Ray leant on the school gates, humming to a song as he waited patiently outside the school. He longed for his friends who had been absent for the past days to appear at school, he could hardly handle Bob's enthusiasm by himself for much longer. He worried about them, he worried that there was more to them than he thought, that there was a problem that needed to be fixed and he wanted to do his best to try and help. A smile appeared on his face as he saw Mikey and Gerard appear in the distance with bags slung casually over their shoulders. However his smile immediately disappeared as he noticed the state that they were in and the fear that was etched into their faces.

"Guys!" Yelled Ray, sounding concerned as he ran towards them. Gerard looked up from the floor, a little surprised to see an out of breathe Ray stood in front of them.
"You guys haven't been at school for days?! Are you okay? I mean you don't look so good."
"Um. H-hey..." Muttered Gerard.
"Gee..." Ray said, concerned, "you sure?"
"Um, y-yeah. Fine."
"Okay..." Ray replied. He took a bag of penny mix sweets from his pocket and nibbled at a cola bottle. He watched as Mikey's eyes stared at the food longingly. 'Something is definitely wrong' whispered Ray to himself.

He offered a sweet to Mikey who practically dived into the bag and absorbed the sweets.
"You hungry?" Ray asked as he stared at Mikey's cheek bones that stood out through his grey flesh.
Both simply nodded.
Ray dug around in his bag, pulling out a massive sandwich and a bottle of water.
"Here..." He said throwing them towards Gerard.

They walked towards the school again with Mikey and Gerard munching on the food, filling the empty pits of their stomachs.
Ray looked behind him to see the two devouring the food as if they hadn't eaten in days. 'Something's not quite right here' he thought to himself, 'something seems a little strange.'

"Oi!" A harsh voice yelled as they walked across the front yard, "Oi! Gerard!" A boy with blonde hair yelled: It was Cris.
"Ha!" He laughed, "Your parents been beating you up again?!"
"Come on guys, just keep walking." Ray reassured.
He took their hands in his and pulled them along with him as they prepared to walk past the sniggering group, who had cigarettes hanging out of their mouths and trousers almost around their ankles. They wore their hair slicked back all in the same style and caps turned backwards on their heads.

"Gerard!" Cris yelled again, "I said have they been beating you up again?!"
"Just ignore them....." Whispered Ray, anger hinting behind his voice.
"To be honest..." Continued Cris, "I wouldn't blame them!"
Ray pushed them on further urgently, afraid that any of them could get hurt. He turned around and dead-eyed Cris with his hands still wrapped around the Way brothers shoulders.
"Yeah. That's right!" Cris screamed with his spit flickering everywhere, "run off you little shits! You deserve everything that happens to you! You deserve to be hit! In fact... If I were your parents then I'd give you up straight away!!!"
"Fuck off Chris!" Yelled Ray, turning round quickly and then he threw his fist out in his direction and his hand connected with Cris full on in the face.
"Come on guys..." Ray walked away leaving Cris on the floor whilst clutching his head.

Notes

Hello again. Thank you for reading and I hope that you have had a noice day. I have no clue why but I actually really enjoy writing this, eventhough it takes me forever to go back and fix grammar and stuff after I've written a chapter. :) x
-Lou