Ok so, this is a short story that I did for my English class. I couldn't submit it like this so I was forced to change Brayden into a girl, which pained me to no end. Anyway, here it is.

Heartless

OoooOoooO

"Now class, this marking period's project will be a video project," Mr. L, the US History teacher, said as he handed out a piece of paper outlining the project to each of the students in the classroom. There was a collective groan as the less artistic students grumbled about the project, preferring an essay of some sort to this. "The video will be on the election of 1896 and I want you to pretend that they had the media we have today back then. You must make political ads, debates, 527 ads, or something else pertaining to this election. I'm leaving you almost full discretion as to what you may do, and please have a modicum of maturity when doing this project," he looked directly at a group of miscreants in the back of the room who, for their last project, had used rather inappropriate language as he said this. "Groups will consist of two people, no more, no less,"

"What!? Aw, come on L!" it should be noted that no one called their teacher by his full last name, nor did they add Mr. to it, "Can't there be one group of three?" Patrick asked pleadingly. His two friends, Jack and Fayt, nodded their heads vigorously.

"Sorry, but the marvelous trio will have to be split apart. Rules are rules after all," L replied. He turned back to the class, "You'll have the rest of class today to work on this project, and the rest of it will have to be done at home." The class erupted in noise once again as people picked partners and several began to work, the majority not doing anything.

"Man this sucks," Jack said with a huff. "I hate these things, and they count for, like, 20 percent of our final average for the marking period!"

"Yeah, it counts way too much for a single grade," Jack stated nodding his head matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, and it pulls down our averages a lot if we don't do well on it," Fayt said with a small sigh. He peered around the room quickly noting that everyone had partners except for one boy, Brayden Acker. Both of Fayt's friends noted that as well.

"Whoever gets ousted from our group has to work with Mr. Sunshine over there," Pat said jabbing his thumb in Brayden's direction.

Brayden was emo, there was no other word for it. His dyed black hair covered deep blue eyes, which were made more prominent by heavy eyeliner. He had on a tight fitting red and black striped long sleeve shirt with a black and white checked wristband on his right wrist. His pants were black and quite tight with the belt matching the wristband. In his ears were single small black loop earrings as well as a set of small headphones, which were hidden by the black and white checkered hood attached to the hooded jacket he was wearing. Black nails tapped on his table to the beat of the song as he stared seemingly deep in thought forward.

Fayt looked back to see his friends looking at him, their eyes pleading with him to volunteer and work with Brayden. Heaving himself up with a sigh Fayt responded to their pleas, "Fine, I'll work with him."

"You're the best man!" Pat said smiling brightly.

"Yeah, we owe you one," Jack said slapping his friends back.

"Yeah, well, I know you two can't stand Brayden," Fayt said as he gathered his books up and moved over to where Brayden was sitting, eyes gazing dully at the chalkboard. Fayt plopped his books loudly on the table where Brayden was sitting alone. Brayden started at the loud noise and glared up at Fayt.

"What?" he asked coldly.

"You don't have a partner right?" Fayt asked. Brayden barely shook his head and Fayt wasn't sure if he even had. "Well… I'll be your partner okay?"

Brayden looked up at him once again and nodded with a small, "Fine," escaping his lips. Fayt sat down with another sigh. This was going to be a long project; Brayden hadn't even taken off his earphones yet.

--

"So, you wanna hang out today?" Jack asked Fayt as the three friends walked home. "Maybe play some video games or something?"

"Can't," Fayt replied brushing his light brown hair out of his eyes with his free hand, his other was carrying books, "I'm working on the history with Brayden at my house at four."

"That sucks," Pat stated bluntly.

"Well, the sooner we get this project done the better I say," Fayt said thoughtfully looking up at the sky. They hadn't gotten anything done in class today and he preferred to get his work done early so he wasn't rushing the last day. "You guys should probably do that too," he said turning around and walking backwards so he could face his two friends. Jack shifted his eyes around guiltily, the two tended to leave things to last minute.

Pat simply waved his hand stating, "We'll get it done on time, and we always do."

