My entry for the PPG Hub Drabble Contest. It didn't win, but I'm still proud of this nonetheless. Enjoy.

Outside

Somewei

New.

He hated the sound of that word and all that it implied. To him, it didn't mean something shiny and unused, beautiful and clean in its purity. To him, the word 'new' was lonely. It implied being ostracized, alone, stared at. It meant being the one left out when the time came for picking teams or sharing an inside joke, being the odd one out, the third wheel. It meant staring at everyone else stare at him.

He had been new before and he hated it. He hated that he didn't fit in with anyone. He hated the fact that, despite trying to make friends, they always shunned him. It nearly made him hate his own age group, if not for the fact he desperately wanted a friend. Someone who understood his shyness and his quiet disposition, and someone who could make him laugh and he could make them laugh in return.

Pokey Oaks was going to be no different.

"You'll make friends, Mike," Mom tells him. "You'll see, it won't be so bad."

She didn't understand. Didn't understand how hard it was for him to reach out. He was five and already embittered towards children his own age. He was shy and couldn't make friends easily. Kids thought he was weird because of it. Why, he thought as his mom placed his backpack on his back and gently shoved him out the door, would this be any different?

He walks behind his classmates, surveying them, eyeing their interactions. They laughed and giggled and played and paid him no mind. Of course they wouldn't. He was new. He was lonely. He was the outsider to their world, a visitor, a parasite to their comfortable lives. He had not the heart or the courage to go up to them, even if he wanted to. And besides, they would just ignore him even if he did.

He hides behind Ms. Keane's legs, unable to face the people that were going to be his classmates. Hearing them whisper his name, Mike Believe, made him nervous. And being shoved in front of their eyes, like vultures trying to pick apart his self-esteem, seemed too much for him to bear.

They were nice, he supposed, but he was like the new animal in the zoo. They only paid attention to him because he was a new commodity. New – solitary, friendless, alone. New – being stared at and laughed at, but ultimately forgotten when his newness wore off. They were nice, but they were all the same. Like the kids from his other school – they didn't care. They didn't want to be his friend. He was just a commodity. And it was so painful to reach out to these kids. But how he wanted a friend.

I could be your friend, he hears whispered to him. I could understand you, make you laugh, and show these thoughtless children that you are not strange.

The voice speaks to him. He wants that friend. He wants to be the child that's in on the inside joke instead of on the outside. He wants to be the kid that laughs, that stares, that isn't lonely. So, he takes the offer.

"I want to be your friend," he murmurs back. "I want to be your friend. Come play with me."

Patches will be your friend, Mike hears, laughter echoing in the air. Patches will make you laugh. Patches will show them you are not alone. Patches will make them the outsiders this time. Trust Patches, listen to Patches, know that Patches is your friend.

It's twisted and desperate. Laughing at his imaginary friend's cruelty to the other children, snickering in the background like his obnoxious classmates, and having that inside joke. It was twisted, odd, and desperate, but he took the chance. He ignored the cruelty in favor of laughter. He ignored the jokes on others in favor of friendship. He ignored the irritation on their faces because he finally had one.

All Mike Believe wanted as a friend. Patches was the one to give him that friendship. He was finally on the inside.