Scars Don't Heal When You Keep Cutting

Since it’s Thursday, Ben comes home with me. I find him standing by his locker, but DJ was with him.

DJ was smirking and talking to Ben, who had his head hung low. Students around them were laughing.

I glare and hastily walk over to them, shoving people out of my way and ignoring the protests coming from my peers as I do.

Usually when I see bullying, I only tell the bully to fuck off and get a life. But no, this kid was bullying Ben, so this is gonna be different.

I grip DJ’s neck tightly and slam him against Ben’s locker, glaring as I watch DJ slide down to the floor. The crowd of students around us start cheering for a fight. Maybe about five percent of them were chanting DJ’s name, the rest mine. About half of the ones chanting my name apparently doesn’t know my name after almost a week. But they quickly changed ’new kid’ to my actual name, after hearing the others say it.

But I ignore them all. It’s just me and this fucking bitch on the floor.

DJ recovers before he gets back up with a glare of his own.

“You fucking bitch!” Dick Juice shouts at me, rubbing his neck which would most likely bruise later. He lunges forward and throws a punch, but I grab his arm, catching him by surprise before slamming his face into the locker again.

I glare down at him, waiting for him to get up. Being the fucking idiot he is, he gets back up. He wipes at his lip as if there was blood, but there wasn’t so it looked pretty fucking stupid. He leaps at me so quickly, though, he actually manages to get his fist to make contact with my jaw. The force makes me bite my tongue and slam into the locker myself.

“Hell yeah! I hit him!” DJ shouts, turning to face the kids behind him like a dumbass. “I hit him!” While he’s busy trying to boost his ego, I make sure to punch him in the head, hard. You guessed it, he fell right back to the floor. I couldn’t do anything else because someone grabbed my arm and dragged me away from the fight and outside.

When they finally stop dragging me, I twirl around to see who the hell it was.

Trenton.

I also saw that Sam, Ben, and that girl from the other day had followed.

“What got you guys fighting this time?” Trenton snaps at me, a bit annoyed by me fighting another one of his friends.

“The same fucking reason why I kicked his ass on Tuesday!” I snap at him. I feel kinda bad for snapping when he flinches. My remorse is gone after I realize he snapped at me first.

“Well, are you still coming to the party tomorrow?” he smiles now, clearly trying to calm me down now. It works, his happiness is just so contagious.

“Yeah, and Sam’s still bringing Ben, even though he really doesn’t want to go,” I smile as I motion towards Ben, who was talking to Sam.

“Oh, okay,” Trenton says before walking towards Sam.

“You guys still going?” Trenton asks Sam and the girl.

“Yeah, and I’m bringing the others, too!” Sam chirps as Ben awkwardly walks over to me, still crying.

“Let’s just go now,” he says as he starts walking up. I walk with him to my house in silence, deciding to talk with him when we got to the house.

That is, until Trenton comes running up again.

“So, do you remember where I live? For the party tomorrow?” he chirps, squeezing in between Ben and I.

“No, could you give it to me again?” I ask him. He laughs and nods.

“I’ll text it to you, because I don’t know how to pronounce the street! I don’t even know how to spell it, but I know when I see it!” I laugh at the absent-minded boy. He suddenly stops.

“Waldo’s picking me up here. See you tomorrow!” he chirps and waves.

“Bye, Trenton,” I chuckle as I walk away with Ben. We walk the rest of the way home in silence, this time without anyone running up to us.

We approach the door to the house. I unlock it and let Ben inside. He goes straight upstairs and into the bathroom.

I groan and walk into my room, where I wait for Ben to return. Then I remember that I forgot to announce my arrival. I walk back into the hallway, shout at the top of my lungs, “MOM AND DAD! WE’RE HOME!”

I hear Ben gasp from the bathroom. I walk to the door and knock on it.

“You alright?” I ask worriedly.

“Uh, yeah, I’m fine. Just...scared me, that’s all,” Ben answers me.

“Oh, sorry, mate,” I apologize before I turn and go back into my room. Shortly after, Ben staggers back into the room.

“Welcome back!” I say as I turn to him. “I need to ask you something,” I tell him, not as enthusiastic as I sounded a moment ago. He sits on the floor, so I sit next to him. The bed would’ve been nice to sit at, but I guess the floor works, too.

“Yeah?”

“What was DJ telling you earlier?” I ask him. He sighs and leans against me, I immediately wrap an arm around him.

“It’s nothing, I’m okay,” he tells me, but I won’t take that answer. I shake my head.

“That’s bullshit, Ben.”

“No, really. I’m fine.”

“Then why were you crying, Ben?”

No reply. Just a shake of his head.

“Was he calling you names?”

“Not only that. It’s okay, I’m fine now.” I sigh, knowing I’m not gonna get anything out of him. It’s just so fucking stressful. I wanna help him, but how can I help him if he doesn’t tell me what’s wrong? I can’t just kick DJ’s ass everyday, seeing that it’s not really working if DJ will only go mess with Ben again. If I keep it up, we might have to change schools again, and how will I be able to help Ben then?

“I can’t keep fighting with Dick Juice, Benny,” I tell him.

“Then don’t fight him, then. No one’s telling you to.”

“I need to let my anger out somehow.”

“Oh. Well, did you guys find my journal diary thing yet?” he asks, changing the subject.

“No, we weren’t looking for it,” I reply honestly. I feel him nod.

“Good.”