“Cripple”

“Disabled freak”

“Lame”

The insults kept coming. Every day they came. Nothing original. Nothing I haven’t heard before. For some reason people seem to get pleasure out of making people miserable and putting people down. Lucky for me, after years of having to deal with this, it doesn’t make me miserable anymore. It was worse at the start when everything had just happened. People you thought you were friends with left you, scared they’d start to get insulted too. Funny thing is it’s the people I use to be friends with that insult me. Other than them I get insults off about two other people, but those are the two people who think they’re better than everyone else and think it makes them more ‘popular’ to say things like that.

By saying that it’s people I was friends with that now insult me, I’m not saying I have no friends. No, not at all. I have quite a few friends actually. There’s a group of us. Not a big group like the ‘popular’ group which is pretty much all of the football team and cheerleading squad, but not as small as the ‘nerd crew’ as everyone calls them.

I guess we’re kind of the group that came together because we didn’t fit in anywhere else. First of all, there’s Jack Barakat. Jack is the hyperactive kid that annoys pretty much everyone, unless you’re friends with him and you get use to his ways, and then you just start to find it hilarious that one guy could have so much energy. Then there’s the lovebirds. Rian Dawson and Cassadee Pope. We may not be part of the ‘popular group’ but their relationship is the envy of most of most of the school, let alone grade. They’re rarely found apart, not that any of us are complaining. I don’t really believe in love, but the sparkle in their eyes when you look at each other, you can tell they’re meant to be. Zack Merrick. Where do I start with Zack? He’s a workout freak. Try to challenge him and it’d be a lost fight before it even started. The guy’s like a brick. Jordan Eckes. The unnaturally skinny, extremely tall kid. Although he says there’s an online shop he gets his jeans from, I refuse to believe that they are not girls fit jeans. There’s no way any shop would sell jeans for guys that are that tight. Jordan always teases me about my height while in my chair. I’m actually quite tall, but with me being sat down all the time, Jordan towers over me. And then there’s me, Alex Gaskarth. The kid in the wheelchair. People always seem to either pity me or make fun of me. It’s either sympathetic glances or looks that could kill. But the people I mentioned before seemed to see past all the insults and glances, they took me under their wing and stick up for me the second anybody says anything to me.

I sighed and knocked myself out of my thoughts, making my way from where I was positioned by my locker and down the hall to the door for the cafeteria. I sighed as the guy going into the room in front of me pushed the door closed in my face. I tried to pull it open and get in by myself, but with how heavy the doors were and how fast they closed by themselves, there’s no way I’d be able to get in without getting wiped out by the door. Still, I sat there struggling for another 30 seconds before I heard a familiar voice from behind me.

“You need to build up a bit man. I know you’re in your chair at all but if you can’t hold that door open you need work.” Zack said to me with a laugh to his voice.

“Ha ha, very funny Mr ‘I’m built like a brick’.” I retorted.

“I’ll give you that one, but just know I embrace the brickness” Zack replied with a smirk.

I was finally able to get inside the room and wheel my way over to my table. I know the best route to it and which tables to avoid passing unless it was absolutely necessary. I learnt my lesson after a few weeks of people sticking their legs out and knocking my brakes on, making me fall forward; sometimes even onto the floor depending on how fast I was trying to get past the table. Not that I really had anything to be worried about if I was with Zack. Everyone on that table was scared of Zack and he knew it.

My usual table came into view and I could see all of my friends minus me and Zack sat there laughing and joking on already.

“ZACKY! LEXY!” Jack yelled when he noticed us approaching the table.

“Hi Jack.” I said back with a laugh to my voice.

“You can’t say that on a plane!” Jack screamed.

“Jack, why are you such a nerd?” Rian teased. Jack responded causing a small argument to happen between the two.

I tuned them out and rolled over to my usual seat next to Jordan. I smiled when I realised Jordan had already moved the spare chair out of the way to make room for me. I continued to grin to myself as I reached into my back to pull out my lunch my mum had made me that morning.

“What you grinning at?” Cassadee teased when she realised the stupid grin on my face. Before I could open my mouth to reply to her, Jordan opened his.

“Ooooooo, has Lexy got a girlfrienddd?” Jordan teased.

“No I haven’t. Why would anybody want to be with a guy who can’t walk or do most things for himself? I can’t move from the hips downwards, I think you’re all forgetting that little fact.” Came my reply.

“Don’t put yourself down Lex.” Cassadee said. “You don’t need to be the definition of the ‘perfect’ guy if you’ve got a good enough personality. Any girl would be lucky to have you; you just haven’t found the right person yet.” She said with a smile.

I just smiled back at her, when in my head I was battling against what she said. A girl wouldn’t be lucky to have me. I’d never be the guy that could give her the perfect life. For one thing, I can’t really work for myself unless I work from home. Secondly, I’m paralysed from the waist down, why would someone want to be with a guy who can’t even move for himself in the most part? When it comes to family life I’d be screwed. Sure, I could have sex still but I wouldn’t be a good father when it came down to it, if I was to have a child they’d end up being restricted from doing some of the things that all the other kids would be doing. I couldn’t be the dad that helped their child build a tree house, or help them ride a bike, or teach them to swim, or-

“Yo Alex, you zoned out, you okay man?” Jordan asked with a hint of concern to his voice.

“Yeah I’m fine, just thinking.” I said putting on a convincing smile so make it seem more believable.

“Okay then. So, I’m guessing you didn’t hear what we were talking about before, but we were on about maybe throwing a party tomorrow night at Rian’s place. You know, since it’s the last Friday of senior year and we should really make it go out with a bang?” Jordan explained to me. You could tell from his voice that he was hoping that I’d agree to coming.

“How many people would be at this party?” I questioned.

“It wouldn’t really be a party.” Rian stepped in. “It’d be more like a get together for our group. Jordan was on about bringing some of his friends who go to school across town, not many of us at all. It’s not like we’ll be getting completely shit faced either, just till we’re a bit tipsy.” He explained with a smirk on his face.

Everyone looked at me awaiting my answer. It was the last Friday of senior year, why the hell not?

“Okay, I’ll come.”