Sheets | ✓

FORTY-THREE

"It's always the quiet ones, man," someone sneered, the group surrounding us laughing with venom. 

"I didn't..." I choked out, shaking my head desperately. "I didn't do anythin-" As I tried to speak, all the fear and panic that had been simmering began to boil over, the tears spilling as they slipped past my shattered defences. "I-I..."

"Ugh, the twink is fucking crying," someone spat. "He probably cries like this when he's taking it in the back."

"Ew, gross, Daniel," the guy's friend said, gagging. 

"I can't," I said, voice weak and shaking. Wobbling to my feet, I kept my head hanging low, too rattled to even care about the tears washing across my ghostly cheeks. I yelped as I moved forward, body blocked by the crowd of people that had enclosed me. 

"P-Please, I can't, I'm sorry," I cried, words interrupted by my hiccuped breaths. "Please let me go, I can't."

"You-" Alyssa started, her hand rising as she hissed. Before she could do anything, two hands grabbed me around the shoulders, pulling me along through a gap in the crowd. Looking up fearfully, I almost collapsed when I saw Benny's livid face glaring at the people in front of me, his skinny arms doing their best to help me wade out of the throng of people. 

"Benny..." I murmured, my friend dropping his glare to look at me. Though his face was defiant, his hands on my shoulders were shaking.

"I know," he said, swallowing thickly as the two of us pushed through the crowd. "Let's get out of here first, we can figure things out afterwards." Benny's voice was breathless, sweat sticking to the hair falling across his forehead, his face red like he had run a marathon. 

"Y-Yeah," I said, nodding frantically. As the two of us neared the automatic doors of the cafeteria, Alyssa's sharp voice rose above the tremor of murmurs and poorly-hidden gossip. 

"Where do you think you're going, you fucking homo," Alyssa spat, one of her friends - Daniel - stepping forward, his arms reaching out to latch onto the back of Benny's shirt, Benny's eyes widening in panic. Suddenly, a chorus of shocked gasps and a pained grunt washed over the canteen, Benny and I turning sharply. My breath was knocked out of my already pained chest when I saw Daniel splayed on the floor, hand on his face and thick blood dribbling from his nose. His figure was soon obscured by a familiar back, muscles strained and shaking as it tried to rein in the anger rippling over every dip and curve.

Nico stood there, right hand balled in a tight fist, his group so tight that his fingers were white. His left arm was a different picture, outstretched from his side in front of me, a tattooed shield standing between me and the world.

"Nico," I whispered, legs trembling. Everyone's eyes were no longer on me, focused with rapt attention on my boyfriend. I, like them, couldn't look anywhere else, especially when Nico turned, his eyes afire and jaw tight with fury. This was the second time I had seen him looking like this, his visage at the bowling alley morphing with the one before me now. Taking my tear-streaked face in, Nico's expression dissolved into one of fear, trepidation, concern. His arms, which had just moments before been rigid with anger, slackened, tentatively reaching out towards me. 

Nico's eyes bore into me, asking me a silent question that I had to answer. The automatic door at my back opened and closed lazily, matching every strained breath that I took. His hand moved closer, my body static. Fingertips brushed over my cheeks, wiping away the tears. 

It was not meant to be like this. I was not ready. I knew it, and Nico knew it. But a decision had been made for me, and now I could either accept it, or run away from it.

The sliding doors opened and closed. Open. Close. Open. 

Close.

As the door scraped together, I crashed myself into Nico's arms, wrapping my own around his middle. Head buried in his chest, muffling my cries into the front of his jumped that smelled a little like nicotine, I let everything go.