I've always tried to focus on the better parts of life. And as I've gotten older, it seems that there are less and less good things to focus on. As I got older, I noticed the bad things more. I noticed how often my parents fight, I noticed how little some of my friends smile, I noticed how many times I would come home to an empty house. And I noticed the things little kids aren't supposed to know about, like how it seems that countries just go around bombing each other every other week.

And it seems that the more I start to focus on the bad things, the faster the good things go away. All the good things about life have started to fade away, my friends have moved on, left, or just faded away, my grades are steadily dropping, and smiling becomes harder and harder everyday. It's really hard to smile when you can't think of a good reason to.

But there is one thing, one person, who I can still focus on as a good part of my life, even if theirs isn't going as well as it should. So I try my best to always focus on them, even if that's not helping the other crumbling parts of my life.

~~~~~~~~~

I push open the door of the old bookstore and it creaks loudly. Inside, tall bookshelves lean scarily towards one side or the other. From the doorway, I can't see anybody inside. The register is in the back of the store, but the old man who runs the place is always walking through the shelves and looking at books. It was almost as if he didn't even know about all the books that are in here.

I figured that anywhere would be relatively empty, especially in a small town like this during school and work hours. I haven't ever skipped school before, but everything has seemed so messed up recently, now seemed as good a time as any. It didn't used to be like this, not too long ago everything seemed fine, I guess.

I wander farther into the store. I've been here so many times, I never think that I could find anything I haven't already looked at, but I manage to always do. I pick out one of the books and walk over to the small sitting space in one side of the store. I reach the semicircle of chairs and stop when I see someone sitting in one of them, someone I know. He looks up when I approach.

"What are you doing here?" I ask, my voice coming out more hurt than I'd meant it to.

"Reading," Yamaguchi says.

"I never would've guessed," I mutter. I look at the ground, still feeling his eyes on me.

"I'm sorry that I haven't been at school lately," he says. I look back up at him, my eyes meeting his. Even though he looks sincere, I can't help but say something else.

"Really? You could have at least answered my texts, you could have said something, but you just abandoned me in that place," I say with a bit of spite in my voice.

"Did you even consider how hard it has been for me?" he asks.

"Yeah, actually. I've been considering that everyday for as long as I can remember. So I never said anything, but this time, did you consider how hard it's been for me? You aren't the only one with a screwed up life," I say. Yamaguchi stands up. His eyes are wide with worry. He looks sad, sadder than I've seen him in a while.

"I know," he says quietly. "I'm sorry. I really am." He reaches for my hand and I let him take it. After a few moments, I take my hand out of his and wrap my arms around him.

"I love you," I whisper. "Just tell me when you're not going to be at school. It's a lot worse without you there."

"I love you, too," he says. His voice sounds like it's on the edge of breaking. Slowly I pull away and look at him. I already feel bad for being so passive-aggressive towards him.

"So is this where you have been all this time?" I ask.

"Not all the time, but a good bit of it. This place is relaxing. Do you come here a lot?"

"Yeah, actually," I say. "It's a good place."

"Yeah, it is." We stand in silence, avoiding eye contact. How could things have become so awkward between us in the few days we didn't see or talk to each other?

"Tsukki," Yamaguchi starts. His voice seems close to trailing off, but he manages to keep going. "Tsukki, why don't we run away?" At this, I look at him, alarmed. "Why not? It isn't like either of us are leaving anything behind." I open my mouth to argue, but close it. He's right. There isn't anything for either of us here. So why shouldn't we?

"Where would we go? Don't we need some preparation?" I ask, still a bit confused.

"Please don't make me go home tonight," Yamaguchi says quietly. Hearing the pain in his voice hurts me so much.

"Okay," I say, pulling him into another hug. "Okay, we can run away." We have no money, no food, and no car. There isn't a way that I can think of that this would turn out good for us, but hearing Yamaguchi's broken voice convinced me that being anywhere but home would be better than being there. Yamaguchi's arms are tight around me. I think he knows that there is no way this can go right, but he is definitely willing to try. I pull back and kiss him lightly on the lips.

"I missed you," I say quietly. He cups my face in his hands.

"I missed you, too," he says, kissing me again.

We'll go somewhere, I don't know if we'll get far, or if we will even get out of this sorry excuse for a town. I just know that it can't be that bad, because I will be with him. That's all that matters.

Thanks for reading!