“I’d be stupid to trust you.” I said and crossed my arms, glaring at him.

“You’re right.” He said and shoved my birthday cake in my face.

That was Tyler Miller and I in the second grade.

Yep, you read that correctly, he shoved my own birthday cake right in my face. I remember that cake had looked amazing. All of the Disney Princesses were designed on that cake, I was obsessed with them at the time. Mom forced me to invite Tyler since he was our neighbor, and she was best friends with his parents. Ever since we were little, he was a mean little prick. For some reason, whenever he had a chance to ruin my life, he took it. It ranged between setting stink bombs in my locker, tripping me in class, and somehow putting red dye in my shampoo.

My hair was red as a tomato for months.

Along with the fact that my mom thought it was absolutely amusing, she did nothing about it. She thought is was adorable. But all that came to an end in the seventh grade. Even though he had gotten away from making my life a living hell, he didn’t for his outbursts during classes, starting fights at recess, and never doing his homework. His parents were furious, and after his ten hours of detention, and his second suspension, they forced him to go to military school.

When I had heard about that, it was the happiest day of my life.

Throughout elementary school, you could say I wasn’t the most prettiest girl in my grade. Actually, I was the ugliest, most unwanted. My medication made me fat, and my face broke out with pimples that were the size of Texas. And of course I was bullied by my fellow peers. The populars always getting fawned over, and the people who were overweight and with acne were bullied, which was me.

You must be thinking, what kind of medication? Does she have some kind of disease like cancer, or worse? These are great questions that will be answered soon, but not now.

Sorry.

And as the years went by, entering into high school with the same harsh bullies, but not as worse as Tyler, thank God for that (since he was still in military school). Yes, a few vile words were thrown at me, the tripping in class still occurred daily. The teachers turning away from helping me, not wanting to get involved. And there was the usual laughing and pointing fingers at me by the popular girls. But I was okay with that. I became stronger than that, especially having Brooke in my life. Without her, I probably would be homeschooled by now.

When Tyler started bullying me, no one wanted to be my friend. But one day, a new little blonde girl came into my classroom in third grade.

Before I explain anything else I’d just like to say one thing.

Samuel Hogen is an idiot.

That word sums up what I think of him, along with him being loud, rude, and was best friends with Tyler at the time. When Tyler had left, he suddenly stopped bullying me. It was weird, he was like Tyler’s second in command, and you would think he would keep up with bullying me to make Tyler proud.

But that never happened.

He went under the social radar, I barely saw him at school. A few times I had caught a glimpse of him during lunch, but that’s it. We had no classes together, and in between classes it was like he was invisible.

Anyways, back in third grade. During one math class Samuel had decided to trip me, making me hit the ground with a loud smack. I must’ve blacked out for a few seconds, since a moment later I opened my eyes and the new girl was kicking Samuel’s butt. The teacher rushed over towards us, ignoring and stepping over me. She dragged new girl out of class, while Samuel was crying. The girl winked at me and I smiled with my head bleeding. Later that day, I actually had to go get stitches, mom thinking that I tripped on something, saying I was clumsy and had gotten that from her. No one had thought to tell her what the real story was, but I was a kid, I didn’t care. All I cared about really was that sucker I was going to get after I got those eight stitches. And yes I actually did get a sucker.

The next day I saw the new girl again and I thanked her.

“I’m Brooke Sweetly.” She said and we shook hands.

“Skylar Williams.” I had said and ever since, we were inseparable. Tyler was always there to ruin each week of my young life, but with Brooke there she had always made me feel better, and telling me to forget about Tyler, saying he was only a ‘boy with cooties’. At the time that was something that put a little smile on my face, but when cooties turned into rumors and more embarrassing things he had done, it was awful. Brooke always stuck by me, stayed by my side, and even swung a few punches at Tyler a few times, which always made my day. We were always together, whether going shopping or hanging out at my house, or toilet papering Tyler’s house when he was away.

Ah, good times.

Years passed and our friendship didn’t subside, even when I gained more weight. When she saw people making fun of me, she would always swear at them uncontrollably, and punch them, but I had stopped her before she did. Well, most of the times. The first year of high school was rough. There were more people to bully me, and to say it was hard is an understatement. But with Brooke there, the tears were still there, but with her smiles and friendship helped.

Now, to the present of this story. It was a sunny day in the heart of Florida in August, three more weeks until I was a senior. I was scared though. I had tried to keep all the bullying situation from mom ever since it started. But at the end of junior year, someone told her, I don’t know who, but all hell broke out. She said she was going to sue the school. Of course I had stopped her and told her it wasn’t a big deal. I knew she hated the idea of her daughter being humiliated and bullied from everyone at school.

Suddenly, one afternoon in June, she told me we were going to my doctor. She forced him to let me go on a different, safe medication. He had agreed and the unthinkable happened. Mom must’ve known things would change since before I knew it I had lost fifty pounds, and to say the least, I looked completely different. My extra large shirts from before were huge on me, mom and I had to go shopping for a new wardrobe. I could actually wear a swimsuit, and my face became pimple free. Brooke didn’t treat me any differently since I was skinny now, to her I was the same Skylar as I was fifty pounds heavier.

Only having one last year of high school was a relief since I could start over, start fresh in college. Brooke and I would be separated, she wanted to go to Iowa, I wanted to go to New York, the city that never sleeps. The thing was, I felt horrible since we would be many states apart from each other. I felt even more bad for mom. Dad had left us for some blonde bimbo that was twenty years younger than mom and him when I was four, so I was all she had. And me leaving, she won’t have anyone. I wanted to follow my dreams, become a journalist, but leaving mom is something that will be incredibly painful. I shook my head, not wanting to ruin the rest of this summer with those depressing thoughts. Right after that statement, my phone rang and Brooke’s name popped up on the screen.

“Hey what’s up?” I picked up the phone. Brooke didn’t answer, there was only complete silence on the other line. I was about to ask her what’s wrong, but before I could, she said something that made my blood run cold.

“You’re not gonna like who I just saw.” She said and it was like I knew right then and there, who she was talking about.

Tyler Miller was back.

And I had a feeling he’s staying for a while.