“Hey mom...” Anne said quietly, slightly looking up. She waited  at the threshold waiting for her mom to reply, but her mom just ignored her and continued watching her show. Anne dropped her head and walked upstairs to her room. She threw her backpack across the floor and ran to her bed. She couldn't hold back her tears, so she poured her eyes out. She tried to clear her thoughts but she couldn't so she pulled out a book and started reading to get it off her mind. No matter how hard she tried, it wouldn't go away. The thought of the argument her family had tore her apart.
She had to live with that for the rest of her life. She split her family. She was the reason for her parents' divorce. Whenever Anne started thinking about it, she wrote down what she was feeling and what she thought. So, she grabbed the notebook and started jotting down everything she felt. It was like
an experiment that also  served as a reliever; it helped her calm down and forget about it.
When she felt she had written everything down, she laid down on her bed and just stared at the ceiling. She wondered, “Is this the reason my parents avoid me? Why can't they just 'forgive' me? They know I didn't mean for any of this to happen, right?” It drove her crazy and she wanted to get this out so she didn't feel alone but she didn't want anyone to know, so she just kept to herself and didn't hang out with anyone but Marina. She was the only one who knew what happened and how Anne felt.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“I'm home, mom.” Bryan yelled, as he collapsed on to the couch.
“Grab me a beer while your up, ya?” His mom asked from the room.
“I just sat down! Why can't you get up and why do you need another beer?”
“You better do it! Don't make me go out there and hit you...”
“Okay, I'm going,” Bryan said as he rushed to the fridge. He couldn't handle being beat by his mom. He was afraid that one of these days, he would explode and hurt his mom out, and he didn't want
that because he cared for her, no matter how she treated him.

“Now, was that so hard, Bryan? You couldn't get up for your old lady and do her a little favor?” His mom asked, sarcastically.
“It's just you asked right when I sat down...”He said trying not to raise his voice.
“And you drink way too much. You have a problem...”He said, his voice getting lower towards the end of what he said. His mom stopped what she was doing and looked at Bryan.
“What did you say?”
“Nothing important.”
“I'm going to ask one more time. What did you say?”
“I said you drink TOO much! You have a major problem, mom! You need to stop!”
“I'll stop when I want to! Don't tell me what I need to do. Worry about yourself. You understand me?” She said, walking towards him. He stayed quiet. She stood right in front of him and slapped him right in the face. He remained silent still. This time she punched him write in the eye.
“Do you understand me?” She asked again, with anger in her eyes.
“This is what I mean! The alcohol has a HORRIBLE effect on you. I can't stand you anymore. You're not who you used to be.”
“You know what? If you can't handle me anymore, then leave. Don't come back. Go stay with your dad, wherever that moron is...”
“He's dead...”Bryan muttered, with hate his voice and tears
running down his bruised face. He turned around, grabbed his stuff,

and took off. While he walked out the door, he heard his mom scream,”Too bad for you! Live alone, then! But don't come back!”
He started running, found a tree, sat under it, and started thinking. It felt good to be away from a drunkie and heartless mom. After a few minutes of relaxing, he headed to a friend's house but didn't tell him what happened.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next day at school was the same. Anne was with Marina, by themselves, isolated in a corner at lunch and nutrition and Bryan was with his friends, wearing sunglasses to hide the black eye his mom gave him.
Marina and Anne were talking about what happened yesterday, after school at the park. They were leaning against the building wall when Bryan and his friends starting walking towards them.
“What do you want, Bryan?” Marina asked, hoping he would leave them alone.
“Don't talk to me like I'm your dad, okay honey? You know what I want...” Bryan said,
sarcastically.
“Just leave us alone! Why do you keep bothering us?” Anne budded in.
“Because it's fun, picking on someone, knowing you can get away with it. You should try it sometime.”
“Yeah, okay. Definitely, when I'm a cold-blooded, heartless jerk like you.” Anne said, with a rude voice.

“What did you call me?” Bryan said, pinning Anne to the wall, holding her by her shoulders.
“Leave her alone, Bryan! She said something that's true. What's wrong with that?” Marina said, but that got Bryan even more angry.
“You wanna know what's wrong with that? I'll show ya, missy” Brian said as he gestured to one of his friends to pin Marina to the wall, too.
