what if...?

Part 5/?

I soon saw exactly what harm could be brought for skipping a class, as Gene and his gang had also decided to ditch. Great.

"Well, lookie here! Look who it is guys!" Gene had called, turning his goons attention towards me, after they spotted me, they snickered and followed their leader over to me.

Perfect, just what I needed. I had only just exited the school, and was walking across the football field, which is where the gang hung out last year.

"Oh hey, thought you would have found a new spot to smoke by now. It's been two years, you're just asking to be caught by now."

Garroth and Gene are the same age, so they were both freshman at PDH two years ago, I remember Garroth mentioning Gene eating lunch out side under the bleachers, then the year after, my freshman year, Sasha and Zenix joined his club.

Gene scoffed, "Yeah, like you would understand. No one actually cares what we do back here, as long as we're not tagging the school."

I rolled my eyes, having nothing more to say to him, and I really just wanted to get out of there.

"Woah woah woah! Slow down! Where are you going?"

"Into the woods..? Why do you care?"

"I haven't seen you since last semester! Don't think I forgot!"

"Forgot what..?"

He smiled, his teeth flashing. He looked behind him towards the rest of his gang, and they quickly walked to either side of me and grabbed my arms, holding me still.

I only caught a glimpse of Gene's amused grin before I felt his fist meet my nose. Then my eye. Then my mouth. It only took my brain a second to register the pain after a hit, my face felt as though it was on fire, I could feel my bones bruising and started to hysterically cough, my throat felt insanely dry, and I didn't even notice when Sasha and Zenix let go of my arms, my knees buckled and I fell and landed flat on my back, slightly winded.

I looked up, the sun being blocked by Gene's head as he looked down at me, he then raises his foot, and delivered one final blow to my stomach, making me gasp as all the air had been knocked out of my lungs. I felt a warm liquid touch the inner corner of my eye, thinking it was tears, I wiped it away with my sleeve.

As I was trying to catch my breath on the ground, the three of them must have gotten bored of me and left. Thank god , i thought.

I remained on the ground, slowly getting my breath back. I felt the warm liquid at my eye again. Annoyed, I touched it with my finger and looked at it, seeing the orangish - red color of blood made my stomach jolt.

 I stood up quickly, starting to see spots, I blinked them away as I walked back to the school, stumbling. After I somehow made it back inside, the front entrance was dead quiet, so I made my way to the bathroom as quietly as I could.

Once in the bathroom, I sat on the counter in front of the mirror and sighed as I saw my reflection. Blood was still coming out of my nose, the path of blood from my left nostril to my eye was now dried and sticky. Other than that, I looked fine asides from my left eye looking slightly pink from when Gene kicked it. I wiped away all the blood and pulled my scarf back over my nose, not even bothering to check out my mouth since no one would see it.

I pulled my phone out from my pocket and saw the time was 9:30. Shoot, how long have I been out there? My second class started 15 minutes ago!

My second class, Gym, was on this floor thankfully, so I got there quickly.

Unfortunately, Vylad is in my gym class, and if he finds out I got beat up and skipped class, ill be grounded for months since he tells mom everything.

I didn't have time to grab my gym clothes, so when Mr. Pots asked me where my strip was, I used the "it's only the second day, I forgot it back home" excuse.

Vylad immediately asked me where I had been, so I said I was in the bathroom, which technically wasn't a lie. His eyes narrowed in suspision, but he didn't pursue it.

The rest of the school day passed slowly, but once the last bell of the day finally rung, I was one of the last people out the door.

Aph's last class of the day had an extremely strict teacher, so she was always dismissed at 3:20 on the dot.

"Zane!"

I looked up at the sound of my name, and I saw Ein walking towards me.

"Hey!"

Once he got closer, I saw his eyes squint.

"Zane, I smell blood."

My heart dropped. I had completely forgot about his sense of smell.

"Oh.. do you? Must be from someone passing by."

"No, no I don't think that's it."

His eyes suddenly had a dark look to them, he started to walk closer, so I naturally walked back, but there wasn't really anywhere to go, as I was standing against the wall.

Ein slowly got closer, eventually practically having me pinned against the wall. He was sniffing me, no doubt, and pretty soon he'd find where the blood was coming from..

"Hey guys!- WOAH!" Aph had just come out of her class. I just realized how weird this must look for people passing by.

"APH!" Ein immediately backed up

"That's not what it looks like, I swear!"

"mhmm..." 

"I swear if you tell anybody what you saw just now I will kick you so hard-"

"Hahaha! Relaxx I won't tell anyone!"

I sighed in relief, I looked over to Ein, who was staring right at me. His eyes still had the same look, but this time it seemed like he figured out what happened.

"Ok, good. Anyways, my mom should be here by now, so we should probably head out." I said

"Alright!"

Aph started to walk away, having been picked up by my mom so many times that she knew exactly where she would park.

"Ein, are you coming..?" I looked at Ein again, his eyes lost the scary look, now only showing pity.

"Did someone hurt you?" he said quietly, but only we were in the hallway, so I heard him just fine.

I didn't answer right away. I knew he already found out, so there would be no point really of saying "no", but there was something in me that was telling me to lie to him. 

"Zane. Did somebody hurt you." It was more of a demand than a question now, and I think I understand how Aph used to feel last year.

"No. Nobody did."

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, Every bit of anger he showed seconds ago was now gone.

"Alright! If you say so! Your mom's probably wondering where we are, so we should probably go."

"Yeah, i'll show you where she is, come on." I started to walk to the front exit with Ein close behind me.

By the time we came out, Vylad and Garroth were both inside chatting with Aphmau. I introduced Ein to my mom once we we sat down in the back, and we were off to my place.