I couldn't help but take a whiff of the warm roasted coffee and incense that filled my counselor's office [https://img.wattpad.com/d99dcaaa13078459f7fea38ce366adfff27382e1/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f53455a793769366d6c45345a35413d3d2d313238353030343438392e313732376562616536333434616536663238313237343831343636312e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]

I couldn't help but take a whiff of the warm roasted coffee and incense that filled my counselor's office. "Good morning Mrs. Gomez."

"Good morning, Leone." She looks up and immediately greets me with a bright smile that didn't take long to fade once she got a closer look at my face. "Oh no, what happened here?" She asks while using a finger to gesture towards the bridge of my nose.

"Oh um-" My mind blanked out for an excuse. I looked down to use my curls to shield over the scar my father gave me. "I fell on the walk home a couple days ago."

Her lips pursed as it seemed hard for her not to succumb into pity. "Aw I'm sorry to hear about that, would you care for a bandaid?" She pulled out two bandaids that had tiny Hello Kitty characters plastered over it.

"S-Sure, thanks." I reached out and did a tiny smile at them before shoving them inside my backpack.

"Of course." She nods and leans back against her chair. "So it's been a week since we've last met, how've you been?"

The thought of my father and how he reacted to my drawing last week went across my mind, sending a heavy looming ache to emit in my stomach.

"I've been good." My response came out more as an uncontrollable whimper. "I-I did what you told me."

Her eyebrows raised. "And what's that?"

"I tried talking to the boy."

She tilts her head and smiles the second she remembers who I was alluding to. "How did it go?"

"I don't know, it was kinda awkward to be honest." I steadily looked down at my shoes hovering over the shiny floor. "I don't think he's interested in talking to me."

She furrows her brows down just a little bit. "What makes you say that?"

I shrugged. "Well we just stared at each other and he had this look on his face."

"What was his face like?"

"Handsome." I unconsciously blurted out as my cheeks rapidly burned at how sudden my response was.

"Handsome?" She repeats in an expressive tone that was enough to fuel my nerves.

My cheeks quickly flushed red. "Handsome as in-you know, since you asked what his face was like-" I began to go on a nervous ramble that only seemed to make her much more entertained. "What I meant to say is that he has a handsome face but his facial expression was dirty."

"Dirty." She repeated once more as I just realized how odd that sounded, sending me further into a crippling ball of angst.

"Dirty as in like a dirty look at me-like he looked at me like he thought I was weird, you know?" I sank down at my seat with a lowered voice. "I'm sorry if I'm not making any sense."

"It's alright Leone, I know what you meant." She does a small tiny laugh at my ramble as if I was some adorable puppy that was able to walk on it's hind feet. "Now besides a dirty look, where there any other clear markers of him being closed off towards you?"

I licked over my lips and deeply sighed. "Well I waved and he kinda ignored me-but then-" It's not like I would've known if he did anyways since my father had already stormed into my room. "I got distracted so I don't know for sure."

"Why don't you try waving again?"

I widened my eyes and stared at her as if she had just said the craziest thing I've ever heard. "Again?"

"Yes, again." She nods. "To make sure."

"But I don't want him to think he has a weird neighbor or something." I answer truthfully. "What if he just ignores me?"

"Then you simply move on." She smiles as she glanced down at her wedding ring. "Weirdness is a good thing and it's what makes all of us unique. If they can't handle that part of us, then they don't deserve us a whole, period."

The rest of the day followed up with a couple more classes until it was finally time to go home.

I threw on my headphones and succumbed my mind into the music being played by my Walkman. It instantly drowned out the other sounds being emitted by the other students leaving the school premises.

I ventured further towards the walk home until one house in particular had signaled me to give my right leg a momentary break from the pain of walking. I gave a great deal of admiration to their landscape while I rested. I smelled the plush roses that had grown over my path, carefully observed their daffodils, and wished well to the tiny ladybug that tickled the top of my hand until I softly laughed.

I later found the peaceful break to be a curse once my head immediately becomes met by an impactful swing. My head is suddenly thrown forward with enough momentum to displace my headphones off, presenting me to the cruel laughter that came from a familiar group of boys behind me.

"Hey, Limpy." Eric snorts the second I meekly look up to return his bright blue gaze. "Where have you been?

"Yea, where have you been?" Hudson whispers into my ear and I quickly flinch away to the side with a fearful wince. "We missed you."

"He's probably just been hiding from us like a little pussy." Joshua suggested as he observed over me with a devilish grin.

