Daxx and his friend Connor dropped us off at stupid Jimmy Wellot's stupid birthday party. Angel ran off with Connor's sister Mary to go play and I pouted. Traitor. I saw everyone else in the garden and walked towards it, seeing everyone playing football. I love football! I went to join in, but stupid Jimmy pushed me over. I frowned and went to sit down, sulking away from everyone else.

I could see Angel and Mary with the other girls in our class, all talking. Probably about boys or something yuck, so I won't go over there. I just want to hang out with Daxx. I can't believe he made me come to this stupid, idiot, gross party. I don't care if it's Jimmy dummy Wellot's birthday. I know it's my punishment for fighting him, but it's unfair! I just want home.

Speaking of the dummy, he was coming towards me with a truck in his hands. I scowled at him.

"I have something to show you. Come with me." Jimmy demanded, pulling me off the ground and through the bushes.

We came out into a little clearing. You couldn't see any of our classmates or our parents from here and they couldn't see us. I thought it was really really cool, but I'm not going to tell Jimmy stupid Wellot that.

"I'm sorry for being mean to your brother." Jimmy said, taking me by surprise, "He seems nice."

"Just don't do it again." I warned him, wanting to play with his cool truck.

Jimmy nodded and sat down to play with the truck. I walked towards him and sat opposite him, watching him make truck noises. He was really good at that sound. He smiled at me and we started to play, pretending it was an ambulance and that we were on our way to save lives.

"Quick! You be the patient!" Jimmy yelled, rushing across the clearing and pushing me to the floor.

I giggled and pretended to be dead, closing my eyes and laying out flat. I felt Jimmy push down on my chest repeatedly, saving my life. Then his lips were on mine. I pushed him off quickly, moving back. He looked at me tearily and I wiped my mouth clean. Gross! Jimmy Wellot jhad ust kissed me!

I scrambled out of the clearing, running away from him and bumped into Angel. Jimmy was following close behind me.

"What's wrong?" Angel asked, seeing the panic on my face.

"He kissed me!" Jimmy yelled before I had the chance to talk, "He's gay! He told. He kissed me."

My face lit up red and I got angry. He's lying! How dare he. I protested, calling him a liar, but nobody believed me. He kept yelling that I was gay and everyone joined in, calling me gross. They all thought I kissed Jimmy stupid Wellot because he's a liar. He's a liar! I didn't kiss him. One boy pushed me to the ground and I scraped my knee. I started to cry and they only laughed harder- even Mary and Angel believed stupid Jimmy.

I ran away from them, crying. I saw Daxx and jumped onto his lap. I can't believe he lied. Daxx kept asking what happened, but I only shook my head. Daxx wouldn't believe me either. They all believe that liar Jimmy Wellot.

I woke up with a jump, making my ribs ache.

Of course I would have that dream after seeing Jimmy last night. I took a painfully long time to get out of bed, stretching and heading to the balcony. The scene of last nights crime had no evidence it had ever even happened. I looked down the street towards Jimmy's house, thinking about what happened.

Did it really happen?

In my groggy state, I wasn't exactly sure if it had happened or not. It seemed a bit surreal. I pushed the thoughts out of my mind, seeing Daxx leave for work. I waved goodbye to him and he yelled at me to take it easy today. I noticed my own car was in the driveway- Daxx must have gone and collected it this morning. I looked down the street to Jimmy's house once again, still not seeing anything. He'd probably left for school by now, but I couldn't help hoping I'd see him walking up the hill towards my house so he could explain what the hell was going on.

"Morning." Connor appeared at the balcony door, holding a mug of matcha tea.

"Morning, Con." I nodded at him, accepting the matcha. My favourite.

"You've seemed cheerier lately. Want to talk about anything?" He asked sincerely.

"Felix made me snap out of my mood." I explained, "He's coming by to see me soon."

I felt sort of bad for being so closed off from my family for so long. I was trying to make amends now, but I still found it kind of awkward. After so long separating myself, it's hard to go back to how it was before. I didn't even remember a before. Connor had always been super nice and not pushy- I was lucky to have people who cared enough to notice my moods. I had to remember to not take advantage of that kind of thing again.

"Are you guys just friends, or?" Connor asked, not wanting to finish that question.

"You sound just like Daxx. We're friends." I sighed, hobbling past Connor and back to bed, my ribs killing me from standing up for so long.

"What about the Jimmy boy? Are you friends with him? Daxx said we took you guys to one of his birthdays when you were younger, but hasn't seen him since."

