Tuesday, April 3, 2018.

Shoes squeak down the hallway as two teenage boys walk beside each other, messing around. Logan Adler and Seven Solace. They've been best friends since they became neighbors, which was eight years ago.

"You busy today?" Seven asks Logan, knowing for a fact that he's not busy. Logan scoffs and rolls his eyes playfully. "You always ask that because you want to come over. You know you're allowed. You live right beside our house." "I have manners, Logan. Give me some credit."

Before they can keep the conversation going, both of them stop in their tracks as they see the girl in front of them. Cindy.

Logan and Seven have a crush on the same girl. Cindy Thatcher. Cindy was probably the most popular girl in school. Long black hair, olive skin tone, and she always smelled of vanilla. Since both Logan and Seven want Cindy, they've argued back and forth about who would get her, but it's never torn them apart.

Cindy stands at her locker, readjusting her dress. Seven slowly turns his head to Logan and smiles.

"I'm gonna go ask her out." "What? You know I have a crush on her too, man." Logan complains, wanting Seven to deflate his ego a bit so that Logan gets a chance, too. Seven just keeps smiling until he stops and jogs over to Cindy. Logan follows behind him, hoping he doesn't do it.

As they both come up on Cindy, she stares at Logan and then she stares at Seven. Both of them can't exactly read the emotion on her face.

"Hey, Cindy..." Seven starts, actually realizing that he's finally asking a girl out. Cindy stands still, not saying anything to the both of them. This makes Seven uncomfortable, but he has to go through with it now.

"I was gonna ask you if, you know... If you're not busy, maybe we can hang out sometime?" As the words leave Seven's mouth, Logan's heart breaks a little inside. He really did like this girl, but apparently so did Seven. To Logan's surprise however, Cindy starts laughing.

Seven raises his eyebrow, wondering what he did wrong. After the few seconds of laughing passes, Cindy smirks. "Tell me, weren't you the guy who used to be a girl?" She says loud enough for everyone in the hallway to hear.

Everything goes silent for a minute. Seven stands there in shock. Since Seven's transgender, he's had a rough time adjusting to everything, but Logan's always been by his side through it. However, in this moment, Logan isn't saying anything. Anything at all.

Tears start to form in Seven's eyes and that's when he realizes that everything hasn't been silent, he's just blocked off everybody laughing at him.

Seven watches as Cindy brushes past him and goes over to Logan. She puts her arms around his neck, smirking. "We can go on a date though. You know, with you being a real man and all." After Cindy says that, she kisses Logan. However, Logan doesn't back out of it. He leaves Seven in the dust.

That's when Seven has had enough. He just saw his best friend betray him. Seven runs through the hallway with everyone laughing at him. He exits through the doors and starts to walk home. He doesn't care if he gets grounded for skipping school. He can't deal with it. He can't believe he just went through that.

A few minutes after he's started walking home, he hears someone running up behind him. He knows it's Logan, but he doesn't want to talk or look at him right now. He can't.

"Seven. Seven!" Logan yells, getting closer to him. Seven doesn't answer. Logan eventually ends up right next to him and he starts trying to explain himself.

"Listen, Seven. I'm sorry you went through that, but you knew that we both liked Cindy." As Logan says that, Seven stops in his tracks. Logan can't even give him a proper apology. Tears well up in Seven's eyes again as he stares at Logan with an angry look.

"You fucking asshole! You didn't even stick up for me and now you can't say sorry?!" Logan backs up as Seven gets closer to him. "I did say sorry." "No, you didn't. You said sorry I went through that, not sorry for being a fucking dick." "I get that you're angr-"

Before Logan can finish his sentence, Seven punches Logan in the face. Logan trips back a bit and falls onto the ground. "Okay! Okay. Seven, I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry. I don't want her, man. I want you. You're my best friend. You know that."

Seven just stares at him on the ground. "It seems like you want her more." Seven tells Logan as he continues to walk to his house. Logan just sits on the ground, blood coming out of his nose. He doesn't even know what to say.

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He hoped things would go back to normal, but they never did. Even though they were neighbors, they stopped going to each others houses and stopped talking to each other all together. They went from best friends to strangers.

A year passes. Cindy breaks up with Logan, Seven moves away, and Logan's mom dies, apparently from suicide. Logan, his dad Henry, and his twin sister Lila all take this very hard.

Friday, June 16th, 2019. Logan lays in his bed, wondering what all went wrong. How did his life get so shitty within a year? Eventually, Logan hears someone start to jog up the stairs. It doesn't sound heavy enough to be his dad, so he assumes it's his sister.

His door creaks open, but he doesn't have the energy to look at who it is. "Hey, Logan. Dad and I are gonna go out and get ice cream. Do you want to come?" Lila asks, really wanting him to come. However, Logan just groans and turns to face the wall. He doesn't even have enough energy to speak.

