The Baneflower

Chapter 15

Riley
My laughter must've went over the limits, because his only reaction was another hit. I think I'm crazy. In a seemingly bad way. It hurts and I might as well fall over, but I am blinded by the fact that I know I should kick him right where it hurts most. He deserves the agony.
Conner. Piece of shit.
I am panting, trying to regain my breath because of all the hits from that stupid boy. His piercing grey eyes showed only the coldest gaze.
He literally has no mercy. Perfect. That means I'll feel dead by the time this shit is over. My thoughts are interrupted often by another kick. I am starting to wonder if anyone is watching us getting beat up. If they are, clearly they don't mind if we're dead or not.
Then I realize this is the most empty part of this whole alleyway. Its just a fenced off place with dried up grass and broken glass. It seemed like a ghost town. No one walked by.
We were fine.

Morley
She was acting strange, like something took over her in an instant. What seemed like an angry helpless girl turned into something extraordinary, a demon spawn to be exact. Like I've never seem such hell in her eyes and the glory of being dumb. Conner was kicking and she was laughing. Then she started crying and laughing and she was messed up.
For a whole minute I tried to calm Conner down but his stupidity is impossible to control. I punched him in the face so the attention would come to me. It worked.
Riley
Now I was mad. Really fucking mad.
I clawed my way through Conner's skin and made sure he bled.
"Listen, you shitty bastard, fuck off!"
Morley held him down and I kicked him, he groaned painfully, and crashed into a wall. Conner wasn't here to play games. He was aiming for the fresh red rivers that would soon flow out of our battle wounds. So our parents could question what happened and we should be afraid to tell. But it didn't matter who we told as long as he is caught in the act.

Morley
We were trying and felt like the punching bags in a gym. We felt like the ragdolls that the little kids ripped apart. We were hurting and we tried to pretend we didn't feel.
But we did.
-
Riley
When he finally walked away, the hell fire in me was gone, and all was left is the regret that I didn't try harder to get a extra kick at him, or I didn't pick up something from the ground and do whatever.
So I lost another war involving only three people. This ain't the first, it ain't even the last. Bruised and pitiful, I hated every adjective that could describe me and Morley.
Morley looked at me with his blue-green eyes, and for the first time, I didn't see a sad smile, trying to pretend.
He looked desperate. Rather dissapointed. Morley ruffled his black hair, shaking with pain.
"Shit, it's my fault. I dragged you into this. If you weren't with me, you wouldn't be in pain."
I heard the cliché sentence of self blame, as if this was just another dumb game. As if he didn't have anything else to say.
I looked at him with silence, I ignored my massive headache and the blood on my arm. It was minimal, he didn't have to blame himself. Or was it big?
"Stay away from me Riley, I don't want this, I don't want anyone in this. I'm your drug, your average high dosage that will probably kill you. Just... Don't stay with me." I hear certain cliché bullshit that every movie has. The "stay away from me" line and the other person was supposed to support the other. I hated playing the role, but I will.
"Shut up Morley. Can you hear what you're saying? Why do you want to face him alone? Why do you push people away? You aren't protecting me, you are telling me to give up on a friend. Don't you see? People aren't supposed to be temporary. You can't stop caring." I snapped, I had a little rant of my own.
"Riley, I don't need you, you're useless." He yelled.
No, he was useless.
Morley rolled his eyes and scoffed. He sighed then threw one of his vodka bottles across the alley, hitting the ground with a clear shattering sound. It looked like water. It looked pure But it was alchohol. Then I started comparing that to people.
People are vodka.
"You think you know the world Riley, but you sure don't know when to leave."
His words struck like a cold wind, but it didn't make me flinch. Why should I even try. This wasn't a movie. It was real life. Real life, there was no begging for someone to stay, because it makes you cheap. It makes you easier to manipulate.
"Oh hell, I know when to leave." I retort. He looked astonished as I stood up from the cracked ground.
"Right now."
I walk past him and he continues looking down at the ground. Like a street dog, all wary.
If he doesn't need me I don't need to hear his bullshit, I don't need to stay with the most hated person in the school, I don't need to sacrifice my opportunities for this dumbass.
I don't need to be beaten up, I don't want to be a target.
-
I stopped walking. Something in me made me pause, for a long time. What was I doing?
I shouldn't be mad at him. But I am. Why am I? Is it because all I ever did to him felt like I was giving something away? Every time at lunch when I went over to him his loneliness must've disappeared, or did it? Was I mad that
he didn't appreciate me enough?
Did I expect a whole load of gratitude from someone? Because if that was the case I wasn't sure how selfish I really was.
No.
I was mad because the fact that
People see me in the halls, I am the same victim, the same shit. They hate me for the same reason as they hate Morley.
No reason, but it must be very fun to single people out. To feel powerful. They pick on him because he was different; but now I am the same as him and different from the others. I became the same quality of a misfit that paints on the streets and throws beer at walls, wasting money and wasting himself as a person. I am friends with the child who's gripping on to society with a tiny thread, he's already cut off. I am barely hanging on with my hands turning red and shaking.