I tightened my fingers around my backpack as my joints and muscles grew increasingly tense at the feeling of being surrounded.

Once again, they were able to track down my route to get home from school.

All three of these boys were everything I was not. They were rich, terrifyingly tall, and powerful enough to withstand everything their chosen sports had thrown at them. They were notorious for being the most privileged kids in Maybella High and they have always picked on me since the start of high school. They started with trying to get my attention through cruel comments regarding my limp, my clothes, and whatever they thought my sexuality was. As time went on, they became increasingly violent by choosing to hurt me.

"Hey, I asked you a question!" Eric exclaims before quickly landing his foot right in front of mine, causing my body to abruptly meet against the concrete side walk.

"Agh-Awgh!" A sharp sting suddenly met my chin. I tried getting back up but a foot had already landed directly on the leg where I limped, driving it in until I screamed in pain. "Stop it! Please leave me alone!" It was the usual, targeting the weakest most vulnerable parts of myself for their own enjoyment.

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"Oh, so you can speak?" Joshua chuckles as he raises me back up without any regard to the pain emitting down on my legs. "If that's the case then why are you acting like you can't, huh?" He shoves me back towards the other two boys, causing them to return the gesture and ultimately meet my body with forceful shoves I couldn't get out of.

The exchange continues until my shaky breaths turn into broken desperation. "I-I need to get home."

Hudson instantly grabs a lock of my hair and snaps my head up to face the sky. "Shut the fuck up."

"Aw, you need to get home? Too bad we don't care, Limpy." Joshua huskily adds while clenching my cheeks closely together, digging his fingers so deeply into my skin that it begins to sharply sting.

"Please." I begged as I watched Eric revel at the two boy's holding me powerlessly before him.

Every step that Eric took towards me made my heart pound as he eventually stops to smirk down at my shirt. "You come to school clearly looking for attention with these cute little outfits on and then when you get it you act like a little bitch?" He inhales and exhales sharply. "I don't get it Leone. Isn't this what you wanted? To be seen? To be noticed by us?"

Tears streamed down my cheeks as I watched his fingers grasp onto my mother's shirt, one of the only clothes I owned and had to take care of since I didn't have much.

"Please, I just wanna go home." I whimpered as his fingers tightened further, wrinkling the fabric tightly around my waist.

"You what?" Eric carelessly asks as he raised his other hand up to form a fist.

"I-I just wanna go home." I brokenly let out with tears streaming down my cheeks.

In spite of the fact that I was in complete disarray, it seemed to only further fuel their entertainment at the entire situation.

"He can't hear you." Hudson deeply whispers into my ear.

"Say it again." Joshua whispers into the other.

"I just wanna go h-" My words immediately gets cuts off the second Eric sends a thunderous punch right across my jaw.

My reality proceeded to break off into multiple visions as the three boys watched me fall back down to the ground. I struggled to get into my usual fetal position as they proceeded to land several heavy punches and brutal kicks onto my body.

I had gotten used to these three constantly picking on me, but I knew I had to get home because there wasn't a beating that scared me more than my own father. He had already given me a light warning last time, and I know he wasn't the type to go against his own word. In one of the instances I had been late in the past, he had beaten me up so badly that I had caught a fever. I had to stay home for weeks, not because of the fever itself, but to let my bruises and scars heal enough to ignore any suspicion that I was hurt.

After awhile of beating me up to a pulp, the boys finally leave me crumpled on the ground. I was completely wrapped up in my broken sobs that were occasionally interrupted with a series of struggled coughs and hopeless heaving. My entire body pulsed as it had been reduced to bruises and scars.

Opening my eyes was the most difficult thing I had ever done as I was in so much pain that I felt as though I would simply just pass out. I eventually get up with a groan. I tried my best to soak up all the effects the beating had done to my body as I hopelessly looked around. I immediately felt a sense of relief once I saw my Walkman had been left unharmed.

I sniffed and brushed off the dirt that stained my shirt and jeans. I turned the volume of my music all the way up in hopes to drown out everything that just happened to me.

I hated to admit that my right leg had suffered all throughout the walk home. In some odd, and sick twisted way, I sometimes get so insecure about my limp that I often vanish off into a delusional state of mind where I try to convince myself that maybe it's not that bad.

Unfortunately, the delusion never grows big enough to help tend to my insecurity, as I am then quickly hit by the cruel reality that it has and always will be, obvious.

It's obvious to those boys.

It's obvious to everyone.