"Yeah, but you end up rushing and do it all in one or two nights and spend those whole nights doing it,"

"Fine Mom, we'll work on it today. Happy now?" Pat replied exasperatedly. Fayt rolled his eyes; he knew they weren't going to work on it.

As the group approached his house Fayt bid goodbye to his friends and turned up his driveway. The first thing he noted was his mother's car was in the driveway. This meant either one of two things. Things had gone incredibly well in court today or horribly, horribly wrong.

Upon entering his house the scent of cookies wafted over him and he could hear a mellifluous hum coming from the kitchen. Things had gone well in court.

"Hey Mom, how was court?" Fayt asked as he sat down in front of the island.

Mrs. Lutes was a top-notch lawyer for a large firm in town. While she won a good wealth of her cases she was known to lose a few, and when she did she got a little testy and it was best not to get on her bad side. When she won though, well she baked the most delectable cookies Fayt had ever had. Needless to say Fayt was spoiled when it came to cookies.

"Oh it went fantastic!" she replied with a large smile as she placed several cookies in front of Fayt. "We won, of course," no one accused her of being humble, "Everything went perfectly according to plan." She heaved herself up onto the granite countertop sitting contently atop it as she preceded her son about her day in court.

Fayt and his mother looked remarkably similar. Both had the same light brown hair and deep chocolaty colored eyes. Mrs. Lutes looked quite young for her age, even after all the stress she was put through with her job and the death of her husband several years back. While she was in her mid-forties she looked to be fresh out of college with bright eyes and a constant smile. She was more like a big sister to Fayt than a mother; he wouldn't have it any other way.

After Mrs. Lutes had finished telling her story Fayt spoke up, "We just got a video project for History and a kid in my class needs to come over to work on it at like four. Is that okay?"

"Of course that's fine!" Mrs. Lutes said as she hopped off the counter. "Do I know him?" she asked curiously.

"I don't think so," Fayt said trying to remember if his mother had ever met Brayden before, "His name is Brayden Acker."

"Hmmm," she said thoughtfully placing her index finger on her lips, "I don't think I've ever met him before. What's the project on anyway?" The timer went off and she went to take out some more cookies.

"I'm gonna go do some homework," he said as he picked up his books and glanced at the clock. He had half an hour until Brayden came. That was enough time to do his homework; he didn't have much anyway and he could always do some at lunch if he had to.

--

Fayt had just closed his math notebook when the front doorbell rang. "I'll get it!" he called down to his mother and rushed from his room. He tumbled down the stairs sounding as if he were a ton of bricks and had to grab onto the railing to prevent himself from hitting the front door. With a flick of his wrist he unlocked the door, his mother liked to keep it locked even if they were home, and opened the door.

"Hey, come on in," he said to Brayden and quickly stepped out of the doorway to let Brayden in. A wave of relief flowed over him as he noted that Brayden had brought his books with him and he didn't seem to have his iPod with him. As Fayt closed the door his mother came out of the kitchen with a plate of fresh-baked cookies in her hand.

"You must be Brayden!" she said smiling warmly at him. Brayden just nodded mutely.

"Yeah, this is Brayden," Fayt said gesturing to him, "Brayden this is my mom."

"Hello," Brayden said quietly.

"We should get to work," Fayt suggested as he began to head upstairs.

"Why don't you two have some cookies while you work?" she suggested and all but thrust the plate into Brayden's hands.

Fayt rolled his eyes at his mother, "Thanks Mom." His mother winked at him knowingly. Fayt emitted a small groan as he felt his face flush and he quickly ushered Brayden up into his room.

"You can just throw your stuff on the bed," Fayt said as they entered his room. He turned to his computer quickly hitting the spacebar and Yellowcard began to play through the speakers. Fayt turned around just as Brayden was pulling of his sweatshirt jacket over his head, he didn't bother to unzip it and take it off that way, and saw the pale stretch of skin under his striped shirt as it rode up. Blushing he quickly turned away once he realized that he was staring.

Fayt knew he was gay and he had no real qualms with it. Still, he hadn't told any of his friends this and only his mother knew. She was actually quite accepting. When he first came out to her she was quite elated telling him she always wanted to have a gay son. His mom was a little weird.

