On the Ledge

The Theory They Can't Prove

FRIDAY 11:45

Sam sat alone, eating while reading for his exam. His concentration was interrupted by the loud football team entering the cafeteria. Harrison was in the front, chatting vividly with Tyron. They sat together behind the longest table, completely ignoring Brad who eventually sat at another table. Sam could see he was in a very bad mood. But the thing that stood out the most was the fresh bruise around his eye. Sam knew Brad had bullies but they had obviously taken it to the next level. A part of him felt sorry for Brad but he just couldn't help feeling contempt at the same time.

Lucas joined him at the table. " Where's Sophia?"
" She said she's sick. Won't be coming to school for a week."
" What does she have?" Lucas seemed worried.
" Mononucleosis."
" Ooh..." he snapped his fingers. " Poor thing!"
" Hey, do you know what happened to him over there?" Sam nodded toward Brad. Lucas turned then shrugged.
" He had it coming. The football team beat him up this morning." Lucas explained nonchalantly. Sam raised his brows.
" Haven't you heard?" Lucas frowned. " The whole team went berserk once they found out that Brad actually made it into their team."
" Why?"
" Taylor posted a rumor on Facebook. Are you not friends with Taylor?" Lucas seemed surprised.
Sam sighed. " I don't follow despicable people.." he proceeded eating.
" Well, you should. Taylor posts the funniest anecdotes on Facebook. Last week Taylor made fun of Jules for the way he walks. You should have seen the post, it was hilarious."
" Imagine if Taylor made fun of you too... Would you find it hilarious as well?" Sam raised his brows at him. Lucas' grin faded.
" I have a sense of humor..." Lucas started saying. " Besides you have to admit Taylor's awesome. I mean just in a matter of weeks the Facebook page got so many friends."

Sam stopped eating and stared Lucas dead in the eyes.
" Are you Taylor?"
Lucas seemed taken aback. " Why would I be Taylor?"
Sam shrugged. " I don't know... it seems to me like you admire whoever this Taylor person is."
" I'm not Taylor, okay." Lucas claimed. "If it were me, I wouldn't hide behind a name. I'd actually make fun of people using my own profile."
" What's the rumour you were talking about anyway?" Sam asked.

Lucas leaned closer. "Apparently Bradley transferred to our school because of a sharp polemic in his previous school. Rumour has it, he kissed some other dude called Dylan from the football team and Dylan who by the way isn't gay exposed him to the other teammates. So, the other teammates started ignoring him. They wouldn't pass the ball to him at crucial games so they started losing. Eventually the team captain demanded the coach and the principal for Bradley to be removed from the team, claiming he disturbed the team's dynamics. They both refused but when Bradley found out about the complaint he quit the team himself."

" That sounds like bollocks to me..." Sam shook his head.
" Well, that's what Taylor said..."
" And how does that dumbass know all of this?"
" Apparently, Taylor knows a guy from that school, so..." Lucas shrugged as if that was enough to believe the rumour. "And if you think about it, it actually does make a lot of sense. Bradley is a great football player, we all saw him play. He hooked up with someone at Harrison's. So I don't find it hard to believe that he's gay and that he destroyed his previous football team." Lucas said while slurping his soup. Sam looked pensively at Brad who kept his head low as if he wanted disappear from the face of the Earth.

" That's why Tyron and Lewis were livid when they found out that Sheridan put him into their team. " Lucas continued. "They clearly don't accept him for who he is."
" Yeah, but what happened at his previous school might have been a one off thing. It doesn't mean the same thing will happen again."

" That's not what they are worried about. They wanna be taken seriously by the school and other schools they'll be competing against. Imagine being in a cool football team... everyone respects you, loves you.. the girls wanna be with you, the other boys wanna be you! And then all of a sudden, you accept a gay kid into your team and that's not the worst part. He has a reputation." Lucas emphasised the last word. " The school starts looking at your team differently because the kid that got bullied every single day has suddenly made it into the team. The bullies got nothing on him now. Brad officially made it but the team is the one that suffers. People are saying they won't be going to their matches because of Brad. If I were on the team, I'd be pissed too."

" Yeah, but Lewis is stupid. Of course he doesn't want Brad on his team, he bullied him." Sam figured.
" Yeah but I kinda hope they kick him out of the team so that I can try out for the free spot."
Sam raised his brow at him. Lucas shrugged.
" What? You don't think I can make it?"
" I don't think coach Sheridan will be so stupid and throw him out just because of silly complaints."