Troubles

SUV

Brian insisted on driving me to school this morning. He hasn't asked me about last night's phone call. He's barely talked to me at all, really. He asked about homework and told me that I didn't have to come work at the store after school because he was planning to go out with Kari. I didn't say much either. I mainly just nodded and hummed a few words. I just don't feel like talking much today.

“So, you'll call me when you're at the Way's?” Brian asks just before he stops in front of the school to drop me off. I nod quickly.
“And then I'll just pick you up around 8, alright?” I nod again as I open the car door.
“Remember to thank them for letting you stay,” he calls after me as I jump out.

“Yeah,” I say quickly once I've turned around. I slam the door shut, wave at him and turn around to walk inside. As I walk, I realize the guys Gerard was talking about were the group just on the other side of Brian's car.

I look over by shoulder quickly and catch another glimpse of them. They don't look particularly vicious or harmful. After Gerard told me what they've done to him, I've envisioned them as malicious; as people who always laugh at others and are constantly on the look-out for people to hurt.

But they don't look like that now. They're just hanging around, looking bored and down, just like everyone else entering this school every morning. They're not even talking to each other, and the few of them who aren't preoccupied by their cell phones are either staring intently at their cigarette or simply glancing around at the people arriving.

They're normal. But I still believe Gerard. I still trust that he told me the truth.

I unlock my locker and put my bag inside it. I swallow down the lump in my throat, take a quick, yet deep, breath and then close my locker and go back outside. Gerard told me the truth. When I told him the truth about me, he sacrificed his own safety for me – he got beaten up because he wanted to protect me. They know he likes me, and he takes all their hate to keep them from hurting me.

Just as I step outside, the first warning bell rings out. I feel defiant as I walk against the stream of students filing into the school. The group is still standing by a dark-blue SUV in the parking lot, and they don't give me any of their attention until I'm 15 feet away from them and still not stopping.

They smile viciously, and for the first time, I see what Gerard must see in them.

“What d'you want, gnome?” one of them asks, crossing his arms over his chest to appear more intimidating – and it's working. I slow my walk and take only a few more steps so I won't get too close to them. Meanwhile, I try to swallow down the rasp I can feel in my throat as discretely as possible; just so that I won't sound like a 13-year-old with his voice breaking.

Now is the time to say something. I need to tell them to stay away from Gerard, but do they even know his name?

“Are you a mute?” another guy asks, which earns him an angry and disbelieving look from the other guy who spoke first. I think the first guy is the leader.

“Gerard Way,” I say, simple as that. My voice stays strong, but on the inside I'm already breaking from fear. I know they're gonna hurt me. Whether I get them to leave Gerard alone or not, I know they're gonna hurt me.

“Who?” the leader asks with a slight laugh in his voice.

“The emo kid,” a third guy says, before he flicks his cigarette my way. I can't help but flinch, even though is doesn't even come near me.

I can't believe I'm doing this. A feeling of overwhelming regret suddenly kicks me hard in the gut and knocks all the wind out of me. What am I doing?

“Oh, him,” the leader says, bored. Even his relaxed, nonchalant tone of voice makes my stomach clench and all I can think is that I want to turn back around and run.
“What about him?” he asks, smiling proudly. My stomach burns with hate, but my mind seems too overcome with terror that I can't feel anything but my heart beating like a jackhammer in my throat.

But I have to do this for Gerard. He doesn't deserve being beaten and cut and whatever else they might be doing to him. I can't let him get hurt any more. I should've stopped it a long time ago.

But I didn't know. I had no way of knowing he was being... being... molested. That way. I had no idea.

But it still happened.

I suddenly raise my gaze from the pebble on the ground it had fallen to and look the leader in the eye, the hate in my gut flaring up and giving me the guts to go through with what I came to get done. I know it's gonna harm me, but Gerard doesn't deserve any more from these guys.

“Leave him alone,” I say. My voice is quivering despite the adrenalin pumping in me – or perhaps because of it.
The leader laughs at me.

“What?”

“Are you crazy?” the stupid guy from before asks, but this time, the leader only laughs more.

“Why should we? Are you a fag like him?”

It's like a kick in the gut – that one word. I have to fight myself to avoid any physical reaction to it, but inside my stomach is sizzling with anger while my head is drowning in fear. I swallow once.

I am. That's about the only thought that I can clearly make out as I just keep staring into the eyes of the leader. I know he'll be the first to throw a punch at me, and I need to give him a good reason to:

“Yes,” I squeeze out. The fear now spreads to my entire body and all I can think and feel is that I'm petrified that these guys are gonna go too far and actually kill me. But I still finish my reason:
“I turned him into one.” I can feel my lungs empty completely with those words, as if I just punched myself in the gut – or as if the group has already started.

The leader says nothing. I can see a glimpse of joy in his eyes, mixed with viciousness and disgust. The guys behind him smile visibly, but the leader just stares at me with a frozen expression on his face.

I jump – obvious to everyone, I think – when the final warning bell rings out. The group looks disappointed. The leader looks pleased. And then, he just wiggles his eyebrows once before he turns around and walks back to sit on the hood of, what I assume is, his car.
♠ ♠ ♠
I'm so sorry for being gone, everyone!!
Real life kinda got the better of me for a while, but in that time, I've realized how stressed out I get when I don't have writing as an outlet, so guess what:
I'm back. =D