It was odd though, he never thought he would be attracted to Brayden of all people. The two barely spoke at school, in fact this was the longest time they had actually been together outside of class. Although, that was also partly due to his friends as they seemed to detest Brayden.

Shaking his head in an attempt to regain his composure Fayt sat down on the floor. He patted the ground in front of him indicating for Brayden to sit in front of him. Placing the cookies in the between them Brayden sat down.

"So I think we should just, like, plan things out today and bounce ideas off of each other," Fayt said. Brayden simply looked at him and took out some paper and a pen. "We should probably do several smaller videos as opposed to one larger one," he continued.

"A larger one would be easier and less work," Brayden stated matter-of-factly.

"It may be," Fayt said thoughtfully, "but we can maximize points by doing multiple videos of a smaller size."

"Alright," Brayden said nodding slightly.

For about an hour the two bounced ideas off of each other. Fayt suggested several ideas he thought were good and Brayden shot down a few outright but replaced them with ideas of his own. In the end they had narrowed down their list to four videos meaning that each would be worth 25 points.

"I think that's good for today," Fayt said closing his notebook.

"Yeah," Brayden agreed and he stood up picking up his things and threw on his sweatshirt jacket.

Fayt led him to the door and Brayden exited the house, "See you tomorrow." Brayden simply raised his hand in acknowledgement. Fayt closed the door and turned around to face his mother.

"Did you just send him home?" she asked in seeming outrage.

"Um, yeah," Fayt replied coolly.

"I was going to ask him to stay for dinner!" she shouted the spoon she was holding flailing about wildly.

"He probably wouldn't have stayed anyway," Fayt replied trying to stifle his laughter at his mother's antics.

"You two would be cute together though," his mother replied wistfully.

"He's probably not gay Mom," Fayt said flatly.

"I bet he is," Mrs. Lutes said walking back into the kitchen. Fayt's mother could be quite immature at times.

--

"So what are you doing for your project?" Pat asked Fayt several days later as the triumvirate walked through the halls.

"A few different videos and such," Fayt replied, "A newscast, some 527 ads, that stuff. We figure we can maximize points with multiple smaller videos. Did you two start yet?"

"No…" Jack said looking at the ground and shuffling his feet. Fayt rolled his eyes; predictable.

"I'll be right back," Fayt said as he saw Brayden at his locker. He hurried over him ungracefully cutting across the traffic of the hallway. "Hey Brayden, do you want to come over after school to work on the project? We can write up scripts and stuff,"

"Sure," he replied over the roar of the hallway.

"Awesome, same time then?" he asked and Brayden nodded. "See you at four then," he replied with a smile and hurried back across the hallway to his friends, hitting several people on the way. "Sorry, had to set up another time to work on the project," Fayt explained as they began walking again.

"I'm so glad we're not working with him," Pat muttered darkly.

"Yeah, he's so rude and cold. He's got no emotion," Jack agreed.

"He's not bad really," Fayt said in a small voice.

"Whatever," the two replied.

Brayden arrived at Fayt's house at four that afternoon and the two quickly went to work on writing up the scripts for the project. Fayt had noticed that he seemed a bit paler than usual but figured it was just the lighting. They had gotten through two scripts and were just about to start the third when Fayt's mother entered the room.

"Brayden, would you like to stay for dinner?" she asked hopefully. "I'm making lasagna," she added upon seeing his doubtful face as if that would cement him into staying. Brayden looked at Fayt before replying.

"You should stay," Fayt said smiling.

"Alright, I'll stay," Brayden replied reluctantly.

"Oh, fantastic!" Mrs. Lutes exclaimed clasping her hands together, her eyes sparkling like a child's on Christmas morning. "Well come on! Dinner's ready," she said practically lifting the two boys off their chairs and ushering them down to the kitchen.

As they entered the room Fayt noticed that a third place was already set next to his. It seemed obvious that his mother was not going to take no for an answer.

The three sat down and Mrs. Lutes began dishing out the lasagna from a large pan in the middle of the table. After she had served everyone she sat down and began eating while looking at some paperwork at her side.

"Mom," Fayt said exasperatedly, "You practically beg Brayden to stay and then you do work during dinner."

