THIS IS YOUR TRIGGER WARNING. This chapter deals with themes of bullying, suicide and homophobia and WILL include homophobic slurs.
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
'DEFEND.'
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SOMEBODY APPROACHED ME.
I sighed and slowly turned around, I wasn't ready to face anybody today. A familiar brunette was leaned against the locker beside mine, with that same smug smile plastered across his face — which honestly I didn't miss. "Jaeden." I spat, closing my locker.
"Nice to see you back, Sink." He moved the his hair out of his face and returned to his cocky position against the lockers. "You know I thought you'd leave Hearst forever, especially after your boyfriend jumped off a bridge." Jaeden smirked slightly. Despite his words ripping into me, I managed to keep my composure. I was sick of being pushed around.
"Well, it's a shame I didn't leave forever, I regret it... especially seeing your face — truly one only a mother could love!" I spat in return. "And if you didn't notice, he wasn't my boyfriend and he didn't jump, he fell."
"Why was he some kind of puff?" The brunette rolled his eyes.
"Excuse me?" I raised a brow as I felt the blood rushing to my cheeks. All the composure I had built up had soon began crumbling and I tightened my fists.
"You heard me," Jaeden said, moving his face close to mine — I felt his breathe against my cheeks. "Was he a f*ggot?" As soon as the words left his mouth, I balled up my fist and punched him in his nose and he fell back, covering his face. "You crazy bitch!" All of a sudden, all eyes were on us and 'Ooh's' erupted from the crowd that had gathered. Jaeden got up and attempted to wipe the blood away from his nose, which was still bleeding and he returned to his position beforehand, a few centimetres away from my face. "You know, I never thought I'd hit a girl before, but equal rights, equal fights... am I right?" he chuckled.
I clenched my eyes shut in preparation for him to punch me right back, after all it was no use attempting to run away from him. I inhaled deeply and raised my arms in front of my face in an attempt to protect myself. However, my eyes shot open as I heard the sound of something crashing into the lockers, followed by the sound of a male gasp and more noise coming from the crowd. I opened my eyes to see that Finn had shoved Jaeden into the lockers and now had him on the floor. The raven-haired boy raised his fists and clambered on top of Jaeden and began punching him repeatedly. People rushed toward the pair and pulled out their phones to record the 'fight' — which was really just Finn kicking Jaeden's ass.
"STOP!" Miss Willis scrambled out of her classroom and attempted to break the boys up. Soon enough, she and a few students managed to pry Finn off Jaeden, who was almost knocked out cold and covered in his own blood. Miss Willis grabbed Finn's arm and began to drag him away from the scene and I watched as he walked away with her, his fists covered in blood.
He defended me.
A/N hey guys! i'm so happy to be writing again. i wanted to clarify that i am allowed to say the f slur since i am part of the lgbtq+ community :) just wanted to clear that up! i feel like homophobia and other hateful issues are never really talked about in media and especially teen dramas because it's seen as "taboo" but i really want to talk about real world issues in this book, instead of making it seem like a fantasy. thank you so much for reading! i hope you all have a great day/night.
