through his thick black hair. "You guys want to go to the mall?"

All three of us simultaneously scream, "Yes!" We giggle and I cooly wrap an arm around Jay's shoulders, giving him a teasing smile.

"You sure can be a girl, huh, J-hun?" I teases as Jay blushes. Everyone knows his secret.

"I.. I'm.... just looking out for the happiness of my favorite girls..." He chokes out. He is cute when he is flustered.

Susan laughs and joins me in the teasing torture. "Maybe you're gay, hmm?" She smirked. Wow, she went straight for it. I laugh in my head. Jay glares and shoves her away, while shrugging me off of him. I can sense his irritation.

"Even if you are gay, we would love you and accept you," Hannah said with a knowing smile. Jay fakes a smile back, but Susan and I each give Jay a kiss on the cheek making him burn red in embarrassment. We all grabbed our belongings and started heading out the door. Climbing into Hannah's expensive car, we make our way to the mall, Sunsetto.

~~~~~~~~~~

Our crew arrived at the mall in no time. Hannah sped through the highway to get to the mall as fast as possible, especially since it's one of her favorite places to be. The smell of perfume and Cologne mixing with the smells of junk food from the food court. The sound of heels clicking on the tile floor and screaming of kids wanting toys and games. She thinks it is like a Wonderland to her.

We walk into the mall through the automatic glass doors. There are vending machines and kid rides scattered around the mall. Jay smiles when he sees his favorite store, Hot Topic. They have lots of cool things like Anime related shirts and trinkets. He loves watching anime. Susan enjoys the superhero section, and I like the pokemon related products that I can quietly obsess over or "admire". The only one not very fond of the store is Hannah, but she doesn't mind going inside to let us who do like the store have a chance to enjoy ourselves.

We walked passed the store this time, though. This isn't our final destination. We were headed to the favorite hangout spot for students from our school. It is a huge café that plays music that young kids, like us, love to dance to and it serves coffee, sandwiches, slushies, ice cream, and milkshakes. It's definitely one of a kind

We stood at the entrance, which was covered by hanging colorful beads. The neon green sign read, 'T's Brew," which was the name of this popular café. We all quickly ducked under the beads and into the café. The air smelled thickly of fake fog and coffee. There was a mist that clung to everyone's ankles from the fog machine softly spewing smoke. The lights are dim and the music shakes the floor and tables. Our crew of friends walk over to a corner booth and wait for someone to take our orders. I order a turkey sandwich and a vanilla shake, Susan gets a cherry slushie, Jay gets a blueberry slushie, and Hannah gets a cappuccino (how fancy of her).

Once Susan's slushie is placed in front of her she slurps up the red liquid so fast she grabs her head from having a brain freeze. Hannah laughs at her and sips gently at her cappuccino.

Suddenly, a short boy walks up to our table. He is familiar to our group. The boy attends our school. His eyes are gray as they look to the floor, at times glancing quickly at Jay, who gives him a small smile. The boy's shaggy light brown hair covers his ears and forehead, but he shakes his head in an attempt to get his hair out of his face. He cleared his throat softly and shifted his weight from side to side. "J-Jay?," He softly called. Jay looked at the small shy boy and hummed signaling for him to go on. "Um..." He nervously looks around our table at the three girls that are now staring at him. What is this cutie up to?

Jay stands up and places a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder. "Excuse me, guys. I need to talk to Timmy for a few minutes," He excuses himself from the table and leads Timmy across the café.

Hannah and Susan exchange curious looks. They stretch across the table, looking very gossipy. "What do you think little Timmy wants to talk to big Jay about?" Asks Susan.

"Maybe Timmy has a crush on Jay?" Hannah replies with a smile and glances to where the two of them are talking. Timmy's face looks like he is on the verge of crying and Jay has a serious face. Why does Jay have to be so hard headed?

"Do you think Jay will reject him? We all know he isn't straight, but he hasn't admitted it to himself yet. I hope he opens up to himself soon," I begin to point out. I rest my head on the palm of my hand and stare at Timmy's crying face. He clutches Jay's leather jacket as if his life depended on it and cries into his white tank top, soaking it with hot tears. Jay doesn't look down at sad Timmy, instead he stares straight ahead with no expression. He wraps his strong arms around Timmy in an almost protective manner.

Timmy backs away from Jay and wipes at his eyes harshly trying to take away the tears. From far away, I can see him shake in an attempt to keep calm. Timmy whispers something to Jay, but Jay doesn't react. Timmy turns around and walks out of the café. Jay physically sighs and begins to make his way back to the table. He slides into the booth next to Hannah, who leans against him in a reassuring manner. "Are you ok?" Hannah asks him.

Jay tenses up a bit and shrugs, not very convincing. "What happened?" I continue Hannah's questioning. Jay stays silent and turns his head to away from us. Susan reaches across the table and places her hand gently on his.

She silently encourages him, "Don't worry about anything silly." He shakes his head, his eyes glazed over. I can tell he is hurting.

"Guys I have to tell you something..." He begins, "You know how you guys joke about me being gay?" Suddenly, our faces lit up in delight.

"Dude we weren't joking," giggled Susan. Jay looked up at her in confusion then he looked at Hannah, who nodded, then he looked at me, giving he two thumbs up. Jay's eyes widened, i think he came into a realization and suddenly stood up from the booth and ran out of the café. We laughed out loud and gave each other side hugs.

"They grow up so fast," I announce, jokingly.