In Secondary School, I was companionless. Nobody talked to me except for the jocks who informed me of the excess weight around my middle, and the preps who commented on how wearing black went out of style ages ago. I didn't know how to fit in or be social. I didn't know how to be human. I thought I'd always be alone, until one day, in the spring of my senior year, three years after I ran away from home, I met Bunny.

I was walking to my apartment from school with apocalyptic intentions for myself running through my head, when someone knocked the books from my grip. Staggering on hand and knee, I started picking up the scattered pages, while tears welled up in my eyes. The jocks and preps did this to me on a daily basis. I thought I'd grow use to it, but it kept getting harder and harder to deal with.

Seconds before I unleashed my tears, I heard someone yell extraordinarily. I looked up from the ground I was still knealing on and saw that my tormentors had all gone away. "They're just doing their homework for their 'Neanderthal 101' class," he said as he extended a hand to help me to my feet. "I'm Bunny. I just moved here from New York, in the States."

Bunny and I became friends almost immediately, with no help from me, as I was too busy being shier than I'd ever been before. I kept wondering if this was a dream, if this amazing person really wanted to be my friend. I soon opened up to him and told him everything about myself: how I ran away from home, how I started cutting myself to get by every day. I even told him how I planned on killing myself the day we met and that he had saved my life.

After we graduated, we started dating. Bunny was the first person I let see my scars, my true form. I gave him every piece of me, and he opened up a new world I never dreamed could be real. I found myself with more friends than I'd ever imagined having. I had a real job, rather than that vexing fast food job I'd somehow landed myself in. I went out almost every night. The popular kids from school didn't recognize me. Seeing how transformed I'd become was astonishing and I owed it all to one act of kindness.

Eventually, after growing tired of me, Bunny left me with no warning at all. My entire world shattered in an instant and I was alone once more. For months, I wasted away my days and nights drinking until I couldn't remember my problems, or anything else, and cut myself twice as much as I use to, making up for lost times I could have done it while I dated Bunny.

Weeks elapsed, and I discovered that Bunny and all the friends I made through him still wanted to be my friends. They got to know me when I finally came out of my shell, and liked me for being who I was. It made me happy to know they still cared about me, and I stopped drinking obsessively and sought out therapy for my self-injury problem and the doctor helped me get through the break-up. I found out what it really meant to have a friend, and love. I didn't need the aproval of anyone but myself.

What do we have if not ourselves? I am who I am. I cannot change that and I will not change that. I dress the way I dress, talk the way I talk, act the way I act, all out of an understanding that if I stay true to myself, then only those who remain true to me as well as themselves will remain close. Any man or woman ready to stand on his or her own two feet is the enemy to the world, and in the end, my best friend.