“God, just stop, dude. You have problems, if this is something you enjoy. Leave us alone!” Marina told Bryan, trying to get his friend off her.
“We all have problems, so deal with it! Just give me your guys' money, and I'll be on my way...You know what? You guys said some  harsh words to me and hurt my feelings, so...I'll take your phones, too. How bout that?”
“Yeah, that's not happening, today. We're not letting you get your way this time. Let us go, and we'll pretend this whole situation didn't happen.” Anne said, hoping they would just leave but not showing it.
“Hmmmm...Okay...I've had enough of this. I'm not in the best situation with the things going on so, if I were you, I would just do what I'm told or I'll mess you guys up!”
“Okay, just let us down so we can get the stuff from our backpacks.” Marina, said still trying to pull away from Bryan's friends grip,
“Alrite, but you guys better not pull anything. I swear to god, I'll make you wish you weren't alive!” They let go of them and Anne and Marina looked at each other, signaling to run when they grabbed their backpacks.
They took off running, and dodged everyone in their path. People were staring but didn't do anything. Bryan and his group were right behind them, pushing the people out of their way. Anne and Marina jumped and climbed over fences, hoping it would make it hard for them. They knocked down the trashcans, or anything that would maybe trip them. As they were running, Bryan yelled, “What did I tell you guys! Oh, man! When I'm done with you guys, you'll regret everything. You wanna-be, no lifes! You guys are nothing so what's the matter with letting me mess with you guys? Huh?”
“Just leave! I deal with enough. I split my family up and have to deal with that everyday. I don't need this! I can't take it anymore!” Anne screamed, tearing up.
“You know what, fine! This is the only time I'm letting you guys go. Next time, is gonna be worse if you don't just do what I say!”
Anne and Marina took off, looking back to make sure they weren't following. They went to a store, and made sure no one was around. After a few minutes they both walked home.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As soon as Anne got into the house, she ran upstairs to her room and shut the door. She remembered her dad was picking her up later,
so she got some of her stuff ready. She sat on her bed, thinking
about what happened. She grabbed her phone, and saw she had a few texts from Marina.
Marina: R u ok? Is everything alrite?
Marina: Anne, I'm worried about u. Is everything ok?
Marina: R u ther? Plz reply!
Anne: I'm fine...I guess. Idk
Marina: Tell me what's wrong
Anne: I don't want to deal with Bryan. I can't take being bullied. It's been going on for too long.
Marina: Just hang in ther.
Anne: I can't take it tho...even w/o Bryan it's stil hard
Marina: I'm here 4 u...Don't wry
Anne: I kno but u can't make it stop
Marina: What do u mean???
Anne: I don't want to do this anymore. The pain. It's killing me
Marina: Anne, what r u saying????
Anne: I'm saying goodbye
Marina: Anne?! What do u mean goodbye?! Anne I'm serious!
Anne: I won't hav to deal w/ these probs anymore :)
Marina: Wher r u?!?
Anne: My dad's. Y?
Marina: This isn't goodbye.
When Anne got to her dad's, she went to her room, put everything down, and went into the attic. She knew her dad had some guns in the attic. She went up looking for them, trying to be as quiet as possible. (doorbell rings) Anne ran out of the attic and into her room. Her dad looked through the peep hole.
“It's Marina, Anne” her dad yelled.
“Um...We're not on good terms. We got into a fight.”
“Okay, do you want me to tell her to go?”
“Yeah, I don't want to talk to her right now.”
Her dad opened the door. “Hey, Marina.”
“Hi, Mr. Asun. Is Anne here? I really need to talk to her.”
“She said she was going for a walk to the store.”
“Oh okay...”Marina said, bummed and concerned.
“Sorry, sweety.”
“It's fine. Thank you...”
“No problem.”
Anne went back into the attic and kept looking. She found a small black gun, grabbed it, closed the attic, and went to her room. She shoved it in her backpack and hid it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next day at school, Anne was quieter than usual. Marina kept asking if everything was okay. Anne said the same thing every time.
“I'm fine, Marina. I don't know what I was saying yesterday. I was feeling overwhelmed, but I'm fine.”
“Okay, but you better tell me if something's wrong.”
