Your day could've gone better, you suppose. After screaming into poor Kanaya's shoulder for over half of your lunch period while Karkat explained what happened to everyone at your table, you realize that your day has progressively gotten worse.
You've found a small sticky note, with barley readable writing on it, on your locker after lunch that says, 'loser' 'fag >:B' 'cunt'. The misuse of your own emoticon shoots a mixture of fear, but mostly anger through you. After you crumpled up that note and quickly discarded the monstrosity, you went to 5th period.
5th period was band and band was always fun for you, especially when you played the coolest instrument in the entire band room, the marimba! Sadly, band could not provide you with the aid that you needed that day, and you found yourself being more and more distracted as you continued to think about that note. The people that bother you rarely leave notes, but whenever they do, they mostly have something in mind for you after school and it's honestly quite frightening to think about whenever you recall previous beatings that they've given you.
Struggling to keep pace with the rest of the band as you recklessly played the marimba—due to your thoughts—you receive worried looks from Rose and Jade but quickly reassured them that nothing is wrong with a small, goofy, performance of one of your school's song. You know that they don't fully believe when you say that everything is fine, but they know that you would rather not talk about it. However that doesn't mean that they won't worry about you, so they keep their guard up and glue their watchful eyes to you.
6th and 7th period rolled around and before today, you never realized that Dave had these classes with you, which puts you even more on edge. Not that you're interested, but to avoid all contact with him you had to occasionally stare at him and find his seat so you could sit in the chair that was the farthest away from him, even if that means earning you some offensive slurs that could make anyone self-conscious and feel bad about themselves. Jokes on them, you've already heard these slurs before and nothing can put your self esteem down lower than what it already is. It honestly can't get worse for you.
Aside from the occasional insults, 6th and 7th end quite smoothly and no body really gets physical with you, which rewards you with a huge weight lifted off your shoulders.
When the final bell rings signaling everyone to get the hell out, you can't help but break into a mini sprint to get to your locker.
SHIT.
You have completely forgot that after school was a thing and now you're rushing to leave, not wanting to find out what happens to you once everyone leaves or when you decide to leave and head home. Wait, Rose walked to school with you today, so does that mean you're walking home with her? Oh thank god. As much as you hate to admit it, Rose is basically your indestructible shield when it comes to situations like these. Now don't get yourself wrong, basically anyone that you hangout with is a shield(except Karkat, they think it's funny to piss him off although they've never addressed their bullying to him), but for some reason with Rose, it's completely different. No one shoots you glares or harasses you from the other side of the hallway, no one even speaks to you and it's just perfect.
You smile to yourself and feel your chest flutter with happiness as you walk to Rose's locker to wait for her. She has class all the way across the building, so it will take her a moment to reach you. You rock back and forth on you heels with your hands gripping the straps of your light backpack when a minute or two passes. After that it's five, the hallways start thinning and you brush off any form of panic that bubbles in your mind.
The seconds tick by at a painful rate and every moment turns into eternity, what's up with this hallway why is it so hot? You tug at the collar of your shirt as your face grows moist with sweat, then, it hits you...
Today is Friday.
On Friday's the academic team has quick recall practice after school for an hour.
Rose is on the academic team and is the captain.
She won't be walking home with you today.
Your blood drains and your body turns ice cold. Wow, you're such a fucking idiot.
You panic now and begin to chew at your nails as you map out an escape route in your head.
You can't use the side door at the end of the hallway that you're currently at seeing as it would trigger some alarms, nor can you do that with any doors other than the front and back. Looks like you're running to the back because because holy shit is this hell hole huge. The wing that you're in is in the top left corner of your complicated school map(they have maps scattered around the campus) and the wing that you have to be in to get to that front entrance is a several hallways down with a few more to the right. Sounds like a maze right? Well it is. It's a huge terrible maze and you despise it.
Once your calm yourself down and breathe for a moment you head off, speed walking down the hallway and quickly take a left and prepare yourself to make your way through the treacherous halls.
You make your way to the main hall with great ease and practically sprint down the hall, that is until you hear them call out to you.
"Hey look! Just the guy that we're looking for!" A voice calls out, dripping with cockiness.
You fumble a bit on your steps once you hear Francis' voice. You glance behind you to see Ben, the smaller and thinner of the three oafs, jog to you, you quicken your pace.
