Unraveling and Entangling

chapter 3

Pat's heart had leaped into his throat when he saw Pran getting kicked and punched so brutally by his own friends. But before he could intervene and help Pran, a loud whistle drew his attention away from him. He saw a security guard running towards them with the teacher in tow. His body reacted instinctively as he saw everyone scatter away, his hand grabbed Pran’s and he was dragging him along without much thought. As they reached just outside the school gate, he felt a tug on his hand and he slowed down looking behind him. Pran was breathing heavily and his lips were bleeding making it difficult for him to breathe through his mouth.

 

Pat slowly came to a stop a block away from their school. Pran was practically wheezing, bent with his hands on his knees so he rubbed his back to soothe his breathing. As Pran straightened up, Pat could see his gaze turning cold. He could guess what was coming next. Pran was going to try to be strong and pretend he wasn’t hurt. He didn’t want to give Pran enough time to refuse help so he took out his handkerchief from his pocket, unfolded it and made sure to press the clean side against Pran’s lips to stop the bleeding. Pat wanted to smile at the pair of brown eyes widening but he knew Pran wouldn’t like that so he schooled his features into a neutral expression while dabbing lightly with the white handkerchief. Pran finally recovered enough from the shock and jerked his head back. “I’m fine.” Pat expected that. But what he hadn’t expected was for Pran to snatch his bag, that Pat had picked up along with his own before running off, and start walking away so quickly.

 

He picked up his pace to match Pran’s steps and that’s when he observed a slight limp in Pran’s gait. If he hadn’t seen Pran walk away from him about a thousand times, he wouldn’t have even noticed. So Pran wasn’t as fine as he claimed to be. Pat walked past him and turned around, walking backwards, trying to get a good look at where exactly Pran was hurt. Ah! So his knees were bleeding as well. Pat didn’t like the look of that. At all. He had half a mind to go search for his own friends and do to them exactly what they did to Pran. But that would warrant a string of questions that he wasn’t ready to answer. Also he didn’t really want to hurt anyone.

 

Pran glared at him while picking up his speed even more and slipped past him walking in the direction of their houses. Pat wanted to call him, help him, but he knew his efforts would be futile as long as they were out in the open and Pran had a way to escape. So he resigned to walking about 5 steps behind him in case his unneeded help was needed. Before turning the last corner to their houses, Pat decided to increase the distance to 10 steps so it didn’t seem suspicious if any of their parents or neighbours were outside.