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One single smile a helping hand
It's not that hard to be a friend
So don’t give up stand 'til the end
There's more to life than just to live

-"Hold on" by the Jonas Brothers

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Chapter 8: One Single Smile, a Helping Hand

Mack's POV

"Is this necessary?" Aiden asked as I walked over to the couch, the first aid basket was in my arms. I sat down and went rummaging through the basket as I ignored his griping. He's been complaining ever since we left the school, which was surprising. I figured he'd want to leave school. seeing as now he gets beaten up for no reason.

"Do you want your scratches to get infected?" I asked as I finally found the anit-bacterial cream I was looking for.

"If it means I can die and leave this god-awful place, then yes," he responded in a bored tone as he lifted his feet off the ground and rested them across my lap. I glanced over at him nad he had his right arm covering his eyes so the only tihng I could see was his nose one down.

His words was what worried me the most. I've only dealt with one other person that said he wanted to kill himself because he felt he "wasn't worthy enough to live on Earth" and that he wished God would welcome him "with open arms". I still haven't been able to get over the fact that my best friend almost killed himself. It took me many hours of talking on the phone and a lot of stress on myself to make sure he stayed alive and, in the end, he ended up moving away. But he came to value his life, and that's all that matters.

"Don't talk like that," I said as I shoved his legs off of my lap and threw the cream container at him. He winced when it hit him in the side and he glared at me. "You don't mean it.'

"How do you know what I mean and don't mean?" He snapped as she sat upright and glared at me with hard eyes. His blue eyes were as hard as steel and I knew that he would attack me if something inside him didn't hold him back. "You can't read my mind."

"But I do know that you want to live," I responded.

"And how do you know that?"

"Because you were born to torture me," I responded as I rolled my eyes. He laughed a little as he rubbed the cream on a scratch that was on his cheek. I grabbed the remote and started flipping through tv channels, the silence was starting to get on my nerves. I hated silence more than anything, which was usually why I listened to my ipod all of the time.

"No, I was born to make music, I live to torture you," he shot back. I looked up from the couch when I heard pounding footsteps. Aiden gave me a look and I shrugged when Max came rushing down the stairs. "Hey Squirt," he called as he waved.

"Hey, you're that metal kid from before," Max commented as she leaned over the back of the couch. "What're you doin' home early, sis?" She asked as she turned to me.

"I could ask you the same question," I responded.

"We had a half day of school, remember?" Max said as she looked at me. She turned to Aiden and studied his face. "What happened to you?"

"Some lame jocks beat me up," Aiden said with a shrug.

"Are you ok?" Max asked in concern.

"Sure, I could take them." I rolled my eyes as I continued flipping through the channels.

"Good. Now you two can play with me." Max may be really smart but she still acts like her nine-year-old self.

"I'm kind of tired, Max," I told her as I stroked her hair. "But Aiden will play with you," I added with a smile as he looked at me in suspicion. "He just loves playing with kids."

"Yay! Let's go play soccer!" Max said as she rushed over to Aiden and grabbed his hand and pulled him off of the couch. He glared at me and I just smirked as Max pulled him out the front door and slammed it shut behind her. After finding that nothing was on I grabbed my laptop and my headset and went outside to sit on the porch and to watch Max. I would have used my land based computer but my Mom always checks what I do on it after she gets home and I didn't want her to know I was still talking to Austen, she never liked him and she always claimed that he was gay. I logged onto iChat and pulled up a window and put on my headphones with the microphone connected at the bottom.

"Hey girl!" Austen cried out once he noticed I was on.

"Austen!" I cried out happily. 'Man, it's so good to see him again, even if it's through a computer.' "How've you been, man?"

"I've been good, I guess," he said with a shrug, his blue eyes shining along with his snakebite piercings which reflected the sunlight. "I've managed to stay out of trouble for a while. Can I assume the same for you?"

"Yeah. The principal is making sure I stay out of trouble by showing the new kid around," I responded through clenched teeth as I glanced at Aiden who was trying to take the soccer ball away from Max. "You remeber that guy on the corner playing the guitar every time we went to lessons?"

"Yeah, I remember him," Austen responded. "Is he the new kid?"

"Yes. And now he won't leave me alone!"

"He must really like you then," Austen said with a laugh. "I can see why though, you're an awesome girl to be around. I miss hanging out with you, I have no one to go with me to Hot Topic and test out eyeliner colors anymore." I joined in with his laughter. He could spend a solid thirty minutes debating over what eyeliner color best worked for him, and he has done that to me on many occasions. "What do you mean by he won't leave you alone?"

"He calls me names and follows me around school and even follows me home," I responded. "He's playing with Max right now."

"Is he your new boyfriend then?" Austen asked with a teasing smile.

"Why does everyone always assume that?"

"What's you do for him?"

"Not much," I responded with a shrug. "I was kind of forced to do this but I showed him around and sat with him at lunch. We talked about music a couple of times when he's not annoying me. Oh, and today he got beat up by some jocks and I took him to the nurse but...STOP LAUGHING!" I shouted. He was holding his sides and laughing hysterically. "It's. Not. Funny!" I growled through clenched teeth.

"Yes it is!" Austen responded once he finally calmed down. "You always do that when you like a guy, you're really helpful and you talk about music. That was the same with Lucas. Although you claim you can't stand him."

"He's all right," I said with a sigh. "Lucas wasn't as bad as I thought. Aiden's worse."

"You like him, that's why you think that," Austen told me.

"If you weren't miles away I'd kill you right now!" I growled.