"Oh c'mon Eggy we just wanna talk~"
You hear taps of his footsteps quicken underneath the hovering, deep chuckles that emerge from the other two.
Panic takes over you and strain your senses as you now begin to full on run down the hall. You're in no mood to play any of their games, your day has been absolute shit ever since this morning and all you want to do is just go home and watch movies and veg out. Is that too much to ask?
You skid a little, earning a squeak from your tennis shoes as you make a sharp turn into a small hallway with your eyes on the side door. Fuck it, you're setting off the alarms and getting the hell out of here because there is no way you can out run Ben for long without getting tackled at some point.
You reach the door and practically slam into it in your frenzy of panic while trying to push the heavy door open before Ben can snatch you up. Unfortunately, you were a bit too slow because as soon as you push the metal bar down, you feel someone grab your backpack and yank you around. You instinctively turn your legs into jello and let yourself slide on your knees as Ben pulls you around. You throw your arms up and over your head, covering your face, making them act like a somewhat efficient shield and try and tuck yourself into your knees, acting like a turtle hiding in its shell.
"Oh no you don't." You hear Ben growl as he grabs you by the back of your neck, striking some pressure points and making you shrug your shoulders. He then drags you up and off the floor and forces you to stand. You can already smell the bitter stench of the disgusting snuff that he has packed into his lower lip and you internally gag at this. You bet the shitty can has already busted in his pocket like they've done for so many times in the past due to the fact that he has some brown stains in his pocket that you think are from Copenhagen..
You hear some footsteps approach the two of you as low chuckles emerge from your harassers. Your stomach falls as you try shrink into yourself as best as you could, swaying a bit in Ben's iron grip. You feel sick and you want to disappear and just sink into the floor, never to be found or remembered ever again.
"Hey Egbert, how was your day?" A low voice calls out in a taunting manner, this voice isn't Francis, it's Micheal's and you instantly tense even more once you hear it. Micheal is basically the ring leader of your tormentors and you're positive that if he wasn't here then none of this would be happening to you. But no, you just have to have the shittiest luck in all existence.
You stay silent though because you have a massive lump in your throat and you're sure your voice would crack in three different ways if you tried to attempt to answer him. Even if your were to answer him he would still harm you, he's done in the past, this is just his cruel way of teasing you and molding you into a bigger pushover. It's just pointless and stupid, you aren't going to be their toy and do whatever they say, even if they do end up hurting you really bad.
You feel a sharp first hit you in your gut hard and it almost knocks the wind out of you, causing you to stumble and cough a bit. Cruel laughter emerges from Ben and Francis as Ben squeezes your nape harder to try and make you stand with your weak legs. You so badly want to grip your stomach and fall to the floor, but you're positive if you were to remove your arms from your face, then they would surely take the opportunity and give you a black eye or a bloodied nose or a split lip. It's not even because they hurt more, it's just because injuries like those are harder to hide from your father and you would be ashamed if he ever found out about them.
"I asked you a question, you egg head."
That insult is too overused and they really need to come up with something new if they're really trying to destroy your mentality(although they've destroyed the majority of it). You remain silent however, and lower your arms a bit to try and shield your chest—which fails—although you don't lower you arms enough to reveal any of your face.
You feel someone try and pull your arms away from your face, and from the looks of it, it's Francis that is attempting to remove them. However, you've tangled your fingers into your thick hair and anchored them there, making it extremely difficult for someone to try and expose your face.
A fist comes and hits you in the side or your head. Weak punch, is all you can think of but your body betrays you once you feel a headache creep up. Great.
You're shaking a bit from the pain and little fear as you awkwardly stand in the silent hallway as the louts gather their thoughts before breaking the silence.
"Why the hell does Strider even like you?" Micheal said with bitterness overflowing his tone.
What? What are they talking about? Why did they bring him up of all people?
You feel a rush of panic crash into you, causing your heart to jump into your throats and your body to tense and shake even more.
"Probably because of his dyke sister. Strider doesn't even talk to this faggot so it has to be her." Francis replied.
Sister, what? Does Dave have a sister? What the hell is going on? Why did they bring up that blank slate, you never made much of an appearance throughout the school and you're positive he knew of your existence for not even an entire day. Did they see what happened this morning?! Is this why they're doing this? Did Dave tell them to do this? Is he the one at fault?
