Zach was a good friend... towards just about everyone. He was kept shut in middle school, but whatever happened over the summer he just seemed to skyrocket. He was making friends with everyone it seemed, and his popularity managed to soar within only about the first month that school even started. It was impressive to say the very least; no one knew who Zachary was before, and now it seemed that everyone knew who he was.

What Zachary didn't know was that most of his friends were just after his money. After he shared that both his father and mother were basically rich and the word got around - Zachary Layton's parents are rich, and so was he - everyone just seemed to swarm towards him. He thought it was because of his personality, because he seemed to be like a person rather than what was in his pockets.

Zach made plans, gave out money, and talked to these people everyday as if it were his last. He had a genuinely good time, telling people his secrets, his dreams, his demons, everything, and people listened. They listened a bit too closely. Of course they would soon get tired of Zachary and have to drop him, finding him a bit too... much, in every aspect. So they were going to take what they wanted and leave him dry, practically ditch him without a second thought.

A particular rumor arose again that Zachary didn't hear about until it was too late. Multiple rumors had been brought to his attention before, but he didn't seem to care, thinking they were lies even though they weren't. He heard many rumors that supposedly went around: he worked as a male prostitute, his parents were crime lords, he's slept with practically everyone in the school. The basic rumors one would expect to hear, but he didn't think much of it because he thought his friends were a tight pact.

His world came crashing down on one particular lunch period when people were getting strangely avoidant of him, and he had zero clue as to why. Soft snickers and whispers seemed to follow him and his usual friend group wanted nothing to do with him. He assumed he did something wrong and sat elsewhere, still thinking nothing of it. The next day came and the same thing happened, so he ate alone once more. It wasn't until one more week of this that he heard the rumors himself and multiple people actually confronted him. The major rumor going around that he now heard everywhere was that he got paid to sleep with people.

He ended up snapping on one of his friends about it, the one who supposedly started the entire rumor ordeal, scaring her badly enough that she backed off immediately. Zachary was never all too fond of her anyway, always dragging him into her drama. Now he had to put up with rumors too? He was done.

Zachary was now sitting in the bathroom, highly unsanitary, sitting on the floor with his lunch bag beside him. There were orange peels on the floor and he was slowly picking off the slices and pulling off the stringy bits, placing them in a pile next to him. He was pissed at first but now he was just sitting there, staring, and not really sure of how to feel.

"Dammit, how fucking stupid do I have to be?" he muttered softly to himself, sighing. "Honestly, I don't know why I even bothered, got ahead of myself... damn..." He shook his head slowly before tilting it up against the tile wall, staring at the dim fluorescent lighting, the soft glow bouncing off his dark skin. "Guess they were right. God... this is all my fault, I should have listened.... should have listened."

Zachary shook his head slowly with a sigh. "Now I've got them in this mess... they'll never forgive me."