e-Bae

2.5

Sinful Secrets by Rye_Bread

Thomas moved quickly down the hall, avoiding eye contact with the curious gazes of those surrounding him. The tight grip of the teacher's hands wrapped around his bicep was the only thing keeping him from bolting. His pulse still pounded in his ears, adrenaline coursing through his veins. The bright flush of splotchy red on his pale skin showcased his anger, along with the quickly forming bruise around his eye.

Shifting slightly, he saw Trey, dyed blond hair mussed and hands attempting to stop the red trickle of blood from dripping on his shirt. A smirk tilted Thomas' lips, but immediately turned into a grimace when the pain of his split lip registered. Being pulled into the office, the classroom aide gave them a glare before knocking on the administration door, lips twisted into bitter frown.

Thomas rolled his eye, plopping into the old and rickety chairs scattered around. Trey fell into a seat in front of him, eyes closed, and the anger built up in Thomas again. Agitated, he flexed his fingers, the sore muscle of his knuckles scraping against his skin. The blonde imbecile in front of him may have lost the small bout between them, if the hand he had pressed to his likely dislocated shoulder was any indication, but he put up a fight.

"Are you done staring at me?" Trey asked, voice strangled from the remembrance of the boy's hands on his throat.

Thomas narrowed his eyes at him, but stayed silent.

"You know," the unnatural blonde began with a bitter laugh. "I've always wondered. Since your eyes are already small, does narrowing them make the world look wide screen, or are you blind for a second?"

Thomas held himself back from reacting. That's what he wanted, Trey, to throw him underneath a bus driven by his own ego. Running his uninjured hand through his hair, the known delinquent stared at his shoes, knowing what would happen next.

Grayson High was a public school, and not the best one at that. Limited resources, large class sizes, and little to no teachers that actually cared lead to the expected drop in those who graduate. Thomas was poor, and he knew that. He couldn't afford to care about how he looked or how he was perceived; if he didn't leave school with some sort of credit, he would be no better than his freeloading brother.

Trey, however, had money. His parents were the "ambassadors of the people", and just one phone call and an exchange of money that could keep Thomas' family from getting evicted, all problems disappeared.

"Hey, Jackie Chan, I asked you a question."

Thomas glared at the ground, biting his tongue to keep from correcting Trey. The Puerto Rican who sat stiffly in his seat, with more confidence than expected from someone who had just got beaten up, was baiting him. He taunted him with stereotypes of his race, indirectly insulting the one person who stuck around and took care of him--his mother. The Vietnamese mother of two was his rock, the only person he could genuinely say cared for him.

"Are you going to tell me, Ling Ling?"

Thomas was silent.

Published 7/7/14