At Least He Tried

1

There Ruby was, looking beautiful as ever. Ethan was standing over by the bathrooms.  He was so nervous. Ruby was sitting with her best friends at her lunch table, like always. Ethan started to sweat a little. "Come on man, you've got this!" said Ethan's best friend, Eric. "I don't know man, it's not as easy as it looks." said Ethan. "Here, I'll help you." Eric pushes Ethan in front of Ruby's group. "Um... Hi." Ethan says smiling nervously. "Hi?" Said Ruby giving a little friendly smile. Ruby's friends stared at Ethan weirdly. "So... Would you um.... Maybe want to go out with me?" Ethan asked nervously. "Oh..." Ruby paused. Her friends started laughing at Ethan. Ethan was sweating. "Sorry, I have a boyfriend." continued Ruby. It turns out her boyfriend was listening the whole time. Ethan was freaking out and didn't know what to do so he just sprinted for the bathrooms. Once he was in, he walked into the stall, locked the door, and cried. Lunch was over. Ethan was still in the stall.
The next day Ethan woke up, skipped breakfast, and walked to school instead of taking the bus. Something was wrong. Meanwhile, Ruby's boyfriend, Mitch, was planning a way to attack Ethan. When Eric got to school, he was bruised and crying a little. His parents were abusing him. Ethan walked up to Eric in the hall and asked what happened. "I was skateboarding without any pads and I messed up and hit the ground pretty hard." Ethan could tell he was really hurting with the tone of his voice. "I've got to go." Eric said quickly walking away. The bell rang and Ethan went to class. He was trying his best to pay attention but some of Mitch's friends were hitting him with spitballs. Ethan kept getting madder and madder. After they switched classes, Ethan was waiting for his tormentors to come out. Once one of them walked out, he punched him in the jaw as hard as he could and the bully fell to the ground . Ethan started running away from them and they started chasing him. They ended up in an alleyway behind the school. They ganged up on Ethan. He was trapped. They all started punching and kicking him all at once. After 15 minutes, that left Ethan laying in a pool of blood and they just walked away. Ethan finally woke up two hours later. School just got out for the day. He made his way to his locker and then to the bus. Once he got home, he walked up the stairs to his room and laid in his bed.