*Quinn’s POV*
Eye’s. Piercing, searching, mocking. I couldn’t meet a single pair, couldn’t raise my quivering chin to the cruel laughter of my peers. Head down, hair as a cutain, I walked through the halls, my shame exposed by someone I had idiolized as brave. Idiot.
I was lucky apparently. Lucky that no one violent had yet reached me. Tyson pushed in the door I was about to exsit and I collided with his chest. His warm safe chest. He buried me in a hug, mouth next to my ear. “Don’t cry Quinn, not here baby. They’ll only enjoy it.”
He was right. I stilled my tears. Leaned up and kissed him quickly.
“What are we going to do Tyson? I-I don’t think I can s-spend all day here”
He started walking me to his locker, arm around my waist, glaring at anyone who commented. “I hate to make things any worse, but to be honest I think we have bigger problems. Emily will hear sooner or later today, and I doubt she’ll keep it to herself…”
I hadn’t even thought about that-I fight off a whimper “Mom and dad..”
He kissess my cheek before starting to open his locker. That’s when I notice the blood amtting his hair, his split lip, and rapidly darkening eye. He must notice my look of pure terror, because he stops what he’s doing to give me a gentle look. “I won’t let this happen to you..” he warns.
I continoue to stare, gawking. I don’t care if it happens to me! It already happened to him!
I start worrying over him, bitting down on my lip and trying to assess the damage. I’m ot exactly a doctor though, and even if I was, I’d need to be a pretty patient and detached doctor to treat Tyson. He’s in a bad mood-for obvious reasons-and my fussing isn’t helping.
“Quinn, settle down, I’m fine” he assured me, reaching over to stroke my lip.
Normally this would help calm me. Right now though, I know he’s downplaying the pain for my sake. Which is bad. Normally he’d milk it and ask me to kiss it better, but if it was serious, he’d pretend he was fine. I shift my weight. “Lets go tell Mr. Markem?”
“That gossipy homophobe? Oh please, he’d find some way to blame us” Tyson snorted. He was right of course, but then again, most of the time he was. Especially under pressure. So well he should be in the hospital right now, he’s more concerned about making me feel better.
“Are we really going to class?” I ask, my spirit completely hampered.
“Yes. We have first period together anyways” he assured me
So we went to first period. We walked in and took seats together, in the back. Riley didn’t look at us, and I didn’t look at him. Tyson did, a look like hard ice plastered on his face. I tugged his sleave though, preferring the rearranged soft look that fell on his face.
It was a terrible class. People passed us notes telling us we were disgusting, or we were going to hell. Peopele ‘dropped’ drinks and food on us, and the teacher just looked the other way. We were still people. We didn’t mean to fall in love.
“Can Quinn and Tyson Gale please report to the parking lot? Their parents are here to pick them up” I winced. Please no. I didn’t want to leave the safety of my hateful class mates. They meant nothing compared to what my parents meant. Their hate meant nothing.
Tyson stood. Everyone stared, whispering. I shook my head vigorously when Tyson looked to me “No. I… I can’t Tyson. I’m just going to… to run away or something, and never have to see them again. They’ll hate me Tyson.. I can’t!” the class was silent, hanging on my every word.
