My friend, Demise

Chapter 4

My body was so exhausted that I fell asleep during study hall, only being woken up by Demise nudging me with the side of his shoe. I opened my eyes and stretched out my arms. "When did you get here?"

"You slept here for the whole period. The teachers were too scared to wake you up. Saw you when I went to for a bathroom break and decided maybe I should say something."

"Just leave me here."

"Don't say it like you're sacrificing yourself." He sat beside me. "If you're so tired, you should have taken a day to stay home."

I yawned. "Too much work to do. Can't miss a day."

He pulled my head against his shoulder, making me scowl in disgust. Not that he cares. "I'll sit with you."

"While I sleep?" I asked.

"Sure."

I fell asleep again, eyes only darting open when one of the girl from earlier tried to pull Demise up to his feet. I grabbed his arm and glared at her. "Haha. Like I told you, I'm busy."

"Hanging out with a delinquent? Come on, Demi. It'll be fun!"

I was going to yell at her for that until he stood up and pushed his hair back with one hand. "What's fun about being around a slut that's trying to harass me? You tried to fight Amanda today, didn't you? If anyone the delinquent here...." he locked eyes with her, their color nearly turning red from anger. He held a soft expression but his eyes gave away something much different. He was clearly upset about how she spoke about me. "It's you, Marian."

"Sorry to talk down on your friend." She sighed. "But haven't you known me longer?"

He smiled and grabbed her shoulder, spinning her around and slamming her back against the lockers so hard that she gasped in pain. "Look at me, Mari."

"Hey...I'm sorry, okay? Let go." Her voice fell quiet.

He grabbed her jaw and forced her to look up at him. "If you want to stay on my good side, which you do, you'll learn to shut your mouth when you need to. Understand?"

"Yeah."

"Now go." He sat back with me and watched her leave, rolling his eyes.

"What the hell was that?"

"What was what?"

"You stood up for me. What for?"

"Because I'd rather hang out with you." He laughed.

I live in America, but I hate to say that I wish I didn't. It's full of gunshots and racism, homophobia and flags at half mast.

You're probably wondering why I mentioned that in this chapter of Demise and my story. Or maybe you already know. I still shake when I think about what you're about to witness through my words. Demise does too, so we don't talk about it.

His laugh stopped halfway when a gunshot went off down the hall. Before I could say anything, Demise grabbed my wrists and pulled me into the bathroom. He jerked me into one of the stalls and stood up on one side of the toilet, motioning for me to do the same. I did, but crouched down since I'm so tall. "What are we doing?" I asked.

"Shut up!" He whispered quickly and covered my mouth, listening to students yelling and running down the halls. The alarm went off as well, which made me start to freak out a bit.

Too many sounds. Scary sounds. Loud sounds.

He noticed my hands shaking and held onto both of them, staring directly into my eyes and whispering softly to me. "Hey, look at me."

The lights shut off, making me flinch and curl into a ball on the inside. I can't. I can't see you.

"It's too dark I-"

"Just be quiet and don't move. You'll be fine."

Wait....he's- I felt his entire body shaking when another gunshot when off and he tightened his hands around mine. He's scared?

"Are you scared?"

"Let's just say that the last time I heard gunshots, I lost my dad." He laughed nervously. "Do you think there's other people in here."

"No."

I hard an unfamiliar and very loud male voice, the bathroom door swinging open and making me cover both of our mouths. "Whoever the fuck is in here better come out!" He shot off his gun a couple times. Demise and I made no move to do what he said, nor to make any sound.

The door swung shut after a minute, the lights flipping black on and starting to flicker a bit. I let out a sign of relief. The electricity cutting out was normal so I didn't think much of it, jumping down from the toilet seat and pulling Demise out of the stall with me. "Damn. It was you two who ran in here?"

I flinched, looking over to the door and seeing a boy with short blonde hair glaring at us. He aimed a gun at me, my entire body freezing in place. "Don't-"

"Shut up, I don't know you so I don't care. Demi, you down to get the hell out of here?"

"Listen man...." he held both of his hands up and tried to steady his shaking breath. "I've gotta stay. I can't get caught in this. You know that."

"This your friend?" He nodded to me.

"No!" I quickly responded. "We don't know each other."

Demise looked at me in complete horror, listening to the gun fire off and shoot a bullet directly into my stomach.

The guy left as fast as he came, Denise grabbing my upper arms before I could fall and helping me sit down on the floor. "You idiot! You should have said yes! He's an old friend."

"Shit happens." I groaned, holding a hand over the wound I'd received and swallowing roughly as I felt blood cover my fingers. "I didn't know what to say."

"Not that!" He put both of his hands over mine and pushed his hands gently against the bullet wound. I gasped in pain and tried to kick him away. "Stop, you're gonna bleed too much if I don't help."

"It hurts! Get off!"

"Hey!" He grabbed my jaw, smearing blood on my face and giving me a stern look. "Shut your mouth and focus. I don't care what hurts, I've helped my dad with wounds like this before. Trust me and stop moving."

"It hurts..." I softened my voice, tears pricking my eyes when he applied more pressure to my abdomen. "Please stop."

"I'm sorry. No."

"Demise-"

"I'm not moving my hands. Don't ask again."

I started to squirm a bit, even though I was trying not to. It hurt a lot. Enough to make me start crying. "It hurts too much." My voice broke, my throat feeling dry. I wanted to cough but I stopped myself. "Get-"

"No."

"Get off!"

"No." He glared at me. "You're just gonna have to deal with it until we hear an ambulance. My phone's in the classroom and I'm not leaving you in here by yourself."

"It hurts!" I grabbed his wrists and tried to push his hands off of me, but unexpectedly he was a lot stronger than he looked. "Get off of me!"

"Oh my god!" Amanda, the girl we'd been at lunch with ran into the bathroom, hand over her mouth.

"Oh thank god." Demise let out a sigh. "Will you come help me?!"

"Do not help him!" I choked out as he straddles my knees.

"I need you to hold his arms back or something, he won't let me touch him willingly."

"Okay." She ran over and sat behind me, holding my wrists together behind my back. "Like this?"

"Yeah. Thank you."

My brain felt fuzzy and I thought I was gonna die. This hurt worse than any fight and I was afraid that the pain was going to steal my consciousness. My body felt weak so I just relaxed, leaning back and resting the back of my head on Amanda's shoulder. "It feels like he's killing me."