Hope.

• Chapter 4 •

• Luca •

"Hey, Luca are you coming over to my place?" Jessie asked, slinging her arm around my shoulders. Standing at a whopping 6 feet and 5 inches she was basically a giant. She had to quite literally bend down to reach my height. Short guy problems. "Everybody else is coming,"

"You know my mom makes me go to church every other day," I grumbled, folding my arms over my chest. My mom was extremely religious. Our whole family is religious. Me on the other hand not so much. I wasn't not religious but I wasn't as much of a believer as my mom. I mean if God really was there I'm pretty pissed off at him. He just had to make my life suck.

"Argh. I forgot," she groaned, her shoulders slumping.

"Hey, guys!" I heard someone yell before squeezing in between us. Argh, Dickson.

"Hey Dick," Jessie said, patting him on his back so hard he nearly fell over. I snorted, a small chuckle escaping my lips. Oh, how the boy was bullied.

"Shut up, Jess!" He whined, pouting like a three-year-old. "Stop calling me that. It is very rude and offensive and I think you should apologize,"

"Jeez, sorry..." she said, rolling her eyes. "...Dick."

"Stop it! Luca! Tell her to stop!" He whined, stamping his feet and flinging his arms around. I shook my head, snickering.

"Okay, that's enough, Jess," I said, trying my hardest not to laugh. I was clearly failing. Dickson's frown grew deeper as he looked at me with pleading eyes. His big blue eyes filling with tears and his lower lip quivering. God damn it, this kid was a good actor. I cleared my throat and looked at Jess with a fake stern gaze. "Jess, st-stop." I can't take this seriously. Oh my- Pfft.

"Okay, okay. I'll stop," she said, raising her arms in mock surrender. "So you're coming right, Dickson?" He nodded eagerly, bouncing up and down on his toes. "Are you gonna bring your girlfriend?"

"My significant other." He corrected, narrowing his eyes at her in accusation. "You know how they identify!"

"Yada, yada, Lily is coming right?" Jess asked, simply brushing him off. Jess wasn't particularly fond of Lily. Not because of how they identified, it was just due to their stuck up personality, but regardless it made everyone uncomfortable when Jess misgendered them. Dickson would correct her most of the time and Jess seemed to be working on it but sometimes I wondered if she was even trying.

"Yeah, they're coming," Dickson said, skipping in front of us. He really was like a two-year-old.

I like to call my friend the group The Group of Social Rejects. Each one of us has our own little manufacturing defect. The whole "that's what makes us unique" thing doesn't really work for me.
Let's just say each of us has some part of us with is absolute crap. For me, it was my height. I'm short. Like really short. I'm literally 5 foot tall. No joke. I am actually, completely, in all honesty, 5 foot and a quarter-inch tall. This makes me an easy target considering most of the people in my grade are at least above 5 foot 3 or so.

Even Dickson is taller than me. He's at 5 foot 2 I think. Argh. I hate my life.

On the contrary, Jess is made fun of for being too tall. So you can't be anywhere out of the picture-perfect high schooler or you're dead. Just great.

"Cool, Mr Church over here can't come," she said, narrowing her eyes at me as she shook her head in disappointment. "Tsk, Tsk, you don't even have time for your friends anymore," she placed her hand on her chest dramatically wiping fake tears off her cheek with her other hand.

I scoffed, rolling my eyes at her. "You know I want to come. I just can't."

"Why can't you just convince your mom?" She whined, running a frustrated hand through her hair. She chopped off all her hair a few months ago after having a mental break and she hasn't decided to grow it out since. She silky jet black hair completely shaved off on the sides with a few red highlights in between. I have to admit she's gorgeous. She had sparkly blue eyes, fairly tan skin and the prettiest freckles sprinkled over her face.