SDMN| Stories

• IN THE CLOSET: Pt 1

TW| Homophobia, Slurs

Just thirty more seconds... 29, 28, 27...
The blond counted down the seconds until he was able to leave the janitor's closet, absentmindedly fidgeting with the hem of his button-up as he did so. He licked his lips, and he could still taste the chapped, rough lips that were pressed to his a mere nine minutes and... fifty-one seconds ago.

9, 8, 7...
Despite his face looking stone-cold, the teenager was euphoric. He felt wanted, needed almost, each time he was dragged to the same smelly, humid closet. For some reason, the humidity seemed to be on the rise going into warmer months (as warm as you can get in London), and he found himself adjusting the hem of his shirt again. His fingers brushed against his neck, sending a sensitive rush down his spine. With a sigh, he adjusted the collar so it would stick just enough to cover the purpling mark.

3, 2, 1. Great. I'm out of here.
With false confidence, he swung open the door, quickly shutting it behind him and stepping into the flow of students going off to break. Breaking off from the main cluster, he walked into the undercover area outside, determined to get to his bench.

Greeting him were three different expressions.

One, a sweet, friendly smile, offering a wave. This belonged to Tobi Brown, a muscular, athletic boy just a year or so older than himself. Apple juice in one hand, a boy's shoulder in the other, he was calm, occasionally glancing to the smaller boy beside him.

This brought him to the second expression, a quick flash of a smile before a look of uncomfortable washed over his face. Vikram Barn was what most would call a nerd - and blatantly, he was. Small frame, shy, quiet with a hint of reserved sass, all topped off with glasses and a few bruises. Bruises from, who Harry could only assume-

"-that fucking football team! I swear I'm gonna bloody smash their fucking heads in. They deserve to get their teeth knocked in."

Ethan Payne, the most aggressive of their little group. Ethan was out there, loud with an attitude, and he was not afraid to fight back. His curly ginger hair matched the few faint freckles that littered his face beneath his glasses - which were for style, there wasn't anything wrong with his eyesight.

Harry slunk down beside Tobi, diagonally across from Ethan, who was bruising his fist and straining his voice in a rant of what he would do the 'tossers who have nothing better to do than to mess with anyone even slightly different from them.'

"Ethan, mate, calm down. What happened?" The blond asked, soft blue eyes clashing with the pale green fire in his older friend's gaze.

A loud, deep breath was sucked in and exhaled as Ethan 'calmed' himself. (It was more just storing the anger away to whip out as soon as he saw one of those assholes, but no one had to know that). A - drawn on - finger pointed to Vik, who was simply eating fries while he rested on his boyfriends' chest.

"Look at him. Airey and Bradley decided it'd be nice to 'fuck up one of the queers' again. The pussies got to him when Tobi wasn't there. I swear to god I'm going to-"

"Shit. You alright, Vik?" Harry interrupted before Ethan could go on another rant. (Personally, Harry did not want to imagine what it would look like for a human skull to be used as a piñata, thanks Ethan).

Looking at the boy, he could see a bruise forming just below his left eye, and a small, dried stream of blood on his lip. It wasn't the worst he'd seen him, maybe if it had been JJ instead of Callum ('Freezy' as his mates would call him) or Joshua, then the beating would've been worse.

It was quite often that the four boys got harassed by one of the "top five" of the football team, better yet, the school. They were homophobic, racist, and just all-out jerks, always going out of their way to abuse their group.

Their 'group' in question, was more of a quartet, as there were only four of them. Harry was pretty sure there had to be at least five in a group. Either way, they all had something in common - they were queer. That's what the group was brought up from, one moment Ethan was being outed to the school and outcasted to the sidelines, the next Harry was inviting Vik and Tobi to sit with them. A few details in-between weren't necessary, although there was something about Harry allegedly checking out guys in the change rooms and being caught by the ginger, that must not have been what happened. (Harry was always sure to be discreet about his boy-watching activities in the change rooms).

"Yeah, I'm all good, thanks, Harry. Nothing I haven't dealt with before," a sad attempt of humor was made, leaving the three other boys to wearily laugh.

The second youngest out of the four was quick to try and lighten any situation, whether it was a badly-timed pun or a silly joke. Harry had to give it to Vik, he did try.

"Oh, perfect. Look who's coming over. Wankers." Ethan seethed in his seat as he was the only one to be able to see behind them, causing Harry to turn to see what he was on about.

Leading the small posse of menacing teens was JJ, perhaps not the leader of the group, but the leader of everything else - including the walk over to their victims.

Following closely were both Joshua and the two (yes, there's two), Callum's - both Airey (Freezy) and McGinley (Lux). Lux dealt well in the torment part of it, good with words, as was Freezy, whereas Josh quite enjoyed both the physical and mental abuse.

Confidently at the back of their group, was Simon Minter. If anyone, he is the leader of them all. Manipulative and stubborn, armed with quickfire insults and a charm, the tall male was the best at tearing anyone down. He was good at it and he knew so.

Harry zoned back into Ethan's muttering as the ginger forced a smile as both Lux and Josh slotted down beside him, one on either side. JJ chose to place himself beside Vik, and Freezy and Simon stood on either end of the bench, the latter closest to him.

"How's it going, lads? Vik." JJ nodded, ensuring the emphasis on the small boy's name. His tone made Harry's skin crawl.

A silence took hold of the bench, neither one of the four boys wanting to answer the in-genuine question.

"Well-"

"I'd be going a whole lot fucking better if your face were smashed into the ground."

For fucks sake, Ethan. It was one thing to cut off Lux, it was another thing to say anything with the intent of harming any of the guys, especially King JJ Olatunji.