Role Models

30// week one

That freaky little switch in his brain flipped and I saw his eyes go dark. "I would fucking destroy you before you ever even made it to the principal's office." His voice was raspy and I could imagine anger dripping from the corners of his mouth when I watched him talk. He was pissed. "Don't go around making threats like that, Shooter. It'll get you slaughtered." Payton chimed, nudging my shoulder in a not-so-friendly way. "Exactly." Clay picked up. "Because if you think what we're doing now is bad, you don't know the half of it. I can and will make you wish you were never born if you ever think about ratting me out again. Got it?"

A tiny laugh escaped my lips and if I could get my hands free from where Payton now held them behind my back I would have facepalmed myself over it.

"What's funny?" Clay growled, staring me down with every ounce of effort he had. "It's just- did you get that line from a bully starter kit or something? I mean, you have to admit it was a little-" I was interrupted by the sensation of his sticky, cold sprite running down my face and inside my shirt as he flipped the can over above me. Wet fabric clung to my chest and I squirmed and the discomfort of it. "-cliche." I finished my sentence with a scrunched face, damn near gagging at the syrupy drink moving into all of the wrong areas on my head and torso. "You done now?" He asked me, tossing the empty container to the ground after crushing it between his fingers. I shrugged sarcastically, so in retaliation he grabbed the piece of gum from his mouth.

Knowing what he was doing I quickly started to struggle, but between his hold on my shirt and Payton keeping my arms restrained it was pointless. "Okay, okay, sorry! I'm done, man." The gum came closer to where I knew it was going so I begged more, much to the two guys' entertainment. "Seriously, my bad! That's fucking nasty, stop-" Clay relentlessly ignored my pleas and mashed the chewed gum into my hair making me wriggle around even more than I had been, but it was too late for me to dodge his hands now. I could feel him pulling at the locks of hair on my head to make sure as much of it got stuck in the substance as possible, and by then I just stood still and took it. There was nothing I could do to stop him, why waste my energy?

"That's better, right?" He took a step back to admire his work, holding up his hands like he was framing some picturesque nature scene. Payton released my arms finally and I tried to roll out the tension in my wrists subtly. While they were standing there laughing at me the first bell signaling the end of the period rang. I sighed knowing there was no way I'd be on time to my second class now. "Shit, already?" Clay had a similar reaction to mine, looking up at the silver bell on the wall. Sometimes you could see it rattle around from the poor installation of the cover over it, so I watched too since there was nothing better to look at. There are five minutes between every set of bells so I needed to get the fuck out of there asap if I didn't want detention.

"I have to go, my second period is with Muller." Payton groaned, conveniently forgetting to mention I also have her and she's a real stickler for attendance. "Oh, god. You better run if you don't want Saturday school this weekend." Clay teased, pretending to shoo him away. "Well what're you gonna do with him?" They talked about me like I wasn't standing right next to them, plotting my escape meticulously. "I have an idea." That snapped me out of my trance staring at the exit behind Clay.

"Can I just go? I'm already a fucking mess." I knew he would never just let me go, but I figured even he had a class to get to so maybe I had a chance of getting off relatively unscathed. I could feel Clay and Payton make eye contact and the air got thick.

"Let me help you clean off, then." Time slowed down at that moment, so much so it seemed like nothing was even happening at first. Then Clay lunged at me. I had no way past him, we were standing on only about a six or seven foot floor space between two pools and he was blocking the center. I still tried to push through his arms though, because I knew what was coming. When we ran into each other my shoulder rammed him just below his ribs, but he had enough height over me to reach his arms around and grip my torso from behind. It didn't take much for him to use his momentum against me and before I knew it I was flying to my right, straight into the pool. The position he threw me from made me land practically upside down, right on my head and stomach.