My high school life was hellish, and I can give you a glimpse of the past:

"Hi, Pierce."

My best friend greeted me as she slunk down the seat beside me. We were on lunch, and we still had 45 minutes before the class bell rang. Melody was a girl my age – 17 years old, who had an Australian boyfriend. Donnie was an exchange student, and he transferred here a couple of months ago. Maybe 3-4 months ago? I wasn't really sure. I was not paying any attention when he came first into the school, and I doubted that I would care. Donnie was really great, handsome even. He would definitely become my type, but there was something about him that I didn't like. Perhaps it was because the way his hair was always full of gel, or the way his eyes became a slit, just like the eyes of the snakes, when he stared at the girls at school. But that didn't stop Melody from dating him, much to my dismay. She kept telling me that it was because I was jealous, which I wasn't really. I was just being protective of her. Donnie was just a playboy – with his good looks, good physique, and brown eyes, he could be tagged as the most handsome guy ever. But he wasn't. There was someone who had that title.

Melody had a long blonde hair, cascading down her shoulders in a curl. She was really popular at this school, even beating the self-proclaimed hottest cheerleader Diana Morris. Her hair, at the tips, were dyed pink, which really suited her. It made her even more beautiful. If I were a straight man, I would definitely go for her. But I wasn't. I was gay.

I discovered that when I was at my 13 years of age; I was at the store with my mother. My mother was doing groceries, picking up cartons of milk – four to be exact. You know how guys are when they are being brought to a grocery store by their parents, I was like that: bored to death. Her other hand was curled on the handle bar of the cart, which was filled with vegetables that I didn't recognize. Despite my annoyance with vegetables, considering that I didn't like vegetables, my mother kept on buying them.

"Vegetables are good for your system," my mother told me a lot of times and it just made me frown.

So we were at the store, and I was so bored that I decided to roam around the grocery; the grocery was just small, really. The cashier was just on the corner, and the entrance was just a few meters away. There were just a few racks that stored the items, which were just for snacks, vegetables, canned foods, and beverages. Nothing else and nothing more.

The floor was tiled with black and white, like a chest. And because I was bored, I decided to have some fun a bit. I tiptoed, jumping on every white box, making sure that I wouldn't land on the black ones. While I was doing that, I was humming, and the bell at the entrance chimed. I didn't look up, because I wasn't really nosy.

But then I fell on the ground because someone bumped me. I didn't know if that was on purpose, but when I looked up, I was kind of shock to see a pair of brown eyes staring back at me, with worried look evident across the kid's feature. He was just like the same age as mine, but he looked mature. There was something inside me clicked, and it made me frown and confuse and bothered. He offered his hand at me, and I looked at it for a couple of seconds before grabbing his hand and I couldn't deny the fact that something traveled when our hands connected – it was a spark.

There was something in his brown hair and brown eyes that made me like him. Something was pulling me to him, and though I was just a 13-year-old kid, I knew right from the start what I was feeling. Right then and there, I knew that whatever I was feeling was not being considered as normal in the society I was living in. But that didn't stop me from admiring, liking the kid.

After a few seconds of staring at each other, the kid was called by his mother and then he was gone in my line of sight. I didn't get his name. Eventually he faded out of my head, until I couldn't recognize the kid anymore. All I knew that the kid had brown eyes and brown hair.

Melody was wearing a dress that had a green skirt, which was hanging low just above her knees, revealing her porcelain-skinned legs that most of the men drool over. Her wrist was full of colored bracelets, which was given to her by her Australian boyfriend Donnie Reid.

"Hi," I replied back, not bothering to look up at her. She took a few pieces of my fries on the tray, which made me scowl at her. She was on an extreme diet, as she claimed by herself, but that didn't stop her from munching on my unhealthy food that I bought through the school's canteen. She flipped her hair at me, smiled brightly, as if snatching pieces of my fries didn't happen and I narrowed my eyes at her. "I thought you were on a diet?"

"I am," she said as she pulled her hair back, getting a Sanrio tucked in her cleavage and I made a face at her, which made my friend chuckle. "It's just that I'm not in the mood to be on a diet, like, right now." From the tone of her voice, I knew that something happened. We shared a look, and I knew right then that the problem was not her boyfriend but her greatest enemy, which was the self-proclaimed hottest cheerleader Diana Morris.

