Chapter 1

It was Halloween night when I first met him. I had of course seen him before in school, it was hard not to notice him with his raven hair tied back in a low ponytail and secret eye color. I was pretty sure no one knew his true eye color, after all it couldn't possibly be red... right?

As I do each year, I didn't really dress up, I had more or less just put on a bit more intense makeup than I usually do. I didn't even want to go to this stupid neighborhood Halloween party, I had wanted to stay in my room and watch movies that scared the shit out of me, but my parents said it would be 'good for you to socialize a little', bullshit, some people don't do well in crowds, such as myself, and its actually quite stressful to deal with this many people.

I sat in a corner, hoping desperately no one would come near me and try to talk... this hope was of course pointless as he approached me. He was dressed as a vampire, complete with fake blood, really realistic looking fangs, and, what a shocker, red eyes. Come to think of it... he didn't live in my neighborhood, so what was he doing here?

"Hello," he greeted quietly, pulling me out of my thoughts, "my name is Sage."

"Its nice to meet you, Sage," I greeted back with forced politeness, "I'm River."

Just then the most bubbly person in the entire world, the literal personification of the sun, peaked out from behind Sage, bright smile on her face. I had known her since the 3rd grade, and like everyone else in school, I just couldn't help smiling back at her, even if it were an awkward smile.

"Hey River! I see you've met my friend." Misty giggled, she had decided to cosplay as Izuku Midoriya (well with a slight hair modification) her normally natural red pixie cut hair temporarily dyed green, her usually bright blue eyes covered with green contact lenses, and, probably the most adorable thing about her, cute little freckles on full display.

"Yeah, we've met." I replied uncomfortably, I may have known Misty since I was young and while her presence was calming, she was still not someone I knew very well and that unsettled me a bit.

"Are you... okay?" Sage asked me. Before I had a chance to answer, Misty replied for me.

"She's fine, she's always like this, she's just shy."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Shall we be going then, Mist?" Sage turned to his friend, who nodded happily, "alright, bye River." They waved to me and then left me to my corner.

Content with this I opened up an app on my phone and got caught up on a manga series that I enjoyed while I waited for my parents to finish up socializing so we could finally go home. Knowing my mom and dad it would be several more hours until we could leave.

It was well past midnight and I had fallen asleep when my mom shook my shoulder and we left.

"Where's dad?"

"He's... not going to come home with us tonight."

She didn't have to explain, I understood immediately and it made my blood boil, for once could he just behave like an adult? For once could he be responsible? For once could he just have some fucking self control?

I locked the door when we got home, I didn't give a fuck if it made him pissed off, he shouldn't have drank so much that he passed out at our neighbor's house. I knew it embarrassed my mom to be married to someone who acted like he did, I honestly don't even know why she stayed with him, but she did, and I knew she would be crying herself to sleep tonight.

I knew I was right when I heard her crying as I laid on my bed trying to fall asleep, but my over active mind not allowing me to. I sighed and opened Spotify on my phone, tapping on my playlist for nights like this and plugging in my headphones, letting myself get lost in the melody, closing my eyes and just letting my whole body relax, I doubted sleep would come, but at least I could calm down a bit.