"Oh," as if she just realized what she was doing, "I'm so sorry! It's just I got a wonderful case! A gay couple is suing New Jersey for not recognizing their marriage license. We're claiming that DOMA is unconstitutional on the grounds of the "Full Faith and Credit" clause of the constitution. It really is quite deplorable how people can be so ignorant and pigheaded on these subjects. I mean its quite obvious this is unconstitutional but the Supreme Court won't even touch this with a ten foot pole! We're hoping we can appeal up to there. It would be fabulous if we could get this legislation overturned."

Fayt knew why his mother was so adamant in winning this case. She wanted him to get married and come back to live in New Jersey, preferably to get married in New Jersey. He smiled at the thought of her winning a Supreme Court case.

"Can I have some more?" Brayden asked abruptly.

Fayt and his mother looked at Brayden blinking. They had barely sat down and Brayden had already finished his first helping.

"Well!" Mrs. Lutes exclaimed as she shoveled more food onto Brayden's plate, "At least someone appreciated my cooking."

Fayt stared at his mother flabbergasted, "Who said I didn't appreciate your cooking?"

"Well," she paused, "No one, but I've always wanted to say that," she smiled brightly at her son, who in turn rolled his eyes.

Fayt looked over to see Brayden shoveling food into his mouth as if he had never had a home cooked meal in his life and smiled softly to himself.

--

Fayt gasped several days later when he saw Brayden when he came over to finish up the scripts. His right eye was bruised as were several other spots on his face and his lip was split and bleeding a little. He was a mess.

"Wh-what happened?" he asked as he ushered Brayden into the kitchen.

"Some kids cornered me after school and beat me up," Brayden said shrugging.

Fayt hoisted Brayden up onto the top of the island as if he were a child and grabbing an icepack from the freezer he held it up against Brayden's eye, "Hold this here." He went to get a towel and wet it with warm water. "Who did it?" Fayt asked angrily.

Brayden shrugged, "Some football players." Brayden kept averting his gaze away from Fayt.

Fayt swore darkly under his breath as he began to clean way the blood from Brayden's lip.

How dare they hurt someone defenseless and weaker then them. Fayt couldn't believe what the football players got away with in their school. Everyone came second to them and they could do no wrong. They went around beating up kids they didn't like and hazing like there was no tomorrow. Fayt was pissed off.

Still, he tried not to let his anger show as he cleaned up Brayden's face. When he finished he tossed the towel onto the edge of the sink.

"At least we're not filming today right?" Fayt said jokingly as Brayden hopped off the countertop. Brayden smiled softly at him, still holding the icepack to his face, almost apologetically.

Fayt felt his heart skip a beat. That was the first time he had seen Brayden smile and it was directed at him. He was really glad his mother was working late because he knew his face was on fire right now and she would only have made it worse.

--

"If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we shall fight them to the uttermost, having behind us the producing masses of the nation and the world," Fayt stood behind a podium as he bellowed our the words. Before continuing he raised his hands up above his head, "Having behind us the commercial interests and the laboring interests and all the toiling masses, we shall answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them…"

After this Fayt lowered his hands to his sides and let his head fall limply against his chest and began to shout magniloquently, "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold!"

Fayt was met with silence as he finished his speech. After a few seconds he let his arms drop and raised his head to look at Brayden who was filming. "Well? How was I?" he asked.

Filming had begun several days before and they had just finished filming the third script, which featured a soundbyte of William Bryan's "Cross of Gold" speech.

"It was great," Brayden replied.

Fayt smiled back at him, "Good let's get back to my house and upload it onto the computer."

They had filmed this part of the video in the school auditorium as it best fit their needs for backgrounds. Quickly they picked up their things and headed back to Fayt's house, which was only a ten-minute walk.

Upon entering his room Brayden held the camera out to Fayt. He was about to grab it when Fayt noticed Brayden's wrist. Brayden's sleeve had ridden up a little on his arm and Fayt could make out a scar across his wrist. Brayden quickly pulled his sleeve down when he noticed that Fayt was staring.

"Brayden," Fayt said slowly, "What's on your wrist?"

"Nothing," he replied guiltily.

"You're lying," Fayt stated simply.

