𖤐⭒๋࣭ ⭑ this side of paradise: the remake

Chapter 3.

—Feel like I've been living life asleep

A week had passed since the first time Leon and Emil texted, still his new 'friend' didn't text him yet.

Emil had to expect that. Leon was lying when he told him he would text him every day.
He was devastated; finally someone tried to be his friend, just to forget about him.

His situation at school was worsening his mental state too; that week he had three interrogations, and of course his classmates interrupted him every time he stuttered. Emil was too embarrassed to really say anything, and ended up getting bad grades for keeping silent. He was so sick of that shit. He just wanted to go mute and never speak ever again.
Some people even started beating him up in hallways. They were making school days hell for him...

It was worrying Lukas, too, and Emil hated that. It was a bit ironic; he didn't want anyone to worry for him, but he also craved attention.

One day, when school was over, Emil grabbed his backpack and got out of the building, while trying to ignore the bullies. He was being so lucky that day, he hadn't been hit yet.

It felt weird.
Nobody was in the street. Not so weird, because it wasn't a very populated quarter, but it still creeped Emil out. It was kind of eerie.

He felt...
He felt like someone had been following him. He heard two pairs of shoes on the cement, and not only one, his footsteps.

Emil felt faint for a split second, realising that he was right, someone actually had been following him the whole time. He froze up and felt paralysed. He couldn't move. He wanted to keep walking and ignore whoever was following him, make it safe to his house, make Matthias deal with it, hide in his room; but he couldn't even take one step forward.

Someone placed their hand on his shoulder. He flinched and started shaking terribly, he wanted to die on spot. He slightly turned around, to see who it was, and regretted it...

It was a big, humongous, enormous (and many more synonyms,) guy. He was absolutely not the most attractive person Emil had ever seen, but that definitely didn't worry him at the moment.
The guy probably had been following Emil from school, and now he was looking at him with a rather frightening expression.

«Did you bring me the money, 'B-B-Bondevik'?»

Emil frowned.
That wasn't an authentic impression of him - he didn't stutter on letter b. Second... he completely forgot about the money.

He took a few steps back, he tried to run away from that big, muscly guy, but he was blocked.

«Did you bring me the damn money?!» He repeated, angry. Furious, almost. Emil's heart was beating out of his chest as he shook his head slowly.

The guy lifted his arm, clenching his fists; he then punched Emil on his face so aggressively, he felt dizzy.

He could not feel his nose at all... but it was very painful at the same time. Breathing was just as painful, and he could feel his blood pouring out. It was so terrifying he teared up.

As soon as the guy left, Emil started running as fast as he could while covering his nose with both hands. He knocked on the front door of his house with his knees, as in his hands just happened a crime scene and he did not want to stain the door in blood.

And it somehow worked, since the door opened quickly. There was a smiling Mathias at the door, a common yet so comforting sight.

«Welcome back home, Emil!» He had exclaimed before suddenly loosing all his enthusiasm, which was replaced by concern. «What's up with your nose? Why are you hiding it? Are you... crying-?»