TRIGGER WARNING: use of homophobic slur
Mason Maloney
My pillow was still damp from my tears when I woke up the next morning. I was facedown, having trouble breathing, but I had a feeling even if I sat up, I wouldn't be able to breathe any better than I was.
I sat up with a cough, trying to clear my throat from the liquid that had lodged itself back there after I fell asleep during my sobs.
I couldn't face everyone today. There was no doubt that I would be the biggest topic of conversation at school. Maybe if I just stayed in bed, Nathan would leave without me. I was sure he wouldn't want to see me today after our fight. I could stay in my room so my parents wouldn't see me and Nathan would go to school and then I could have the whole house to myself.
It seemed like the perfect plan until a loud pounding sounded on my door. I groaned, pulling my pillow over my head to try and drown out the noise. Suddenly, the pounding stopped and my door was swung open so harshly that it hit the wall with a thud. I still kept my head down, knowing it was Nathan who had barged in my room.
"Get up," my brother demanded, pulling the covers off of me.
I didn't acknowledge him. Instead, I ignored him in hopes that he would give up and leave me alone. Though, I knew I didn't have such luck. If Nathan was determined to get me out of bed, he would.
"Mason," Nathan growled, shoving me hard to turn me over. "You're going to school."
I moved the pillow away from my face and stared at him through my stinging eyes. He looked as angry as he did the night before, his vein popping out prominently on his neck. Nathan stood with his hands on his hips, fully dressed for school as he stood over me impatiently.
"Don't be a coward," he said in a condescending tone. "Get up and get ready, now."
I hesitantly stood up from my bed as Nathan watched my every move. I threw open my drawers and pulled out the first outfit I could find, loose fitting jeans and sweatshirt. Nathan's eyes burned my skin, causing me to leave the room to go to the bathroom to get dressed.
The first time I looked at myself in the mirror since yesterday caused me to see an alarming sight. My eyes were red and swollen while the skin on my face looked irritated from the amount of times I dragged my hands across it to wipe my tears. My hair was a mess and my expression was blank. I didn't look right, and definitely didn't look like myself.
I got dressed anyway, knowing Nathan would break the door down if I didn't. After doing my business, brushing my teeth, and putting some water through my hair and on my face, I made my way back to my room to put my dirty clothes in my hamper. Nathan sat on my bed, looking angrily down at his phone. When he saw that I was ready, he stood up and made his way to my bedroom door.
"Let's go," he grumbled, bumping his shoulder against mine harshly. My own brother was being cold to me over this, I couldn't imagine how the rest of the school was going to react to it.
Part of me wanted to push Nathan out of my room and lock the door, but I knew it would be no use. He would call my parents and figure out some way to get me out of my room and to school. I wondered if he was so adamant about me going to school because he didn't want me to sit around being sad all day, or, if he wanted to punish me for what I had done by making me endure the wrath of our entire student body. Maybe it was a little bit of both.
When the two of us got in our car, we were silent. Not even the radio was on to fill the void between us. It was like Nathan was deliberately trying to make me uncomfortable. Maybe he was.
Nathan was quick to leave the car once we got to school as if he didn't want to be seen with me. I was sure he didn't, not after the pictures had dropped last night. Surely, most of the people at our school had seen them by now, and if they hadn't, they would by the end of the day.
I took a deep breath before exiting the car, making sure to lock the doors before I left. The air around me was as thick as the tension and the stares were immediate and constant. It didn't take long for someone to stop in front of me, blocking my path to the school.
"Sleeping with the enemy, huh?" the guy said, causing his friends around him to engage in a chorus of laughter. I didn't even know any of their names and we probably never would have crossed paths on any other occasion.
I tried to walk around the group of guys, but they were quick to stop me, grabbing onto my shoulders to hold me into place. I wasn't sure if they were going to start pounding me or not, but I had a feeling they wouldn't. If I was anyone else, they would, but since I was Nathan Maloney's brother, people knew he wouldn't take kindly to anyone who laid a hand on me. It was an unspoken rule and I doubted it was about to be broken, so I stared at the guys blankly and waited for them to let me leave.
