Alchemy •Dan Smith•

fifteen

He began with telling me about how his weight was dramatically different than what it was now. How he was harassed for it, for being different. His family didn't notice how he shut himself down, and began spending time away from their eyes. His sister leaving for Uni, leaving him with nobody for the next years of torture.

One of the strongest memories he shared was of a day he left to school, walking his normal route. He hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary, maybe a stray jogger or dog walker. He was soon proven wrong when a beat up car made it's way towards him, and quickly came to a halt. He stopped for a second, before seeing it was a group of jocks that normally tormented him in the halls.

Moving at a quicker pace, he tried getting away. The others had another idea, picking up a rock and tossing it at his back. He turned around, prepared to yell for them to stop but soon yelped when another rock planted itself square in his face.

The boys laughed before coming closer to Dan, grabbing a handful of his hair, and managed to get him on the ground. He was kicked, punched, spit on, and attacked with stones.

But that wasn't the worst part, after they were done beating the broken boy, one of them took a quick trip to his car. He came back with a pocket knife and a horrible smirk plastered on his face.

Dan recalls only whimpering and trying to shrivel away but being stopped by the two others. As he was held down, the other boy opened the pocket knife, and brought it to Dan's shirt. He cut a strip through it, leaving his stomach and chest bare.

"Look how fucking fat he is, it's hilarious he brought this onto himself, right?"

The others laugh and Dan struggled but to no avail.

"Why don't we leave our mark to remind him just what he is?" The boy smirked along with a evil chuckle. He pressed the knife into the skin of Dan's stomach, drawing blood.

Dan screamed in pain, tears spilling over his torn and bruised face. This only caused the boy more excitement as he continued his actions. He continued to slice in the skin, blood snaking down the pale skin. Once he was done, he looked down at his master piece, the word fat inscribed largely.

"Just kill me! You already have a knife!" Dan begged, humiliated, in pain, and broken. They chuckled and thought best to leave him in his state, before heading into their car and riding away.

Dan then explained how he managed to pull himself up and slowly hobble home. He assumed he would've needed stitches for the cuts, but he made do with a lot of gauze and pain killers, trying not to indicate anything happened to him to his parents.

After he told me about the horrific memory, he glanced up at me with tears rolling down his cheeks.

"It scarred terribly, there's no way anyone is allowed to see me shirtless." He mumbled. "Swimming is something I always avoid."

I untangled out legs before crawling over to him, hugging him tightly.

"Your so strong Dan."

"You are valuable."

"You are important."

I mumbled these things into his neck, over and over again, trying to make a point. He pulled me tightly into him and didn't respond.

"Can I see it?" I whispered, somewhat scared it would offend him.

He took a second, and I began talking again. "Y-you don't have to if your not comfortable."

He then shook his head, and moved so I wasn't pressed against his shirt. He slowly moved his hands down and slid the fabric up his skin.

There bellow his belly button was the word, the skin puffed up slightly and mangled. I looked up to meet his eyes, but he stared down ashamed.

Slowly, I brought my hand up to touch it, just to process what my eyes saw. He flinched when I touched his stomach, causing me to recoil quickly, muttering a 'sorry'.

"N-no y-your fine, just your fingers are a big cold." He consoled, glancing at me. I nodded and repeated my past actions, tracing the scar.

I knew it was something tough for him and I never thought something like that was part of his background.

"Thank you." He whispered.

Okay thank you so so much for 1.3k reads. I hope you are enjoying this, also it would be really awesome if you took a look at my other fic called Fight For Me, Will and my new imagine thingy