Michael

            I arrive home to hear no one there. Where are they? As I go to my room, I start to here low voices. I get closer to hear shouting. When I find the noise, I find everyone, well almost everyone in Jermaine's room arguing away. Typical. I open the door slowly.

            "Again Jermaine, again? Do you know how many times this has happened?" Joseph yells. Uh, oh. I try to leave but Joseph sees me and drags me inside.

            "See your brother here" Joseph starts, lifting my arm. Ugh, this is embarrassing.

            "Michael here doesn't go around sticking his dick on everything that walks!" I cringe.

            "That's because Michael isn't as good looking as I am" Jermaine replies arrogantly. Ugh, I feel pathetic.

            "Hey, back off Jermaine, Joseph's got a point" La Toya says.

            "No Toya, Erms is right, no one likes me. I'm one of the ugliest kids in the school."

            "Mike that's not true" Jermaine reassures me, but I don't care.

            I go to my room and look at my closet. I have a rope in my drawer, ready for action. I take it out and turn it in my hand.  When's the day that it all comes crashing down huh? When's the day I snap? Then someone snatches the rope away.

            "Hey! Give that back Randy" I say quietly. Randy sits down in front of me and looks into my eyes I start to feel uncomfortable and I shift. He holds the rope out as if asking, why? I just shrug.

            "What about me? I'll have no one if you die." He says almost silently.

            "I can't hold up much longer Randy."

            "I know but-"

            "Save it."

            He already knows. Schools bad, but online just gets worse. I still check the stats.

            "Michael..." I ignore him.

            I checked my accounts to find 20 new Ask.fm questions, 10 new tweets, 25 plus followers on Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr.

            Hm, I'll check the tweets.

I look through my account page to see troll messages. All of them troll messages, but of most of them had little effect on me. Except for one.

Just hang yourself fag.

I slam down my laptop and rest my head in my hands. I heard Janet waltz in.

"What's wrong Michael?" Janet asks.

"Nothing..."

"Don't lie Michael..."

"I said... nothing." Janet shakes her head.

"Michael, you can't hide this from Mother and Joseph forever" she said knowingly. I just rolled my eyes at her.

"Mother!"

"Janet! What are you doing?"

"Mother!"

"Yes Janet!" Mother responded. I seized the opportunity to snatch the rope back from Randy.

"Hey!"

"Shut up!"

"Michael! Don't speak to your brother that way!"

I glared at my two youngest siblings.

"Michael, show Mother what's in your hand" Janet demands.

"What's in your hand s that I need to see?" Mother says expectantly.

I showed the rope in my hand.

"Let me see your laptop."

"But--"

"Michael don't argue with me." I sigh.

She looked through the tweets, her eyes full of anger and sadness. Eventually she looks up.

"Give me the rope."

"Mom--"

"Young man, do NOT test me" she says with a strained voice. I hand all of it over to my mother. She walks out.

"Michael..."

"Yes Janet?"

"Why do you do this to yourself?"

"Do what?"

"Read the bad things people say about you?"

I shrugged, walking out of my room to go to the basement. Hmm... What should I do now?

I look up at the family calendar to see the dreaded date. I have another weekly appointment with my psychologist. Maybe if I don't say anything...

"Michael, Mother said to get ready to go to your session!" La Toya yells from upstairs. Well, so much for that plan.

Minutes later we're inside the office. My sister Toya takes me, due to my personal request. We sit outside my psychologist's office, waiting. You can hear a mild conversation, from the person before me.

"I'm just saying that if I have children, they would have a strange childhood. I mean for starters if I married a guy whose last name was Jackson, and I had a boy, I'm naming him Michael. No exceptions, even though I do however love the boy name Brayden. For girls names I would choose Genevieve, Benetta, or Emjay. I just love the name Genevieve, but I told my mom I'd name one of children after her so... but isn't Emjay the coolest name! It sounds like a nickname right? Speaking of nicknames what should mine be? I've wanting one forever! I mean my name Kirsten and when I was little my friends called me Kiki, but now my parents refer to me and my brother as K and K because both our names start with a ‘K'. My mom calls me K bird sometimes but still. I was thinking maybe Kris because Kirsten is actually a German/Dutch name which in English translates into Kristin or Kristina so it sort of matches. You want to know what I would do if I was President?" the chatter box of a girl asks. The psychologist giggles.

"What would you do?"

"I would work on gun violence and the education system. I mean our American crime rate would go down if we just banned guns. I mean because there's no need for the right to bear arms any more. The only reason you'd need to bare an arm is for safety against criminals who also have guns. In my opinion, only hunters should have gun licenses."

"What about the education part?" the psychologist asks in an amused tone.

"Well for starters, teachers need a higher salary considering their work. Number two, more students need to finish high school and college, which could happen with more scholarships."

"Good point Kirsten. It's time for you to go though. Do you think we made progress today?"

"Yeah, I still don't get why I have to do this though, I mean I only have mild schizophrenia. I mean is bad to expect the worst things to happen and voices talk to you." I can hear the psychologist giggling nervously while my eyes widen. This is what Skeeter was talking about?

"I guess what I'm trying to say is, is that these voices aren't just voices, there my friends."

"They're also your enemy. Friends don't tell friends to jump off bridges or out of tenth floor hotel windows." The psychologist says this firmly, and then opens the door. She gives me a welcoming smile.

"Good evening Michael, you've met Kirsten right? I'm pretty sure you're the same age."

"No actually I haven't. Hello Kirsten, nice to meet you!" I say, shaking her hand.

"Hi Michael, nice to meet you." She walks out shyly looking at the ground as she walks.

"Come in Michael." she says this examining me.

"So, any, uh, important events, we need to discuss?" she asks.

"No, nothing interesting to talk about" I lie.

"You sure?" she asks raising a suspicious eyebrow.

"Positive."

"Michael, I've known you since the trial, and I've been trying to help you. But I cannot help you recover if you don't start opening up." I squint my eyes at her, slightly annoyed.

"So?" I shake my head.

"Then we have nothing to discuss. Make sure to keep your log and journal. You may leave Michael." Her eyes are burning with anger and I smirk. She's not getting a word out of me.

"Goodbye Kris."

"Goodbye Applebutt!" I shoot her a look immediately and she smirks in response.

"I never liked you."

"Stop being an asshole Michael. I'm here to help. I'm practically you're sister."

"I'm leaving!" I shout down the hallway.

"Bye Bootylicious!"

"Stop being a bitch Kris!"

"I'm the bitch?" she laughs, walking back in her office. Another wasted appointment. I sit in Toya's car and think. At least there's tomorrow to look forward to. It's going to be Friday.