Saving Him

8

TW:
-homophobia (f-slur)
(Finney's pov)

Today is the day of the random Juniors party. I told Gwen about it last night, and she said that she was going to stay at Susie's until noon tomorrow. I told Gwen that I would most likely be home tonight, so she could come home tomorrow whenever she wants.

When I got to school, Vance was fighting someone. Robin and Bruce stood a few feet away from the crowd, talking to each other. I walked over to them, and stood beside Robin as I looked at the crowd.

"What's this fight about?" I asked.

"The kid said something that Vance heard, and didn't like," Bruce said.

"We have no idea what the kid said, though," Robin said back to me.

The fight went on for a few more minutes, before the crowd of kids started to walk away. Once some kids were gone, we were finally able to see the scene that was hidden. The kid Vance was fighting was on the ground, and there was blood all over his face.

Vance stood a few feet away from him, breathing heavily. I looked over at Bruce, and saw him shaking his head slowly. Bruce was usually the one to calm down Vance in moments like this.

"Do you think he'll want help bandaging his hands?" I asked Bruce, but I figured that I knew the answer already.

Bruce shook his head; exactly what I expected. Vance never really accepted my help when it came to bandaging his knuckles after a fight. He always did it by himself, but would let Bruce help every now and again.

"I'll go talk to him," Bruce said, walking over to Vance.

Robin looked over at me, and I looked over at him a few seconds later.

"Want to head to school now?" He asked me.

I nodded my head back to him. For awhile the walk to school was silent. Robin and I don't need to make a lot of conversation with each other to like the others presence.

"Are you going to the party tonight?" Robin asked me.

I nodded my head back to him. "I'm slightly nervous for it."

"Why?"

"It's my first party I've been to."

"There's nothing to worry about. If anything happens, I'll protect you," Robin said, gently nudging me with his elbow.

I smiled and blushed slightly from the simple touch. I looked down at the ground, so Robin wouldn't be able to see the blush on my face.

When we finally got to school, Robin walked me to my locker, before he went to his. We said a quickly goodbye to each other before he had went to his locker, and I couldn't stop smiling. Once I got all my stuff out of my locker, I started to walk to my first class.

~*~

At lunch I sat between Robin and Vance. Vance's knuckles were badly wrapped, and I wanted to ask him if I could fix them for him, but I was scared of getting yelled at by him.

"Finn, quite staring at my knuckles," Vance said.

"Sorry," I said. My face turning pink out of embarrassment.

"Do you have the stuff to fix this?" He asked, gesturing to his hand.

I nodded my head back to him as I opened my backpack. I grabbed out the small kit I kept, and sat it on the table. I grabbed the small bottle of rubbing alcohol and a cotton ball, and slowly got the cotton ball wet.

Vance had unwrapped his knuckles while I got the other stuff. I gently grabbed his hand, and lightly started to rub the cotton ball with rubbing alcohol on it against his knuckles. Vance winched slightly at first, but stopped after a few seconds.

Once the cuts were cleaned, I started to wrap a bandage around Vance's hand. I made sure that the bandage was tight enough, but not too tight that it cut off circulation to Vance's hand.

"You're good at this, Blake," Vance said to me once I finished his hand.

"Thank you," I said back to him.

Vance looked at me, and just simply nodded his head back to me. I looked down at my tray, and started to move my food around with my fork. I wasn't super hungry because of how nervous I am for the party tonight.

This will be the first time that no one is home with dad at night. Gwen and I have no idea how that will turn out for the either of us when we go home tomorrow.

"You going to eat, Finney?" Bruce asked me.

I looked up at him with a confused look before I looked back down at my tray.

"Yeah, I am. I just zoned out," I said back to him, picking up a little food on my fork.

Bruce continued to look at me for a few seconds after I ate the food off of my fork. I was confused on why he watched me for so much longer. After eating a few more bites of the food on my tray, the end bell for lunch rang.

Everyone got up to dump their trays. Once all of our trays were dumped, we headed back to our lockers to get our books for class. I talked to Bruce as we walked to our lockers; Vance and Robin walked a few feet behind us.

When we got closer to my locker, I heard laughing. I pushed through a crowd of people to get to my locker, and frowned when I saw what everyone was laughing at.

'Finney the FAG!'

My heart rate sped up from seeing the words on my locker. Matty, Matt, and Buzz all always called me that, but I had no idea why. None of them knew that I was gay, or even knew that I liked men.

"Oh, Finney..." Bruce said from behind me.

"It's fine," I said quietly as I looked down at the ground.

Vance and Robin pushed their ways up to us. Vance placed his hand on my, and the coldness of his metal bracelet sat against my neck. I flinched from the unexpected coldness, and Vance yelling right after.

"WHO DID THIS?" He yelled.

A few people said Matty right away; knowing that Vance wasn't scared to beat anyone up. Vance's hand left my shoulder, before he walked away. I looked behind me, and saw Robin staring at my locker with an angry look.

I reached forward, and grabbed hind hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. Robin looked at me, and his face lightened slightly, but still held the angry look.

"Go find Vance, Bruce," Robin said. "Make sure that he doesn't kill Matty."

Bruce nodded his head back to Robin as he walked out of the crowd. The crowd disappeared after Robin yelled at all of the people to go away. I got my books out of my locker, and walked to my class with my head down.

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