It surprised me that Daxx could remember that. Damn him and his good memory. I was sick of hearing that name by now. Jimmy fucking Wellot. I rolled over in bed and buried my head into my pillows at the name, trying to avoid talking about him. He was really complicating my life, right now. I heard a chuckle come from Connor and he left me alone, slipping out of the room. He was always really good with social queues and indicators, unlike Daxx. It's surprising, considering which one of them is a therapist, but Daxx could read music and art better than he could a person.

It was a few hours of nothing before Felix showed up. I had just been laying around thinking and listening to classical music. I still hadn't heard from Will. I wondered if Jimmy would stop by again today or not. I wondered if the school carpark had security cameras. I just wondered in general. I had a lot of thoughts swimming around, and not enough distractions. I just wanted to get up and leave the house, but with ribs like these that wouldn't be an option for a while. I wonder who will cover my shifts at work.

"Andy!" A voice exclaimed, rushing into the room and giving me a hug.

I squeaked in pain, clutching my ribs. I felt a stabbing pain every time somebody did that, which was more often than you'd think. Felix apologised profusely, saying Connor had let him in and that he was just excited to see me alive. Connor works from home most of the time, so it's just he and I home this week. He works in consulting, which makes sense considering he's a people-person. Unlike Daxx.

Felix quickly made himself comfortable beside me in bed and looked me once over, wincing at my injuries. I must look like shit. My eye was still pretty swollen and my cuts had started scabbing. I had taken a hot bath, washing the blood off yesterday, but I hadn't bothered to comb my hair or shave.

I proceeded to tell Felix everything.

I told him about the seven year old birthday party, the kiss and how that started all the homophobic beatings. I told him about detention, tutoring and about Jimmy's jealous comments and questions. I told him about the party, the fight and last night. My jaw hurt from talking by the end of it. The entire time, Felix just sat there gaping at me in surprise. Several sounds escaped his mouth (that didn't sound convincingly human), varying in pitch depending on his shock levels.

"Wow. You're full of secrets, aren't you?" Felix joked, "He said he was jealous about seeing you with Will?"

"Yeah. While we're on the topic, he hasn't texted me since you told him." I pouted, not really that cut up about it.

"I'm sorry about that, I don't know why." Felix frowned, "Do you want me to ask him why?"

"No, don't bother. I don't think we have much in common anyway." I shrugged, "He was a fantastic kisser, though."

"I bet Jimmy's better." Felix teased, making me blush.

"I don't think that will ever happen." I laughed at the thought, "He's got to accept his sexuality first."

"I wouldn't say never. It's already happened once, remember?"

That was very true.

"I just don't know if I could forgive him."

"Can I be brutally honest?" Felix asked, to which I nodded, "You were both kids. Kids make mistakes all the time- they panic and say stupid things. It sucks that he did that, but he didn't know they were beating the shit out of you and once he knew, he helped. It seems like he regretted what he did even before he knew the full extent of it, judging by the party melt down. Maybe you should ease up on him a bit?"

I thought about what Felix said. It was true. I had just resented Jimmy for so long that it felt weird to think of him in any other light. It was part of my nature to hate Jimmy Wellot. I seemed to be all about change lately, however, so I shrugged. Why not. I could at least try to get along with him. Try to not hate him. I nodded at Felix and he smiled, content with what I had to say.

We spent the rest of the day chilling, watching Netflix in bed. Connor brought us snacks and Felix told me about his crush. He liked a guy who studied medicine. Felix thought he was too loud and clumsy for him to like back, since he was pretty straight edge and serious. He wasn't even sure if he was gay, but he had a pretty confident suspicion. Felix was very much a 'I may as well try' kind of person, but even he was hesitant about this.

I told him about how Daxx and Connor were exactly like that- Daxx being anti-social when he met Connor and uncertain of what to make of Connor's overly friendly personality. They work perfectly. I showed him a few pictures of their wedding and told him they'd been together for over ten years now. That seemed to cheer him up and he told me he'd try to get his attention.

Felix eventually left and I checked the time- school had ended ten minutes ago. I rolled out of bed slowly and made my way to the balcony, looking down the street. It wasn't long before a familiar vehicle rolled down the road, pulling into Jimmy's driveway. I watched as he climbed out his car, effortlessly running his fingers through his hair and slamming the door shut.

He turned to look up the hill, probably seeing me stood out on the balcony. Since he was wearing sunglasses and stood so far away, I couldn't tell if he had noticed me. If he had seen me, he didn't acknowledge that he had, just turning and walking into his house. I was pretty sure he had.

Fine. Guess it was going to be like that, then.