Gift of a Lifetime

Chapter 5: Goodbye (forever)- I

I remember going on another stroll on a cloudy day. The sun was getting ready to set. It wasn't the same one as the one I had almost died at, I knew I would never visit that street again, but it was still pretty empty. It was just off of the shortcut that I took to Jayden's house. 

Every few minutes I would see someone walk by across the street; a couple, a middle aged man lighting a cigarette, a nervous teenage girl.

But there was this one couple of kids, maybe a year older than me, that came up behind me and shoved me. Me, not expecting it at all, I fell, and rolled over to see who it was. By then it was too dark to make out any features, or any specific clothing.

"What do you want?" I said, standing up.

The shorter one, as tall as Jayden, walked forward intimidatingly. "I know you."

In response, I tilted my head, confused.

"Oh, I've heard all about you. Thomas Valdez, the murderer." Based on the way he spoke and his facial expressions, I'm telling you, that guy was insane. He spoke as if he had was an obsessive stalker finally making a move, which had proved nothing but the fact that he could kill someone.

I froze in fear, anticipating what they were going to do.

"I heard he raped him," one of them said, wide eyed with surprise.

The insane-looking one giggled and said, "My girlfriend told me he bashed his head in with an axe."

"He died the year he was born, you dumbasses." The tallest one rolled his eyes, then looked back at me, nodding his head.

"What kinda' cult you in, bud?"

My chest heaved with anxiety. "I'm not in a cult."

"Denying it's not gonna get 'ya nowhere," a short one said at the back.

"You think you can do that and get away with it?" The taller one shouted.

I held my hands up in fear. "Look, I didn't do anything-

A hard smack to my face, sending a sting through my cheek. As I felt it, hot and burning, I looked at them like they were crazy.

The shorter one began hollering, "You think you can just-

He fell into a fit of angry muttering and he shoved me to the ground, pinning me down.

"You can do better than that," The taller one growled.

"No! I-

A hard, painful punch to my nose. I could feel the familiar warmth of blood beginning to drip out. I struggled under his grip, trying desperately to be able to fight back this time.

I would not tolerate being rescued by Jayden this time.

"Let me go," I stated in a stern voice, trying to break my legs free.

Blood emerged from my mouth. Flashes of my past life send shivers down my spine. I wanted to cry from the claustrophobic stress, but I wouldn't let them have the pleasure of seeing it.

Finally, after ignoring the slurs coming out of his mouth, I was able to steal a leg away and took my chance to knee him in the stomach. He groaned in pain and rolled off of me.

When I sat up I watched as his two friends helped him up. I didn't mean to hurt him. Why did I do that? I thought to myself, I'm such a bad person.

It was when the tall one (I've decided now that that's what I'm calling him) turned around from the circle around the injured one, that I realized I screwed up.

He walked over to me and yanked me up by the collar of my shirt to bring me face-to-face.

"Hey, you can't--

"You asked for it!" I shouted.

He paused, giving me one of the most intimidating glare. But I wouldn't let him know that he scared me.

He didn't know that all of my limbs were free.

I knocked his arm to the side and then kicked his knee. Hard. But it didn't do as much as I expected.

He took damage, and small grimace and then he backed away a few steps--before using full force to take those few steps forward and, with a firm fist, punch me right in the jaw.

I fell onto the ground, as expected.

But I didn't back down. This was the first time I've ever fought back. This would go down in history. Small bullied boy finally fights back and wins a fight against 4 opponents.

I looked at him in thought for a second, then, no hesitation, ran at him without any plan whatsoever. It resulted in getting slammed to the right and into the street by some other person. I landed with an impact that knocked the breath out of me and would definitely had caused some major scrapes.

When I got to my hands and knees, coughing out mucus and blood, there was someone  knocking me over. I rolled to my back to see who it was.

Ryan.

Something, sitting there in the street, something stabbed me in the chest a million times. Ryan wasn't a good kid. We all knew this. But he was my first ever friend. And now he was joining the group that will one day beat me to death.

"Ryan," I gasped. But he just stood there, frowning blankly.

"What, aren't you going to help me?"

He looked down, then kicked a clutter of rocks in the asphalt and walked off, muttering words to the kids a few feet over, who followed him.

I wanted him to suffer like I did. I wanted to kill him. How could I ever expect him to help me? After what he did?

On impulse, I found myself power-walking in their direction (which sent stabbing pains and burns throughout my limbs and face) and tapped on Ryan's shoulder a little too hard. He turned around, surprised, but not intimidated.

"I thought we were friends."

Shit. My eyes were watering.

But he just stared. The tears in my eyes turned into pure fury.

I did something I thought I never would. I socked Ryan in the face.