Choke on Your Misery

Zack

I leaned against the bathroom counter, looking into the mirror at myself. At my black eye and bruised stomach - the bruises I had received from the assholes at school earlier in the day. Since Thursday, the first day Alex was home sick from school, the jocks and a bunch of other people had jumped down my throat about being bisexual. I had expected the ridicule when Alex and I came out to the school, but I hadn’t realized how much worse it would get if Alex wasn’t at school. It was especially bad on the bus the first day, until they realized that Rian was about ready to kill them for bullying me. My friends were all sticking up for me, but in all honesty, it just made it worse. It made me look even more helpless than I did already.

My phone began to vibrate in my jeans pocket, and I pulled it out to look at it. Alex was calling again. I sighed, silencing it and setting it down on the counter. I knew I was probably worrying him and Rian, but I wasn’t ready to talk to anyone about this. They didn’t even know about it yet. I raised a hand up to feel the bruise around my eye and winced.

I gathered my stuff together as the bell rang to dismiss us from fifth period, trying to avoid people as I walked out of the classroom. I’d been hearing whispers about me throughout the entire class period, and just wanted to get to French class. Jack would distract me enough to help me forget about these jerks.

I obviously wasn’t successful in avoiding everyone, because as I was putting my stuff into my locker, I felt a strong hand clap down onto my shoulder. I turned around to see three of the varsity football players. These were the guys who had begun the teasing when they realized Alex would be out of school for a while.

“Well, if it isn’t the newest faggot of Dulaney high school!” Brent, the captain of the football team, smirked at me. He was the one who had his hand on my shoulder.

I took a step back in an attempt to get his hand off of me, only to step into the arms of two more football players. “Fuck off,” I muttered. My heartbeat was going a hundred miles an hour right now. I’d be having a full-out panic attack by now if I hadn’t taken my medicine this morning.

“Aw, is little Zacky scared of us?” Brent asked, still smirking. I wanted to slap that stupid smirk right off of his face, but didn’t have the courage to.

“N-no. Leave me alone, you assholes,” I said, taking a step forward. Jake and Dylan, the two football players behind me, grabbed onto my arms as I did so. A few people glanced in our direction, but no one stopped to say anything. This was a disadvantage of my locker hall being nearly deserted.

Brent’s smirk faded as he glared at me, “You don’t want to piss us off, Zack. Your little faggot boyfriend has given us enough trouble since he came out of the fucking closet. I’ve been suspended twice for harassing him – and I hadn’t even laid a hand on him.”

“Your boyfriend is notorious for getting us in trouble by lying,” Jake hissed.

“Because you’re pricks,” I mumbled under my breath.

“What did you just say?” Brent snapped, his face close to mine. Jake and Dylan’s grips on my arms tightened.

“I-I said y-you’re all p-pricks,” I stuttered nervously, glaring up at him.

Brent raised an eyebrow, taking a step back. “You want to see what a prick is?” he questioned. I swallowed nervously, attempting to pull away from them. The bell rang and a small smirk crossed his face. “Follow me, boys.”

Jake and Dylan dragged me down the hall behind Brent, even as I struggled against them. These guys were fucking ripped. Brent pushed open the bathroom door, signaling to the others when he saw that no one was in there. Jake and Dylan pulled me in, and the three of them had me cornered near the back wall.

“S-seriously, fuck o-off. I d-don’t want any t-trouble,” I stammered, wishing I could just disappear right then and there. Where was Alex or Rian when I needed them? Any of my friends would be a help right now, really.

“You were asking for trouble when you decided to tell the school you were dating Gaskarth. Maybe if both of you weren’t gay cocksuckers you wouldn’t have this issue,” Brent snarled, shoving me into the wall. I gasped as the wind was knocked out of me. “This is for everything your fag has gotten us in trouble for in the past few years.”

Before I knew what was happening, he had punched me square in the face so hard I saw stars. I let out a whimper of pain and immediately brought my hand to my eye, where he had hit me. I could feel my face bruising already.

“And this,” Brent punched me hard in the stomach, causing me to lose my breath again and slide down against the wall. “Is to make sure you two don’t rat us out.”

I could feel tears sliding down my face, from pain and from the punch I’d just received in the eye. I couldn’t speak because I hadn’t caught my breath yet.

“Do you understand what happens when you piss us off?” Dylan asked in a low voice, grabbing me by the shirt to lift me up slightly. When I didn’t respond, he shook me. “Do you understand?”

“Yes,” I gasped out, holding my stomach in pain.

“Good. Remember that next time your boyfriend talks shit and lies about us.” He let go of my shirt, pushing me back into the wall roughly.

I bit my lip, looking down at my bare stomach. A decent sized bruise had formed across the middle of my stomach after Brent had hit it. Once I had composed myself, I had checked out of school in the office quickly and walked the mile and a half back to my house. It had taken nearly 40 minutes because the bruise on my stomach had begun to hurt more with each step. Luckily, I had avoided my mom and gone straight to my room with a hidden bag of ice for my eye. It wasn’t horrible, but definitely still looked bad. My bangs were just long enough to keep my left eye shadowed, but that wasn’t going to last long. I needed to hide this from my parents and my friends somehow. If my parents found out, I was going to be watched like a hawk in and out of school.

I heard my mom call my name and my heart pounded. “I’m in the bathroom,” I called out, locking the door.

“Hurry up, honey, your dinner is getting cold,” she called back.

“Fuck,” I cussed under my breath, pulling my shirt over my head. I looked around the bathroom and spotted what I was looking for – my mom’s makeup bag. I picked it up, quietly digging through it to find the concealer. My mom’s skin tone is the same as mine; this should work to hide it, shouldn’t it?

I grimaced as I used the concealer over my black eye. I never thought I’d have to use makeup in my lifetime. The concealer successfully hid my black eye, though, so I suppose it wasn’t a completely bad thing.

••••••••••

I sat through dinner with my parents, and was relieved to see that my parents didn’t suspect a thing about my black eye. Hmm; maybe this concealer shit actually works.

I finally sat down on my bed to see my messages around eight that evening. I was surprised to see that I had fifteen missed calls – nine from Alex and six from Rian. I had a ton of texts from my friends, too.

To: Zack
From: Jack
Zack why aren’t u in class?!?!

To: Zack
From: Rian
Where did you go? Jack said ur not in class

To: Zack
From: Rian
Zack?

To: Zack
From: Evan
Rian’s freaking out, where are u?

To: Zack
From: Rian
Seriously bro this isn’t funny, I’m getting worried

To: Zack
From: Rian
Zack c’mon what’s going on?

To: Zack
From: Alex
Babe, why aren’t you answering the phone?

To: Zack
From: Alex
What’s going on Zack?

To: Zack
From: Alex
Seriously baby please reply we’re all freaking out.

To: Zack
From: Rian
I’m about to set out a fucking search party

They were really worried about me, weren’t they? I sighed and sent out a text to all of them.

To: Alex; Rian; Jack; Evan
From: Zack
I’m fine stop freaking out. Didn’t feel good so I left school. I’m better now. Be back tomorrow.

I sighed and fell back on my bed, looking up at the ceiling. Hopefully the concealer would last throughout the day tomorrow. Knowing my friends, they would make a huge deal out of this and blow everything out of proportion if they found out. And knowing those assholes on the football team, they would just do this to me again.

I got off of my bed and opened my door softly, leaving my room to go downstairs. Seeing that my parents were in the living room watching a movie, I quietly opened the door and walked downstairs into the basement. I flipped on the light and looked around at my dad’s exercise room. I made a mental vow to spend every passing second I had down here; I didn’t want to have to go through this pain again.