You're not thinking straight and your breathing begins to quicken as sweat begins to form at your hairline.
"Speaking of Strider, Ben, go to the end of the hallway and keep an eye out for him. Dudes a wild card, you never know if he's here or not." Michel ordered, grabbing you by your hair and pulling you forward and making you cringe. You hear a whine escape Ben as he reluctantly lets go of your neck.
"What? Why me?!" He complained, sounding like a child as he did so. "Why can't Francis take his fat ass and watch for him?"
A growl emerges from what you can assume is Francis due to the fat insult. Holy shit these guys are animals. It's not like you've never thought about this before but it just now really hit you and you now realize that these guys are fucking wild, disgusting animals. You're nothing but prey to them, and the fact that you're prey is terrifying.
"Fuck you you fucking tooth pick, you're watching."
"No, fuck you! You do it!"
"No, fuck you!"
"Fuck you!"
"Both of you shut the hell up!" Micheal intervened, you hear two 'ow's after a faint smacking sound and another weird growl. What the hell is wrong with these guys?
"Ben, get your scrawny ass down to the other end of the hallway before I snap you in half." Micheal shot, words dripping with spite.
A groan rings through the empty hallway as you hear light footsteps quickly tap away. Great, now it's just you and the two hairless pandas. You really wish for death right about now or at least your friends to be here... wait. The cross country team runs around in the school when the weather is bad, so maybe Jade and Nepeta are running around and maybe they can see you and help you before it's too late! You know it's a long-shot, but when you look at things like an optimistic person, it makes you feel a tiny bit better, as if Jade or Nepeta will actually come and help you.
You feel his hand yank you forward only to be rewarded with another punch to the gut. This time it was harder than the last, causing you to let out a loud 'oof' and let your legs give in while you cough and wheeze. Thankfully he didn't have a very good grip so you fell with as much ease as anyone in this situation could possibly have, even though it's not that much. You're just happy to be on the floor though.
Now onto the floor, you quickly turn into an armadillo and turn into a tiny tense ball. It makes situations like this easier to deal with in your opinion, mostly because they can't see your face and pick and tease at your expressions, or the pricks of tears that you let slip through. It also protects your face and gut which is a huge plus.
"Jesus Christ you're pathetic," Micheal says, kicking you a little with his foot. "how have you not killed yourself already?" Ouch, wow, that's new. That one kinda stung a bit. Your chest constricts and the tear drops that hang loosely in your lower eyelid, begin to swell, one even swells so much as to drop onto the dirtied floor beneath you.
You burry your head into your knees and use the sides of your arms as ear muffs to try and block out as much insults as you possibly can. You really don't want to listen if Micheal just mentioned suicide, especially if he's directing it towards you. Not saying that you listened to him before, but this is a bit too much for you so you make a bigger effort to block him out.
"Why don't you just kill yourself you fucking faggot?" Francis said, putting his disgusting foot on the back of your head and pushing down on it, enough to make it stretch in a very uncomfortable way.
Okay aside from the pain their words hurt you the most, and you wonder why they've chose to use this vocabulary with you. This is honestly the first time you've been told to commit suicide ever and you'd be lying if you said it didn't sting a little. And by a little you mean enough to make another tear drop fall from your eyes and make your body tense and shake while all the while you curse yourself for being too sensitive.
Their crude chuckles hover in the hallway as he begins bouncing his foot on your head.
"Hey dip shit, just because Strider didn't kick your ass this morning doesn't mean he won't do it eventually." Micheal taunts, chuckling as he does so.
"Yeah, even if he doesn't, we won't give you a free pass." Francis chimes in, getting his foot off your head only to kick it. Your beginning headache worsens and turns into a full on headache. You shut your hidden eyes tightly and discreetly squeeze your head, tensing as the pain erupts in your head.
"How the hell could anyone-"
Micheal gets cut off by the sound of something slamming into the red lockers that line the wall.
Whatever is going on you could tell it isn't good, considering that you hear Micheal whisper 'Oh fuck' under his breath. Is it too late to leave? Just stand up, bail out and just run for it? Sadly yes, and by the sound of hurried footsteps growing louder and louder by each passing second, you can only assume the person responsible for that loud crash is walking right towards you and your amazing pals. You really want to disappear right now.
