[Calum; Glad You Came by The Wanted]
ELEVEN:: when your "bully" brings his buddies.
The following Monday was considerably quieter than ever. People no longer gawked but the pity in their eyes was enough to keep me on edge throughout the day. I was walking through the locker rooms later that day during my lunch period when some girl with ruler-straight blonde hair stopped me, telling me that her name was Elizabeth and that I was brave and how much she shipped Calum and I.
And I had no idea what shipping was or what Calum and I had to do with it but it didn't sound healthy to me. She compared us to Percebeth which I'd seen somewhere on the internet and thought it was just some kind of disease. Trying to get away from her as quick as possible, I'd seen a specific boy with boxy glasses and unmanageable, unruly curly hair which somehow had gotten bigger.
And making up some excuse about going to meet a friend, I flashed her a smile before exiting the premises, "Pete!"
I watched as his body froze up, voice coming out timid as he stuttered out a reply, "L-listen, Ricky, I-I-I don't have your-" he said quietly, spinning around slightly and slowly but as his eyes met mine, he relaxed, "oh, hey..."
But something was off about that greeting, Pete was scared of this Ricky kid and if it was the one on my team, we'd have a problem, "You okay?"
His eyebrows furrowed at the sight of my hand resting awkwardly on his shoulder for comfort and after a few seconds of Pete daring me to move, I'd dropped it. Stepping away, he registered exactly what I'd said, his head shaking as he spoke, "I-I'm fine, um... what'd you want?"
"I just wanted to get away from that girl," but I couldn't not press the matter, that's not fair to Paul, not knowing if his little brother is safe and it also wasn't fair to my own conscience, "Seriously, is Ricky bothering you?"
Fidgeting with his hands I watched his slim, lanky form shuffle his feet slightly as cross the scuff mark stained floor. I realized the little nervous tick he'd had and how much he resembled Paul. His hair, although way bushier, had the same texture and his eyes held the same depth just a shade lighter than the brown I'd liked so much. His body, although slimmer had that same length and he'd no doubt be taller and grow into his height as much as Paul had.
I watched Pete's eyes travel around and then back to the floor, as if he were scared to be seen, "No, it's just a misunderstanding..."
"Pete, you don't look okay."
I hadn't expected it when he snapped at me, "Look, can you just leave me alone? Just because you're fucking my brother doesn't mean that you and I are friends, you don't have to be nice to me, okay?"
"Pete, we're friends."
"We're not." He scoffed. "The only reason I ever talked to you was because Paul asked me to find you."
I tried to stifle a smile, tried to hide it behind a cough. "Still..."
But I wasn't fucking Paul and even if I was, I'd still care about Pete's safety; he jumped in a fight that I was clearly losing, he broke up that fight and took me to his brother's house so I wouldn't have to go home. Pete was a good person; I didn't get to say that because as soon as I'd opened my mouth, I was being called away.
"Hey, Douglas, Ben's looking for you," I heard a guy from the team call out to me, interrupting my talk with Pete who looked too relieved to get rid of me. I recalled the guy was a freshman and his name was Trent or Troy or something like that but I never really had a reason to learn, Andy always handled the 9th and 10th graders because he actually had time. I gave him a look, turning around to make sure Pete knew that we'd be talking later.
"I'm not letting this go. You helped me and regardless of Paul, I still see you as a friend. And I'm not fucking him, dude."
I watched as he rolled his eyes, turning around before discretely checking his surroundings and heading towards lunch, "Whatever..."
"Pete-" I tried, his hand coming up to indicate that he knew already.
"Yeah, we're talking later, I get it."
: : :
"Where were you man?" Benji had asked urgently as I'd made my way go the cafeteria. There was a crowd by the exit doors that led to the student parking lot and it was hard enough getting to my table.
"Talking to a friend," I muttered, stopping slightly when I'd heard my name thrown into the air. I dismissed it was another rumor flying around and gestured to the crowd, "what's up?"
