If You Dare
Chapter Four
“You never know what will save you.” ― Abbey Wilson
The glare of the lights against the white linoleum made the back of my eyes ache as I staggered down the empty hallway. Each step echoed around me and not a single sound was there to intercept it. No teachers, no students, no anybody. I wouldn’t be here either, I shouldn’t be here but mother dearest insisted I retrieve my homework after I “sat around and did nothing all day” at home. I was sick, what did she expect me to do? Go for a run? Fuck that. I was recovering and movies and books were all part of the healing process. Besides I never got back to sleep once I returned home, and I was hardly able to form a coherent sentence let alone do anything productive, even caffeine wasn’t helping.
I hit a T intersection and swiftly turned left around the corner, fully expecting to see yet another deserted tunnel of white. I halted as I stared down the hallway. This one wasn’t empty, as I had expected, as I had hoped. A figure stood at my locker fumbling around with the lock. His head and half his face was covered with a tangled mess of blonde hair and from the small glint of light as he moved it was evident he had piercings adorning his ears and face.
“Fuck!” the boy growled before smashing his fist against my locker.
I began to hastily move forward as he continued to hit my locker, obviously getting more and more angry. What was he doing at my locker anyways? Looking for something? Unless he wanted some dishevelled text books he wasn’t going to find much.
“Hey!” I called slightly irritated with the dents he had made in the metal, “What are you doing? That’s my locker.”
The boy jumped a little with my voice and stared at me as the colour dripped away from his face. He backed away from the locker and held his hands up in innocence, “I-I’m sorry m-man, p-please, d-don’t hurt me-e.”
I stood in shock as the boy began to cave in on himself and pled for mercy. His body was trembling and small whimpers began to escape his lips. I slowly stepped closer to him and placed a light hand on his shoulder.
“Hey, hey, dude calm down, I’m not going to hurt you, I was just wondering why you were beating my locker.” I spoke softly trying to sooth the stranger out of their small panic attack.
The boy moved his hands from their defence position and moved some of the hair away from his face. He looked up at me and half smiled. I was a little taken aback by the boys’ eyes; they were the most incandescent mix of every shade of blue swirled together in a mesmerising monochrome. They were the kind of eyes you wanted to just look at purely for the sake of looking at them.
I grinned at the boy trying to hide my momentary staring, “I come in peace, promise.”
“I’m sorry about your locker, I thought it was mine, I haven’t had the best day I got a little frustrated when it wouldn’t open,” he straightened himself up and regained some confidence.
“It’s okay man, I’m Frank, today your first day here? I haven’t seen you around before.”
“Bob,” he held out a hand for me to shake, I was a little confused for a moment, shaking hands isn’t usually the norm when teenagers introduce themselves to one another, “and yeah, today was my first day. I was sort of hoping this school would be different from my last, but I haven’t had the best of luck yet,” a heavy sigh escaped his lips.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s nothing really, I was asking this guy with glasses for directions then one of his friends with and afro shoved me into the lockers and told me to back off. I don’t know what his problem was, all I was doing was asking where my classroom was.”
I stood agape for a moment, it was clear he was talking about Mikey and Ray, but Ray shoving a kid for talking to Mikey? Impossible, Ray had been bullied himself, never would he impose such treatment upon another. But then again never did I think he would ‘ban’ me from seeing Mikey.
“Did he say anything else?”
“Nope, just glared at me and left, I’ve decided to ignore him or avoid him at least, last thing I need in an enemy at this school.”
I looked at the boy before me, he looked menacing yet helpless at the same time, “well it seems as though the star have aligned for us both. The boy with the glasses was Mikey and the one with the afro was Ray, they are-were my best friends. You can sit with me at lunch tomorrow if you want? I’ll admit I’m not the best company, but to be honest you don’t seem like the excessive conversationalist so that won’t be a problem.”
Bob let out a small laugh, “thanks, conversation or no conversation, anything is better than sitting alone.”