"L-listen I know this seems bad-" Francis stutters. Francis, the big fat meaty guy that fears nothing, stutters and if that doesn't make you fear for your life then you don't know what will.
"Shut up and move." The guy orders in a very irritated tone as if his day just got ruined because of this. You've heard this voice before. Oh how wonderful and amazing that you now know exactly who it is... Not.
"Listen, Dave-" Micheal begins, only to be cut off with what you can assume to be a push. You could hear the movement from their clothes and from their shoes scuffing on the floor, then you hear something smack the floor and it doesn't take you long to realize that Micheal has been pushed down.
Not even five seconds later you hear Francis get pushed, but since he's so big, Dave, couldn't push him onto the ground. So he instead pushed him into the lockers, making a huge thud emerge from him.
You let out a shaky breath, holy shit have you been holding your breath this entire time? Oh well, it doesn't matter, you're going to die soon anyway so it doesn't matter.
"You know, I'm starting to think you guys have a little crush on John, seeing as you can't go one day without getting stuck up his ass." Dave says in an annoyed tone as you feel fingers ghost over the back of your neck. You tense, scared of what Dave is going to do and scared of what will happen.
He lets out a sigh that sends chills up your spine and grabs you by your shoulders, slowly easing you to sit up. You can tell he's not sure where to grab you, but it doesn't really matter, you get the message and comply anyway.
You're shaking hard and your breathing quickens which isn't a good sign. You're sure if he can push Francis into a wall of lockers, then he can snap you in half with a simple flick.
"God damn," Dave starts off, trying to get you to stand as your arms are still covering your face. "do I have to spell this shit out for you guys, or do you dumb fucks finally get the message?" He spits out, finally getting you to stand. He grabs the handle on your backpack and motions you forward.
"Don't fucking touch this guy, you spineless cowards."
What's going on?! Why is Dave defending you? Since when did this guy actually try and stand up for you before? Why is he doing this? WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!?!?!
Your head is spinning with so many questions that it's actually making you a bit dizzy. You feel sick to your stomach and all you want to do is go home and scream and try not to cry. Your body is aching with how much you've been tensing it and your chest is starting to hurt with every breath you take in, this is honestly making you panic even more, making your situation even worse.
The hallway is eerily silent as Dave escorts you out, the only sound in the hallway is the footsteps that you and Dave take.
The both of you have been walking for a while as Dave still ushers you, hand griped firmly on your backpack handle.
You would like to say that you've calmed down but you haven't; your heart is still racing, your breathing is splotchy, and the arms that guard your head are shaking. You even stumble over yourself a few times causing him to pause or steady you by your backpack.
You're convinced that the whole thing was an act. Dave isn't walking you through these halls to help you home and he didn't just push Micheal's group aside just out of the kindness of his heart. No, he's probably walking you to an isolated area where he can beat the shit out of you for this morning, and to be honest the thought of that makes you tear up a little. You have a rock in your constricted throats and you feel like you're going to be sick as you dread to reach the destination.
Fuck it, you're going to die anyway, might as well steal a peak at the guy who's going to slaughter you. You glance over to your left and see him: jaw clenched and eyes forward, you can see his eyebrows from the side and can tell that they're furrowed. You try to look at his eyes but can't due to the metal rod that keep them on his face. You think that he has little freckles scattered across his cheeks but you're not certain, the tinted glass shades his eyes and cheeks, causing them to hide some of his features. You stumble a little when you try to determine his eye color. Fuck. This is why you tell yourself to not be nosy.
He steadies you and slightly move his head so he can glance over at you. You think that you were fast enough when it came to whipping your head forward and pretending that nothing happened, but that accidental eye contact proves otherwise. You furrow your brows and just decide to place your hands over your face, hiding your face completely, sparing the few slivers that you make with your fingers so you can glue your eyes to the floor and watch your step.
You both continue to walk in a tense, awkward(well for you at least) silence.
"You okay?"
You tense when you hear his voice. He actually sounds a little concerned and that only makes your stomach churn and your throats tighten even more until it becomes suffocating. You really don't want to answer him but you don't think he can see your little hesitant nods, so you try your best to gather a stable voice and reply to him.
