You're My Best Friend

For Ashton, today was like any other normal day. Go into school, see his friends, laugh and talk about what happened over the weekend, trade stories about what they all did while they were drunk and then he would need to find the boy with the rainbow hair to take any anger he has out on him. An average day for Ashton Irwin, really. Ever since Michael had transferred to the school Ashton attended, his life had become a living hell. He woke up every day and wished to himself that something would happen that day to take away everything, he would cry himself to sleep every night, and worst of all, he hid everything from his parents. He knew that if they had found out about what was going on at his school, they would only move again, which meant moving him away from the one friend he had made since moving a year earlier. Calum was the only person other than himself and Ashton’s group of friends that knew what was going on. The worst part of all of this was that Michael felt really alone when he was at school considering he and Calum attended different schools. He begged his parents to transfer him to the school Calum went to, but all to no avail.
They walked into school, meeting at the gates causing Michael to look down and a smirk to grow across Ashton’s lips. Noticing Michael shaking in fear and running a hand through his bright green locks, Ashton grinned at himself before knocking the books Michael was carrying in his arms out of his grip. He laughed softly, seeing his friends laughing and all holding their hands out for high fives, to which he delivered. He had grown to hate making the younger boy’s life hell, he really had, but if he stopped then his friends would just continue anyway. “Man, sometimes I wanna just beat the shit out him for being such a loser, y’know?” Ashton said to his friends, just trying to keep up his image. They all laughed, nodding in agreement and some expressing the same wish, causing Ashton to internally sigh at himself. He just wished with everything he had that he could make himself stop, but he felt as though it was impossible.
The day went by torturously slow for Michael. He had spent the day in his classes at the back of the room, making notes of everything his teachers were telling him while he tried to avoid the balls of paper being thrown at him. Oh, and he was also trying to avoid that creepy stare Ashton gave him in every class too. He didn’t quite know why the boy stared at him, but he wouldn’t question him. Once the day was over, he picked up his belongings and made his way out of the class quickly, trying to avoid a confrontation with Ashton. He made it to the gates, seeing the group of guys waiting for him and wishing that he had waited for that unpleasant encounter with Ashton. He looked around at all of the boys in front of him, trying to form a decent sentence but being cut off by one of them punching him across the face, harder than anyone had punched him before. He fell to the ground, whimpering and holding his head as he sat up. He locked his gaze on the boy that had punched him, recalling that he was called Leo. He heard him say something about giving Ashton what he wanted by beating him up. He tried to pick up all of his books frantically, only to have another guy kick him back down and make his face slam against the rocky ground. The boy held Michael’s face to the ground for a few moments before letting him sit up again. Michael looked up at them, feeling a warm liquid begin to trickle down his head and from his nose. His eyes were like waterfalls at this point, he couldn’t stop the tears from falling from his eyes as much as he wanted to. His dads had always told him to never show his weaknesses, but he couldn’t help it at that point. He had never felt pain like he was feeling at that moment, and he was wishing that it would all just go away. Just as that thought crossed his mind, he felt three more impacts on his face before passing out, probably from pain more than anything else.
After spending most of his day staring at Michael in their shared classes, Ashton’s day ended and he was eager to get home. He watched as Michael frantically scrambled for his belongings and pretty much sprinted from the room, knowing that he was trying to avoid him, causing him to just chuckle and shake his head. He made his own way out of the building, stopping a few times to talk to friends before making it to the gates. He saw his friends run off when an ambulance and police van pulled up, making him run over to the scene and widening his eyes as he saw Michael lying on the floor unconscious. He dropped his bag and kneeled beside him, not caring if anyone saw him do that. He lifted Michael’s head up and rested it in his lap, running a hand through his hair and feeling his hand get sticky. He lifted his hand to look at it, seeing it covered in blood. Wait – had his friends done this to him because he opened his mouth and made another one of his stupid comments? Fuck, this was all his fault. He looked up when one of the paramedics asked if he wanted to go to the hospital with him, to which he nodded and picked up his bag, collecting Michael’s belongings at the same time before climbing into the ambulance with him. He’d really fucked up this time, and there was no way he could put his regret into words. Why did he open his stupid mouth?