Bullied

Five

Over 4 years after the Justin incident, my past returned.

I didn't stay in contact with my old school for years. I was too busy most of the time anyway. I focused on studying, sports, computers and new hobbies. The new school might as well have been a portal to a different planet. I had to catch up fast for the first month I lost and after catching up, I had to keep up.

I finally got some extra breaks. Winter vacation came and I had finished all my homework in advance. I was free but had trouble passing the time. It had been a while since I used Facebook so I figured I'd check what's new there. Everyone I knew was using TikTok, Instagram or Twitter. For some reason I was in the mood for Facebook.

As expected, there were some friend requests, some messages that were sent months, if not years ago and far too many notifications. I checked on some friend requests. Most of them were friends from my school, both old and young. One of the friend requests was from Fred's.

It was sent a long time ago. I hadn't talked to him in all this time, yet I accepted the request. I figured if he was interested, we could catch up. Maybe tease him about that stupid notebook he once showed me. The reply came sooner than expected. It was just around 3 pm, so Fred probably wasn't very busy either. Not even an hour had gone by since I accepted the request that Fred sent me a message, clearly eager to chat. I was in the bathroom when my phone beeped, over and over again.

"Long time no see," he sent a meme that featured a dog with a wide smile, wide enough for a mouse to fit in. "Dude, where have you been? How's your wife and more importantly, is she hot? Lol. Does she have a sister? Especially if it's a twin. Lol," his silly messages flooded onto the screen and when I saw them, I was confused as to which one I should answer first. I decided to answer the last one. "Wanna hang out?"

"Sure, what are you up to these days?" The next message came shortly.

"Let's katchup to talk about each other's lives when we meet," his humor didn't seem to have improved by much.

"And when will that be?"

"Homework's almost done, I'll call you later," he said. The silence that followed after the constant texts was a welcome one. After a few minutes, Fred did call and we caught up with my life first. I told Fred how I made new friends and even had a crush on a classmate. Fred asked who and I lied that I was just joking. I asked Fred about his side but he insisted on meeting in person for that. We decided to meet up minutes later and go for a walk. Fred volunteered to pick me up even though our homes were just 25 minutes apart.

"Hello," I said, picking up the call.

"Are you ready?" Fred asked as I tied my shoelaces. A minute or so later, the doorbell rang and Fred was here. Fred had never been in my house but he once saw me enter when he was with a friend.

"Ready for the adventure, Mate?" Fred wore a sky blue t-shirt and dark blue trousers that, from a distance, could even be mistaken for jeans.

"Sure," I nodded and off we went.

The first thing I noticed was that Fred had grown an inch or two. I had grown similarly if not a bit more. As promised, Fred began catching me up on his life. For the past few years, after I left, Fred had stayed in the same school but due to some injury, he stopped playing sports. He didn't join any sports event even after he recovered. Now, he was more on the chubby side. His voice was also deeper than I remembered. All this and more information came out instantly from Fred's mouth, as if he was holding this for a while. At least he's still the talker he was, some things never change.

Within the first five minutes, we had known each other enough to write about it in an essay. During the talk Fred mentioned his new hobby, it was drawing. I was intrigued by this information and asked if I could see some of his sketches. He agreed and we were on our way to his house.

"Prepare to be amazed," Fred said, excited to show his work. "See that blue shop over there," he stretched his arm and pointed at it as if it was his art gallery.

"Yes I do," I said as we looked straight ahead at the cheap looking shop he pointed. Not bad for startups I thought but didn't say. "Does that house belong to someone special?" I teased.

"It's the butcher and son meat shop," Fred grinned. This was not the answer I was expecting.

"Butcher and son?" I frowned. Then it hit me. "Is that Justin's shop?" I asked. I knew they lived close by ever since Fred moved in with his uncle but I forgot all about it, until Fred pointed it out.

"Well, technically it's his father's."

"The butcher's boy," I murmured. Fred nodded with a smug smile. We reached Fred's house but by then I had lost almost all interest in his sketches. The new information, one I didn't ask for, kept distracting me from the reason I was there. Although it did help that his art work was mostly just naked pictures of anime girls with really long hair. "Nice," I commented. We were still looking at his drawings when Fred's uncle showed up.

"Have you boys ever thought of, you know, looking at a real woman at times," he said sipping his tea. I felt my cheeks flush a little at the remark but Fred just laughed it off.

"Sometimes," I replied, copying Fred's confidence. Fred's uncle was on his way to the kitchen and asked if I was going to stay for dinner. Before I could even reply, Fred spoke up for me.

"He'll stay, won't you? Or do you have someplace to go?" Fred inquired. I only shook my head. "There you go," Fred said as I looked out the window. There was a very clear view of Justin's shop from Fred's room.

"Well great, but you'll need to go shopping for me. We need some meat," his uncle said and took out some cash from his wallet. "You can keep the change."

"Sure," Fred said before noticing where I was looking. "Are you wondering what he's up to?"

"Just a little curious, that's all," I said. I hadn't seen or heard about Justin in all this time either.

"I understand," Fred looked back at his uncle who handed him the money. "Let's go shopping, shall we?" I wasn't sure if I should really go or not. At last, curiosity got the better of me, as it usually did. We were back on the street, heading for Justin's shop. Fred had the biggest grin on his face as we got closer.

"Are you sure this is alright?" I asked. The smell from the shop tingled my nostrils. I recognized the person at the counter. It was Justin's father. He was opening his shop, probably just finished fresh off their lunch break.

"Oh, shit," Fred stopped dead in his tracks. "I forgot my shirt," he said and began walking backwards. "You keep going. I'll be back in a sec," he said and handed over the money. I wanted to ask him about what he meant but Fred was gone before I had the chance.

My head told me to stay there and wait for Fred to come back but my feet didn't agree and kept me walking. The doors to the shop were now completely open and welcoming. Justin and his father were bringing out a huge chunk of meat when I got there.