a/n based off Kate Miller-Heidke's Caught in the Crowd. I know this is in the wrong category. But I am going to add another chapter later.. :) so please review, it'd mean heaps to me.

I took a deep breath and walked up the path I should have years ago. I actually shouldn’t even be doing this. I should never have let it happen. I walked up to the front door and slowly knocked on the door. I waited patiently for the door to open. When it finally did, the person to answer looked at me confused.

“I don’t want to buy anything.” the guy concluded before I could even open my mouth. He was about to close the door when I spoke.

“Ah, no! James, it’s Grace.” I spoke quietly but he obviously heard me because he re-opened the door. He looked at me, trying to read me. Maybe not believing me, perhaps not remembering any Grace.

“Grace Milne?” he asked and I nodded. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to apologise.”

-

Flashback

This was the usual. I met this guy one year ago. I didn’t even know his name! All I knew about him was that he was really fast on his bike. We’d get to the last big hill near our school, which just so happened to go down, and we’d race to the gate. We only ever saw each other before school. I had never seen him at school. One day I couldn’t hack it, we’d be racing for a year and I didn’t know his name.

“Hey!” I called after him as he put his bike in the rack. He turned to me with a quizzical look on his face. “Dude, what’s your name?”

“… James.” he mumbled the first part of the sentence making it impossible to understand. I nodded at him,

“I’m Grace. Nice meeting you.” I said teasingly.

-

I saw the familiar dark hair of James. I also saw his tall stature. I’d actually seen him a few days ago, just walking around the oval, he did laps until the bell sounded. While I was playing a game of football on the oval I had heard the guys call him weird, to which he just shrugged his shoulders. I should’ve told them not to do it, I don’t know why I did it. I walked over to him while the ball was at the other end of the ground.

“Boo!” I jumped in front of him. He laughed and kept walking, he walks really fast so I had to jog to walk next to him. He didn’t say anything much for a bit, neither did I particularly.

“How’s life?” he asked randomly.

“Life? Life is pretty suckish. My ‘rents… they’re sorta gettin divorced…so there is this massive custody battle over me and my little brother. I knew it’d come ya know… the constant fighting sorta gave it away.” I shrugged after seeing the concerned look on his face.

“Yeah, I’ve been there before. Mum remarried to a total knob. Always startin fights with me.” he stated kicking a stone that was at his feet. “Thinks his daughter’s some little angel. Ya know Bianca Charleston?” I nodded and thought of the biggest whore not only in our year, but in the whole school. “Yeah, that’s his daughter.” I laughed at him. That was pretty freaking funny. “I tried to tell him once. Gave me a blood lip.” he told me and I frowned.

“What music do you like?” I decided to change the subject quickly.

“Punk, The Offspring, The Suicide Machines… Avail?” his words getting more uncertain every second. “You’ve never heard of them?” I shook my head smiling. “What type of music do you like?” he asked back. “Boy bands?” he guessed and I blushed,

“Yeah. Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC… New Kids on the Block?” my sentence was like his, except I am pretty sure he was looking at me because he thought I was an alien, then he began laughing. “I like pop.” I huffed.

“Obviously.” he said still laughing. “Have you ever heard of the Sex Pistols?” he asked changing back to his taste in music. This time I laughed. I was laughing at the name, I am pretty immature.

“There goes the bell.” I said slowly and began to walk across the oval back to the school building.

-

The next week after the final bell had rang. Kids running through the corridor to catch buses, catch up to there friends to tell them that a cute boy passed them a note in class. Or just running to get as far away as possible. I walked out of my classroom to see Brian, Dominic and Matthew push James to the ground, thudding as his ass collide with the concrete. His bag flew across the hall, people ducking so they wouldn’t get hit.

“Dude. Why are you running? You got no friends. No one cares if you miss your bus. I know you like school… any reason you’re running?” the leader, Dominic, shouted at the poor guy.

“I have friends!” he said defensively and stood up to begin looking around for someone that might back him up. I hid behind groups of people. Dominic, Brian and Matthew knew who I was. If they knew I was friends with James, I’d be an outcast. “Grace!” he shouted when he saw me. I closed my eyes and thought about what to do. What I did I never forgot. I turned my back to let him get beaten by the three other guys.

End Flashback

“James, I just wanted to say I’m sorry. At the time I was worried about my reputation. I was young and stupid and didn’t know what a true friend was! But I do now. And you were a true friend. I’m really sorry. If I could take it back, I would James.” I said sincerely looking up at him for some hint of forgiveness.

“It’s cool Grace. Those guys got what was coming to em anyway.” he laughed. All three of them had been caught dealing drugs and trying to smuggle them out of the country. “Wanna come in for a cuppa?” he asked generously and I followed him through the door, closing it carefully behind me. I am no longer Caught in the Crowd.