The Deep End

Warning: (I'm not really sure if the content of this deserves a warning or not but here is one just in case.) This chapter contains offensive language and mentions of sexual gay stuff.

When Alan's mum comes to pick him up from his day of almost hell (Austin's surprise appearance placed the 'almost' in there) everyone is still there. The stalls have all pretty much closed, but the church goers stay and socialise. It had been rather successful; they had raised a lot of money, which would be going to charity.

Austin had left about half an hour before, so Alan's mood had deflated quickly after that. Not wanting to make a fuss around everyone, he just followed his mum like a lost puppy, waiting until she made the decision to leave. Copious amounts of elderly people were left too, the sorts that just pounced at any opportunity of conversation. They talked with his mum about every topic under the sun; Alan's legs were starting to hurt. As nice as the people in his town seemed to be, they weren't so much deep down. Only after living there for years could you observe this. Witnessing hushed conversations about people's disapproval of somebody else's business began to taint your image of the town after awhile.

Now he thought of it, Alan really couldn't wait to get out of this town.

-

School was tedious the following week; it was almost as boring as watching paint dry. Although it was more like watching people fail and make terrible life decisions. Still, Tessa hadn't run off so at least he had one friend. Carl seemed to be spending less time with his attention planted in a textbook and more time with his tongue down his girlfriend's throat. Alan shivered in disgust. It wasn't as if he had been trying to witness it, but Carl seemed to have ventured beyond the walls of the library in lunchtime and walking past it in the corridor had been enough to put him off of his sandwich.

Overall, Alan has had worse weeks.

He sat in Geography on a Wednesday afternoon, staring longingly out of the window as per usual, thinking of Austin and his smile and his stupid tattoos and hair and his giggle and his excellent sense of humour and how precious he is. Alan was almost tempted to hurl himself out of the window, but it was first storey so it wasn't THAT sort of temptation. He just really wanted to see Austin.

He noticed more whispering than usual around him, and every time he turned round it dispersed into silence. Alan wasn't stupid, it was obviously about him. Usually people's gossiping didn't cease when it was about him though, and so the subject must have been incredibly touchy, maybe even taboo. He ignored it, Tessa would probably have heard something and would tell him, he will probably text her after school.

The bell ringing signed the dismissal of class, and Alan's class poured into the hallways like every other class. Alan was about five metres out of the school gates when some guys from his English class blocked his route into an alley that he walked through to get home. He was pretty sure it was intended, they were all looking at him the way a predator looks at his prey knowing that the feeble struggles it will put up will not defend it.

Alan didn't back away; he kept his expression neutral. He kept on walking, saying a polite 'excuse me' when he got a metre away.

-Don't show fear. Don't show fear.-

His chants alone had obviously not worked, because the taunting smiles on the boys’ faces were reactions to his obvious fear. They advanced, and began to mock him. He hoped they would just spit in his faces a couple of times, say some things that were meant to be offensive and stalk away.

"It's always the polite, quiet ones you have to look out for isn't it? I bet you aren't as polite when your sucking your boyfriend's dick."

Well, that took an unexpected turn. Like a deer caught in the headlights, he froze. Their grins of authority twisted into dark smirks manipulated by the heightened feeling of absolute power that they had. Alan really didn't have anything smart to say:

"Um, I don't have a boyfriend?" It wasn't entirely convincing, but at least the right words had come out of his mouth. They all laughed animalistic growls and advanced further. One of the taller ones, continued this time.

"See, no one believes those rumours. About you and that fag Goth, but we can see it, we know your one of those too. People think you're dating that Tessa girl, but we didn't fall for it."

Alan piped up, attempting to keep his voice at a constant pitch to hide the lies. "I have no idea what the fuck you guys are going on about, I'm not g-."

Another one of them interrupted: "The problem is, sins like that are very easily hidden, and we thought we would do everyone else a favour and help them see too."

Stalking closer, the one on the right threw a punch. It hit. Hard. Alan could feel his teeth grind together at the impact as he fell back slightly, barely managing to support himself with one arm.

It was getting dark outside, and distinguishing their faces was becoming difficult. Another one hissed through bared teeth: "We fucking know. No point hiding it now. People fucking saw you and the fag together, at the fair."

Alan filtered through the events of the previous weekend and could only place that time when he had sold Austin the cake. He knew those longing, gay stares were a risk but he was far too giddy on the whole seeing-Austin-in-public thing to care. Oh well, not much he could do about it now, he probably just had to scare them off with some sort of homosexual display.

Their kicks started landing on his stomach, and for a few seconds he was too winded to breathe at all. Even his choking and squirming didn't cease the beatings. After a few minutes a shout sounded in the distance, it all stopped. Then the grand finale came, one of them dragged him up by his t-shirt and punched him in the jaw one more time before letting his body crumple to the ground. They left the scene.

Alan checked to make sure he wasn't missing any of his teeth before he began to hobble home, gripping his stomach.

-

He was fumbling to get his keys into the door when he unexpectedly lost his balance. He leant on his knees, his head down like he was praying. Austin's voice sounded around him. He couldn't tell whether it was a hallucination or not. A hand was placed on his shoulder, it felt like Austin's. Alan looked up.

It was. Austin was staring down at him in concern, asking him if he could stand up. Alan's anger and sadness disintegrated at the sight of Austin. He nodded firmly, hauling himself up but not being stable enough to keep himself there. His hand shot out to Austin's shoulder, and Austin's arm circled his waist, keeping him standing.

"Alan, Are you dizzy? Can you see me properly? What happened? Has your head been hurt?"

A pedestrian came over to see if Alan was alright too. He gave Austin suspicious glances. Immediately they seemed to separate so they had a good half a metre between them, Austin's hands moved to the top of Alan's arms. Alan managed to balance when slightly leaned forward.

"Hey kid, are you doing alright?" Alan nodded, trying not to fall over because he would inevitably be in Austin's arms. Austin piped in: "Have you hit your head?" Alan's normal responses were a good sign that he didn't have a concussion.

"I don't think so?" He answered weakly. Agony spiked in his stomach, causing him to gasp and fall into Austin's grasp. “Austin decided to check Alan for symptoms of a concussion.

"Alan, look at me." Alan did just that. "Can you see me clearly?" Alan nodded.
"Do you have a headache?" Alan shook his head.
"Do you feel dizzy at all?" Alan shook his head; he focused on how warm the brown of Austin's irises were. His eyes were rather pretty.
"My stomach hurts, that's all." He tried to reassure Austin with a smile. The creases in Austin's forehead smoothed out, his tone softened:

"Okay, well, I don't think you have a concussion. I'll help you inside." Austin plucked Alan's house keys from the porch, and unlocked the door. Helping Alan into the house, he was unaware of the looks that the man was shooting him. Before Austin disappeared in the house, the man called:

"Hey, are you sure you're okay taking care of him by yourself?" That roughly translated as: "Can I trust you to not take advantage of this kid and care for him properly?” Austin appeared at the doorway again. Alan, not wanting to let go of Austin for a second, followed him. "Of course." He gave the man, who was still no where near convinced, a warm smile. He turned to Alan this time:

"You're okay with him looking after you?" Alan nodded, smiling.
"Yeah, we know each other."

The man took that as a good sign that if Austin was going to take advantage of Alan he would have already done it by now. With a wave the man left with all the confirmation he needed, little did he know that even if Austin was planning on doing what he had suspected him of, Alan would be more than willing.