It's obvious to my own father.

Although I pretend to act like I'm okay, I think the truth is that there are just so many things wrong with me that I couldn't possibly be ever worthy of love, as well as all the other good things in life.

I entered the front door with a terrified squint in my eyes. I eventually ventured further in and made the floor creak in response to my steps. The thought of my father appearing out of nowhere was enough to send chills down my spine and my breathing pattern to grow unsteady.

I walked down the hall that led towards an open space where the living room could be seen from the stairs. I watched as the only light source came from the flashing television screen, casting varying hues of images upon my knocked out father. He had several empty bottles splayed all around the floor, which could only mean that he had probably drunk himself to sleep.

I didn't waste any time rushing upstairs to my room with a heavy sigh of relief. I quickly dropped my backpack and walked over to my mirror to take my clothes off. The amount of dark crimson markings and tender splotches that were embellished on my skin was enough to make my eyes well up with tears. Regardless, it's not like it was anything entirely new, so I just chose to look past it with a warm shower as well as a fresh set of pajamas.

I plopped myself down on my work table, returning myself to the drawing of the boy I had been working on. I clasped my hand together and met my fingers with the tiny wooden pencil. I skimmed it in various ways against the white piece of paper with a subconscious urge to summon the reoccurring images of him in my head using bold lead and ink.

I think drawing is the only thing I can proudly say I was good at. It's the last remaining part of me that no one has been able to take away, yet. It's the only thing I've ever known. I don't know if my brain is just wired differently but being able to draw images straight out of my brain and watch them come alive was really the only thing that made me feel alive. I didn't really grow up being the most clever student at school but drawing made me feel that way. Life constantly moved around me and greeted me with ever shifting things that I couldn't fully comprehend. Whenever the world would feel way too complicated and overwhelming, I would simply just create my own world and all of a sudden everything made sense.

I leaned forward, skimming my colored pencils further up the table to meet them towards the moonlight and check which ones would perfectly encapsulate the color of Dydan's memorable eyes.

I took another piece of white paper and tested a mixture of an emerald green with a rich deep suede. I sighed and carefully examined the final shade I had made, hoping it would honor exactly just how I remembered seeing it in my dream.

I raised the paper up and pondered the exact fiery amber I saw in my dream. After a few seconds, my lungs immediately empty the moment I looked directly at the sight before me.

I watched in awe as Dydan Demecrio was also by his window. I watched as he crept his head to the side of the paper I was raising up to make his face visible to me.

A shy smirk crossed his lips as he ran his hand through his thick raven hair, followed immediately by a wave that was timed as if he didn't want me to miss it.

To me?

Why is he?

Why is he waving to me?

With a pounding heart and an empty chest, I nervously waved back and immediately felt my arms weaken and settle on the table.

His hazel eyes were rich, imbued with such a captivating amount of tinted beauty that no pencil would be able to ever recreate it. My drawing had the outline of his impeccable facial structure and eerily symmetrical features but failed to capture all the other things that truly made him special. He had dimples that added warmth to his kind and gentle smile, thick expressive brows, and the most dreamy demeanor to go along with it all.

He suddenly lifted his pointer finger up at me, gesturing for me to wait before proceeding to rummage around his room for something.

Dydan suddenly held up a sign with a written word on it. "Hey." He tilted his head at me shortly after I finished reading.

I gulped as I reached out for a piece of paper to respond with a sign of my own. "Hi." I nervously bit my lip as it took everything in my body to return his eye contact.

His sunset eyes eagerly grazed along my sign just to pierce them right back onto me with a enticing glint. "What's your name?" He asked with yet another piece of paper.

"Leone!" I silently gasped at the voice of my father booming from downstairs. "Go to the store and get me some food!"

I brought my attention back at the window and watched his smile falter. "Sorry G2G." I reluctantly wrote as he threw me a gentle and understanding nod.

I rushed downstairs with a stomach filled with butterflies and a hopeful heart that maybe for once, just this once in my life, I wouldn't need art to make sense of something in the world, maybe he'll be the first that will be better of appreciating in my reality.

I rushed downstairs with a stomach filled with butterflies and a hopeful heart that maybe for once, just this once in my life, I wouldn't need art to make sense of something in the world, maybe he'll be the first that will be better of appreciatin... [https://img.wattpad.com/b09aa73ce343237179d346f8ef363b2d1b949104/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f48574b65694f48674a41566d4b773d3d2d313238353030343438392e313733326264363337303037313961373431373536343931313733312e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]