By the time the bell rang, I was exhausted. Not physically mind you, I hadn’t been out running around with the rest of my class, but mentally.

  I didn’t enjoy being isolated from my peers, but over the years I’d developed coping mechanisms to help me deal with the situation. School was honestly pretty easy to deal with, most days anyways. More than ninety percent of the day was spent in class, or doing individual desk work, where I could dig into my studies and ignore the world around me. During breaks, I typically just stayed at my desk and read. My classmates didn’t bother me, and I didn’t bother them.

  It was only during the days where I was forced to interact with the others, that I was reminded how isolated I really was.

  While the rest of my class was busy cleaning up and getting organized, I trudged back up the hill towards the massive slab that was my highschool. When I passed the teachers, no one stopped me. Hell, most of them probably would have let me go early, if I’d asked, but that would have just forced me to deal with an entirely different issue. Easier to wait.

  After stepping into the building I swiftly made my way to my locker, grabbed my bag and coat, and slipped out the front before everyone else showed up.

  Squinting as I stepped back into the bright afternoon sun, I was surprised to find a figure waiting for me.

  Not a human, it was an eight foot tall anthropomorphic highland cow bull. It looked like a mascot, or plushy, standing on its hind legs, waving wildly in my direction.

  “Hairy,” I hissed. “What are you doing here?” I glanced around and noticed a woman across the street looking at me so I stood up straight, and started walking towards home, doing my best to not look directly at the shaggy red bull.

  “I came to meet you. It was sports day today, and I figured you might need a little support. Did you make any friends today?”

  “Of course I didn’t,” I muttered under my breath. “It was as horrible as always.”

  “Do you need a hug?” the massive bull asked, leaning in close.

  “Not right now! I might be able to get away with talking to myself, but I’m sure people would ask questions if I stopped and hugged an invisible friend in the middle of the street.”

  Hairy looked at my aghast. “I’m not invisible, I’m imaginary! Your Imaginary friend!”

  “Yes, yes, but I’m the only one that can see you guys, so that doesn’t matter,” I replied, before pausing and looking directly at Hairy. “Are you the only one that came out? Where are Angelica and Tyberius?”

  “You know how they are, they’re not as comfortable as I am being out in public without you,” Hairy explained.

  “So they stayed home?”

  “Of course not, you know how worried they get. They wanted to give you some space in case you needed it, so they’ve been following us from a distance.” The bull looked around briefly, then waved at the nearby alley. “There they are.”

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  Spinning in place, I glared into the alley. It was dark, and so chock full of garbage, that I’d never be able to get inside. That wouldn’t stop those two though. “Do you two want to come out, or are you going to spy on me the entire way home?”

  Slowly, a shape took form in the gloom. A large ethereal head, reminiscent of a Portuguese man-o-war jellyfish, with hundreds of long tendrils hanging below it. Even as the shape emerged from the alley, I still couldn’t make out their full shape clearly. I sighed. “Angelica, anything to say for yourself?”

  “We were just worried about you! I know you’re in highschool now, and don’t need us to hover around you, but I just needed to know you were alright,” the jellyfish-like being cried, before wrapping me in her tendrils. I knew those same tendrils could conduct electricity, I’d seen Angelica send sparks and arcs out of them many times before, but she never did it when she was anywhere near me.

  “I know, thank you for worrying,” I whispered, patting the limbs lightly.

  While Angelica was cuddling with me, a quiet clicking noise emerged from the alley. Turning back, I spotted a second figure slowly emerging from the darkness. Dozens of long, spindly, corroded metal legs attached to a central arachnid form. Despite being metallic, it didn’t look robotic, more like a rusty, living metal organism.

  Tyberius raised his arms, which he only had two, in surrender. “Sorry Lass. I know you like your privacy, but I also know how you get on days like this.”

  “I know. Thank you for worrying about me,” I replied quietly, before reaching up and giving one of his hands a quick squeeze.

  Hairy whined, like a dog, and pawed at my shoulder until I turned towards him. “Fine, hug,” I huffed.

  The big bull grabbed me in a bone crushing hug. None of my friends could actually touch me, they were just imaginary after all, but they were real enough to me that I could actually feel their touch.

  When he was finally done, I quickly looked around again. Thankfully the streets were fairly empty, so no one else had stopped to stare at the strange girl interacting with her imaginary friends.

  Suddenly self-conscious of the situation, I quickly adjusted my backpack, glanced at my friends and whispered, “Let’s go.”

  As the four of us made our way down the street I made sure to keep my eyes up. Although my neighborhood wasn’t the worst place to live, it wasn’t great either. Most of the buildings in the area were old, rundown brick apartment buildings with metal bars over all the windows. There was garbage and graffiti everywhere, and only half of the streetlights worked. Even though the streets were usually fairly safe, I’d had a couple run-ins with wanna-be muggers, drunks, and drug users over the years, so I always tried to stay aware of my surroundings.

  “So, your day wasn’t that bad?” Angelica asked as we traveled down the street. I wouldn’t exactly say walk, since she was floating, and Tyberius was skittering down the wall.

  “No, it was as horrible as I expected. One of my teachers who didn’t understand my situation forced me to participate in a game,” I grumbled.

  “In all fairness, no one fully understands your situation. Not even you,” Tyberius said.

  “I understand that. I do!” I pouted. “I’ve been dealing with it for the last ten years, but it still hurts when I see everyone my age shy away whenever I get close.”

  “I know honey. It’s not your fault,” Angelica crooned, as she stroked my hair.

  Hairy huffed in anger, and jogged a few steps ahead and turned back towards me, fists balled. “Do you want me to go beat them up?”

  I snorted. “Who? My teacher? My classmates? No thanks. First of all, it’s not their fault, not really. Besides, what could you possibly do? You can’t touch them.”

  “I can try! If it makes you feel better!” the bull declared proudly.

  “Thanks, but that’s not necessary. I’m not so immature that I need you to shadowbox my teacher to feel better. Just knowing you care is enough.”

  Hairy relaxed his fists, and nodded proudly, before marching ahead of our little group. Leading our way home. I giggled quietly. Hairy trying to fight someone wouldn’t have made me feel better, but his childish antics sure did.

  Walking up to the last intersection before arriving home, we paused as the don’t walk signal flashed red. As we waited, three police cars drove by, splitting up at the intersection. I couldn’t help but stare as they did. It wasn’t rare to see a police car around here, responding to some sort of petty crime in the area, but I’d never seen so many all at once. Their lights weren’t on, but the police inside seemed especially alert.

  “What do you think that’s about?” I muttered.

  “I don’t know. Nothing good,” Tyberius answered quietly. “Let’s hurry home.”

  I nodded slightly, and waited a few more seconds until the signal changed before jogging across the street. It didn’t take long to get to my apartment building, it was only the third building on the block. My apartment didn’t have much to differentiate it from the other old, dirty brick buildings in the area. It had the same graffiti and garbage piled up, but it also had the front door and several ground windows boarded up. Despite being destroyed months ago, the landlord never bothered to fix them. I had a feeling he never would, boarding them up was cheaper.

  I slowly climbed up the cracked concrete steps, holding on to the railing to keep me from falling if parts of it crumbled, before pushing open the ricketty front doors. I stepped through the door, dropping my guard for the first time since I left school, and began digging through my pockets for my keys.

  That was a mistake, because if I’d been paying attention I wouldn’t have been smashed in the face with a broom.

  Discord!

  Check out my Stories:

  Support me!

  Finally: Big thanks to all those people that review my draft, the chapters would be a lot rougher without your feedback!