Title: Friends

Author: AntipodeanOpaleye

Rating: PG

Summary: He has friends. At least, he thinks he does. But he likes this one best.

Disclaimer: Everything you r

ecognize from any other source either doesn't belong to me or is a purely coincidental occurrence. Anything that you've never seen probably belongs to me. I write for enjoyment and no copyright infringement is intended.

A/N: Can't say that I have any idea where this one came from. Incredibly random, and completely unprovoked. Maybe because of the Director's Cut release, but hey - I've been trying to figure out something to write in the Donnie Darko universe for some time now. This isn't at all what I had in mind, but hey; I'll take what I can get.

Enjoy, and please review.

AO

I have friends.

I would never go so far as to say I am popular. I'm not, by any stretch of the imagination. Most people don't even like me. Not really.

I guess I'm not particularly personable.

I was not always thus. Not always. I was once young and innocent. Before all this, I wasn't as I am now. I had a family. I loved someone. I've felt loss.

I feel it now.

They fear me, or are so utterly enamoured with me that they cannot get enough of the anomaly that is myself. But he likes me. At least, I think he does.

I wish things were different.

I'm never where I should be; I never make sense. I shouldn't be speaking with him, I shouldn't be asking him these things. I shouldn't have kept driving. I shouldn't have led him, nor should I have made him do those things. I shouldn't have convinced him to pull the trigger.

I shouldn't be here.

But neither should he.

I don't want to tell him it's over. I don't want to condemn him. I'm sorry; so very sorry.

I am sorry. Truly and deeply so.

I cannot see myself. Reflected in his eyes, as he stares at me - I see a face, but it is not my face. I see a nose, but it doesn't belong to me. I see lips, and a mouth, but they are not my own.

I do not like what I see.

And soon, it will not matter.

But oh yes. I have many friends.

One of them told his psychiatrist about me. I like him best.