Anne asked to go to the bathroom. While she was gone, Marina ran out of led, so she looked in Anne's backpack for some. She felt something hard under her sweater. She lifted it up, and saw the gun. She froze not knowing what to do. She thought it was probably about Bryan. She didn't know exactly if that's why she brought it but she had to warn him. She quickly covered it, zipped her backpack up, and tried to play it off like nothing happened.
When lunch came,  they went to their usual hang out spot.
“I'll be back in a minute, Anne. I have to ask Abby about homework for one of our classes.”
“Okay, I'll be waiting.”
Marina went to where Bryan hung out, looking behind to make sure Anne wasn't following.
“Ahhh, who do we have here?”
“Anne brought a gun. I don't know if it's about what happened yesterday with us but I think you should talk to her.”
“And you're telling me this because?”
“I don't want Anne to hurt you. I know there's a reason behind you annoying us, and I know there's good in you. Just please try.”
“Are you sure she brought a gun?” Bryan asked, with a worried look.
“Yeah, I'm sure. I went through her backpack and saw it.”
“Okay, I'll try. When though?”
“I don't know. Soon though.”
“How about right now? She won't do anything with a lot of people around, right?”
“I don't know. I guess it's your best shot. Just play it off...Don't make it obvious I told you. Come in like ten minutes.”
“Okay...”
Around ten minutes later, Bryan came over, just him.
“Um...Can I talk to you?” Bryan asked.
“Uh okay...” Anne replied, worried looking at Marina. Marina gestured that she was watching them.
“I need to apologize for the way I've been treating you guys. I didn't mea-”Bryan said, trying to be as sincere as possible.
“I'm sorry but can we talk about this after school? I don't want to talk right now.” Anne interrupted.
“Okay...”
“I'm sorry. I just don't want to think about it during class.” Anne said, as she walked to Marina.
After school, they went to the park. Anne told Marina she was fine now, and could talk alone.
Anne found Bryan and they went and talked by the building where they were yesterday.
“I'm sorry for what I put you through. I don't why I do this to you guys. It's kind of a way to...” Bryan paused.
“A way to what? Have fun? That's what you told us yesterday.” Anne said pointing her gun at him.
“Whoa...umm. Why are you pointing that at me?”
“Well, I don't know. It's a way to have fun. Picking on someone and knowing they won't do anything. You know, you should really try it.”
“I'm sorry...I'm telling you. I mean it. It's all the stress, I deal with at home. I-”
“All the stress you deal with? Are you kidding me? Try having to live with the fact that you split your family up and to top it off, you're getting bullied by some  jerk at school, and can't do anything because your parent's don't care about you.”
“I didn't know that's what you are going through...”
“Well, why would you make someone suffer like this, despite what they go through at home?”
“I don't want to admit it, but... I have anger issues and 'bullying' other people is kind of a way for me not to explode at home, and hurt my family...”
“Couldn't you just find another way to deal with it?”
“I don't know...Probably but my mom just kicked me out of the house, and I have no where to go, not even a friends place feels right.?”
“What about your dad? Does he live here?” Anne said, calming down.
“No, he's...dead. Cuz of my mom.”
“I'm sorry. What happened or do you not want to talk about it?”
“Well, uh, my mom's an alcoholic so one day we were driving, just for the heck of it...me, my mom, and dad. And we were talking, but my mom was acting weird so my dad asked if she drank earlier. She got really mad for him questioning her, and started yelling and didn't really keep her eyes on the road. And that's when she swerved into the other line, going the opposite way, and the car hit us and flipped a little from the impact and smashed the front of out car. My mom started yelling, 'It's all your fault, Tim! You're the one to blame!' She didn't even check to see if we were alive and okay.  I didn't hear my dad talking or see him move, so I got really worried but when the ambulance came later on, they told us my dad make it. It wasn't his fault for the crash, it was hers.” Bryan told, letting a tear drop down his face.
“I'm really sorry...”Anne said pointing the gun down.
“I never got your name.”Bryan said as he wiped a tear from his eye.
“It's Anne...”
“Well, Anne, what's your story? You don't look like someone who would be going through stuff like this.”Bryan said sitting down beside her.
“Look Harder...”