"I'm not," Brayden snapped back.

Not believing him in the slightest Fayt made a grab for Brayden's arm. The camera that Brayden was still holding fell to the carpeted floor with a soft clunk. Brayden didn't bother fighting back as Fayt pulled up his sleeve revealing thin scars running up his arm, several looked fresh.

"Did you… did you do this to yourself?" Fayt asked incredulously, worry filling his eyes. Brayden simply stared at the ground. "Why?" once again Brayden answered with silence. "I have to tell someone you know," Fayt finally said with a sigh. This caught Brayden's attention.

His headshot up and his eyes filled with fear, "You can't!"

"I have to,"

"I'll stop! I promise, just don't tell anyone," Brayden begged.

"I-," Fayt started to say. He wasn't sure exactly what he should do. Struggling with his answer for a moment he finally replied, "Fine… but you have to stop."

"I will," Brayden replied relieved. He quickly picked up his things to leave. Fayt didn't blame him for wanting to go home now. "See ya," Brayden said quickly.

"Bye," Fayt said as he watched Brayden's retreating form.

--

Fayt sighed softly and rested his head in his hands. Brayden had just left and they were almost done with the project. They only had a few minor touches left to put on the videos and then they would be done. He was still worried about Brayden though. There wasn't really any way to tell if he had stopped unless Fayt constantly checked his arms for new wounds.

Letting his eyes wander over his desk he noticed that Brayden had left his phone. Picking it up softly he twirled it around in his hands. Standing up he quickly slipped on his shoes and headed out the door, he was going to bring Brayden his phone.

Fayt arrived at Brayden's house relatively quickly; they didn't live too far from each other. Although he had never been to the house before he had seen Brayden enter and exit it on several occasions and he was positive that this was his home.

After knocking three times with no answer at the door Fayt tried to open it, finding it unlocked. The scent of alcohol nearly overwhelmed him as he stepped into the house. Empty beer bottles and cans littered the floor and furniture. "How does he live like this?" he whispered to himself.

He called out Brayden's name several times but there was no answer and so he began to explore the house. All the rooms were filled with empty bottles and cans except one room, which Fayt assumed was Brayden's bedroom. A sudden gasp from his right caught Fayt's attention.

There was a small bathroom there with the door wide open. On the floor in the bathroom was Brayden, a razorblade hovering over his outstretched arm. He had quite obviously seen Fayt.

Fayt dropped the phone. "You said you would stop!" he nearly yelled. "You have to stop! It's dangerous, you could kill yourself!" Fayt exclaimed frantically as he quickly made his way towards the bathroom.

Brayden stood up, dropping the blade to the floor, "Maybe that's what I want," he muttered.

Fayt froze. He couldn't understand it. Why would anyone want to kill themselves. He uttered his question aloud and Brayden became furious.

"You don't know anything! You've got a perfect life!" Brayden's blue eyes held anger, fear, and… loneliness within them as he said this. "I've got no one! My parents are drunks! I've got no friends! People beat me up practically every day at school. Why should I bother trying to live!" he was in tears now. They flowed quickly down his cheeks staining them with his black mascara.

Fayt looked down, his eyes soft and full of worry, "You have me… don't you?"

Brayden laughed coldly, "Right, until this project is over. Then you'll never talk to me again."

That was it Fayt realized. Brayden had been putting off completing the project so that they could hang out longer. Fayt knew what he had to tell him, the truth.

"That's not true," Fayt said quietly and he made his way until he was standing directly in front of Brayden who stood his ground. Fayt had never really noticed it but Brayden was a good six or seven inches shorter then him. "Because, I think I'm falling for you," with that he closed the distance between the two and placed his lips softly on Brayden's.

Brayden wasted no time and immediately responded to the kiss. He moved his hands up behind Fayt's neck entangling his hands in Fayt's hair. He pulled himself up onto his toes to give him better leverage. Fayt responded by sliding his hands down Brayden's sides until they reached the hem of his shirt. Swiftly sliding his hands under he softly caressed the pale skin underneath making Brayden arch into Fayt.

After a minute both needed air and they finally broke about. "Maybe… living won't be so bad," Brayden said breathlessly.