Outsiders

I followed John down the corridor, like a lost puppy I suppose, but that was the best I could do. We got lost in the crowd, being in-betweeners, the unrecognizable outcasts, whatever you want to call it. That made it easy for us to make our way over to the staff room. We knew the plan and we knew how to go through with it. Three knocks on the door and some wishes of luck was all we needed for our biology teacher to open the door and look out suspiciously. I peeked my head forward slightly, unable to be seen as the teacher was staring at John in front of me, and noticed the room was empty apart from us three in the doorway, before John put on his act. God, he should have been in the drama class instead of that playback band I hated. He changed his expression from deadpan to alerted, upset and absolutely devastated. He took a deep, shaky breath and then broke out into his blabber;

“Fire!” he blurted out. “Fire, in the trashcan!”

The teacher’s eyes widened and he had already stumbled out of the room before he actually asked “What?!”

“Down the stairs, in the corridor… the last trashcan on the left… burning!” He pointed, raising his voice louder for each word, but no one around us stopped to ask or even wonder. “The ceiling is catching fire! Hurry!”

The teacher flung out of the room, leaving it open behind himself as he nearly fell down the stairs. John turned to me, his terrified eyes staring right into mine, then he softened up as he laughed. I smiled faintly back at him but I couldn’t keep it up for long.

“Good job”, I muttered, going to lean against the wall. I wasn’t all too approving of this shit, and I’m pretty sure that was plain for anyone to see. Not only was it against the school’s policy to go into rooms without permission; it was also against my own. I was one of the ‘good guys’. Always had been. One who told the truth and always did as told, the kind of guy who always had an extra pencil in case you chewed your own up. I wouldn’t lie about a fire in a trashcan to get into the teacher’s lounge. And I certainly didn’t really want to break these own rules to satisfy the blokes who had beat me up. Besides, I’d already broken my “lying” code. Of course it wasn’t alright that they’d done this to me. Doesn’t matter whether it was their own plan or not; it was still their fists on my body. Then again, I guess this had a good outcome too, for me especially. It would be the revenge of Tim I had been hoping would come lie down by my feet for months now. Sure there had to be better ways to go through with the payback, but this was the best we could think of. We didn’t exactly want to ruin the guy’s life, but we wanted to at least say that we could play this game as well. I guess we both were ‘good guys’.

John either didn’t care or he was too stressed out to notice my grief and instead walked past me, rounding the corner and waving with his hand to motion someone to come closer. “Clear.”

He stopped abruptly and looked over strangely, something odd filling his eyes. I could see even from the door how it was fear. It stung my heart; what could he have seen? A weird feeling filled my body. Like seeing your mom cry. You don’t know why she does it, and she won’t tell you, and you just want it all to be alright. I had to make it all go away. I quickly went off the wall and walked over to him, intending to just grab him and yank him with me. He was just going to tell Pogo it was clear for him to go into the staff room, right? So he could get to the microphone, so that we could undergo our plan of sending our lovely message out through the speakers? But as I walked over to him and looked up the corridor, I suddenly understood all of the horror I’d seen flash over his face.

Pogo was standing by the wall, talking to Tim who was sneering, and suddenly he looked up at us from underneath his cap. I saw nothing in those eyes but hate, and I felt nothing for him but contempt. It made me nauseous to even stand there looking at him. I quickly wired my arm around John and pulled him with me, not wanting him to be stuck like a deer in headlights. Only as I was back in the spot I had started in, I realized that seeing Tim was actually like witnessing a car crash. You don’t want to look, you don’t want to get involved, but it’s impossible not to. The only different was how Tim was but an accident waiting to occur. A can of gasoline waiting to get lit. And we all knew even the smallest things could manage to detonate him.

A moment later, Pogo walked back, looking up at John with eyes that read “sorry” before he disappeared into the staff room, closing the door behind himself. I should have been scared, as Tim obviously had gotten drawn into in this again, but I only was eager to see what disaster it would lead to this time. I was used to it.

My hand travelled down John’s waist, and I found his hand already open and arranged for mine to grab. We entwined our fingers as we both sighed; so maybe I was a bit too thrilled? A little nervous, perhaps. God, I couldn’t lie. It was against my good guy policy after all. Downright, I was shaking already, and it was not because of some eagerness. And it didn’t get better as Tim slowly rounded the corner, walking like the murderer of a horror flick, and he sure as hell was aware of it too. Despite all I now knew he’d been through, I couldn’t forgive him for doing what he’d done to my John. Just because he had been abused and taken advantage of all his life, it didn’t give him the right to do it to others. Call me sadistic, call me cold-hearted, but I couldn’t wait to see him get his punishment for all the pain he had caused us and for all he’d made the others do. I almost wished we would have picked a payback of the life-ruining kind.

The speakers buzzed, beeping three times as everyone’s talking and laughter quickly died out, all of the students looking up to the closest apparatus. Usually when these messages were sent out it was to direct this class to go here, that class to go there, those people to gather outside and that guy to meet the principle. Well, this message would be quite the contrary. Something unique compared to the old usual bullshit. And, most likely, Pogo had been told to preach something else as well.