I nodded my head in agreement and smiled. Ray may no longer be in friendly relations with me, and I have no idea where Mikey and I stand, but Bob and I seemed to get along well enough. Perhaps things were going to improve, not that they were bad but, a little change would do well to incorporate some more excitement in my life. Instantly my thoughts floated to Gerard, with his dainty figure and upturned nose, effeminate and masculine in every way. Now there was something that was definitely exciting.
~*~
I slowly shut the front door letting a huge waft of air escape my lips in relief as the door clicked closed. I was out, without a sound and without my parents’ knowledge. The two thermoses wobbled in my hand as I tried to pull the zipper up on my jacket. Blasted weather, I cursed under my breath watching as it swirled in a grey mist in the icy air. The nights, or mornings as it was 3am, were seemingly getting colder and even the cold nipped through my jeans. My skin erupted in small bumps but they soon dissipated as the thought of drinking the steaming cocoa in the thermos was enough to warm me up.
Hopefully Gerard was a sugary chocolate fan, otherwise I would be downing both thermos, not that that would be an issue. Although I didn’t fancy having to go to the bathroom in the middle of the forest especially in this weather, and with nearly a litre of hot cocoa in my system going to the bathroom would become a necessity.
I clutched my arms around my body, hugging myself for warmth. I was nearly breaking out into a run as I neared the distinct tar black silhouette of the trees. Once again the recognisable sounds of footsteps followed me up until I was absorbed by the darkness of the trees. This time I didn’t run and nor did it. To say I was scared was an understatement, I was petrified and seconds away from having debilitating heart palpitations. Two nights in a row this person had followed me, but they never dared go into the forest, they wanted me, but something was keeping them back. Another person? I shuddered at the thought of having two people follow me through the darkness in the early morning. I decided to take another route tomorrow night, if they were planning something this may disrupt their seemingly wily task.
The first thing that caught my attention when encroaching upon the gentle glow of the house wasn’t the lack of light compared to last night but the quiet chattering that trilled through the silence. I crouched a little and lightly stepped toward my, now, signature hiding spot. The chattering became louder with each of my steps and I found myself straining to determine the location from which it was coming from. It was close, but it sounded as though it was at my side and behind me, then in front of me the next moment. The echoing ability of the trees kept up this floating miasma of noise and I began to become increasingly unsettled. My stomach was rejecting it contents and I could feel the burn of bile as it rose up into the back of my throat.
My attention was focused on my stomach and throat that I failed to realise the log that was in front of me. The toe of my show got caught on the tip of the log and my body seemed to drop to the ground in a heavy heap. The hot cocoa, though, didn’t spill, and despite the pain and the small mummers from underneath me that’s all I cared about. Wait. Murmurs? I slowly gained more awareness of what I was lying on, and it was most certainly not the hard rocky ground. It was soft and lumpy, and had hair and was making muffled protests. Gerard. I was suddenly pushed to the side and landed on my back with a quite ‘oof’.
Gerard shot up from the ground and rubbed the back of his head, “Jesus Frank, watch where you’re walking next time, you basically stood on me.”
I sat up and noticed only just notices his figure as it shifted, “well to be fair, you are dressed in all black, put it this way if we were playing hide and go seek, you’d win for sure.” I paused to hear a small chuckle come from the barely visible outline in front of me, “sorry for stepping on you, I’ll try to be more careful next time.”
As my eyes began to adjust I could see Gerard had a small smile sat on his face, but there were also darkened areas of skin mottling his face. I leant forward and ran the pad of my thumb over the largest one that covered the entirety of his eye and the surrounding area. He winced in pain as I applied a small amount of pressure. Bruises. They were bruises.
“Gerard, did-did he do this to you?” I whispered almost inaudibly.
The chattering began once again, and I realised that it was Gerard who had been making the noise, hit teeth were chattering. I looked across his thin frame, he was in a long sleeved shirt and long pants but the material was thin and hardly keeping him even slightly warm.
Ignoring my question I shuffled next to him, “fuck Gerard you’ll get pneumonia in this weather without at least a jacket,” I unzipped my jacket and wrapped it around Gerard’ shoulders, before remembering the streaming thermos of cocoa. “I hope you like chocolate, because I have it liquefied and steaming hot.” I held out the silver container to Gerard who grabbed it hastily and popped the lid off.
