Nothing

The classroom had always been so noisy in the past. Now it was barren of any signs of life. If it weren't for the memories he still had of the place, it would have been easy for him to think that this place had never seen the light of day. William had always hated the sight of the classroom, just like every other child he had ever met. Forcing a group of a dozen or more ten year olds into a confined space for over two and a half hours, with an adult standing in front of them droning on endlessly about things that seemed utterly useless.
Math, English, Science, History- William had failed them all. And upon even further reflection, he realized that he had failed at even more than that.
School was, if nothing else, supposed to be the social grounds on which friendships were forged and people were beaten up for their lunch money. But for William, it had provided nothing of the sort. People had always seemed naturally weary of him, and the creepy aura he resinated did little to help his case. Even the other so called 'social outcasts' had long since washed their hands of him, because he had refused to participate in any of their 'group activities', which seemed to consist of complaining, and pretending to smoke.
Years passed by pretty quickly, and soon memories of the classroom had began to fade to the point that they became romanticised. He would find himself secretly yearning for the 'simpler days' at school, forgetting that life had always been the same. For him, and, in a convuluted way- everybody else.
Growing older, William was introduced to another source of pain and anxiety, in the form of relationships. It didn't take him long however, to figure out that they were something that he needed to avoid, if he were ever going to survive. Years passed by like seconds, and soon William found himself waking up in a small low-rent apartment, as an old man.
What is a human being? He once asked himself. How do we measure the worth of those around us? Was it through acheivements like work and sucsessful relationships? Because he had neither. Did we measure a persons worth by how happy their life had made them?
Because everything William had ever done, seemed only to make him sadder.
In every movie or televison program, there was always a main character. And there, just out of focus- were the others. They never seemed to speak, and nothing that they did had any effect on the world around them. As the main character went through a life changing story, the others continued their menial existances. Perhaps, William was one of *those* people. It was a sad title, but at least it was *something*.
As the time crawled by, the world around him started to change, while William stayed the same. He was locked in the hell of nothing. Having nothing to do, nothing to live for, no family or friends... just nothing. And then William realized his true worth.
His entire life, he had been nothing. From school, to the harsh world outside- he had always been nothing. He couldn't think of a single instance of his existance having any real substance to it. It had always been empty. And now that he had grown to old to keep the shell- he was truly nothing.
William looked at the night sky with a sense of worry slowly creeping up on him. But now, he had no choice. He had been a non-existance for too long. And now, he wanted to graduate to the next step.
The fall from the balcony was far, and it did the job rather well.
Now he wasn't just a lonely old man. Now, he really was just nothing.