The Last Friend

Claire's Secret And The Truth About David

--the next day--

The following day, the girls finally showed up and upon seeing David and his sleeping beauty, named Gabriella, sitting on his lap asleep in his arms, Claire and Chloe couldn't help but feel a bit jealous. But David, lost in his thoughts, didn't notice. Suddenly, he felt movement in his arms and Gabi started to stir. "Finally," he thought, relieved that his buddy was finally awake and ready for the day ahead. As Gabi began to wake up, she wrapped her arms and legs around David's torso and snuggled her face into his chest, like they often did. David, being the good friend that he is, stroked her hair gently, letting her cling to him until school started. While this was happening, David anxiously awaited Ann and Chloe's arrival at school(even though they were already there) with a snoozing Gabi cradled in his arms like a baby. As soon as Gabi woke up, David thought to himself, "It's about damn time." 

"Hey sleeping beauty, you're heavy," David teased Gabi, earning a pout from her as she got off him. "You shouldn't say that to a lady," Gabi retorted. "I don't see any lady here," David replied as Gabi got angry. "WHAT ABOUT THEM!?!?" Gabi exclaimed as she pointed at Claire and Chloe. David looked around Gabi to see them. "Yo." He greeted the twins as they waved back. Gabi started to get more frustrated, but the only thing that could calm her down was the one thing that made her mad. But... she still went for it. She angrily moved her skirt a bit and sat on David's lap as she hugged him tightly, snuggled herself to his chest, and huffed into his chest. 

"Drama queen," David said, and this statement earned another huff from Gabi. "I'm your drama queen," Gabi stated as she snuggled closer to David

(A/N: NO. David and Gabi are not a couple she is just really clingy to him and only Him.)

 "That you are," David said as he chuckled. "ANYWAYS, D, I need to talk about something with you," Claire stated as she motioned to David to come with her, there was just a small, tiny, problem that was sitting on David, and her name was Gabriella. "Gabs?" David said as he tried to stand up. "yeah?" Gabi replied as she snuggled onto David not letting him get up. "Can you get off so I can talk with Ann, please?" David asked. "Fine, but only if you let me sit on your lap for lunch," Gabi said with a pout as she got off David's lap. "You'll do that anyways and we both know it," David stated. He gets up and follows Claire to a more secretive part of the school building, that only they know about. "So what's up? what do you need to talk about, Claire?" David asked not knowing him using her full name hurt Claire deep inside. "Umm... so I want to tell you a secret that not even Chloe knows. Please, can you keep it a secret until I'm ready to tell everyone else?" Claire asked. 

David being the kind boy that he is, says "Sure." 

Claire took a deep breath and said "Okay, so the secret is that I have a crush on someone in our class. And you may not like who it is very much," 

"Who is it?" David asked confused. 

"I-Its Fritz," Claire stated, trying her best to make it sound believable. Knowing very well how much David hates Fritz and closing her eyes, even though she knows she's lying, she feels as if David will do something to her. She waited for something to happen... but nothing happened. Absolutely nothing. It was like a minute while David kept his head down and not letting Claire look at his face. Claire opens her eyes only to see a smiling David. David then walks up to her and smiles at her while putting his hand on her head. "Well good for you, Ann. At least you know who you want to be with is just within your grasp. but yes I support your decision. Even though I may not Be on the best terms with the guy, I fully support and understand your decision." David stated being a bit sad that she liked his enemy, but glad she trusted him to keep her secret crush a secret.

Claire --on the other side of this interaction-- was happy that her actual crush decided to keep her quote-on-quote "Secret crush" a secret.

--Minor time skip to lunch--

So here we are with our protagonists eating lunch. Right now it's awkward for the three of them. Yes, you read that correctly. THREE of them, the other one (cough David cough) was getting pushed (punched in the face and gut, and being kicked in the shins and the gut) around by Fritz and his group of friends, as he finally gets shoved on the ground before being left alone by said group of people. after that he got himself to stand, wobbling a bit, and dusted himself off, not caring for his broken nose, his 2 black eyes, and a small pool of blood that was his (kind of) dented skull. he then hobbled over to the lunch table that his friends were sitting on and fell face-first to the floor, which, at this point had become his normal lunch spot. "Hey, Ann?" David asked for Claire as he sat up wobbling a bit. "Yeah I got you D, don't worry," Claire said, as she handed David a box of lunch she makes every day along with her and Chloe's lunches. "Thanks," David replied as he smiled at Claire, even though he was in a lot of pain, his smiles were always enough to reassure Chloe, Claire, and Gabriella that he was okay. "So, David, what are you gonna do about those injuries?" Chloe asked, worried about her friend. "Well, I'm just gonna let them heal on their own. They won't bother me until they're sure that all of my injuries are gone, so at least they're not completely bad people," David said. "OKAY, NOPE!! WE ARE GETTING YOU TO A HOSPITAL RIGHT NOW!!" Chloe shouted at David. "Huh!? But why?" David asked, clearly startled about Chloe shouting at him. "Because every time they hurt you you just walk it off, (no pun intended) like it's nothing," Chloe stated. "But I am alright. Please trust me." David said. "Fine, we'll trust you on this just please take care of those injuries, please," Chloe told him. "Yeah, I know," David replied.

But sadly, the reason he didn't want them to take him to the hospital was because not only did he have these injuries but he had others from his abusive parents. You see, the only thing the girls knew about David was rather poor when it came to social status, and he was an only child. but the sad truth about David was that this nice guy has a bad home life of sorts. but he smiles every day so that he can make his only friends happy. He never showed his true colors to his friends and he didn't show them his scars. Luckily since they had different locker rooms, he would go to his and the girls would go to their locker room, he would also make an excuse to the guys every day so they didn't see the marks his parents left on his body, and would change into his gym clothes after every guy in the locker room had left. 

--After school--

David would walk home ready for the beating his parents would give him once he got there not even 10 miles away from his own home, and he could already smell the beer and iron (blood) emanating from his home. Once he got to his house and walked he saw his father with a whip in one hand and a belt on the other. knowing the drill David groaned, took off his shirt, turned around, and got on his knees in front of his father. 

--minor time skip to midnight-- 

After everything that his father did to him, David was sitting in the corner of the house he was able to call his "room", and silently cried as he held his knees to his chest. he cried silently for two reasons, 

1: at a young age when he first started to get abused, his mother almost burst his ear drum as she yelled at him, 'Boys/Men don't cry because it's pitiful' while she kicked him in the ribs.

and reason 2: he thought he would get beaten again if his parents heard him crying. which had happened before so he grew accustomed to hiding his emotions.

Poor David. He had gone a very long time in his life being abused, and now it was only going to get worse and he knew it all too well.