It Started With A Dare

The next day I woke up to Bob yelling at me from downstairs, telling me to ‘hurry up and get my butt outta bed’. Groaning, I sat up in bed, rubbing my eyes to try to get them to open properly. I took sight of my alarm clock to see that – I only had five minutes to get ready! Jumping out of bed, I ran to the bathroom and brushed my teeth quickly before racing back to my room and pulling on some loose fitting ripped jeans and an ‘Emily the Strange’ shirt.

I ran a brush through my hair and grabbed my books and my black leather jacket on the way out. Bob was waiting by the front door when I came bounding down the stairs with two minutes to spare.

“Took you long enough.” Bob stated, picking up his bag and heading out of the house.

“Yeah yeah yeah.” I muttered, following him out to his car and getting in, setting my books on the floor by my feet.

“So how come you’re so late? You’re usually up at the crack of dawn.” Bob asked, glancing at me before turning back to keep his eyes on the road.

“Just some bad dreams.” I murmured, fiddling with the sleeve of my jacket. No I wasn’t lying; I’d been having weird dreams lately that scare the crap out of me.

“What about?” he asked.

“Its fine, it doesn’t matter. Don’t worry about it.” I assured him. He didn’t press any further and soon we were in the school parking lot.

“I’ll see you after school.” He said, about to leave before I spoke up.

“No wait, I’ve gotta go to that tutoring thing, can you pick me up at around 4?” I asked.

“I’m sorry Cassie, you know I would but I’m meeting up with Shelby after school.” He explained, making me roll my eyes.

“Seriously Bobby, you could do so much better than her.” I said, shaking my head.

“Are you kidding? She’s the head cheerleader! Every guy in school wants to be with her!” Bob exclaimed, waving his arms about to emphasise his point.

“Whatever, I guess I’ll just have to walk home, I’ll see you later Bobby.” I said, giving him a quick hug just as the bell rang and heading off to my first lesson.



At lunch I went to find Damien in the cafeteria but he wasn’t sitting where he usually was. I started to get worried when I couldn’t find him in the library either. As I was searching down the halls I passed a group of guys who looked to be sophomores leaving the boys’ bathroom; they were laughing with each other, talking about how ‘the shrimpy kid deserved it’. I stopped outside the door, contemplating whether to go inside or not, but after a moment of thought I pushed open the door and walked inside.

Other than the smell of urine, I could immediately hear some noise coming from one of the cubicles, and when I opened it my face fell. Damien sat next to the toilet, everywhere from his head to his shoulders drenched with water. He was coughing and spluttering, gripping onto the porcelain to keep steady.

“Damien!” I gasped, rushing closer to wrap my arms around him tightly, his own arms clutching me desperately, burying his face in my neck as I felt his body shake. We sat on the dirty bathroom floor for a while, Damien still crying and my shirt now soaked through, but I didn’t care; I wanted Damien to be okay.

“Damien, what happened? Who did this to you?” I asked him hesitantly, not wanting him to get even more upset than he already was. He tried to speak but each time his voice was too full of sobs and I couldn’t understand him.

“It’s okay Damien, I’m here.” I cooed, trying to get him to stop crying but it was no use, I was going to have to go get Frank or something “Hun, I’ll be right back, okay?” he nodded slightly, sniffing and rubbing his eye with the end of his sleeve. I set him leaning against the wall of the cubicle before getting up and speed-walking out of the bathroom.

I re-entered the cafeteria, heading straight for Bob’s table where Shelby was basically sucking his face off. Yuck. Frank was talking with Gerard so I walked over to them, causing them to stop their conversation and acknowledge my presence.

“Hey Cassie, what’s up?” Frank asked me with his usual grin on his face.

“Uh, it’s about Damien.” I said quietly. Frank’s grin immediately disappeared and was replaced with a frown.

“What? What happened?” he asked, his voice showing his concern.

“I don’t know the full story yet, but he won’t stop crying and I don’t know what to do.” I explained.

“Okay, where is he?” Frank asked, standing up from his seat. I led him to the boys’ bathroom where Damien was still a sobbing mess inside the cubicle.

“Oh Damien.” Frank breathed out, his face scrunching up with sadness as he knelt down beside his brother, bringing him into a hug and pulling the small boy into his lap.

“Day, what happened?” Frank asked, brushing his wet hair out of his face.

“Th-These guys dragged m-me in here a-and gave me a s-swirly, calling me a f-fag. Said they w-were teaching me a l-lesson, trying t-to turn m-me straight o-or something.” He managed to stutter out through his sobs. Frank rubbed his back softly, rocking them back and forth in hopes of soothing him, cooing things like ‘everything’s fine’ and ‘don’t listen to them, they’re wrong’. I stood watching the lovely brotherly moment until Damien had finally stopped crying and was now just sniffling quietly.

“You gonna be okay now?” Frank asked his brother. Damien nodded, still looking pretty down but it was better than him still crying. He stood up off of Frank’s lap, Frank standing up also and giving his brother another hug.

“Thanks Frankie.” I heard him mumble before pulling away and walking over to me, giving me a tight hug as well which I returned just a tightly.

“I’m gonna go back to the cafeteria now, you sure you’re okay?” Frank asked him.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” Damien said. Frank smiled before leaving the bathroom.

“Y’know, as much as I love standing around in a smelly boys’ bathroom, do you wanna leave now?” I asked, making him giggle.

“Yeah, come on.” He said, leading us out of the bathroom just as the bell rang for last lesson. Great, only one hour until I have to meet my tutor.