Thankfully, Gym class was over, and with it came lunch. A cheeseburger, some fries, a milk, it was a basic lunch, nothing too special. Yet, the lady took it all from him. Damien hadn’t paid his lunch fee, meaning he was in the negatives. Most of the time Damien had taken care of his own lunch tab, it was something he always told his mom not to worry about. He was pretty good with it too since he had his own job. Sometimes though he did forget. He was going to bring cash in, but the mundane loop of life flew by faster than he had realized.

  Sitting at his table, the empty one he sat at every day, he scrolled through his phone. His eyes glued on it, browsing social media. Damien didn’t have friends, at least not real life friends. His eyes would browse the entire cafeteria only to see that everyone was making their way to any table but his. It felt like a weird awkward tv show, maybe a movie, perhaps something phenomenal was on its way that would change his life forever. Damien didn’t really believe this though, he believed that this was the life he was given and nothing would change that.

  The bell rang, and lunch was over. He was sluggish, a little more tiresome without having any food in his system but he had worked through school like this before. The rest of the day should have been normal, but Damien's loop was about to be shattered.

  Standing at the desk of Mr. Cliffe, he looked stunned. The teacher had met him in the hallway and suggested he follow him back to his classroom, and Damien did. Mr. Cliffe was his favorite teacher, even if he fell asleep in his class often, but Mr. Cliffe saw Damien as a real human. He was the only teacher he felt took his side, and seemed to care.

  Damien stared at Mr. Cliffe, his eyes blinking a few times realizing what was said. ‘Your about to fail your junior year,’ the words were like bullets to his gut. Damien did not want to retake a single year of school, another year of the loop was something he couldn’t handle. He was a C student on average, but his grades were dropping pretty extreme this semester.

  Maybe it was the bullying was growing worse, or his home life felt more draining, either way Damien just stopped retaining information this semester. He tried to fight back to realization, he should have expected this. The loop would never brake, it was immortal, another cog in the machine. Three years from now, it will be the same things except college. Well, what was Damien thinking? Full time job, he would never make it into college. Damien nodded softly, his weak voice speaking for the second time that day. “Of course. I'll try harder,” Mr. Cliffe proceeded to tell him what he needed on the finals to slip by. Damien didn’t listen.

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  Slowly leaving the class room, his head smacked the locker closest to him. His body shook like he hit a metal bat against a metal pole and the vibration shook his core. Turning, holding his head, it was none other than Billy Aldian (Aldi-and). He was a high school snob, one that had money to back him up as well.

  Billy was the son of the nearby factory owner, the same factory Damien's mother worked at to be exact. They were an off-brand version of Amazon, but one that was still widely used enough to make Billy a nice heir to a fortune. Damien wanted to fight back, but he was always threatened that his mom would be fired if Billy was ever touched.

  Around him he could hear the laughter, people mocking him, teasing him. He wished he had felt something, but it was numbness, he was used to all of this Billy couldn’t change or make it any worse than he already had. Looking up, his eyes met hers.

  Lucy Vandin, (Van-Din) she had been Damien's childhood best friend for the longest time, atleast, they used to be. Lucy grew up near Damien, they spent the summers playing together, they had a love only two friends could have. This changed pretty quickly though, Damien had made a choice that caused a splinter in everything. The way people viewed him, but most importantly, how he viewed everyone else.

  Lucy never stopped growing, she focused on school and hobbies and she became friends with more people. This made Damien feel like he was falling behind, but instead of trying to fix it he cut her out. He was just a ghost to her, one that she acknowledged every day with looking at him, but too scared to talk to.

  School finally ended, the day felt like it had dragged on more so than usual. Maybe because Damien was given the news he was, maybe because the loop was fractured from the news, or maybe he just got tired of all the thoughts that were slowly and quietly screaming inside of his head. Whatever the reason, the school day was over and Damien headed to his job.

  Damien didn’t have a vehicle, how could he when they barely were able to survive as it was. His mom’s car broke down, but thankfully she could walk to the factory. It put into perspective that Damien was trapped in this town for life.

  You know those little hallmark towns? Ones where magic is brought with Christmas cheer? That cheesy crap where people dance and sing and find spirit in some weird way? That was what Damien lived in. The perfect paradise ripped out of a movie and glued to some little nowhere with large forests, pretty parks, and 50 mile walk to any major city, bus and train station.

  He knew he wouldn’t have left if he could anyways, as much as he wanted to, his mom couldn’t survive without him. Everything she did was for him, his eyes glued on the side walk as he took each step slow and steady. People walked past him, for a small town it was always busy in the downtown area.

  Damien stopped and he looked up at the small little store he worked at, Giant Market, a 10 aisle grocery store that faced the woods. Moving through the parking lot he knew in his heart, today was going to be like every other.