"Should've known Knight was a faggot," one of them said with a cunning laugh. "But you too, Maloney? Shame."
I glared at him and his choice of words, but didn't say anything. The sooner they let me go, the better. If I stayed silent instead of giving in and giving them the fight that they waned, then eventually I would bore them and I would be free.
"Hey!" a shrill female voice, that I recognized as Bella's, screeched from behind us.
We each turned to look a the petite girl who stood with her hands on her hips with a scowl etched onto her face. Bella stomped right over to the guy who was holding onto my shoulders and pushed him so that she was standing in between us. She was a lot smaller than me, so she wasn't much protection, but she was angry enough now to scare even the largest guy here.
"Back off, Todd," she seethed, poking his chest with her freshly manicured finger.
Todd grabbed her hand in his. "Don't think I forgot that you're a traitor too, Bell. You slept with the Knight."
Bella ripped her hand away and poked his chest again, harder this time.
"Then what makes me any different than Mason?" she asked him angrily to which Todd let out a loud laugh.
"You're joking, right?" Todd laughed along with his buddies. "Mason sleeping with the Knight directly affects Nathan, it's not a big deal that you did it, but him," he paused, pointing over at me, "When it's Nathan's brother, it's obviously a direct attack to the Warriors."
"Do you hear yourself when you talk?" Bella deadpanned, putting her hands back on her narrow hips, "because you sound ridiculous."
"Bell," I called out, causing her to look at me. "Let's just go," I pleaded, grabbing onto her arm.
Bella looked to Todd once more before looking back at me with a soft expression and nodding. She looped her arm through mine and pulled me through the crowd that had formed in the parking lot. Bella shot a glare at every person that was harsh enough to cause them to disperse and let us through.
"Thanks, Bell," I muttered, looking down at the floor once we were inside the school, Bella's arm still looped through mine.
She looked at me and let out a long sigh. "I'm still really pissed that you didn't tell me about you and Sam, but I'm sorry for yelling at you."
"It's alright," I told her truthfully. Even if I was a little mad at her for the way she acted, she was apologizing and I would rather her be my friend than my enemy like the rest of the school.
"Ross explained everything to me and Pete," Bella admitted as we stopped by my locker. "He told us about how you two are dating and were going to wait until football season was over to come out. I get why you wanted to do that."
"Were dating," I murmured quietly, tossing my locker door open.
"What?" she questioned quizzically, quirking her head to the side curiously.
"I broke up with him last night," I told her, looking at her out of the corner of my eye.
Bella stared at me with a gaping expression. "Because of the pictures?"
I shook my head. "He used me to get to Nathan. I thought what we had a was real, but it wasn't."
Bella's face turned from shocked to furious within a few seconds. She crossed her arms over her chest and set her jaw tightly.
"That bastard," she hissed through gritted teeth. "I'm going to kill him. He better hope I don't get my hands on him because I—"
"Bella, stop," I cut her off, "It doesn't matter, it's done."
She gave me a sympathetic look just as Ross and Pete made their way over to us. The copious amounts of stares I was receiving went unnoticed while I was speaking to Bella, but as I looked around, they were all I noticed.
"Hey," Pete said, causing me to look at him and his concerned features. "How you holdin' up?"
I could tell that Ross had filled him in about mine and Sam's break up because if he hadn't, I knew Pete wouldn't be too concerned about how I was feeling. He would have tried to say something funny about the pictures or about me being gay. The only way he wouldn't was if Ross warned him and told him about what went on.
When I didn't say anything, Ross stepped forward and placed his hand on my shoulder.
"Mase, are you okay?" he asked concernedly.
"I'm fine," I said, though none of my friends looked convinced.
I sighed and slammed my locker shut, causing Bella to jump back and bump into Pete. He steadied her without taking his gaze off of me.
