Ghost (First Edition)

Chapter Three

Friday. 

 The worst day of the week for Nathan. It meant he had one more day before he had to spend the next forty-eight hours with his parents and their "you should be happy to be born rich" attitude.

As he walked down the busy school halls, he kept an eye out for Luis, wanting to see how he was. However, by the time Nathan got to his locker, he hadn't seen Luis anywhere. He hoped Andy hadn't caught him, Nathan was willing to fight Andy if that was the case.

The bell rang signaling the start of classes. Nathan had English first, which Luis wasn't in, Nathan would have to wait till class swap to see if Luis was at school.

Nathan had already done the assignment, but he grabbed his books anyway, just to look like he was doing something. He closed his locker door and joined the river of students moving down the hall. Many of the girls huddled by their lockers and whispered and giggled behind their hands to their friends, Nathan paid them no mind; he was too busy thinking of Luis and where he was--and the odd spark that ignited in his chest whenever he saw the boy.

A sudden and rather hard shove sent him barreling into the lockers on his left, blinking stars from his eyes, he saw the fist and ducked just in time. The fist collided with the locker with a loud clang, and then another fist connected with his jaw before Nathan could understand what was happening. He blinked to clear his sight and met his eyes with Andy's furious gaze.

"Remember what I said yesterday?" Andy hissed.

Shock registered somewhere in Nathan's brain, but adrenalin had already taken over and so had panic. He dodged another punch but was then grabbed by the back of his shirt and thrown to the floor. His books flew from his arms and skidded across the lino floor as the students gathered in a circle around them.

"Fight! Fight! Fight!" They yelled and cheered.

Nathan tried to push himself up to his knees, breathing hard, his heart beating at twice the normal speed, the back of his mind screaming "YOU'RE GOING TO DIE!!"

Andy kicked him in the ribs, sending Nathan back to the floor. Nathan curled up into a ball, the pain in his side causing him to imagine that his ribs were splintering inside of him. He looked up and met a punch to the face. Pain shot all through his body like a wave as blood streamed from his nose, the coppery tang filling his mouth. He spat blood then kicked his leg up and met Andy's groin.

The other boy howled in pain and hunched forwards, hands shoved into his crotch. Nathan smirked, it didn't matter that the leg of his jeans had torn at the seam, he had gotten a good hit.

Andy looked up then and glared at Nathan, eyes ablaze with fury. "You fucking bitch! You rich fucking bitch!" He lunged and Nathan scrambled up to dodge, catching the bone-jarring hit to the shoulder, it still sent him stumbling into another locker.

The crowd around them cheered, clapping and throwing their arms into the air. None, Nathan noticed, were cheering for him.

Nathan looked at Andy through his hair and then swung a punch, catching the other boy in the jaw and sending Andy stumbling back, spitting blood.

His left rib ached. That was mostly what Nathan was aware of, that and to fight for what seemed to be his life. He raised his arm to throw another hit when a loud, booming voice came down the hall, cutting off the school's cheers.

"ENOUGH!"

The crowd went dead silent and parted down the middle slowly. Breathing hard, head leaning back on the locker behind him, Nathan turned to see the Headmaster—Mr Rightmore—stalking down the hall and through the gap the students made, looking furious. Nathan also saw, with great relief, a very skinny, black-haired boy with worried light green eyes following after him. Luis.