"Sometimes people are beautiful.

Not in looks.

Not in what they say.

Just in what they are."

― Markus Zusak

   I cursed immediately when I woke up in the morning.

   Zoey still did it.

   And I still didn't know why she chose to do something so brash.

   That's it.

   I needed to stay in bed. I felt like I couldn't function.

   Why couldn't she just live? She didn't necessarily need to live for me, but she needed to learn to live for herself. She had so much potential. She has so much potential. I didn't understand.

   Laying in bed, I took shaky breaths. Tears were running down my face.

   Mom knocked on the door a couple times, but I didn't respond. Eventually, she walked in.

   "Isaac," she said in a nurturing tone. "What's wrong?"

   "Mom," I began in a whisper. "Leave me alone. I don't feel well."

   Because I didn't look at her, I swear she was frowning. "Isaac, don't be crazy. I made pancakes, and they're good."

   I shrugged the best I could laying down on my side. "I. Don't. Care. Please, just leave me be. I don't want to go to school today."

   She laughed. "Isaac, isn't homecoming week coming up? You don't want to be ill-prepared."

   Ignoring all that Mom said, I asked her something. "Mom, what would you do if someone you cared about, or knew, was contemplating suicide?"

   Mom frowned. "Isaac, is there something you're not telling me?"

   I sat up and looked at my mom. I needed for her to realize that this wasn't about me. It was about Zoey Graves.

   "Mom, it's not me. I'm not talking about myself."

   "Good. Good." She smiled, but still gave a me an earnest and concerned look. "Now is it your girlfriend, Justice? You told me about her bulimia problem in the past, but..."

   I closed my eyes briefly and shook my head. Mom bringing that up kind of made me feel a little frustrated and even sadder, 'cause despite the fact that Justice and I weren't much in love, or whatever you'd like to call it, anymore. I remembered helping her through that. After her parents sent her to get some help for a month last year, everyone at school had kept asking me where she was and why she wasn't coming to school. And I lied to every one and told them that she was on vacation with her parents.

   But who went on vacation again right after spring break?

   I didn't think Peyton knew about that.

   "No, it's this one girl named Zoey. She looks depressed all the time at school, and I saw her crying in her car and stuff like that."

   Mom put her lips in a thin line. "Maybe she was just having a bad day."

   "That's it Mom!" I said with exasperation in my voice. "But this has been going on for some time. I mean, she looks like she could break any moment. When is enough- enough?"

   "Honey, I'm sorry. That came out wrong..."Mom put her hand on my shoulder. "What about this? What if you invite her over for dinner on Saturday? I'm sure I could cook something nice? Does she like baked ziti? Or some fajitas? I've always wanted to try that Mexican rice recipe..."

   Mom started to think out loud. About what to cook for dinner on Saturday. And just like that, Mom lost all sense of reality, or sense of what the important thing was this minute.

   Zoey needed to get out of her depression. But it wouldn't just disappear in a day. It takes time for things like depression to just go way. I knew that from personal experience.

   So, how could I tell her everything would get better?

:: :: ::

   I came to school late.

   Once I was handed the pink slip, I walked to Geometry.

   But on my way over to Geometry I spotted Tucker Leeds.

   He was at his locker talking on the phone.

   "Yeah, yeah. I heard about that Kate. But, wouldn't it be cool to just go and see them play? They're new wave. You love new wave. You know the lead singer, she had bouts with depression. And you have had the same issues Kate. And you could hear her sing this one song that I like by them. Please just go on a date with me. You still live in Andersville, right?"

   He must of been asking this Kate girl out.

  He wanted to go and see a band play.

   What was the band's name, and where exactly were they playing?

   Was this event tonight?

   I needed to question him about all of this after lunch.

:: :: ::

   I threw a piece of paper to Zoey. Again was Mr Johnson so engrossed in his book that he could care less about people passing notes.

   She stopped what she was doing, and looked over at me. She frowned at first, but when she opened the letter, she gave me a look as if she were humored.

   I smirked at her and raised my eyebrow.

   She took out a piece of paper from her binder, and started to write on it. After a minute, she threw a wad of paper over to me.

   Mr Johnson turned a page of his book.

   She wrote:

   i don't know why you're all of a sudden talking to me. but going to see a band sounds cool. i'm a little confused. you don't look like someone who would like dream pop, or new wave.

   I didn't blame her for being suspicious. I would think after a couple tries--you know with trying to be her friend--this whole explaining myself thing would come a bit more natural.

   I was wrong.

   Why do I want to go and see this unknown band play, with her coming along? I didn't forget to mention that Tucker Leeds and his date would be coming along. Despite the fact that they didn't even know that yet.

   I wrote:

   I HEARD YOU LIKE MUSIC. AND I'VE ALWAYS LIKED DIFFERENT KINDS OF MUSIC. I THOUGHT YOU'D BE THE PERFECT PERSON TO GO WITH ME AND SEE THE BAND PLAY.

   WHAT IF THEIR GIG WAS TONIGHT?

   Zoey wrote:

   where will the band be playing?

   what is the name of the band?

   is anyone else coming along?

   I wrote:

   [...]

   I didn't throw her that response.

   Instead, the bell rang and I bounced.

   I needed to do a better job at planning things. Therefore I needed to go meet up with Tucker.

   I was thinking about checking to see if he was in the auditorium, 'cause someone told me once, I think it was his brother, that he was the sound mixer for the auditorium, and the activities and such. Since Homecoming was coming up, I think that Drama Club was putting on some show or skit that explained the history of the Warner High and Wayward High rivalry. But I was pretty confident that Warner would beat Wayward this year. Besides, I heard the star quarter back from Wayward was in a cast right now. Sucks for him.

