Killer

Samuel Xiao Bites the Curb

"What'd Richard ask you all?" Rio asked, setting their book on the cafeteria table beside their lunch tray.

"If I'd be capable of murder," Harley pouted, setting her lunchbox on the table. "Like, imagine me killing someone!"

"Out of anyone at this table," Sunny hummed, peeling a tangerine, "you and Benjamin are the least capable."

"Exactly my point!" the black girl exclaimed.

"Who would you say is most capable?" Rio inquired, opening their milk carton.

"I don't know," the indigo haired girl shrugged. "Probably Jett."

"Why not me?" Garfield scoffed.

"Jett's more confrontational. You're all bark."

Her brother's jaw dropped in offence.

"Why are you so offended at being called not-murderous?" Benjamin asked, furrowing his dark brows together.

"Jett's my best friend, we've gotta have a similarity like that!"

"It's a good thing you're not as likely as her to commit murder, Garf," his sister said, kicking his leg under the table with a platform boot-clad foot.

"Ow!" the boy exclaimed, reaching down to rub the spot.

Benjamin frowned and looked down at the tabletop, eyebrows pinched together.

///

"When did you and Jett talk about doing this?" the smaller boy asked, humming as he played with his boyfriend's hair, particularly the green streaks and ends in the natural brown.

"Last night after the movie," Garfield shrugged. "You like it?"

"Suits you."

He frowned as he looked over his boyfriend's face, touching the Japanese boy's cheek. "What happened here? I didn't notice this bruise before."

Garfield touched the spot and cringed. "Oh, right."

"What happened, Garfield?"

"Someone at the movies was being an ass to Jett," the older boy shrugged. "I swung at him and he got a hit in. There wasn't anything this morning that Sunny and I noticed."

"Hey, Benj. Can I talk to you for a minute?" The couple looked up at Samuel Xiao, a classmate. "Alone?"

Garfield frowned as his boyfriend looked between the boys.

"Uh, sure, Sam!" Benjamin nodded. He gave his boyfriend's hand a quick squeeze before standing up and following Samuel to a different table in the library.

The brunet-and-green haired boy watched the pair, eyes serious and hands balled into fists on the table. Benjamin smiled as he spoke with Samuel, hands folded in a gentle way in front of himself. Garfield didn't like it — he didn't like the feeling it put in his chest.

That jealousy turned to rage when Sam laughed a little too hard at something the smaller boy said, Benjamin's smile faltering and eyes widening. The Asian boy said something else and Benjamin's expression dropped completely. His face turned pink and only kept darkening as his nose wrinkled.

Garfield clenched his fists tighter, knuckles whitening, and then pulled his phone from his pocket. He sent a text to Jett.

Benjamin came back over and sat silently, tears pooling in his eyes.

Garfield swallowed his true thoughts and set a hand on the boy's shoulder. "What'd he say to you?" he asked, voice harsher than intended.

The smaller boy only started sobbing, hiding himself in his boyfriend's arms and chest.