"...yes..."
Wow okay that could've been a whole lot better. You practically whispered that, seeing as your voice gave out before you even spoke, thanks vocal chords.. It just came out as a croaked whisper, like someone has just been bawling their eyes out and is now trying to talk and explain what's wrong. You mentally beat the living hell out of yourself for sounding so pathetic.
Luckily Dave doesn't say anything else and continues to walk you to wherever the hell you two are going, eventually he stops and lets go.
You look up and see him walk up to a class room door and knock on it a few times, making them soft but noticeable.
A girl with thick, curly black hair with dark skin comes and answers the door, you recognize her as Aradia. She's really nice and makes a lot of funny jokes, but she has this weird obsession with dead things for some reason. Wait a minute, that archeologists club thing doesn't have meetings on Friday, so why is she here-
It dawns upon you that this is where the academic team practices quick recall and that Aradia is on the academic team and that means Rose is in there.
What is he doing though? You don't know and you just want to run away and hide forever.
You turn around to try and hide from Aradia so that way she doesn't see you in the pathetic state, but by the low murmurs from Dave you're pretty sure she's paying attention to him.
You can't make out exactly what they're saying but one Dave is done talking to her they pause, then you hear a little 'yeah' from Aradia and the door closes. Her tone sounded worried and concerned and you fear that she spotted you, which makes you screw your eyes shut and clench your head a little. You really don't want to be here.
What if he is just trying to humiliate you in front of your friends?
You tense at the thought and for the 100th time you tear up. You're disappointed with yourself for doing this so many times this day. You try to get your mind off of things and decide to pick and chew at the inside your mouth, causing your already raw tissue to bleed a little and get irritated.
After a minute or two, you hear the door open and your stomach drops when you hear Rose's voice.
"Dave what do you want, I have practice you know." She sounds annoyed and you realize that Dave may or may not be trying to humiliate you in front of Rose. Even though you know she would never laugh at you for this, you still get a little worried and think that she might, which makes you feel awful for ever thinking that Rose could do that to you. You bite your lower lip hard and a little tear escapes from your eye and you quickly try to wipe it away. Your heart is practically leaping out of your chest and your stomach is twisting and turning in uncomfortable ways, you feel extremely sick.
Dave murmurs to her and the most you could make out is 'Lalonde' and 'John'. There's a pause afterwards and you hear Rose speak to her team.
"I'll be right back. Kanaya, you're in charge." Rose calls out in a calm voice, short lived footsteps and the clicking of a door shutting is all you hear afterwards.
You can hear her walking towards you and you panic and shake and breathe shakily and you probably look like a mess.
"John?" Rose calls out in a soothing tone, you feel her fingers gingerly wrap around your wrists. This makes you calm down a bit but not a lot. "John, are you okay, what happened?" She asks you, allowing her to gently pull your hands away from your face. You've calmed down now and your breathing is (somewhat) steady now, you've quickly blinked away any tears that dare form in your eyes. You don't look at her though, you already know what kind of face she's making and it's the sympathetic/worried face that you can't stand. You hate making her worry about you and you hate it whenever she makes that face. You feel as if you've disappointed her whenever she looks at you like that and you feel awful.
Your brows are furrowed and your lips are pursed, this is your, 'trying-to-look-like-I'm-okay-and-trying-my-best-not-to-cry-or-hyperventilate', face, and Rose can read right through it with the assist of your puffy eyes.
Her fingers ghost over you jaw for a moment before she cups your face with both of her hands, wiping the residue that your tears had left from earlier away with her thumbs. This makes you look at her and yep, you knew it, she's making that face.
Your furrowed brows and pursed lips shield quickly cracks and falls apart once you look at her, causing you to have a small frown and accidental sad eyes. You look down at your feet and place one of your hands on top of Rose's, leaning into her comforting touch and grip it slightly while you let out a sigh.
You feel pathetic and embarrassed, you also feel bad for dragging Rose into this. Good job Egbert.
"What happened?" She asks again, this time, however, she didn't direct the question to you. She already knew you didn't want to talk about it seeing as she already knows what happened, but she just wants to be sure when it comes to things like this.