   Damn. I forgot which way it was to get to the auditorium.

   "Isaac?!"

   Shit. It was Peyton.

   I turned around and rolled my eyes. "Yeah?"

   He didn't look pissed, but he did cross his arms and sort of frown when he said, "Are you mad at Justice?"

   I shrugged. "No. I mean, I think our relationship has turned to shit. But no, I'm not necessarily mad at her."

   "Then why did you forget to pick her up before school?"

   "Because I had other things to do. Besides, I'm pretty sure you gave her a ride." I'm positive that I ended that sentence off kind of douche-like. But Peyton didn't notice, or he acted like he didn't notice.

   He laughed, and kind of punched me in the arm. "Well, someone had to do it. Besides, you've been MIA all morning. Wanna go and get something to eat?"

   "Nah. I have to go to the auditorium."

   "Why do you have to go to the auditorium?"

   "I'll explain later. Oh, and I heard from Simon that you and Gwen broke up. Sorry man, that Liam guy is a douche, right?"

   Now, he looked pissed. But it's not like I was going to stand there and get cursed out, so I walked to the auditorium. Leaving a pissed off Peyton.

:: :: ::

   Tucker had acted pretty cool.

   "So," I said to him. "Do you know any bands, specifically new wave, that are coming to perform around this area?"

   Tucker didn't look at me at first. He was seeing if the mics on the stage worked. "Shit," he cursed, when a sound wasn't coming out of the mic that this one girl who wore a lot of eye make up spoke out of.

   Eventually he was able to fix the problem. He looked at me with a blank face expression, but nodded. "Yeah, I know a new wave group that's playing in Andersville."

   "Oh, good. Uh, what's the band's name?"

   "Take Me There." He raised an eyebrow at me. "Why are you coming to me about all of this? You barely talk to me."

   "I play football with your brother."

   "Oh, okay. Well, I still think it's kinda weird though."

   We kind of had this conversation last time. But that was when I needed to switch clothes with him to try out a new look, for Zoey. When I was planning to take her to the fair and stuff. He was weirded out at first about it then, but when I told him I wanted to impress a girl and everything, he totally changed his whole thoughts about me.

   "I heard that you were a music enthusiast and stuff. Besides, I need to impress this one girl. She likes new wave, and stuff like that."

   Tucker was too busy pressing buttons and adjusting things on this machine-looking thing, that was somehow connected to the mics on stage. The girl who sat beside him was gawking at me. She wore a piercing that was on her nose, and had on a graphic tee with a clock on it.

   "Oh, I see." He looked up and smirked at me. "Aren't you going out with that one chick with the big boobs?"

   I frowned at his bluntness. Okay, Justice was rather big in that area, but I didn't like another guy telling me that. Unless, he was dating her, or tight with me. And Tucker and I weren't cool like that.

   The girl who sat beside him punched him in the arm. "Jackass. Don't you have a girlfriend?"

   Tucker cringed. "Yeah, I do. But I'm a guy. A guy can't comment on things like that? It's my fault I notice things like that?"

   The girl scoffed at him. She glanced my way with a small smile, before going back to listening to music on her iPad, or drawing on it. I couldn't tell what she was doing on it, and she only had one ear bud in her ear.

   "Yeah...anyway, the band's name is Take Me There?" I said, a little annoyed at Tucker's personality. He was way cooler last time.

   "Yeah, yeah. Me and my girl friend are going to see her tonight."

   "Okay. Well, you might see me and a girl I'm going to ask out, there too." I looked at the girl who sat beside him. She was giving me a look like she wanted to know who I was going out with.

   "Your girlfriend is into new wave?" She said with disbelief. "She doesn't seem like someone who woul--"

   Tucker interrupted with, "That's what I was thinking!"

   "I'm not going with Justice...we broke up."

   Tucker and the girl with the piercing looked at each other. "Who are you going with then, to see Take Me There?" He asked.

   "Um, Zoey Graves."

   "Who's she?" They both asked in unison.

   Before I could even answer. Piercing Girl came to a realization. "Oh, yeah. She's going out with that guy, Lawson. I used to go out with the bassist from his band."

:: :: ::

   I looked at my left eye. It hadn't bruised yet.

   Peyton had more of a temper than I thought, and what the fuck was Simon Moore and his cronies doing, helping Peyton jump me?

   When I was walking out the door to English, I was immediately pushed against a locker by Peyton.

   "A little birdie told me that you're dumping Justice for this one chick! I can't believe you're that whipped!" He'd smirked, but he had yelled pretty loudly in my face. And there was spit everywhere on my face. Gross.

   Everybody was looking.

   "You're whipped," I shot back. "You're doing Justice's dirty work. If she wanted to confront me about our relationship status, then why isn't she here?! I know you guys are fucking each other!"

   I'd gotten even more angry. And after saying what I said, everyone looked mortified; the people who were staring covered their mouths trying not to laugh. Some just laughed.

   Peyton took one good look at me, and then did his fist meet my face. Before I could even retaliate, Simon Moore randomly came and punched me in the stomach. Basically half the football team jumped me, until the teachers had to stop the guys from putting me into a coma.

   Okay, I exaggerated a bit. I wasn't hurt that bad. I maybe walked away with a limp and embarrassed as hell. But I'm okay...

   Because Zoey Graves and I were going to have a fun time in Andersville, to see a cool new wave band play. And Tucker and Kate (Tucker's girlfriend, I think) were going to meet up with us.

:: :: ::

Author's Note: Yay! I'm at 260 reads! Thanks to whoever is reading. If you have the time, review as well, and vote (touch the little star thing).