Benji bit his lip, starting to explain before thinking better of it, shaking his head and grabbing my arm, hauling me through the crowd and towards the doors, "C'mon..."
The sun hit me like a ton of bricks as I walked out, it was the first hot day in who knows how long and I was desperately seeking a bottle of water and maybe a wet rag. But all of that went plummeting down when I'd taken in the sight of all the commotion.
I never thought Calum would stoop so low. I'd expected the defacing of my locker and the taunting comments, I'd even expected when he spray painted and toilet papered my house.
But this was a new low.
Calum had flattened all my dad's tires, smashed the driver and passenger windows and the surface was covered in a substance I could only describe as egg.
And I was watching Calum and his football buddies with him, my rage blinding me as I followed them behind the school. It was shaded by the large-scale school building and smelled of vomit and sweat but I didn't care as I unknowingly carried on. I didn't pay mind to the two figures standing there suspiciously in front of me.
But when I was surrounded, the guy in front pulling down his hood and a mop of blonde hair showing, my heartbeat quickened. Calum looked behind me and I felt a tight grip on my arms, holding me back as I struggled.
And as the fists came flying, I wasn't prepared, a searing pain flowing through me as I heard a crack. My jaw was throbbing even worse than before and my mouth was bleeding.
My adrenalin was pumping as my own blood choked me, the punches to my abdomen making it harder to breathe. I tried to thrash, desperately maki as much noise as I could but it was getting harder to fight as Calum spat in my face, landing a quick punch to the left side of my face.
I'd have fallen to my knees if I wasn't being supported by his goons.
Coughing up, the pain that was once in my nose was rushing back with a strong punch , my head whipping back as my vision became blurry. I was sure that it was broken, my arms becoming numb with the grip they had on me. And I felt on fire, I felt nauseous, I felt dead. My hearing was starting to zone in and out, my sides being hit repeatedly.
"Man, get the fuck off!" I heard yelling as he'd tried to rip through to push some guy off of me but there was only one of him and there were three guys holding me back. I saw Benji's fist come in contact with some guy's stomach but he was tackled almost immediately. I heard his head hit the ground with a loud smack but he didn't stop there, Calum, distractedly tried to break that apart as I caught my breath, it coming out in pants.
I couldn't see.
"Hey, what the hell? Seriously seven against two?"
I felt myself falling, a sharp pain searing up my arm, I felt my arm being crushed, the bone falling out if it's socket. There were a few words exchanged that I wasn't able to hear over the pounding in my head.
Feet pounding the ground and my vision developing a red tint as blood dropped onto he ground in front of me was the last thing I'd seen before passing out.
: : :
"Hey J, you okay?"
I wasn't in my room, I was sure of that when I woke up, the room smelled more of rubbing alcohol and chlorine than how my room smelled, thanks to a pizza scented candle that I'd stolen from Jade. The windows here were too wide and there were no curtains, just blinds that were pulled up to show the skyscrapers outside.
Looking around me, I noticed the IV I was attached to as I tried to move my arm, finding that I was unable to and that was what caused me to look at myself.
I was in a hospital gown and my arm was wrapped up, the scratchy white blanket covering the rest of my body.
Meeting my dad's eyes, confusion rang through as I though about what time it could be. My eyes drifted to the clock above a small flat screen television on the other side of the room, "Dad?"
It was only four meaning that I couldn't have been asleep for too long and my dad was supposed to be working.
"Yeah, got called out of work."
My mother wasn't here and that was a punch in the face as I shook my head at my dad, giving him the option of leaving. If I wasn't important enough for my mom to show up at the hospital in a panic, then I certainly wasn't important enough for my dad to drop everything to be there, "You can't just leave work, go, I'm fine."
"Do you know how terrifying it is to get a call saying that my son was rushed to the hospital? I'm gonna get a coffee from the cafe and that's as long as I'm leaving you for."
