Bullied

Two

"You should've come yesterday. At least you would've been warned," the guy next to me said. Warned? That's when I realized this was planned.

Justin grabbed Fred by the neck and shoved something in his mouth as we talked. "Eat all of it," Justin spat out. "Today you don't talk. You only listen," Fred coughed. He was still able to speak a little, but his voice was too hoarse to let out anything beyond a sentence.

While Justin carried on with his feud with Fred, guys I sat with filled me in on everything that happened. Justin took a bunch of Fred's group to the side yesterday and told them that skipping the first period would be best for them. Not that they weren't going to bunk the class as is. Everytime any teacher is absent, half the class uses it as an excuse to not stay in the classroom.

With the steel ruler in one hand, stolen from the science lab, and the box cutter in another, probably stolen too, Justin cornered Fred the moment he arrived. Things had just started when I came in. From what I was told, it was going to get worse. Justin played with the box cutter after feeding Fred whatever it was that he had.

Justin's father was a butcher and so he joined him every now and then to help pay the bills. Of all the kids in the class, Justin's the only one who has taken a life, or lives. He's seen blood, guts and more, to him, it's just work. He always claimed to hate the work but it doesn't mean he won't be up to it, especially if he gets his hands on the right knife.

The ruler in his hand rose up and now it was on Fred's throat. I was scared he'd get hit but also relieved that at least it wasn't the box cutter. The ruler pushed in deeper and Fred started trembling. "Stand here and don't you fucking move," Justin grabbed him by the arm and forced him to stand in the middle of the room, in front of the board. He gave Fred one of the markers, a blue one. He looked puzzled. "Now write exactly what I tell you to and don't try anything stupid or this ruler is going to break your other arm. You don't want two broken arms now do you?" Fred nodded in agreement. Everyone noticed that he didn't mention the box cutter, which just made it worse. Justin was probably going to use that as a surprise attack.

"Yo, Justin. Isn't this going too far?" one of the people, his own group member asked. "Don't get me wrong, I get that you hate him, but still. Hasn't he been through enough?"

"What makes you think I care about what he's been through? He mocks me all the time. If he can't care less about me, why should I?"

"Yeah, but... his mother..." Last month a car accident broke Fred's arm and took the life of his only parent, his mother. He'd been living with his uncle ever since.

"Millions of people die everyday. His mom ain't that special," Justin said and everyone in the class was silent. "Neither was mine," He stared at Fred. "Right?" Fred swallowed. Seeing Fred in a corner and completely defenseless broke my heart, and more than that, my spirit. You don't mess with the school bully unless you have friends, maybe not even then. But now even the friends were few and far in between. He was never my best friend, he's way too cocky for that and even annoying at times but he was still a fellow student.

"Damn," The guy next to me said. Justin gave him a sharp look and his body almost went limp.

If this was any other day, Fred would scream his head off and simply fight back with his fists. Despite being short he never backed down from any fights. But this time it was different. He had managed to piss Justin off big time. What exactly must he have done? What did Justin feed him? Justin still had some of that powder like stuff left on his fingers. I think it was chalk dust but I could be wrong. Everything Fred said after it was mostly a whisper.

Fred, with his unsteady hands, took the cap off the marker and drew in a deep breath. "Wh... What do you want me to write?" he asked, barely able to speak and coughing immediately afterwards. He couldn't even make eye contact with anyone, too afraid to look at anything except the white board in front of him and the blue marker in his grasp.