He let out a small moan as he breathed in the sweetness that erupted in a mist against the cold air. He sipped silently at the drink as did I with mine and very slowly inched closer toward me. I was admittedly a little cold but I had a hoodie and jeans on, Gerard only had my jacket along with the thin pieces of linen clothing, he must have been freezing.
I was a little taken aback when Gerard’s shoulder lightly bumped against mine indication his closeness, “thank you Frank, for everything.”
“There’s no need to thank me, I haven’t really done anything other than bring hot cocoa and step on you.”
“You came back, even when I begged you not too, you care. That’s more than I could ever ask of you.”
“Gerard, how did you get those bruises?”
“I – I can’t say.”
“Please Gerard, let me help you, I want to help you but I can’t if you won’t tell me anything,” despite the lack of light Gerard knew I was staring directly at him, “please Gerard.”
Gerard let out a small whimper of reluctance, “I don’t know why I am entrusting you with this Frank, but I think the bruises speak for themselves, and after he kicked me down the stairs it’s pretty obvious he beats me on a regular basis and he-he uhm…”
Gerard trailed off but I urged him to continue, “it’s alright Gerard, you can tell me.”
Gerard sniffled a little indicating he was now crying, “he comes into my room, sometimes, and he makes me do things to him, and he does things to me, I always say no and tell him to stop, but he just hits and me and insists that I am his bitch and I’ll do as I’m told. I can’t deny him what he wants; he’ll just hurt me more.”
Gerard bean to sob as I evaporated his personal space and wrapped my arms around his shaking body, “It’s okay Gerard, I’m going to help you, I promise.
“You? You’re going to help me? And how exactly do you plan on doing that?” Gerard replied a small amount of venom lacing his words.
“By saving you.” I whispered into his shoulder.
The glare of the lights against the white linoleum made the back of my eyes ache as I staggered down the empty hallway. Each step echoed around me and not a single sound was there to intercept it. No teachers, no students, no anybody. I wouldn’t be here either, I shouldn’t be here but mother dearest insisted I retrieve my homework after I “sat around and did nothing all day” at home. I was sick, what did she expect me to do? Go for a run? Fuck that. I was recovering and movies and books were all part of the healing process. Besides I never got back to sleep once I returned home, and I was hardly able to form a coherent sentence let alone do anything productive, even caffeine wasn’t helping.
I hit a T intersection and swiftly turned left around the corner, fully expecting to see yet another deserted tunnel of white. I halted as I stared down the hallway. This one wasn’t empty, as I had expected, as I had hoped. A figure stood at my locker fumbling around with the lock. His head and half his face was covered with a tangled mess of blonde hair and from the small glint of light as he moved it was evident he had piercings adorning his ears and face.
“Fuck!” the boy growled before smashing his fist against my locker.
I began to hastily move forward as he continued to hit my locker, obviously getting more and more angry. What was he doing at my locker anyways? Looking for something? Unless he wanted some dishevelled text books he wasn’t going to find much.
“Hey!” I called slightly irritated with the dents he had made in the metal, “What are you doing? That’s my locker.”
The boy jumped a little with my voice and stared at me as the colour dripped away from his face. He backed away from the locker and held his hands up in innocence, “I-I’m sorry m-man, p-please, d-don’t hurt me-e.”
I stood in shock as the boy began to cave in on himself and pled for mercy. His body was trembling and small whimpers began to escape his lips. I slowly stepped closer to him and placed a light hand on his shoulder.
“Hey, hey, dude calm down, I’m not going to hurt you, I was just wondering why you were beating my locker.” I spoke softly trying to sooth the stranger out of their small panic attack.
The boy moved his hands from their defence position and moved some of the hair away from his face. He looked up at me and half smiled. I was a little taken aback by the boys’ eyes; they were the most incandescent mix of every shade of blue swirled together in a mesmerising monochrome. They were the kind of eyes you wanted to just look at purely for the sake of looking at them.
I grinned at the boy trying to hide my momentary staring, “I come in peace, promise.”
