*Ash's point of view*

Ten minutes later, the bus pulled up at the South Side bus station and for some reason the bus station scared me. It wasn't until I passed a memorable bench that I really felt or knew why.

"Drew! Look what I found!" Jace yelled as he poked something with a long stick.

"What loser?" Drew said as he ran a hand through his hair. It had been our 12th birthday yesterday and our dad had gotten us new hats. Drew kept complaining that it was messing up his hair.

"I found a homeless guy!"

"Leave it J!" Damo spoke up as we all made our ways towards Jace and the homeless guy.

"It has money in it's pocket!" Drew said, reaching for a dollar coin.

"Drew! It's a man, not an it! And leave his money alone!" I whispered, so the guy wouldn't wake up and kill us for trying to steal his money. "Let's go, I'm scared."

The guy snored loudly and we all jumped. "Ash's right let's scoot," Damo said.

"You guys are pussys!" Jace teased not very quietly. We all shushed him.

Suddenly, the guy woke up and grabbed Jace by the arm. I felt tears prickle in my eyes. I didn't want to die tonight. I had to fight off the urge to scream.

Drew tried pulling Jace away while Damo kicked the guy in the stomach. The guy stood up and pulled out a knife.

"Shit! Stop! We're sorry!" I yelled, crying. The guy glared, threw Jace onto the floor, kicked him hard and waved the knife around.

"Run along, or I'll find you and make sure you never bother me again."

We didn't even nodded, as we ran towards mine and Drew's house, all petrified.

That night gave my bad dreams for weeks, and I never ventured out near the station at night again. Jace had a broken rib, but we had to blame it on him falling or we'd get into trouble for sneaking out.

I breathed in and out to try calm myself down before seeing Jamie. As I reached the entrance of Rikers, I saw Jamie. He was wearing dark jeans and a light blue muscle shirt.

"Hey you," he said when he spotted me.

I waved at him. "I haven't been here in ages."

Jamie laughed once and turned to look through the windows of the bar. "It's a great place."

I nodded and we both went inside. The bar was busy tonight, but there was no sign of Riker, whom was usually always seen corresponding with his customers.

The one thing that I always enjoyed about Rikers was the sense of belonging and home. Everyone here had some sort of story and was from a different walk of life, but no matter who you are you were always welcomed with open arms.

When Jamie and I reached the bar, we both ordered. I got a lemon, lime and bitters while he got a cruiser.

"We drink like true gay men." Jamie said, with an obnoxious smile.

I rolled my eyes and hit him lightly. "Shut it you!"

"You really shouldn't be drinking because you know, you're not a man yet." I said.

"What about you, you're drinking."

"I'm legal, remember. I'm over the age of 18. You're not."

Jamie shrugged. "Legal smegal."

I laughed and started looking around. When my eyes reached the door of the bar I saw Damo and then I saw Jace, who totally saw me because he started glaring at Jamie. I sighed dramatically.

"I'll be back. Don't drink my drink!" I warned Jamie cheekily and made a beeline for Jace. This was probably a bad idea, but Jace needed to not ruin my night. I reached him and grabbed his collar.

"Who's that?" Jace asked after I'd pulled him to a secluded corner of the bar.

"No hello? Rude!"

"Fine", Jace said rolling his eyes. "Hello, Asher William Sage. Who's that guy you're with?"

"It's none of your business."

"You said you wanted to talk."

I rubbed my temples. "When I said we could talk I didn't mean track my phone and follow me," I watched as Jace began to protest but I put my hand up as if to say 'don't even'. "I know you do it. Maybe not to me but Drew taught me saying you taught him."

"Don't bring Drew into this." Jace said harshly.

"Why not?"

"Because I don't wanna here about him. That's not fair to bring him up to me Ash, please." Jace said numbly.

I tried to push down my anger, I really did, but it didn't work.

"It's not fair? Come on Jace. He's my fucking brother. You might have lost your best friend, but I lost my brother! And you can't keep killing yourself, because even though Drew's not here, I'm here. I've always been here but you can't see what's right in front of you. You oblivious piece of shit. Can't you see that I bloody love you? You gotta love me too, you gotta."

I meant my words to come out forcefully, it instead it came out like a plea and now I wanted to cry. I fucken hate Jace.

I put my hand against his face and shook my head at him. "Get yourself help, for me please. Then call me and we can go out and talk like decent people." I turned around and gestured towards Jamie. "And that guy there is a guy I met, I don't know where our friendship is going Jace, but I'll tell you. Promise."

I turned around, wiped the tears that had started flowing and made my way back to Jamie. I saw that he was talking to the barman, I also saw my drink in front of an empty chair.

"Hey." I said easily.

"You right?"

"I'm right." I confirmed with a nodded. He smiled at me and we spent the rest of the night talking about random shit and school. Both our school years are coming to an end and we were both looking forward too it.

At around 5am, Jamie said he had to go to home so he could get ready for school, so we said our goodbyes. Jace had left at about 4, with a side wards glance towards me which I nodded back at. Just as I was leaving the bar at 6am, I got a message from Jace.

FROM JACE: I love you too. Also Macie told me to tell you to text her. Don't know why.

I sighed and despite how strange it was, I sent Macie a text.

TO MACIE: Next time you wanna text me just do it. My inbox is always open for you xx.