The Boy With the Bruise - benjey

4 - Softly Spoken

The bad feeling itched its way back up, this time so profound that the hairs on the back of Benji's neck stood up in discomfort. Winching and rubbing it, Benji looked back down at his phone. Whoever was streaming had quite an audience - about two-hundred people (a quarter of the school) and was definitely part of the group that had just followed the spanish boy into the bathroom.

Benji didn't know what came over him, or why he felt the need to follow them in.

He just knew there was something wrong.

...

Jorge's POV:

Jorge didn't expect a thing.

All he had done was stroll into the bathroom, check to see if there was anyone else in the stalls, and begin to change in one. 

He didn't expect to hear the terrifying slam of the bathroom door slam open. He didn't expect to see the group that had beaten him up for being gay, banging on the bathroom stall doors as they hollered homophobic slurs. He didn't expect them to break open the door of the flimsy bathroom stall and point a camera at his half-naked body, sneering insults and grabbing him by the hair as they dragged him up against the wall.

He didn't expect any of it.

Panicked, he tried to cover the bruise that was now fully exposed to the boys, but one of them grabbed his wrists and yanked Jorge towards him so hard Jorge felt his bones pop... painfully. Another boy grabbed his hair and yanked it back, fully exposing Jorge's neck, and the dark purple bruise that prominently stood out against his pale skin was undoubtedly caught by the camera that a platinum-blond haired boy pointed at him. A fourth boy stood to the side, clearly uncomfortable as he watched the smaller boy cry desperately for help. As one of them grabbed Jorge's neck and pressed down harshly on the bruise, Jorge let out a strangled yelp and began to cry and claw at the hands that were pushing him down.

"Trying to call for your boyfriend, Jorge?" a boy threateningly whispered in his ear when Jorge tried to reach for his phone. Quickly, it was snatched out of his pocket, and Jorge gasped as the boy threw it against the wall.

The screen shattered as soon as it touched the ground, but nobody seemed to pay attention to the ruined phone.

"Chill out, Jayden!" the uncomfortable boy hissed when one of them banged Jorge's head against a sharp corner of the stall and promptly cut open his eyebrow. "This is way too much! Stop it!" Nobody seemed to pay attention to the desperate boy, though, because none of them acknowledged either the beaten or guilty boy's pleas.

Thankfully, a particularly annoyed football player was able to hear him as he slammed open the doors and rushed to where the commotion was.

"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?" Benji shouted over the ruckus, which quickly died down as the group realized that it wasn't one of them who'd shouted it. The boy who was livestreaming quickly clicked it off, shoving it into his pocket before Benji could realize it was him. "I said, what the hell are you doing?"

It was quiet for a moment, the only noise coming from Jorge, whose tiny whimpers could be heard through his muffled shuffles as he tried desperately to rid himself of the intrusive hands that wrapped around him.

"Get out," one of the boys sneered as he tightened his hands around Jorge's hair, keeping him from moving any more. Benji's eyes widened when he saw Jorge's mouth open in a silent scream, his tears now mixing with the trickling blood from the cut on his eyebrow.

"Let go of him! What are you doing, what... why... just... just let go of him, Jesus..." Benji stuttered, quickly moving to try and help the beaten boy up - but, someone moved forward to stop him.