January First, Two Thousand and Ten.

In the last year, he had lost almost everything. He hadn't lost Melody, and he had gained Grayson, but everyone else was dead. Lucas Hendricks was dead. Most people from Barren Pines were dead without burial. Were dead and zombies still, for all he knew.

When he sat down and let his mind wander to it, he could feel his eyes burn. He was trying to prevent it, but he was alone...

But he wasn't going to cry anymore. Babies cried. He wasn't a baby.

Ignacio glanced over to the champagne bottle left on the end table and sighed. He took a small plastic cup and poured the alcohol in, taking a small sip. It burned. It was comforting, in a way.

"Mijo, you're going in as a senior."

And then he was not alone. Ignacio gulped the rest down, ignoring the horrid sensation it left behind.

"PAPA."

Really? He had went missing as a junior.

"Mijo, I don't want to hear it. You're going to graduate like everyone else. I already worked it out with the Meadowview administration."

That just meant Baldomero Ignacio Araya had just yelled their ears off until they had buckled and said, "Okay, fine!!" Ignacio had already finished all of his standardized testing anyway. His father had insisted he study extra over the sophomore summer and take them during the junior year winter.

Just before he disappeared, actually.

"Here's your schedule, Mijo."

Blink. Blink.

"...This is an overload. There's no study periods."

And where the hell was his lunch period? No, no, no, he was not taking his lunch to class again. Hell no.

"That's why it's called homework, Mijo. Why do you argue! You're going to get a diploma with all the other Meadowview kids and attend a good college."

Ignacio glanced longingly over at the alcohol bottle. Perhaps with another drink, he could reason this out... Of course, his father wouldn't let him have that. He swiped up the champagne and glanced at him with a scolding expression. "Who let you have this, anyway?"

He couldn't win.

"Mama, Papa. Mama said that it was alright for me to have a little drink on New Years'. I'm seventeen, it's 2010, and I just escaped from a year of being dead. Give me a break." Ignacio was glancing ahead at the television now, not even looking at his father. The television was off.

This was the ultimate show of disrespect to Baldomero. "That's the type of attitude will leave you a bum at age thirty! No Araya shall be a bum, Ignacio Cesar Araya! No Araya that lives under my roof!"

Dammit, he was in trouble. "Yes, Papa. I know, Papa. I won't be a bum, Papa. I'll get a job as a CEO, Papa. I'll make you proud, Papa." Couldn't he be left in peace?

Papa Araya glared with a glare that could kill kittens, but it was also clear he wasn't in the mood for this. It was January First, 2010. "Ignacio, we'll talk more about this later. When you're not so heady." With that, he stormed out.

Leaving Ignacio alone again, sitting on a loveseat facing a television.

And he buried his head in his knees and cried.

For Lucas. For Barren Pines.

For himself.