Stumbling in your footsteps - Mattdock

(7) The taste you can't spit out

"N-Nick probably hates me" I admit in a weak voice, I may not spend a lot of time with my mom, but I know that she won't tell the rest of the family if I don't want her to.

"Who is Nick?" She asks sweetly and I smile a bit as I think of him.

"He's my boyfriend... I mean, he probably wants to break up now" I say getting sad.

"What happend, honey?" She asks now even more concerned.

"I couldn't protect him" I say as a tear rolls down my cheek.

"Protect him from what?" My mom asked and I broke down, not being able to even talk.

Sheila walked into the room rubbing her eyes, I probably woke her up.

(Damn, I just got really scared, I was looking at my wall, and I have one of those walls you can draw with chalk and I thought the drawing of a little star was a huge spider, I nearly screeched... sorry for the interruption)

"What happend?" She asked and then her eyes widened "why is he crying".

She kneeled down next to my bed and tried to calm me down as my mom did the same. I'm lucky I have such a caring family, I should've brough Nick with me, I was so dumb.

My mom looked at me as if asking if she could tell Sheila, I didn't do anything but cry, so she thankfully took it as a no.

"He said he didn't wanna go to school, I asked him why and if it was related to whatever happend this Saturday and he started to cry" my mom said, she still saud more than I wanted Sheila to know, but what can I do now.

"But what happend in that Saturday?" Sheila asked and my mom shook her head as I cried harder.

"I don't know" she answered "you can skip school too, if you want to, your dad has already left to work, but I'll ask if he can come home earlier, and Johnny" she looked at me "you need to tell us what happend, we can't help if we don't know what happend" I just nodded, I knew they just wanted to help, and I needed to get this out, but I decided I wouldn't tell any names, I know Nick doesn't want anyone to know, my mom already knows it's Nick, but later I will tell it was a friend.

Once I calmed down they were still there.

"Thank you" I said almost in a whisper and my mom hugs me.

"You got issues, I got tissues" my mom said jokingly making me laugh softly.

//Nick's pov//

I was sitting in history class and paying zero attention.

Johnny didn't show up today, I was right, he's mad at me, he didn't say anything since Saturday.

Someone tapped my shoulder and I looked up going instantly pale.

"Can I sit here" Steve said pointing to the seat next to me, and acting as if he didn't know me.

"Why?" I asked rudely, I mean, there was a lot of empty seats around this room, why did he choose that one.

"Well, the teacher made me change seats and told me to sit here" he answered with a smirk.

"Do I have a choice?" I asked and he shook his head sitting next to me on the two-seats desk.

I knew this wouldn't go well, I was scared, so I got as far as possible from him as I could, but he just got closer and some people around us laughed.

"Jones, get a hold of yourself, and stop bothering the poor boy" I think that was the first time this teacher got mad at anyone, she's usually one of those old ladies who go around giving biscuits to students who seem sad, she was the only teacher I didn't hate.