"Who in the world are you bitching to?" Aiden asked as he looked over my shoulder.

"Is that him?" Austen asked, the teasing look in his eyes again. "Let me talk to him. Let me talk to him."

I sighed heavily as I pulled my headset off of my head and looked up to glare at Aiden. "This is Austen, my friend, don't do anything to him that you wouldn't want me to do to you," I said as I shoved the headset into his hands.

"Oh, you're so intimidating, babe," he said as he put the headset over his ears.

"Don't call me that, prick!" I shouted at him before going over to the garage. I knew I was getting too worked up over nothing but he just...grinds on my nerves so much! I lifted it and grabbed a skateboard with a solid red deck. I carried it back out and rolled it over to Max before tossing her a helmet and wrist pads. I pulled out my digital camera and switched it to movie mode as I pulled out a mini ramp. She's been trying to jump off the ramp and land on the ground for the past couple of weeks but the only thing she has managed to do was fall and get herself a lot of scrapes and landed me with the blame. To mom Max was a little angel and she could do no wrong.

"What's the point in trying, I can't do this," Max said with a sigh as she adjusted her helmet. "I've tried many times before and I can't do it. And I never will be able to do it."

"Wait a tick!" Aiden shouted from his place on the porch. He took off the headset and put it down on the porch next to him before walking over to Max. He crouched down next to her and rested his forehead against hers and spoke to her softly. I went back over to my computer and saw that Austen was still on.

"I approve," Austen declaired.

"Austen," I said in a warning tone.

"All kidding aside he's a pretty cool dude to tell you the truth," Austen said as he placed his chin on his folded hands. "He has a passion for music that I have never seen out here. I think it's possible that he likes music even more than you do. He told me that music means more to him than anyone, it helps control is life in a way. Give him a chance, he could be an awesome friend for you."

"No one's more awesome than you," I pointed out.

"That sentence should be coming out of my mouth, Angel," Austen replied. I smiled at the nickname he gave me. Ever since he told me he was moving he said that I was his guardian angel so he's been calling me 'Angel' since then. It always put a smile on my face whenever he called me that and it made me feel good that I was able to save m best friend's life. "Hey, I gotta go. Terrorize the preps for me." I laughed and nodded. "Peace," he said as he made a peace sign before signing off.

I went to my playlist and set it on random. "Dad," I muttered when Metallica's Master of Puppets started playing. I admit I really like that song, it helped me get an A on my English movie project, but I heard it so much in my house that it instantly gave me a headache when I first heard it. My mom didn't like it at all, which didn't surprise me, but sometimes I liked that about her because we would go through dinner listening to alternative music instead.

I lifted my digital camera and changed it to picture mode. I took a picture of Aiden still talking to Max and looked at the screen. The lighting was good and it made the blond hair that stuck out from underneath his beanie shine more than usual. The light made Max's blue and green eyes stand out more than usual. I knew that it would be a good picture if I changed it to a black and white setting but left their eye color in. Thinking it over in my head I took some more pictures of Aiden and Max as he tried to get her to perform her trick.

Aiden really seemed to like Max a lot to be doing this with her, which surprised me. 'He isn't as tough as I thought he was, he was actually kind of sweet.' I shook my head to get the thought right back out. I'm stepping into dangerous territory that would not only hurt me, but eventually it would hurt him and my entire family. It has happened many times before and I just wanted to walk away from that battlefield.

The battlefield called love.

"Mackie, watch me!" Max called as she waved her arm.

"I am," I called back as I focused the cameras lenses on her. She stared at the ramp before going for the jump. Capturing the proud look on my camera was a great shot and I knew that Dad would want a copy of it.

"I did it!" Max shouted as she jumped off of her skateboard and pumped her fists into the air.

"I knew you could do it, Shrimp. You just had to believe in yourself," Aiden said as he ruffled her hair.

"Mackie, did you see it? I finally did it!" Max cried as she ran over to me and wrapped her arms around my waist.

"You were great Max," I said as I hugged her back. "We can have cookies to celebrate," I said as I grabbed my laptop and went inside. Aiden and Max followed me into the kitchen as I filled three glasses of milk and put cookies on a plate and then put them down on the table.

"Aiden, how'd you know that would work?" Max asked after taking a bite of a cookie.

"I skateboard myself," he responded. "I've won a tournament too, but that was before I blew out my knee so I stopped. But I go back and skate from time to time."

"Do you have any sisters?"

"I have a little brother and a little sister. Mandy is seven and Jake is six," Aiden told her. "They're pretty loud and pretty destructive but I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world."

"And your parents?" Max questioned.

"What's with all of the questions?" I asked her as I flicked her in the side of the head.

"Well, if you want him coming around here more often then Mom will have to know things about him. And if I tell them to her she'll let him come over more," Max explained. It did make a lot of sense. Whenever I had a friend and I told my parents about the things he like or did or his family situation Mom would shut me down and tell me not to bring him around. But when I met Austen Max was the first of our family to meet him. She told Mom about him and then Mom met him and she let me bring him around sometimes, even though she never said to my face that she didn't like him, but I could tell, and I kept bringing him around to get on her nerves.

"My parents are divorce. But my Dad lost his job so he's still living with us." He paused and stared out the window. "It's hard, but I got used to them fighting all of the time and I have to protect Mandy and Jake. They get scared easily because of my parents but they're getting stronger now." He let out a sigh. "Sometimes I think I can't go on, but then I go to school and I know, somehow, that I will make it." He stared at me as he said the last sentence.

I couldn't help but smile.