On Monday at school, Paxton and Taco walked in. There was marker all over Paxton’s neck. “What the hell?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. He chuckled. “I got assassinated.”

I gave him a confused look as he sat down. “It’s a game where you try to slit someone’s throat with a Sharpie,” he explained. Oh. That sounded stupid! Taco crept behind him with a blue Sharpie and dragged it across Paxton’s throat.

“Aw man!” Paxton whined as he rubbed his hand on it, smearing it around. Taco laughed and sat down. “You just got owned!” Taco cried. Paxton chuckled and sipped on his Monster. It was kind of a relief to see him so happy again.

“So, your house tonight?” I asked. He nodded with a smile. “I can’t go. Sorry guys. Dentist,” Taco said with a shrug. We nodded at him and class started.

Lunch came around and I was walking through the halls towards the cafeteria when I heard Shayler’s voice. I stopped and hid to listen.

“Nah dude, Clifton Holst told me. He kind of let it slip,” he was saying to Kegan. “Did he tell you what happened exactly?” Kegan asked curiously. Shayler shook his head. “Nah. You know Cliff. He doesn’t like to tell anyone anything. He just mentioned how Paxton almost died.”

My eyes widened and I listened harder. “Do you think it had anything to do with his limp?” Kegan asked. “Yea, I think it does. I want to know what happened to him. Whatever happened is the reason why he’s here right now.”

They continued on down the hall and I waited a minute before hurrying over to the lunch table. “Alicia?” I asked nervously. “Yea?” she asked as she sipped on her water. “Have you, ya know, heard anything more about why the scene fag came to this school?”

Alicia shook her head. “Nope. Never heard anything more about it. Why?” I shrugged. “Just wondering,” I lied and began to eat my lunch.

I rode the bus home with Paxton after school and we went up to his room to work on the project. After a couple minutes of silence, I took a deep breath. “Hey Paxton?” He looked up. “Yes?” he asked curiously.

“How did you almost die?”

His eyes widened a bit and then dropped to the ground. “Where did you hear that?” he asked shakily.

“It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that I heard it and I want to know.”

 He gulped. “It’s why you limp, isn’t it?” I asked. He nodded slowly.

“Yea. Yea, it is.” I bit my lip. “What happened to you?”

“I got stabbed.”

My eyes widened in horror. He looked up at me, that broken look in his eyes again. “Why?” I asked quietly. “Why did you get stabbed?”

“My friend Seamus got in a fight. We all went to help him out, ya know? Even it out a little. Well, the guy he was fighting pulled out a blade. He went to go stab Seamus and I jumped in front of him. Cliff tried to push me out of the way, but he ended up knocking me out and breaking my ankle.”

He took a deep breath and continued. “Well, I had been stabbed in the gut. Lost a lot of blood. I didn’t have a very good chance of living. I remember that it was dark and painful. And then I caught the stomach bug a few days after. I stopped breathing. It was bad. Real bad. I’m so lucky to be alive,” he whispered, tears gathering in his eyes.

“And when I woke up, they told me that my friend Richie had died in a car accident and Seamus had committed suicide. It was awful. And the brother of the guy who stabbed me was still at our school. So my mom wanted to bring me somewhere new. She hoped I could recover easier.”

He pulled up his shirt to show me a nasty scar. “Got stabbed right there.” “Oh my god,” I whispered in horror. Paxton nodded slowly. “Yea.” He gave me a small smile.

How could Paxton still smile? How could he be so happy all the time after what he had just told me? It was horrible just to hear. But experiencing that kind of pain? Oh god.

“I-I’m sorry,” I mumbled, unsure of what else to say. He shrugged. “I’m alive.” But his friends weren’t. I realized that I had moved closer to him. I bit my lip and slowly leaned in to kiss him.

He backed away and gave me an apologetic smile. “I’m so sorry Clay.” I looked at him in confusion as he sighed deeply. “I don’t like you like that Clay,” he said quietly.