"Oh no"

-------

John, Ryan and Mika walked down the halls of the almost empty hallway of the school. They finally reached the bathrooms and Mika went in the girl's bathroom. John went in the boy's first while Ryan waited at the entrance of the girl's bathroom.

As Mika went in the bathroom. She had an emotionless face on in the entire time. She removed her arm bands and looked down at her scarred arms. She looked down at the clothes she was wearing and caressed the spot where Ryan kissed on her arm.

Mika sighed and went to proceed on doing her business. She washed her hands after and stared at herself in the mirror. Then and there, she let reality sink in.

She wasn't alone. She wasn't a loner.

She has friends.

She has JiJi, Ryan and John now.

They were friends that felt the same way as she did.

Finally.

Mika felt tears pricked in her eyes. She thinks back to all the bully she have received a couple years back when she was still in 1st grade. Back when her father died. Back when her depression worsen. Back when her mother gets sick often.

"I miss you dad." Mika whispered as the water works started.

She was then alone, bullied, depressed, and played. But she has friends now. And they were great friends. Making her feel that she's not alone. Mika cried harder.

She was too blind from the negative thoughts to see the hope.

She wiped her tears away stubbornly with a sniff. She wore her armbands again and proceed outside. She saw John waiting outside. He saw her and smiled.

"Stop wasting tears Mika." John joked. Mika laughed a bit.

"Where's Ryan?" She asked.

"Bathroom."

"Why are you waiting out here in the girl's bathroom like a bodyguard?"

"Well, I don't what anyone coming in and take revenge on you after awhile ago."

"Oh."

"Yyeah."

"So can you tell me a bit of Ryan while we wait for him?" John looked down.

"What's wrong?"

"It's nothing."

"Well, can you?"

Silence.

"When Ryan was 7 years old, his father was an abusive drunkard and constantly drinks and beats him up about 'cruelty in life'. Stupid asshole, probably drunk from losing gambles all the time. His mom has to hide him away everytime he comes home and takes all the beatings for his son. One day, Ryan's mom has enough of her getting scars every night. And she left.

She left without saying goodbye to Ryan. And then again. His father came home one night, drunk out of his ass and blamed it on him. Abused him everyday and night.

I first met him in a park, he said he was running away and I told him I was taking a walk. That's a different story though. But his father had tracked him down and sent him back home. The abuse got worse for running away.

When Ryan is in 3rd grade. His father keeps drinking and gambles every night, but he kept his money to himself. Ryan has a part time job at a bakery shop. His boss understands his situation and gave him a good amount of money and it results for his education.

I met him again. I was buying food for breakfast at his bakery. And we planned to hang out in the park every Friday. A day when his father comes home really late and my family sleeps very early. And there we met JiJi.

She was just sitting on a bench alone at night in the park staring at nowhere. We asked her who she was and what's wrong. She told us what happened at her house and we comforted her. Despite the low quality of light there at the park we can see the scars and bruises scattering across her arms and legs.

She was so small and fragile, but she stands brave and strong. And also despite her height, she was actually older than us. Every Friday the three of us meet up there at 10 in the evening and hang out. We go to the same school, they have part time jobs despite their really young age, and our age gaps are just a couple of months away from each other. We're all just 9 - 10 years old at the time.

When Ryan started his first year in highschool, he quit his baking job and went for a waiter at a coffee shop. We still hang out in the park every 10 o clock in Fridays. JiJi still have her job as well. I never had any problems because my family was there for me, unlike them though. They have endured ever nick and crany of pain up until now.

Ryan was a hard-working student. After JiJi, he was the second stubborn one in our group. He doesn't give up that easily on one objective. His job was a night shift as well as JiJi's. He always takes his homeworks with him to work.

Sometime if JiJi doesn't have any work, and I can sneak out of the house, we'll visit him. But instead of him walking around serving a shop truckload of people. We'll see him alone, doing his homework. One Friday hang out, he suggested for us to work in the same cafe shop as him. So it will be nearer from our school and there will be no complications about communication. And so we did that.

News came in when my parents died in a fire. So I was placed in an orphanage. It wasn't long when I was adopted and moved away. Not too far though. There my abuse started, but Ryan said that I'll never be alone. I was transfered to another school. But the other two idiots came after me as well.

In the end, we stuck with each other like flies in a glue trap."

Mika's mouth was wide open throughout the whole story. He did not just told Ryan's story but he also gave a bits about JiJi and himself. "Wow." She commented.

"Hmph, you'll know the whole story sooner or later. But for now, I'll just leave it to that." John said. Mika nodded as Ryan finally came out of the bathroom.

"Dude, you're such a slowpoke." John said.

"Yeah, uh, sorry." Ryan apologized then faked a cough. John immediately took out his phone and locked his eyes on the screen as he scroll through the device. "Let's go?" Ryan asked looking at Mika.

"Yeah." Mika agreed as she walks ahead leaving the two boys trailing behind him. John kept his phone away and looked at Ryan and gave him a nod.

"We need to get to JiJi to cover your scars up." Mika reminded.

"Yeah." Ryan agreed. They walked back outside to the bleachers only to find JiJi being strangled by a muscled man. Another guy hit her on the head with a baseball bat and she went limp.

"Hey!" Ryan yelled and Mika gasped. They ran towards JiJi's falling limp body. John caught her and immediately scanned her body for injuries. She just have a big bruise on her forehead where she was hit. He looked up to see two men and Britt walking away.

"Hey!" John called as he gave JiJi to Mika who knelt down beside him and he stood up.

"What's the big idea!?" Ryan demanded. But Britt just laughed and continued strutting off.

"Why you insolent little brat." John muttered as he took a step forward to run after the girl but was stopped by Mika.

"Boys! JiJi needs medical attention!" Mika exclaimed. John and Ryan looked at the two girls realizing that JiJi was still unconscious.

"Let's take her to my house. We're giving the school enough troubles when it already has." Mika said and went to clean up the thrown stuff she just saw.