Even though Melody Maynard was popular enough and definitely beautiful that she could get easily accepted into the most popular chick club, that didn't stop her from getting the wrath of Diana Morris. I didn't hate her, but she hated me and my best friend, which didn't make sense. I didn't do anything that could potentially wreck her life, or her status, but I kept receiving her wrath. I knew my place, knew that I had to be away from her as far as possible because Diana Morris was capable of doing something that the others couldn't, even my best friend. But still I gave her a lot of credit for putting up a fight when dealing with her. But every encounter she had with her, it didn't bring any good luck.

"She said that she can take away Donnie from me," she said, exasperated, as if dealing with her greatest enemy was tiring enough. She tucked a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear, pursing her lips. "I know that Donnie wouldn't leave me for her, but it's Diana we're talking about here. She has, like, the authority to ruin someone's life, and right now she's chosen to ruin me."

"Ignore her," I said, putting a hand on her shoulder. I knew what she felt.

She rolled her eyes at me, as if my statement offended her somehow. Knowing my best friend, she would never ever ignore her greatest enemy, even if she wanted to do so. Their worlds kept colliding, creating a massive bang that shook others' world. My statement was crazy.

"Pierson, that statement of hers is not something that I should ignore." She said, annoyed. She frowned at me, then stomped her foot on the ground as if she was a kid that had been denied of treats. And she used my name – Pierson. If my best friend used my name, it's that she was either mad at me or she was just having a period. I doubted that she was on her period right now. "She told me that she'd take away my boyfriend. How can I ignore that? I love Donnie and ugh."

I shrugged, not really having an answer to that question. We fell in silence. The truth was, nobody knew how to take Diana down. Even if I knew somewhat, I couldn't. I was naturally a good boy, with no intentions of having someone's life wrecked just because I wanted it. I thought a few times, considering the idea of wrecking someone's life, but it just wasn't me. It was just a thought. It was just a crazy thought that I'd brush out of my head a few minutes later after thinking about it. Melody kept stealing some of my fries, and I never stopped her. It seemed like she needed this; that was her way of dealing when she was stressed. She was stressed-eating.

The bell rang, and both my best friend and I stood up. She grabbed my tray, and I almost stopped her but she had already turned around and walked away, tray in hand, ready to dump the contents to the trash bin just located at the corner of the cafeteria. She looked over her shoulder, motioned for me to follow her, and I snapped out of staring at her and followed her suit. Melody mumbled something under her breath that I wasn't able to catch, and I never asked her to tell me so. If she was in this mood, you better not bug her.

We headed to our next class; her class was different than mine so Melody took the other way, and I took the other. She turned around, and never said anything to me. I raised my arm in the air, ready to say something to her, but something pushed me and I fell down on the ground. When I looked up, my best friend was no longer in my line of sight. I turned on my back, ready to hoist myself up, and when my eyes meet the culprit's eyes, I knew that I was doomed to death.

Standing in front of me was no other than my greatest enemy slash bully slash homophobic humanoid Ajax Chase Wyatt, who was making my life in high school a reality of hell. He was, like, a descendant of Satan himself but I could be wrong. Chase was almost perfect, but his attitude ruined it all. He had a menacing smile tugged on his lips as he looked down on me. He was just simple – his brown hair didn't have any gel on it, or any type of wax, but it was naturally tousled, which made him look like he just got out of bed, which was quite satisfying to think of. His eyes were brown, and he almost reminded me of the kid I was back in the grocery store when I was a 13-year-old boy, until he kneeled down and pushed me back on the ground. I let out a groan.

"Hey, fairy." He greeted me, his voice low and dark, coated with venoms.

Despite what he was doing to me – and the fact that there were a lot of students watching and being a witness to this, he was still being considered as the most precious student of the Jacksonville High School. He got As on every subject he had; he was good at basketball; he was good at making the girls swoon with his looks; he was good at ruining my life. And did I already mention that he got As in every subject he had? Because it was true. You could lock him up in a room, put a teacher inside, and have the teacher ask hard questions related to the subject to him, and Chase could answer it without sweating. He was naturally smart.

