Jay and Kay walked past Mr. Erwin's house on their way to school each day. He had known them since they were babies, coached their youth soccer team, and watched them grow up as a neighbor and family friend.

There was a streetlight in front of his house and as Jay and Kay waited for the signal to cross the street, Mr. Erwin often greeted them while sitting on the front porch drinking his coffee. With his own children grown and on their own, he missed those days when they were in school and enjoyed seeing the twins and their brief conversations where he received updates of how they were doing. Kay had made the cheering team, was nominated for homecoming queen, and was obsessed about her grades and getting an academic scholarship to college. Jay loved being in the school's marching band, making short films with his friends, and was happy with his straight Bs in school. Mr. Erwin was thrilled to hear that everything was going so well. They had always been good kids and it was gratifying to see them thrive as young adults.

Everything was great, or so he thought … until that time he badly sprained his ankle and had to sit on the couch by the front window for a week icing it. He wasn't able to greet the twins, but he heard them talk as they waited to cross the street. It was then he found out how much they were struggling.

Twins are known to be connected and share things with each other they wouldn't normally share with others. Jay and Kay were no exception. They talked about everything, and on their walk to school they talked about their innermost fears and darkest secrets; Mr. Erwin overheard snippets that made his heart ache as much as his ankle.

Underneath Kay's excitement about making the cheer team was a fear the size of Texas that she would mess up in front of thousands of people in the audience. And while she was nominated for homecoming queen, she didn't think she was pretty or popular enough to be considered. Jay encouraged her, as he always did, but she didn't see what he or others saw in her. And she was terrified of not getting into her dream school. What would happen if she worked as hard as she possibly could and it still wasn't good enough? She had trouble sleeping because of all the anxiety and started drinking a lot of coffee to get through the day.

Jay, on the other hand, didn't care much about school. He did care about his future but often felt hopeless about it. He was tired of being bullied by classmates who called him band geek and film boy and made it a point to knock into him while walking in the hallways between classes. With each passing day the stories Mr. Erwin heard got worse. One day, they punched Jay. The next day they hid his instrument when he went to the bathroom during class. The day after that they made fun of him in front of a girl he liked.

It was getting to the point Jay didn't want to go to school and revealed to Kay that he didn't want to live anymore. No one cared about his love of music or appreciated his ability to make movies. What was the point, he wondered. Kay made him promise he wouldn't do something they would regret.

“I couldn't live without you,” she said as she lifted her long-sleeved shirt to reveal the cut marks she had given herself. “See these cuts,” she said. “This is how stressed I am. But I would never end it all. I wouldn't do that to you, so don't do that to me.”

Mr. Erwin heard the worst of it on a Friday and knew that Monday he would be back on the front porch to greet them whether his ankle was healed or not.