Never Means Forever

I just got off work and texted my dad that I was on my way home. It usually took me about half an hour to get home when I didn’t run into trouble. My dad called me up.
“Hello?”
“Alex, I don’t want you walking home by yourself. You know I don’t like when you walk home at night. I’ll come get you.”
“Dad, I’ll be okay, I promise. Please just relax. I want you to feel better.”
“Call your best friend up. If he can walk you home he can stay over tonight.”
“Dad, it’s like two in the morning and a school night.”
“He’ll be awake. Please ask him to walk you home, and either you call him up, or I’m coming to get you.”
“Yes, sir. I love you. I’ll see you soon.”
I hung up and called my friend, Brad.
He sounded really tired when he said, “Hello?”
“Dad told me to ask if you could walk me home. I just got off.”
He groaned. “You were supposed to warn me half an hour before you get off. I’ll walk you home, but you have to walk to my house on your own.”
“Okay. Dad said you can sleep over.”
“Okay… Well, are you on your way?”
“Yeah. I’ll be there in like five, ten minutes.”
“Yeah, right. See you when you get here.”
I was disconnected. I slipped my cell phone into my pocket. I pulled out my ipod, hooked my headphones to it and plugged myself into my music. I was listening to a playlist with Twin Atlantic, All Time Low, and some various artists as I started heading to Brad’s house.
I hated that I woke Brad up, but Dad wasn’t giving me much of a choice. It’s not like Dad didn’t have a reason to worry about me. I was his only son, and I looked pretty girly. My whole body type was just so feminine. I was short, skinny, and a lot about me just looked so girly. Add that to the fact I was openly gay, and well, you got yourself a walking target for bullying. Plus, my hot pink hair didn’t help.
Brad usually didn’t mind walking home with me. He was one of my best friends. He said he didn’t want anything bad to happen to me after knowing about a few bad incidences I had found myself in.
I still hated that I woke him though. He needed his sleep. He had work the next day.
I was walking past the last of the shops when two guys from my school popped out from around the corner. They were guys that liked to torture me at school. I took off my headphones carefully.
“Hey Trevor, look what we have here.”
“Please just leave me alone,” I said trying to get passed them.
Trevor’s friend grabbed me and shoved me up against the building. I grimaced. Of course the one night I thought I’d be okay these guys just happen to run into me.
“You know you really fucked up our night tonight. We were just trying to get a free meal.”
I didn’t say anything. It wouldn’t help me to say anything.
I didn’t stop them to ruin their night. I was trying to make sure my friend, Sarah, got paid. Sarah had been going through a rough time. She needed the money.
Trevor’s friend, Cale, grabbed them and held them behind me as he turned me around. Trevor punched me in the gut a few times then he pulled his fist back and decked me in the jaw. After Cale let me go I fell forward doubling over in pain. I looked up to see a guy about my age or older just staring at me. His expression wasn’t a happy one. It actually looked pretty sad.
Trevor or Cale kicked me in the side then both walked off laughing. I grunted in pain then pushed myself to my feet.
I looked at the guy again. He was wearing a lose white T-shirt and lose light blue jeans which looked good on him. He was tan with dark brown hair, and his eyes were so dark brown they almost looked black. I smiled and waved before putting my headphones back on and continuing my way to Brad’s.
|~|*|~|
“Dude, what the hell happened to you?” Brad demanded as he walked up to me.
“It’s nothing. I had a run in with Trevor and Cale. No big deal.”
“I really hate when you say that. It is a big deal. They beat the shit out of you.”
“I’m fine, Brad.”
“That split lip doesn’t look fine,” Brad stated before shrugging as we started toward my house.
“Anything good on your ipod?” Brad asked after a while.
“No. Well, I have Maximum the Hormone.”
“Turn it on.”
I only had one album from them and every time I hung with Brad we listened to it, so I flicked it to that and turned it almost all the way up before locking it and slipping the device in my pocket again.
“Sorry I woke you,” I muttered after a while.
“Dude, it’s fine. It’s just you shoulda called me sooner.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
“You’re not going to talk to them, are you?” I asked nervously.
“No, I’m going to beat the shit out of them.”
“Brad, I’m okay. You don’t need to.”
“Apparently I do. They need to stop this shit.”
I rolled my eyes as ‘What’s Up, People?!’ started playing.
“Do you think your dad is going to let you keep this job if you keep getting hurt like this?”
“It’s not like they broke bones, and Dad knows I need this job.”
“You know it’s kind of sad when you’re seventeen and your dad has to pick you up from work all the time?”
I sighed. I knew Brad was right.
“I’ll take self-defense classes.”
“Alex, that won’t work. You’re already working yourself too much. I mean, it’s two in the morning, and you have school at seven.”
“I’ll be fine. Can we talk about something else, please?”
“Fine. How was work?”
“It was good. Sarah wasn’t doing too good today.”
We started walking up to my front door. The door was unlocked. I twisted the knob and shoved it open. Pain racked through my body as Brad walked into my house. I fell but caught myself roughly. I looked behind me like I usually did, and there was that guy from earlier. Same expression. Why had he followed me? was the only thought I had.