"Maybe we should all skip today," Pete suggested, Bella's face immediately lighting up in agreement.
While this morning I wanted to stay home, I figured since I was already at school I should just stay there. Not to mention, if I left with my friends I'd have all three of them breathing down my neck all day. At least at school I could get away from their pity, even though I had to deal with the judgement of others.
"No, it's fine," I told them seriously.
"Okay," Ross said apprehensively. "Just try to ignore everyone. What they have to say doesn't matter."
"Yeah, none of them know shit," Pete agreed
A few moments later, the warning bell rang and I bid my friends a goodbye before walking off toward my first period. I tried to ignore everyone, but it was hard when people pointed at me and started whispering to their friends not so quietly.
"If we lose on Friday, you're gonna get it, Maloney," one guy spat at me as I scurried by. I kept my head down, not wanting any confrontation.
I wanted to tell them that if Nathan let this affect the way he played, it was on him not me. No matter what I did, it was Nathan's problem if he couldn't focus. I knew deep down, Nathan knew that too.
But it didn't matter. The entire student body took this as a personal attack on the Warriors and saw me as an aid to the Knights. They just wanted a reason to hate the Knights more, it had nothing to do with me. It was just the stupid rivalry ruining everything like it always did.
Later on in the day at lunch, the whispers and stares had gotten worse. Or, it seemed like they had considering I was around so many people at once. I was nudged and pushed by a group of guys in the lunch line and a group of girls gossiped about me loudly as if I wasn't standing right next to them. Bella's book club friends wouldn't even sit at our table.
"To hell with them," Bella said angrily, stabbing her fork in her salad. "I don't want to be friends with them if they're going to be bitches."
"At least Wendy is off your back," Pete joked from across the table.
I nodded in agreement but didn't say anything as Ross and Liza made their way to the table. Ross sat down beside me and Liza took the seat on his other side, offering me a kind greeting.
"Anyone give you any trouble?" Ross questioned me with his eyebrows raised.
I shook my head. "Nothing I can't handle."
"This is all bullshit," Bella hissed. "These people are acting like you've committed treason," she said loud enough for the girls at the table next to us to hear, looking at them with daggers for eyes as she spoke every word.
"I think people are being over dramatic," Liza agreed. "I heard a few girls talking about it in my art class and they were practically in tears. I couldn't tell if they were upset about the situation or that they have no chance with Sam now."
"I think I dodged a bullet with Cami," Pete added, gazing at me, "She told me today that she doesn't want to sit with you at the game Friday and I told her she wouldn't be sitting with me then."
"You didn't have to do that," I mumbled, looking down at my plate.
"Yeah, I did," Pete replied, "If she's gonna bitch about you then I don't want her."
I was surprised Pete was being as supportive as he was, same with Bella. I thought for sure Pete would be weirded out and Bella would be pissed at me, but the two of them had shown me how strong our friendship actually was.
"How you holding up, Mase?" Bella asked concernedly. "Do you think you can stay for the rest of the day? Just say the word and we can leave."
I gave her an appreciative smile. "I'll be okay."
The whispers and gossip hadn't been as bad asI anticipated. They were easy to ignore during class and in the hallway. As long as I kept my
head down and didn't interact with them, I could imagine today was just a regular day.
The gaping hole in my chest from where my heart had been ripped out still had not been repaired. Thinking about Sam hurt and it was hard to keep my mind off of him.
I was stupid enough to think that he truly cared for me, but I was too prideful to even think what Nathan had warned me about had any truth to it. No part of me wanted to believe that Sam had cruel intentions with me and that showed just how naive I actually was.
Sam had succeeded in doing exactly what he wanted: unsettling the Warriors, and more specifically, getting to Nathan.
He just so happened to destroy me in the process.
**
Sorry about the wait!
What did you think of the chapter? Do you think Mason is handling the situation well? What did you think about Bella and Pete's reactions?
Next update is going to be Wednesday so I can get back on schedule.