"Oh... Okay. Well, I love you." Lila tells her brother as she leaves his room, closing the door.

For the next few minutes, Logan hears his dad and his sister talk until they eventually leave the house to go and have fun without him. At least they're trying to do something with their lives. However, with Logan, it's different. He doesn't want to do anything. All he wants to do is sleep. Forever.

A while passes until Logan realizes that he really has to use the bathroom. He's been holding it all day so he can just lay in his bed, but it's just gotten worse.

It takes a moment, but Logan manages to drag himself out of bed. He takes three steps until he falls to the floor. So much for walking.

Logan still has to use the bathroom, so he starts to crawl his way to his bedroom door. His arms start to get sore from carrying the weight of his body, but he can't stop.

He eventually reaches the bedroom door and takes a moment to try and stand up again. He's just barely hanging on. He can't even stand up without feeling extremely exhausted.

His hands trace the door until he grips the door handle. He then puts one leg up and starts to lift himself off of the ground. It hurts so bad. Everything hurts. Everything is miserable.

Eventually, Logan manages to stand and he opens his bedroom door. He drags his feet over to the bathroom.

He almost falls to the ground again, but he manages to stable himself again. He opens the bathroom door and practically darts to the toilet.

Logan unbuckles his jeans, almost pissing himself in the process. He eventually starts to relieve himself while keeping his right hand on the wall to keep his body up.

He starts to think about how he got here. He had such a good life ahead of him. He had a best friend and an amazing family. Then Cindy came and ruined his life... No. No, he can't blame her. He can hate her, but he's the reason he lost Seven. He lost his best friend by his own hand.

Logan finishes relieving himself and zips his pants back up. He makes his way over to the sink and he starts to wash his hands.

As he's doing this, he looks in the mirror. He looks... terrible. Brown strands of hair arch down over his eyes, making it hard to see. Sweat streams over his freckles, making sure he doesn't forget how hard it was to do the simple task of going to the bathroom.

And the worst part about looking at himself? Seeing all the mistakes. All the regrets. Everything's his fault. He's miserable because of his own demons. It's his fault Seven left him, considering he could've stood up for him. It's his fault his mother died, considering he could've paid more attention. All he hears are voices telling him how bad of a mistake he is. How fucked up he is. How he can't stand himself.

Logan can't take it all anymore. His mom's dead, his best friend's gone because of him, and his family barely gets along anymore. He doesn't know why he's still alive.

As Logan finishes washing his hands, he leaves the bathroom and chooses to walk downstairs to get a knife. He needs it to end. He can't live like this. He can't live a life full of regret. All of the voices telling him how terrible he is... he wants them to stop. It all needs to stop.

Stair by stair, the voices get louder. "You're a mistake." "Why're you still here?" "Just fucking kill us." "KILL US, LOGAN!"

Eventually, Logan makes it down the stairs. He grabs a knife from the kitchen drawer and he starts walking back up the stairs, hoping he can do all of this before his family gets back.

Logan marches into his room, shuts and locks the door, and he sits at his desk. He looks at the pretty knife in his hand. Something so precious yet so dangerous. He just wants to be with his mom. He just wants to be gone. He wants everything bad to just end.

Logan takes the knife, holds it to his neck, and sits there for a second. Does he really want to do this? Does he really want his sister or his dad to find him this way?

Before he can rethink anything, the voices continue yelling at him. "KILL US!" "YOU'RE USELESS!" "EVERYTHING WILL BE BETTER ONCE WE'RE GONE!"

Logan then brushes those thoughts as tears drop onto the cold metal of the knife. He has to do this. He can't deal with the voices anymore.

"JUST DO IT!" "DIE!" "YOU'RE WORTHLE-"

Logan takes the blade and slices his own throat. The last thing he sees before he dies is blood splattering everywhere.

Or so he thought. All of a sudden, Logan regains consciousness. His hands are covered in blood and so are his walls and his clothes. The bloody knife is on the ground and he can hear his sister, Lila, banging at the door. Logan doesn't say anything, he just sits there, shocked. Why isn't he dead? What's happening?

His hands trace over his throat and he notices the wound is gone. What is happening?

Before he can question any more, his door suddenly breaks down. He turns to look behind him and he sees his sister crying. She saw the blood but then she saw he was alive.

"Logan?! What did you do?!" She yells, asking him. He doesn't say anything, but he wonders how a 5'4" 120 pound teenager just broke down his door.

"How did you do that?" "W-What?" Lila asks, wiping away her tears. She stares at Logan, still covered in blood. "How did you just break down my door?" He asks again. Lila looks at the door and back at him. She doesn't say anything. She doesn't know how she did it.

They soon figure out that both of them have superpowers. Logan can't die and Lila has super strength. They choose to use those powers for good and they start an investigation company. Adler Investigations. They've helped tons of people and it finally gives Logan a purpose again.

For the first time in a very long time, he can finally forget about Seven.