“Hearing, hearing”, he spoke, his voice electric and proud, and a quartet of girls down the corridor suddenly screeched before angrily hushing each other quiet. Oh wow, that gang had more fan girls than the football team. “An important message has come to my attention. I feel it is my duty to report this for all my peasants and inferior individuals. All hail the king.” He chuckled a little for himself, clearly enjoying his joke too much. Then he turned way more serious than before. “Scam has been brought upon this land of clean. And as your king and righteous leader, let me point these traitors out.”

I didn't even dare to look up at John. I was too scared of what was to come. It went quiet for a few seconds, and people were tense as they stood listening. After he started speaking again, it became clear for me that he had just been trying to remember words.

“Kenneth Wilson and John Lowery are faggots. You heard me! Faggots. Forever to be”, he was cut off by Tim bursting into hysterical laughter, “and never to stop fucking. And that was all.”

Tim pointed and almost bent himself double due to the fits of laughter, everybody’s attention turning towards us, our obviously stupidly scared faces and our hands entwined tightly. My heart dropped and my cheeks flushed red as I looked around. I couldn’t believe this was happening. All this time, all this fucking time of keeping a low profile, then this? Everything just being wrecked in front of my eyes? This time I couldn’t even fix it. What had been said had been said and no one would forget it. If the word stopped going around, it would still be in the walls, drenched in like scabies and mould, like in everybody’s minds. And oh god, my life was over.

But instead of booing, screams of disgust or fists in my face, I heard cheering. First from the Pogo fan girls, then it spread, making more of the girls happily squeal, the jocks clapping their hands, the nerds screeching and the goths raising a Satanic sign with their hands that probably meant a good thing in their eyes.

Suddenly I felt John pull on my hand and I looked down, then up, and was greeted by his lips pressed against mine. Harshly, pushing me back against the wall, making me hit it hard without us breaking the kiss and without me ever minding the raw handling. In the corner of my eye I could see Tim’s jaw dropping, his arms hanging by his side as he slumped down, and that’s when I slowly closed my eyes, kissing John back just as harshly as him. Everybody’s cheering surrounding us, growing louder, Pogo’s chuckling in the speakers and Tim’s priceless face… And I had never felt happier.

The teacher came running up the stairs, trying to make it through the crowd, yelling to be let through but kept on being pushed back. The hysteria could not be prevented and everybody knew it.

“Yeah, and… Another thing…” Pogo coughed awkwardly, tapping on the microphone to get everyone to calm down a bit. John pulled away to witness our plan actually coming through. “So… Your king has also come to realize that- eh, what the hell... Erin? Girl? You out there?” A black-haired girl was seen doing high jumps among the people, screaming happily as a reply. Tim quickly shunned. This girl had been stalking him for almost a year now and probably would for years to come, and he always tried to keep a distance from her. The grudge, the horse girl; his worst nightmare. “Tim Skold has officially asked you out. What do you say, my lady?”

The crowd broke into hysterical laughter and even more cheering, reductions of “oh my god” and “what the fuck” filling the corridor as Tim’s face changed with the louder screams of “yesyesyes” coming from Erin. He seemed speechless at first, but everyone who knew him could see how he was ticking. Like a bomb. Just about ready to explode. Oh damn, he had been detonated again.

He took a deep breath. Then he ran towards the wall. He kicked it, creating a small crack, and kicked again, his foot getting stuck in the hole and he stumbled a bit before he managed to pull it out again. Erin came running towards him from up in the corridor, still screaming from the top of her lungs, and he quickly turned around with his hair falling in his face, the people dispersing to allow him to make it through the crowd, passing the teacher who came rushing after him instead as he furiously stomped down the stairs. I felt John pull away from me but I wired my arms around him and pulled him back. “Don’t bother. He’s not worth it.”

“Worth what?” he asked and I smiled.

“Worth getting a fix from seeing your happiness being taken away by whatever he may have an urge to say.”

Pogo came out of the room, drawing his fair hair back with his hand as he looked around proudly, walking like a mayor or something. Or, well, maybe just like a king. Immediately his fans ran over to him, a bunch of girls looking up at him with big eyes, excited and full of expectations. He leaned down closer, pretending to be lifting a hat off. “What’s up, ladies?”

They giggled in a choir, and let’s just say he looked more pleased than ever. Then he noticed the girl on the far right and his expression changed.

“Hey, you look just like a vampire.”

But it wasn’t like his expression changed for something worse. More like something lit up his eyes and an interested smile crept onto his face.

“I like that.”

“Well, except from the last part, I hear that a lot”, the girl said, shrugging easily but they both smiled like never before.

Pogo leaned back against the wall, keeping on the talking but before I could catch more of it, my attention was drawn back to John as he squeezed my hand; such a comforting thing to do. It made me remember how he was there for me and wouldn’t let anything bad happen to me. Despite the interesting things happening to my left, the sight in front of me was about a billion times better. For me, at least. But I could assume Pogo was thinking just the same.

John kissed me again, and it was such a relief to not even feel anxious about who saw or have to wonder about what they’d do about it. Everybody knew now and nobody would try to stop us. For once, we could be ourselves without being judged. In conclusion, this whole thing did have a good outcome for me after all.