And I watched as my dad left without giving me any time to argue back, my eyes drifting to my sister who sat beside the door, curled up in the chair as she slept, hair covering her face as her arms were wrapped around her knees and her head was resting on them.
Attempting to at least stop the pounding in my head temporarily, I closed my eyes, them shooting open with the sound of a door being shoved open, Benji's loud voice filling the room, "Man, Andy was like Nelson Mandela up in there, I swear, "could you drop my fucking friends?" it was gold."
And I heard Andy shushing him as I saw his motioning to Jade sleeping, "It was nothing."
I hadn't noticed Will until she spoke, her hand hitting Andy in the side, "Why didn't you call me?"
"Because you're a shrimp and shrimp don't fight football players."
Ben slightly winced as he lowered himself onto the chair my dad had been sitting in a few minutes before. I noticed the bandage on his face being his only visible damage, "Where's Caspar?"
"He got trashed last night, I think he's still puking."
"So, boyfriend, how do you feel?"
"Boyfriend?"
"Andy told Calum that you're dating and then proceeded to threaten to tell Coach and have the football team benched before the season even started. He was all intimidating in there, I swear, I wasn't sure whether to turn gay or wet myself..." I wasn't paying attention as Benji fanned himself comedically. But Ben was far from gay and we all knew it.
"Why'd you do that? They think you're gay now." I said to Andy, trying to get it in his head that he made a bad move but he just shrugged.
"And?"
It was as if he hadn't cared.
"Doesn't that bother you? The whole gay thing?"
Benji laughed at that, no doubt he was amused by my anxiousness, "Man, there are worse things in the world than boys who like to kiss other boys."
And I realized that talking them out of taking lightly was about as effective as telling a baby not to cry. It was pointless arguing with them over something like this and laying back in my bed, I gave him a warning, hoping he'd heed to it, "Be prepared for the comments now that you've 'come out'."
Shaking his head, Andy rolled his eyes, "As long as they don't fuck with you, I'm fine."
"Yeah, man, we've got your back." Benji said, slapping a hand on my back which Will scolded him for when my body jolted forward.
"And someone else has your back too," Andy said with a small smile, ignoring the bickering siblings as he gestured to the large window.
And there I saw, through the glass, a guy raking his hands through his dark hair as he sat outside my room, map tattoo running up his forearm and curls disheveled. And from the way he was studying the ground, lips parted slightly and a ginger running soothing circles on his back, I could tell it was Paul.
"Why is he here?" I asked although it didn't stop the large smile from spreading across my face.
"Who?" Benji asked, turning around excitedly, everything about him seemed extremely hyperactive and honestly, I was starting to like it. He'd seen the guy I was referring to, eyes narrowing in confusion when he'd looked back at me, "Man, I don't know."
Andy shrugged then and Benji continued, "You were like passed out and we were waiting for the ambulance -which was fucking annoying like they're taking their time and shit-"
"Ben."
"So," he got back on track, "this nerd starts having an aneurysm... or whatever the fuck-"
"Not an aneurysm," Will piped in again, her eyes rolling and her brother sighed in response.
"Do you wanna tell the story?" I was laughing before I knew it, they always found a way to lighten the mood and Benji seriously seemed like he was offended. Then he was smiling, motioning his hands out as he explained the situation, "so we're sitting there and shit and he's like 'I gotta call Paul," and I'm like 'who, nigga?' and Andy was like 'that's not polite...'"
Benji rolled his eyes, the voice he used to mimic his friend being high pitched and Andy gave him an amused look.
"I don't sound like that." He spoke, Ben ignoring him as he trailed off.
And even through the pain in my side and the pounding headache, I hadn't stopped smiling.
A/N:
baby hurt.
would you guys care if I started a younow?
ps: Do you know how hard it is to have one of my favorite actors playing the bad guy?
pps: I think this is literally the fastest I've ever updated GADANG.
Love me? You better love me.
Updated: Sunday, May 31