“I’m sorry about your locker, I thought it was mine, I haven’t had the best day I got a little frustrated when it wouldn’t open,” he straightened himself up and regained some confidence.
“It’s okay man, I’m Frank, today your first day here? I haven’t seen you around before.”
“Bob,” he held out a hand for me to shake, I was a little confused for a moment, shaking hands isn’t usually the norm when teenagers introduce themselves to one another, “and yeah, today was my first day. I was sort of hoping this school would be different from my last, but I haven’t had the best of luck yet,” a heavy sigh escaped his lips.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s nothing really, I was asking this guy with glasses for directions then one of his friends with and afro shoved me into the lockers and told me to back off. I don’t know what his problem was, all I was doing was asking where my classroom was.”
I stood agape for a moment, it was clear he was talking about Mikey and Ray, but Ray shoving a kid for talking to Mikey? Impossible, Ray had been bullied himself, never would he impose such treatment upon another. But then again never did I think he would ‘ban’ me from seeing Mikey.
“Did he say anything else?”
“Nope, just glared at me and left, I’ve decided to ignore him or avoid him at least, last thing I need in an enemy at this school.”
I looked at the boy before me, he looked menacing yet helpless at the same time, “well it seems as though the star have aligned for us both. The boy with the glasses was Mikey and the one with the afro was Ray, they are-were my best friends. You can sit with me at lunch tomorrow if you want? I’ll admit I’m not the best company, but to be honest you don’t seem like the excessive conversationalist so that won’t be a problem.”
Bob let out a small laugh, “thanks, conversation or no conversation, anything is better than sitting alone.”
I nodded my head in agreement and smiled. Ray may no longer be in friendly relations with me, and I have no idea where Mikey and I stand, but Bob and I seemed to get along well enough. Perhaps things were going to improve, not that they were bad but, a little change would do well to incorporate some more excitement in my life. Instantly my thoughts floated to Gerard, with his dainty figure and upturned nose, effeminate and masculine in every way. Now there was something that was definitely exciting.
~*~
I slowly shut the front door letting a huge waft of air escape my lips in relief as the door clicked closed. I was out, without a sound and without my parents’ knowledge. The two thermoses wobbled in my hand as I tried to pull the zipper up on my jacket. Blasted weather, I cursed under my breath watching as it swirled in a grey mist in the icy air. The nights, or mornings as it was 3am, were seemingly getting colder and even the cold nipped through my jeans. My skin erupted in small bumps but they soon dissipated as the thought of drinking the steaming cocoa in the thermos was enough to warm me up.
Hopefully Gerard was a sugary chocolate fan, otherwise I would be downing both thermos, not that that would be an issue. Although I didn’t fancy having to go to the bathroom in the middle of the forest especially in this weather, and with nearly a litre of hot cocoa in my system going to the bathroom would become a necessity.
I clutched my arms around my body, hugging myself for warmth. I was nearly breaking out into a run as I neared the distinct tar black silhouette of the trees. Once again the recognisable sounds of footsteps followed me up until I was absorbed by the darkness of the trees. This time I didn’t run and nor did it. To say I was scared was an understatement, I was petrified and seconds away from having debilitating heart palpitations. Two nights in a row this person had followed me, but they never dared go into the forest, they wanted me, but something was keeping them back. Another person? I shuddered at the thought of having two people follow me through the darkness in the early morning. I decided to take another route tomorrow night, if they were planning something this may disrupt their seemingly wily task.
The first thing that caught my attention when encroaching upon the gentle glow of the house wasn’t the lack of light compared to last night but the quiet chattering that trilled through the silence. I crouched a little and lightly stepped toward my, now, signature hiding spot. The chattering became louder with each of my steps and I found myself straining to determine the location from which it was coming from. It was close, but it sounded as though it was at my side and behind me, then in front of me the next moment. The echoing ability of the trees kept up this floating miasma of noise and I began to become increasingly unsettled. My stomach was rejecting it contents and I could feel the burn of bile as it rose up into the back of my throat.
