Have We Gone Too Far?

I saw someone out of the corner of my eye, which proved that my suspicions were true. He was very tall and stocky; I knew that even though I’d only seen him briefly. I was shaking like mad. I've never been this nervous in my whole life, which is pretty damn weird if you ask me. I’ve been through a hell of a lot worse than this and not felt nervous at all.

“Hello,” I stuttered, most likely sounding like a right fool.

“Get dressed, I need a word with you,” a cold voice hissed. I knew it was Mr. Baker, which made me calm down a little bit.

I quickly dried myself, put my clothes on and stuffed my kit back into the bag, before walking over to Sir’s office room and knocking on the blue door.

“Come in,” he shouted out to me.

As I walked in I immediately spotted the serious look in his eyes. I didn’t like it one bit. I watched him as he ran his hand over his bald head and started stroking his beard, trying to put his words together I assumed.

“Are you eating right?” he asked suddenly.

“Yes,” I whispered because I was a bit confused. Why would he ask me that?

When I thought about it, I realized I probably haven’t been eating as well as I should, or as often to be honest. Mum and dad have been locking me in my room a lot lately so I haven’t been able to get any food at home. I then remembered that I didn’t even have any lunch with me today.

“Are you sure?” he sighed. “Because it would explain how badly you played out there today, and, well, I wasn't going to mention this, but you’ve clearly lost a fair bit of weight. I'm thinking that that’s why you didn’t want to change with everyone else before, as well.”

I looked at myself. I surely couldn’t have lost that much weight, I’ve only not been eating for a few weeks. People couldn’t seriously be noticing, could they?

“Are you alright?” he asked me, looking quite concerned.

“What?” I hissed at him.

“I said, are you alright?”

I nodded my head at him quickly and started to lightly bite on my inner lip. I’ve been doing that a fair bit lately, habit I guess.

“Of course I'm bloody all right. Why the hell wouldn’t I be?”

“Did you know that not eating can give you a bad temper and make you pretty moody most of the time?” he asked trying to sound smart. I didn’t know if any of that was true, but I wasn't interested in finding out if it was or not.

“I'm a flaming teenager! I'm meant to be bad tempered and moody!” I shouted.

“What did you have for breakfast?” he asked, ignoring my attitude.

“Food,” I answered.

“What do you have for lunch today?”

“Money for the canteen,” I hissed, lying again.

I hadn’t purposely not brought in any lunch, it’s just the kind of thing that isn't on my mind when I'm trying to get out of the house without getting an earful from my parents.

“You’d tell me if there was something wrong, wouldn’t you?” he asked sincerely.

“Sure.” Not.

He gave me a look as if to say ‘I heard that’ but I was certain I didn’t say it out loud so I knew I was just imagining things.

“I'm going to recommend you to go and see the new student mentor,” he told me in a dull tone of voice.

“What? Why?” I shouted at him.

“Because I know something is bothering you and you clearly don’t want to talk to me about it.”

I shrugged my shoulders at him. This was hardly fair, I know he’s my form teacher and they’re meant to do this kind of stuff, but I thought we had some sort of understanding between each other, that’s long gone now though.

“I'm sorry if I embarrassed you before,” he whispered, making me remember what happened on the field.

I shook my head at him, and then gave him the finger. After that I quickly walked out because I wasn't in the mood for him to have another go at me.

I groaned as I walked outside and took in the cool breeze that I felt was surrounding me. I didn’t hear the changing room doors open after I left so I knew Mr. Baker was going to let me off this time, like he usually does.

I stood still for a moment when I gazed over at probably the most beautiful man I’d ever seen. He was tall, quite thin and had amazingly styled brown locks. I couldn’t help that I was staring; I’ve never seen anyone like him before.

“Hello Zacky!” a girl from behind me screeched, making me literally jump out of my trance.

I turned and looked at her. She had long bleach blonde hair and a bright orange face with pink splodges on her cheeks. Her eyes were dark green and didn’t really look right with the rest of her appearance.

“Hi,” I said politely to her, even though I had no idea who she was.

I then noticed the other girls behind her were watching us closely and randomly squealing because I had the decency to say a two lettered word to their friend.

“Are you alright now, sweetie?”

I gave her a really odd luck. Why was she calling me ‘sweetie’? I don’t even know this girl.

“My sister said you got in trouble in PE. That horrible Mr. Baker had no right to shout at you.”

I couldn’t help but smile at her stupidity, he has every right to have a go at me, and he’ll probably do it again next time I see him for swearing at him.

“I had it coming,” I said with a fake smile, not wanting to offend her.

“You didn’t!” she insisted as she took hold of my arm and started rubbing herself against it.

I quickly pulled my arm away from her. I don’t want year eights all over me, especially not the girls.

“I’ve got to go,” I said, trying to sound disappointed.

“Bye,” she cooed.

I hate people like her so much, they’re so irritating!

***

It didn’t take long to get to where my mates and I always hang out, between the bike sheds and the science rooms. It’s a great place for us because no teachers ever go round there, so we can basically do whatever we want without having to worry about getting caught.

“Have you seen that new teacher?” I heard Beth ask Ellie.

I don’t know why their conversation caught my attention but I couldn’t help listening to it as I sat down with Kyle and Jake.

“Oh he is so fit!” I heard Ellie say back to her.

“Apparently he’s a sub and he’s going to be the new student mentor.”

At that point my mouth fell open. There really is a student mentor here, and Mr. Baker was definitely not joking when he said I’d have to see him.

“Earth to Zack,” Kyle shouted, waving his hand around in front of my face.

“Sorry,” I mumbled as I held my fringe out of my face.

“Where’ve you been?” Jake asked in his usual ‘everything’s a joke’ voice.

I just shook my head to let him know that I wasn't in the mood for talking. Then Kyle started rooting in his pockets and pulled out a cigarette and his lighter and passed it over to me.

“It looks like you need one,” Kyle said.

I already had a whole packet of them in my own pocket but I'm not the kind of guy who turns down freebees.

“Thanks,” I whispered as I set the stick alight and brought it to my lips. I can’t explain to you how good that felt; having my lungs filled with the toxin as a warm feeling wisped through my body.

I smiled at him, knowing that I’d really struggle to make it through each day without him. I don’t mean that in an emo way, I have no intentions of doing something as stupid as killing myself. Suicide’s a wimp’s way out and at the moment I can take all of the abuse I get, so I don’t need to worry about that sort of thing becoming a problem.

“Are you coming to that party with us tonight?” Jake asked me. “I know you’re pretty out of it already but there are a lot of people who’ll be really disappointed if you don’t show.”

“I'm not out of it,” I hissed at him, but then curiosity got the best of me. “So, what’s happening tonight?”

“Liza Puckett’s having a party. Her parents are away for the week,” Kyle told me.

“And basically no one will like it if you don’t come.”

“I’ll be there then,” I sighed. I'm not that interested in going but you know me, I wouldn’t want to let anyone down. “What time?” I asked.

“Starts around seven,” Jake told me.

I knew there was no chance I’d be able to sneak out before seven; it’s usually nine at the earliest.

“Does it matter if I'm a bit late?” I asked.

“How late, exactly?” Kyle asked, knowing me as well as he does he knows that it takes me a while to get out.

“A couple of hours,” I sighed.

“What the hell, Zack?” Jake shouted.

“His parents are a bit odd. They don’t let him out until it’s late but they don’t really care about when he gets back,” Kyle explained.

That’s right, not even my best friend knows how my mum and dad really are, and I haven’t even told him that I have to sneak out when I go to these stupid parties with him, and then I get a good beating if I'm not back by morning when mum or dad comes to check on me.