Coming Face to Face.

Coming Face To Face. •12•

"Sorry," I shrugged at him and sat down.

"Here. Bon appetite, or, whatever it is they say." He placed pancakes in front of me and I smelt their deliciousness.

"Yummm," I moaned. "They smell soo goooood."

I took a bite and leaned back, closing my eyes and enjoying the amazing taste of these pancakes.

"So I'm guessing they're good?" Bay asked, sitting across from me.

"Good? GOOD? THESE THINGS ARE FRICKEN DELICIOUS!"

He chuckled and we finish eating, me taking both our plates and setting them in the sink.

"Ready?" I asked, grabbing my keys.

He nodded and headed towards the car and I trailed behind him.

• • •

"Oof," I groaned as I was shoved into the wall. I slowly slid down. Memories started to come to the surface, but I pushed them back. They will not haunt me even more any longer.

The group of guys all snickered and one stepped forward, hauling me up off the ground.

I braced myself for the punch that was bound to come.

"Where's your boyfriend now? What about that new kid? Huh? Neither of them are here to save you and now the whole school knows your secret." They taunted.

"Too bad it wasn't a secret. You only had to ask, I wasn't gonna hide it, you just never asked." I knew I was pushing buttons and taunting back, but fuck it. I'm tired of being everybody's punching bag.

You wanna fight fire, I'll burn your ass to a crisp, bitch.

He growled and threw a punch to my stomach. I doubled over in pain and groaned.

"That's for talking back to me." He punched my face. "That's for being a worthless fag."

I hissed, my face burning.

"Well, you see, the word you wanted was gay, or faggot. Not 'fag'. I'm not a cigarette you can smoke. But if I was, I would definitely give you guys lung cancer. You deserve it." My mouth did not know when to shut the hell up.

I could see the rage in his eyes as his face contorted with anger.

"Oops... Guess I poked the big bad bear with the mighty stick." Aden, shut up.

His mouth was opening and closing like a fish before he launched his fist at my face. Or anywhere he could get.

I felt little stings where his fist met my body. I tried not to dwell on it too much. I was too focused on the person behind them.

Yep, there was Conner. Just watching these guys beat me to a pulp.

There's no need to intervene. I'm perfectly fine. Yep, totally.

He stared directly at me before turning on his heel and swiftly walking down the hallway the other way.

Well fuck you too then.

Maybe he wa- No. Don't think of that. That's not a possibility. He's my... Friend...?

"-being a little fag." He finished.

I glanced at him with a bored look on my face. "Sorry, what'd you say?"

"I'm not repeating it," he said before grabbing the front of my shirt. "Just stop being a little fag."

"Oh, there you go again. You see, 'fag' is not the correct word. 'Faggot' is. Now, if you're going to threaten me, do it right or don't do it at all." I corrected.

"Oh I'll threaten ya, ya little -" he held up a fist and I continued to stare at him, bored.

"Dude. Put him down. We need to leave. Now," one of the guys that hung back said, lightly slapping the one who has me on the arm.

At least one of them had common sense.

He glanced down the hallway and cursed, throwing me to the ground.

"This isn't done." He glared at me, then turned and quickly walked down the hallway. His flock following behind.

I glanced down the hallway to see who it was they were running from.

Oh goodie. It was Baylor.

He caught sight of me and rushed to check my body for major damage.

He ran his fingers over my eye and I winced. "Sorry... What happened?" He asked.

"Group of guys wanted to beat the homosexualness out of me. Nothing new." I said, shrugging.

"How do they know?" He sat back.

"Someone told the whole school. My only guess is Conner, as much as I don't want to believe it."

Baylor stayed quiet and I glanced at him.

"What? What aren't you telling me?" I cocked my head to the side.

"Nothing. I'm not not telling you anything... Let's get you home and get you cleaned up, alright?" He changed the topic and I stared at him.

He's not going to tell me, so there's no point asking him.

He helped me to my feet and walked out to my car, taking me to the passenger side and going to the driver's side.

"Keys." He demanded, holding out his hand. I dug into my pocket and pulled them out, tossing them over the car at him.

"Thanks," he caught them and unlocked the doors, getting in. I followed suit and soon after we were heading home.

Music was lightly playing before he started a conversation, glancing over at me before directing his attention to the road.

"What was the dream you had last night?"

Shit.

I took a deep breath and exhaled before I told him.

He already knows about it, but it's still difficult to talk about it. How am I going to get over this?

"You already know this story. It was about my dad. And his alcoholic point. How he became abusive to me, only me, after he started drinking. He always had a feeling I was gay, and lookie, he was right. He decided it would a great idea to get drunk at a bar, come home, get drunk some more, threaten his seven year old, drink some more, abuse his seven year old, drink, beat his 'homosexual' seven year old, and drink after that. That's all he did, was drink. How he figured I was gay, I have no clue. I didn't even know, how the hell did he? Anyways, that's what the nightmare was about. But that was in the past. I am determined to get over it and not let him haunt my dreams anymore," I explained.

Baylor didn't say anything, just nodded his head.

"I'm sorry," he said at last, pulling into the driveway.

"It's not your fault," I softly told him.

"Yea, but still. I wish there was something I could do." He turned off the car before shifting his body towards me.

"The only thing you can do is help me get over it. Which will take some time." I told him.

He nodded and we sat there for a while in a comfortable silence.

I could get used to this.