The One With The Nerd || Larry Stylinson

Chapter 6: Kiss in the Dark

It was now borderline pitch black, the only luminescents now being the poorly lit street lights, and their illuminating reflections on the rain towering down around them. The moon and stars have hidden themselves behind the dark clouds, emitting sparkly tears. It was such a gloomy, miserable night.

I don’t know what I was thinking, running to this random person’s aid. I mean, who knows what’s going on over there? I could get caught at gunpoint, and then what? I’m no good at fighting people, what if there’s a whole group of them? What if this is some kind of set-up? My manager’s gonna kill me if I die. Cause that makes sense.

I stop briefly under a large tree and contemplate my options. It doesn’t take long before I decide that this person really needs help, and I can’t just walk away - just like what everyone does to me at school. I don’t want to be like that, I’m not going to just pretend this didn’t happen, this person could be beat to death, all because I was too scared to help them.

I quickly bolt across the park and towards the tree where all the commotion sounds to be coming from, not thinking too much about what could be potential threats to my life. The adrenaline pumping through my veins almost became overbearing, as I jumped over the overgrown roots of the trees, and saw a small group of dark shadows swarming a small figure. 

The victim is cowering away and pressing their back up against the tree, trying to get as far away from the people in front of them as possible. The shadows crowding them made another move to strike, and I could hear the small person’s whimpers from where I was standing a few metres away. I felt the adrenaline turn to rage in a matter of milliseconds, as the group began kicking the person now sprawled out on the ground.

“Stop!” I screamed with so much fury, you could hear the anger boiling inside me taking over and dripping off my tone. 

I really felt awful for this poor person on the ground. I get this kind of treatment everyday, so I know what it feels like, and I don’t wish for anyone to have to go through anything even remotely related to what I do. Luckily for me, I’ve figured out how to handle it, focusing on my amazing job as a musician. I can put up with the abuse I receive if it means I can go and sing my heart out afterwards. Unfortunately, though, not everyone has an outlet to rely on, I guess I just got lucky.

The shadows all jumped and quickly turned around while I charged at them. It was too dark to see any of their faces, but I think they were all guys, which I already kind of figured because of their gruff voices. As I was running I got a brilliant idea. I shaped my hand so it slightly resembled the outline of a small gun, and I held it out in front of me.

Thanking God it was too dark for the guys to tell the difference between my hand and a real gun, I made my way over to the boy who stood shakily against the tree. The bullies had scattered off into the rain the second they saw my... hand-gun? - pun intended. Pretty pathetic, really.

“Are you alright? Do you need me to take you to the hospital?” I somewhat shouted to the shivering person over the hammering-down rain. I stepped under the shelter of the massive tree, where only slivers of rain made it through the leaves. It didn’t make a difference anyway, I was already soaked, and looking at the boy I could tell he was too.

He seemed a bit startled when I spoke, it looked like his eyes could have widened slightly, but I can’t be too sure, it’s far too dark to tell. What if he recognised my voice? What if he knows me? 

He shook his head slightly and lowered his hands that were up in surrender, mumbling a short, “Don’t be ridiculous, m’fine."

I wanted to ask him questions about the guys that were hurting him, but decided against it because I didn’t want to freak him out or anything. Besides, it’s none of my business.