Diamondback

Memories: Oliver

It ate away at my moral conscience to leave DB behind so quickly.

As much as I would've loved to explain to him that the three kids that chased me to his house were coming, I knew Dibs would do something irrational. Recently, he's been quite impulsive, so I don't necessarily trust him to take care of any "people problems" by himself.

Those bullies hadn't caught sight of me yet. Good. A few months ago before class, they had shattered my glasses to bits without warning, so I've been walking around with pretty poor eyesight since. It's not like I could tell anyone about it. Being nearsighted is aeons better than having Toni waste time worrying about me. As far as he knows, I'm, um, "wearing contacts."  Gosh, if those bullies demolished my glasses without a second thought, I'm not too keen on finding out what they plan to demolish next.

As I sped into the gates, keeping my head low and my eyes on the ground, I ran into Charlotte. Her hair was a thick and curly chestnut brown that faded into a strawberry blonde ombre. (Definitely way better than my own failed attempt at a dye, oof.) Aesthetic couldn't even begin to describe her. Nor could beautiful. Her beauty came in her smile, her mannerisms, and her heart.

"Hey, Oliver." Charlotte's green eyes bore into mine with genuine interest.

"H-Hi, good morning. H-How are..." I could barely get my own sentence out between my crippling shyness and her friends' eyes that were glaring bloody daggers at me.

Despite that, she beamed brightly. "I'm okay, thanks for asking. Oliver, I've been meaning to ask you if you wanted to sit with us at-"

"Sit with us?" one of her friends spat next to her. Fuckin' hell. Triana. Probably the most stuck up person in this whole school. She scoffed exaggeratedly. "C'mon, Char, that's, like, social suicide."

As they argued back and forth, those three bullies from before were stomping in from the gate. My stomach dropped, blocking out the sound of Charlotte's sweet voice.

"I-I've gotta go. Sorry, Charlotte."

"Oliver-"

Even if I wanted to hear her out, I couldn't. From behind me, Triana was still shunning Charlotte for even suggesting such a "half-assed idea." What's her deal?

I briskly sped through the halls, gluing my eyes to my feet and busying my hands with gripping onto the straps of my bag. Like built in blinds, my hair covered my face, but it was still flushed red, I knew it was. No matter how much I tried to tune it out, I felt the stares and heard the whispers of former friends.

"Oh, God, it's that faggot."

"Jesus Christ, why can't that whore take a hint and not show up to school already?"

"That's the one I was just talking about. Y'know, the one that..."

"Ugh. Fuckin' freak."

Fuckin' freak? Jeez, I never thought someone would actually have the balls to finally say it. That's another one to add to the notebook. And this is maybe — what, the twelfth time I heard faggot these past three days alone? Talk about creativity...

Sexuality and attraction is so...confusing. Weird. Not straightforward.

I hate that.

It's not like I could go on Google and get an answer from an expert or something. Believe me, I've tried. Hours and hours, days and days of searching for an answer that I know is within me somewhere. Toni says I could be bisexual and I guess that's what I feel fits me too? It's frustrating because yeah, I like girls -- I like Charlotte a lot -- and apparently, that's what society wants, but for me in this world, just looking at a guy gets me pummeled. Even when I thought I could be open about it, all I got was-