Drank the Poison

Monday mornings are the absolute worst. The whole weekend had passed since Friday night’s meeting. And as usually, nothing interesting has happened since.

I took a shower and threw on a random red tank top, skinnies, and my Toms just like I do every morning of every day.

Mondays are particularly bad for me because they mean that I have a whole week to go before I could escape from school again. It wasn’t like I was being brutally attacked or anything, but it was still bad enough for me to dread going. The worst part is that I’m alone.

I’m not going to say anything to my mom though, because we can barely afford our lives now, so she works two jobs and doesn’t need the added stress. She’s barely home enough to figure it out anyways.

My mom drove me in her beat up Honda, and I couldn’t help but let my mind wonder to last Friday. Had Vic actually took a liking to me? I wonder where he lives? Not in a creepy way, it’s just that I’ve never seen him before, but maybe that was just because I was never looking.

We pulled up, I said a quick goodbye, and went to my locker before class started. I had just opened my locker and was just about to grab my chemistry book, but I barely had time to react before it was being slammed shut in front of my face.

“Morning Faggot.” Mike Fuentes called out as he continued to walk past me.

I calmly reopened my locker, took out my books, and proceeded to class. This honestly has no effect on me anymore. He and his clan of ‘cool kids’ have been doing shit like this since the time I came to this school one year ago, so I’ve become accustomed to it. More or less.

The first half of the day was uneventful, but now it’s lunch time. Juniors and Seniors all sit in a huge cafeteria together. But being forced to eat ‘all together’ in one room really means nothing though because it’s so cliquey. Everyone knows their place, and everybody has one.

But unlike all of the others, I have no clique. Embarrassing. I usually just eat in one of the abandoned corner tables of the cafeteria. Totally alone. Fucking pathetic, I know, but what else am I supposed to do? No one wants to be friends with the shy, picked-on kid.

I walked in and looked around at my surroundings. In the dead center of the room was Mike, surrounded by all of his minions. So I began to walk past all of them to get to my table, just trying to be as unnoticed as physically possible.

Suddenly, I nearly jumped out of skin. I felt a freezing cold liquid run down my back. Dripping now through my pants into my shoes, milk covered the floor.

All of the heads at the table shot up, as Mike began to point and laugh hysterically at me. I could feel my cheeks burn as the assailant, Matty, walked over to Mike and high-fived him.

“Next time you say hello when someone greets you, Freak.”

“W-why” I could feel myself choke out before I sprinted out of the cafeteria which was now filled with laughter. At one time I had thought that stuff like this only happened in movies, but now I’ve learned that, nope, this is reality. My reality.

I ran into the bathroom right outside of the cafeteria. I was half excepting some savor to run in and to tell me that I am worth it and that everything will be okay. But that never happened.

Desperate, I tried to call my mom to ask her to come and get me, but she was at work, like always, so I decided to walk home instead and skip the rest of the day. I just felt so lonely.

I was about ten minutes through my walk home when suddenly a black Range Rover pulled up next to me with all windows rolled down.

Maybe it’s because I’m a pessimist, or maybe because I’m a realist, but I was half expecting a tomato or something to be thrown at my head.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

“Need a ride? Get in.” Vic said through the passenger’s side window.

I knew I had a long walk ahead of me and my shoes were still squishing full of milk, so I did what I was told.

“Address?” he asked. I couldn’t believe that he was here right now. Why?

“Oh just get on the main freeway right over here” I pointed.

“So are you okay? You seemed pretty pissed off back there... Wait, why are you all soaked?” he asked in pure confusion.

“I’m fine. Just ran into a kid who didn’t like me very much at lunch.” I admitted shyly.

“How often does shit like this happen Kells?”

I really contemplated lying to him, but he already knows that I’m a loser, so I really have nothing else to lose at this point.

“Everyday” I mumbled.

“That fucking sucks Kells. They don’t even know you.” he said calmly but with passion.

“No, it’s okay. Really. I’d rather be the target than someone else who couldn’t handle it” I said simply. And that wasn’t a lie. I can handle it most days. Admittedly, it does occasionally drag me down to that dark place, but for the most part I’m doing alright.

We pulled up to my house, and I wanted to invite Vic in so badly, but I couldn’t bring myself to form the words and face the rejection that’ll probably follow.

Luckily I didn’t have to because Vic’s forwardness is twice that of mine. “I have to go back to the school to pick up my stupid little brother and I’m working all the rest of the week, but when can I see you again? Please tell me you’re coming back to the meeting again. You make them so much more interesting” he said looking me up and down.

Okay, that was defiantly not innocent, and it threw me off a bit as I became incredibly self conscious.

“I’ll be there.” I said with a small smile as I got out of Vic’s car. He pulled away and I immediately missed having someone to talk to. I swung my backpack over my shoulder and trudged into my house to start my homework, and to hopefully get some guitar in before my mom gets home late tonight.