He had a look on his face that I could admire from afar, ignoring the fact that he looked murderous enough to kill me on the school's ground. I never bothered to push him away, or to do something about our situation, because I knew that I had no power to stop whatever was coming for me. It could be a punch in the face, or a blow in my stomach, I didn't know. I had no clue.

I had no doubt that I looked like I was ready to faint, horrified expression plastered across my face. And that didn't stop him from grinning from ear to ear, as if he was satisfied with my expression. And he was satisfied with my reaction.

"Have you sucked anything today?" He asked, mocking me. I frowned. The truth was, I never sucked anyone yet. I was an inexperience gay guy. I never even had a boyfriend, much less a suitor. I almost retorted back, but I knew and was aware of my situation right now. He could rain his fist all over my body and nobody would dare to stop him. I shook my head, and for a moment I saw a flicker of amused expression etched on his face, but it was gone as fast as it appeared. He was back to his arrogant and fucked-up self.

Ajax Chase Wyatt earned the title of the most handsome guy ever.

There was a voting session happened about who was the most handsome guy ever at the Jacksonville High School. There were three contenders – Chase, Donnie, and Rory. With a percentage of 78, Chase won and took home the title. He carried that title every day. And girls loved it. Even gays. Even I.

Someone called me, a voice I really knew. When I tilted my head backwards, I saw my best friend trudging her way toward me. Melody pushed Chase, and Chase never put up a fight. He had that amused expression again on his face, and it stayed there for a couple of seconds before putting up a frown. Melody was the only girl who liked the idea of fighting Chase, which made Chase to have a reason of teasing her. There was even a point that I had a thought of them being together just because Chase liked to mock and tease her in a way other girls would really, really love. But not Melody. She was different.

Melody saved me from my enemy slash bully slash homophobic humanoid and I was thankful for her. Chase gave me an icy glare as I stood up, brushing the dust off of me and I averted my eyes, looking anywhere but him.

"Listen here, fairy." He began, standing up. I still didn't look at him. "Few years after now, I would be on the top of the world and you would be just a dirt I could walk on every time I want. Expect that." Oh, did I forget to mention that Ajax Chase Wyatt was competitive? Very. He shared a few classes of his with me, and sometimes I got high scores, and sometimes he did. That made him furious at me. I also liked to be in a big school, to be in a university, and the only way to achieve that was to gain top-notch grades and scores. "And I'm telling a fact."

I wish I could say something to annoy him, to tell him game and put up a challenge, but I didn't want this moment to be my last moment on Earth. I still loved my life, and I had a lot of dreams to fulfill. Dreams that I wanted to share with my parents. So I did the best way to escape this situation: be still and to be silent.

Chase whirled around and walked away, leaving me with my best friend.

Melody looked at me worriedly and I gave her a weak smile. "I'm okay. Thanks." I stated just for the sake of saying anything to her. I wasn't okay.

It seemed like Melody wanted to say something, but she knew that I wasn't now in the mood. I was just degraded, and that hurt me. I wanted to fulfill my dreams because of my parents; I wanted them to see me reaching the top, achieving my goals in life, making them proud of me and happy. But my dreams were just stomped on by the most handsome guy ever at Jacksonville High School, and I wasn't happy about that. Normally if it was just someone I knew who couldn't put up a fight who said something like that to me, I would have punched that person hard. But it was Chase who said that to me.

Every day I kept dealing the same thing. And I was able to go through that. I was able to survive all of that. And when the moment came, the day of graduation, I walked up to the stage with full of confidence and I was all smiles. I remembered looking at the faces who tried to ruin me, persons who were anticipating my downfall, but they didn't see that. Because I was able to climb near the top. And they weren't happy about that. Especially Ajax Chase Wyatt. I remembered his face when I was taking the stairs to the stage; he looked at me with hatred, disgust, and something I couldn't quite determine. I ignored all of that and decided to be happy for myself because this was one step closer to my goals in life.

When I graduated, I was the happiest. When my parents saw me waving at them on the stage as a diploma was being handed to me, they were the happiest. Everything disappeared, except the words repeating inside my head. Few years after now, I would be on the top of the world and you would be just a dirt I could walk on every time I want. Expect that. I knew that I had to prove him wrong, and since this was a new chapter in my life, I had to start.

And the thing was, I didn't know where to start.

I was just by myself when I chose paths.

Which leads me to my position right now in life.