Fanboy (boyxboy)

Always Be

"May I please have a bandaid too?" Eli asked.

"Put it in the book," the nurse opened her desk drawer and set a bandaid out for him.

Eli put the bandaid on before he added it to his logbook entry for the day. He went back to his seat to put the ice back on his head as the clinic door opened. It was a guy from the football team and, to make matters worse, he was Chad's younger brother. Eli hadn't run into Chad since the day his brother chased him off with the shotgun but he was still scared it would happen any day.

Normally Eli would pretend to be asleep whenever someone else came into the clinic. It saved him from having someone try to accuse him of listening in. But if he closed his eyes the nurse would scream at him so Eli pretended he was very interested in her collection of flyers about hand washing.

"What's wrong with you?" the guy, Darryl asked. Eli looked up to make sure he was talking to him.

"Hit my head," Eli put the ice back on his forehead.

"Huh. I kinda thought you'd be one a them secret cutter types," Darryl made a face.

"I don't think people who self-harm go to the nurse after they cut themselves," Eli pointed out. He sure wasn't going to admit he'd tried it once. His mom had caught him and made him promise he'd never do it again. He definitely couldn't go back on that promise now that she was gone, no matter how tempting it was.

"Shutup, fag," Darryl narrowed his eyes. "We wouldn't have to watch them stupid videos 'bout it if they din't get to the nurse or somethin. You're so fuckin stupid. They should put you in a stupid school so we wouldn't have to be near you."

"If you'd actually watched the video-" Eli started to correct him but the nurse came back from getting Darryl his pills and interrupted.

"Eli, let Darryl get back to class please," the nurse handed Darryl a little cup. She watched him take his pills.

"Thanks, Nurse Mott," Darryl gave her a charming smile. "Have a good day."

"You too, Darryl," the nurse smiled back at him. She stopped smiling when she looked at Eli. "Maybe you wouldn't get beat up so much if you tried harder to get along with the others."

Eli didn't answer that. He'd certainly heard it before. The few adults who even admitted he was bullied seemed to love giving him all kinds of not-so-helpful advice. The pastor once suggested he try not being so weird.

Finally the nurse either decided he'd iced his head enough or got sick of looking at him and sent him off to class. Eli'd missed the rest of math but he had English at the end of the day and usually kind of liked that class. He took a fresh ice pack with him.

The halls were empty since everyone was in class. Eli stopped at his locker to grab the book they were reading in English and was assaulted by a horrible but all too familiar smell - someone had peed on his locker. Since his locker was already beat up by everyone's other favorite pranks, the urine had full access to everything inside.

He shut the locker door and turned to go back to the office but Eli saw Darryl waiting across the hall. Darryl had a self-satisfied smile on his face and raised his eyebrows at Eli like he was just waiting for Eli to say something. Eli ignored him, hoping the situation wouldn't get any worse.

"Aren't you gonna say thank you?" Darryl followed him.

"Are you admitting you're the one who did it?" Eli asked.

"I ain't done shit," Darryl laughed. "'Sides remindin' a dumbass faggot where he belongs."

"Oh is that what that was? Cause to me it looks like you need a little help potty training," Eli knew he was asking for it, he did, but at that point he just didn't care anymore.