This Is Me

Afraid (Part One)

Afraid (Part One)

"Peter!" Cooper yelled.

His voice echoed around the bathroom as my cheek pressed against the cold tile floor and Mitchell stood over me.

"You really should've listened," he growled and took another step toward Cooper.

As Mitchell stepped over me, he made sure to dig his foot into my gut again, causing me to curl up in pain.

"Get over yourself," I managed to mumble, and I heard Cooper whimper.

"What was that?" Mitchell snarled, and I heard him shuffle, no doubt turning around to look at me.

"You're nothing." My voice shook as I spoke, along with my body, but I wasn't going to let that stop me.

For once in my life, I wanted to stand up for who I was. I wasn't going to let people turn away from me. Even if it ended in me getting my ass kicked even more.

"Say's the bitch crying on the shitty bathroom floor."

"Say what you want," I muttered, shakily pushing myself up from the ground.

Pain rushed through my body and rippled up the side of my face.

"Throw another punch if it makes you feel better about yourself. But I'm going to keep getting up. Because there is nothing you can say or do that will make me feel any less of myself. Because I'm not the one who has to find his worth in demeaning others. I don't have to drag others down because I'll never be at their level. Just like you."

As the last word came out of my mouth, Mitchell's fist connected with my face again, though this time I didn't fall to the ground. I felt a pair of arms wrap around me and heard the loud bang of the bathroom door as it closed behind someone.

"Pete!"

Leroy's voice washed over me as he leaned me down against one of the toilet stalls, and I felt a trickle of warm blood run down my face.

I clenched my eyes shut as pain scattered over my face, and I tried to move out of Leroy's arms, but I couldn't work up the strength. I didn't need him.

Forcing my eyelids open, I looked at the boy who had stopped me from falling to the ground and looked into his eyes. The sparkle that used to be so prominent in them had all but faded, and dark circles rested under them. The brightness he once held on his face was gone.

He was almost unrecognisable, and the pit in my stomach grew. I hated seeing him like this. I was feeling a pain in my chest that wasn't from anything Mitchell did to me.

It had got worse.

Leroy turned away from me, and for a moment, I missed looking into his eyes. Quickly realising what I was doing, I shook my head, regretting it instantly as pain circled it. I didn't think I could hold myself up, and against my better judgment and throwing all willpower out the window, I leaned into Leroy's embrace.

I don't know if it was because I leant into him or not, but Leroy gently propped me up against the door and moved away from me. I was now sitting alone on the bathroom floor. My head resting on the toilet stall instead of Leroy's shoulder.

Looking to where Leroy had gone, I saw him standing in front of Mitchell, who had taken a step back.

"You don't want to be a part of this—" Mitchell started but was cut off by his own scream, as Leroy's fist connected with his nose.

"Touch him again. Or anyone else, and your nose won't be the only thing I break," Leroy growled, shaking his hand, which now had splatters of blood on it.

"What the fuck!" Mitchell screeched, and I saw tears roll down his face to mix with the blood as he rushed past Leroy and out of the bathroom.

Leroy took in a shaky breath and turned back to me, slowly taking a step toward me. From the look on his face, I could tell that he was unsure about his movements, and I didn't blame him. After all, he was the reason we hadn't spoken in over a month.

"Are you okay?" He asked softly, taking another step forward and kneeling by my side.

His hand hovered in front of him as if he were fighting the urge to touch my face where there was no doubt a bruise forming. Part of me wanted him to finish the moment. To let me feel the warmth of his hand and the softness of his touch.

However, Leroy didn't finish it and, instead, he dropped his hand, resting it on the tile floor, helping to steady himself as he looked at me trying to hold myself up against the toilet stall.

As I looked into Leroy's eyes, my head pounded and I let out an audible groan, which Leroy seemed to take as the answer to his question.

Though, I wasn't sure if the groan was because of the pain, or from looking at Leroy. I couldn't bare to think of what had been happening behind closed doors, but I'm sure what I had experienced now was a mere taste of what Leroy had been through.

The pit in my stomach grew to be nothing short of a canyon.

Taking a deep breath, he shuffled a little closer to me and timidly put his hand on my shoulder, before shifting from off his knee and sat down cross-legged beside me. A shudder ran through my body at his touch, which caused me a bit of pain, but I did my best to take no notice of it.

I would have given anything to have had Leroy by my side at the beginning of all this, back when I had first come out. To have him sit beside me and just be there. To show me everything was going to be okay.

No doubt he had wanted the same thing.

It was weird how similar we were, yet how vastly different everything turned out. Two sides of the same coin, and I was the lucky one when it got flipped.

"Peter?" Cooper's soft voice came from the far end of the toilets, and I tilted my head to look at him.

"Yeah?" I croaked out, feeling a sharp aching in my jaw as I spoke.

"Do you need a hand?" Cooper asked, and his eyes flicked to Leroy before resting back on me.

I was thankful that he had asked, even if I wasn't going to take him up on the offer. Regardless of the pain I was in, this was where I wanted to be.

With Leroy. For as long as I could.

Fighting off the throbbing in my head, I shook it.

"Are you okay?" I asked, still doing my best to ignore the aching.

"It should have been me," Cooper muttered in a small, weak voice, stepping away from the wall.

"No, Coop," was all I could say.

"I don't think I could thank you enough for standing up for me."

"It's what friends do."

Giving me a small nod, Cooper's eyes continued to flick to Leroy, until he took in a sharp breath.

"I'll, uh, I'll be just outside if you need me," Cooper said with a small smile, moving past Leroy and me.

As Cooper reached the door, the bell signalling the end of lunch rang, and he looked back at me. Giving him a small nod, Cooper turned away and left the bathroom, leaving me alone with Leroy. Hoping that the agony throughout my body would soon die down a little, I finally turned to face Leroy again and saw that he was already looking at me with tears in his eyes.