My attention was focused on my stomach and throat that I failed to realise the log that was in front of me. The toe of my show got caught on the tip of the log and my body seemed to drop to the ground in a heavy heap. The hot cocoa, though, didn’t spill, and despite the pain and the small mummers from underneath me that’s all I cared about. Wait. Murmurs? I slowly gained more awareness of what I was lying on, and it was most certainly not the hard rocky ground. It was soft and lumpy, and had hair and was making muffled protests. Gerard. I was suddenly pushed to the side and landed on my back with a quite ‘oof’.
Gerard shot up from the ground and rubbed the back of his head, “Jesus Frank, watch where you’re walking next time, you basically stood on me.”
I sat up and noticed only just notices his figure as it shifted, “well to be fair, you are dressed in all black, put it this way if we were playing hide and go seek, you’d win for sure.” I paused to hear a small chuckle come from the barely visible outline in front of me, “sorry for stepping on you, I’ll try to be more careful next time.”
As my eyes began to adjust I could see Gerard had a small smile sat on his face, but there were also darkened areas of skin mottling his face. I leant forward and ran the pad of my thumb over the largest one that covered the entirety of his eye and the surrounding area. He winced in pain as I applied a small amount of pressure. Bruises. They were bruises.
“Gerard, did-did he do this to you?” I whispered almost inaudibly.
The chattering began once again, and I realised that it was Gerard who had been making the noise, hit teeth were chattering. I looked across his thin frame, he was in a long sleeved shirt and long pants but the material was thin and hardly keeping him even slightly warm.
Ignoring my question I shuffled next to him, “fuck Gerard you’ll get pneumonia in this weather without at least a jacket,” I unzipped my jacket and wrapped it around Gerard’ shoulders, before remembering the streaming thermos of cocoa. “I hope you like chocolate, because I have it liquefied and steaming hot.” I held out the silver container to Gerard who grabbed it hastily and popped the lid off.
He let out a small moan as he breathed in the sweetness that erupted in a mist against the cold air. He sipped silently at the drink as did I with mine and very slowly inched closer toward me. I was admittedly a little cold but I had a hoodie and jeans on, Gerard only had my jacket along with the thin pieces of linen clothing, he must have been freezing.
I was a little taken aback when Gerard’s shoulder lightly bumped against mine indication his closeness, “thank you Frank, for everything.”
“There’s no need to thank me, I haven’t really done anything other than bring hot cocoa and step on you.”
“You came back, even when I begged you not too, you care. That’s more than I could ever ask of you.”
“Gerard, how did you get those bruises?”
“I – I can’t say.”
“Please Gerard, let me help you, I want to help you but I can’t if you won’t tell me anything,” despite the lack of light Gerard knew I was staring directly at him, “please Gerard.”
Gerard let out a small whimper of reluctance, “I don’t know why I am entrusting you with this Frank, but I think the bruises speak for themselves, and after he kicked me down the stairs it’s pretty obvious he beats me on a regular basis and he-he uhm…”
Gerard trailed off but I urged him to continue, “it’s alright Gerard, you can tell me.”
Gerard sniffled a little indicating he was now crying, “he comes into my room, sometimes, and he makes me do things to him, and he does things to me, I always say no and tell him to stop, but he just hits and me and insists that I am his bitch and I’ll do as I’m told. I can’t deny him what he wants; he’ll just hurt me more.”
Gerard bean to sob as I evaporated his personal space and wrapped my arms around his shaking body, “It’s okay Gerard, I’m going to help you, I promise.
“You? You’re going to help me? And how exactly do you plan on doing that?” Gerard replied a small amount of venom lacing his words.
“By saving you.” I whispered into his shoulder.
Notes
it's short and shit and I'm sorry! but I wanted to get something out this week, hopefully I can get another chapter out by friday! please let me know what you think! and thank you so very much for reading! x
sorry for any mistakes, I proofread very quickly!
oh and please let me know if anything is too rushed or unrealistic! I want to make sure everything is paced perfectly, I will rewrite parts if they need alteration!
@Frerardified
Thank you hun! I'm glad you enjoyed it! c:
9/14/14