"Ah, well, uh, that one fat ass and his buddies were giving him a hard time..." Dave says, trailing off at the end out of loss of words while stepping forward a bit to accompany the two of you. At that, you let go of Rose's hand, letting hers slip away, and turn your head, not wanting to look at Dave and see him smirk and taunt you out of your vulnerability.
Rose lets you off the hook and decides to bombard Dave with questions instead.
"What all happened?"
"Well I was kinda walking around and found him there with them, so I kinda shoved everyone and brought him to you."
"Did you see them hurt him?"
"I dunno, I mean I saw him on the floor-"
"He was on the ground!?"
"Rose," You pipe out, your voice embarrassingly cracking as you spoke. You clear your throat and continue, "please, I'm okay." you tell her, looking up at her to see her face in a mixture of rage and worry. She doesn't say anything after that and only exchanges looks from you and Dave.
You didn't mean to make things so awkward and you didn't mean to trouble anyone, you feel really bad about this and decided it's probably time that you leave.
"I'm sorry. I should- I'll just leave." You say backing away while shooting a thumb over your shoulder, wow you feel like an asshole. "I'm sorry for-"
"No John, stop." Rose interjected, grabbing you by the arm. You see her think for a moment with the worried look still on her face along with now furrowed brows and pursed lips.
After a moment of hard thinking she looks over at Dave, then to you, and then back to Dave, studying the two of you before she speaks.
"Can you walk him home?" She asks, sounding a little desperate. Wow that's the first time that you've ever heard her sound like that and it only makes you worry and panic.
"What?" He says, matching your confusion.
"No, Rose please, I'm fine-"
"I don't want any of them to follow him home and possibly terrorize him there." She says bluntly, getting straight to the point and holding her free hand out as if she's expecting something. "Give me the keys, I have to take Kanaya home after practice anyway."
Dave looked flummoxed but handed Rose the keys after digging through his front pocket for a moment. Those look like Rose's car keys, but why would Dave have Rose's car keys in the first place? Why would he even have any keys that belonged to her?
"Rose," You start off, worried that she's actually going to make him walk you home. "please, I'm fine. I can walk home by myself, I'll be fine-" You look anywhere but her and your face heats up with embarrassment and sweat beads form at your forehead.
"No John." Rose says stubbornly, sliding her index finger through the metallic circle that holds all her keys and key chains. "I'm sorry but I don't want to take any chances. Besides, you don't live that far away and I'm sure it wouldn't kill Dave to just walk with you."
"But Rose-"
"No John."
You pause at her firm tone and then murmur and quite, "Okay" before hanging your head and allowing yourself to mentally scream.
"Alright," She says with a relieved sigh, placing her hands on her hips, "any protest from you?" she looks over at Dave with a somewhat cocky look smeared across her face.
"Yeah actually," Dave replies, making your blood go cold. If Rose actually makes him walk home with you, then he'll probably just beat the shit out of you on the way and leave you stranded. You think as your panic worsens, making you fidget uncontrollably. "but you'll probably shoot down everything that I have to say so I won't even bother." He says, sounding a little tired and irritated.
Rose just hums in satisfaction and give you two a sly smirk.
"Now if you'll excuse me I must go." She says, motioning herself to walk back into the geometry room where her team practices. "Oh and Dave," She walks up to him and places a hand on his shoulder as she stands on her toes; Dave instinctively leans down and tilts his head a little to allow her to whisper in his ear.
Once she gets finished whispering whatever it was into Dave's ear, he just lets out a dissatisfied 'Tsk', earring punch in the arm from Rose.
"Geez, calm down Lalonde." He complains, rubbing his wounded arm and walking a little towards you.
She only chuckles at this and walks to the door, gripping the handle. Before she goes in, she looks over her shoulder at Dave with a stern expression. "I am being serious though, Dave. You do know that, right?"
He makes an exaggerated moment with his head that you read as him rolling his eyes and walks towards you, giving you a small shove from behind to get you moving.
"Yeah yeah I know. But that probably won't happen." He says, muttering the last part as he waved her off. You turn around and see Rose shoot him a glare muttering a, "I know you will eventually", before turning back around and engaging practice once again.
Now swarmed with confusion and fear and panic, you start off on your way home with a very aggravated looking guy as your chaperone.
This should be fun.