Could this be love?

Chapter Twenty-Three

Andy’s point of view

“The ambulance is on its way.”  The guy said walking back to Ashley and I while sliding his phone into his suit’s pocket.  I nodded, unable to speak.  I wanted to thank him for staying and helping us even though he was probably going to be late for work because of it, but the words got stuck in my throat.  Ashley was still lying unconscious with his head in my lap, and I was grasping his hand like my life depended on it, silently pleading for him to wake up and be okay.

“What happened?”  The guy asked quietly, kneeling beside me.  I stayed silent for a moment.  I really didn’t want to tell him since he was a stranger and I have major trust issues, but I decided he deserved to know since he seemed to be legitimately concerned. 

“We get bullied a lot by almost everyone at school.  The ones who don’t bully us just tend to pretend we don’t exist. It’s not so bad because most of the bullying is just name-calling or whatever, and we can handle that.  In fact, most of the time we just think it’s funny because of how pathetic it is…” I trailed off, realising that I was rambling on, and the guy probably didn’t want to hear my life’s story.  I cleared my throat and continued, still not looking away from Ashley’s face.  “Point is, most of it is just name-calling, but there is a certain group of people who take the bullying too far.”

“You mean they physically bully you and your friend?”  The guy asked when I didn’t continue.

“Me and my friends.”  I corrected him quietly.  I saw the guy nod slowly out of the corner of my eye. 

“So, is that what happened to your friend then?” 

I nodded after a moment’s hesitation.  “My friends and I went to the office to report the guy who actually is the one who beats us.  We managed to get him suspended for a week.  I thought that it was going to be okay after that because when his suspension ended he just stuck to verbally bullying us.  I guess I was wrong though.  This is all my fault.”  My voice cracked at the end, a new wave of tears escaping my eyes and running down my cheeks.

“Why is that?”  The guy asked softly.

I paused for a moment to try and regain my composer.  “Because I was the one who went to the office and told on Justin.  If I had just left it alone and kept my fucking mouth shut, Ashley wouldn’t have gotten targeted by Justin to try and hurt me.”

“Why would this Justin go after Ashley to try and hurt you?  Is he your brother or something?"

I shook my head, glancing up at him.  “I just really care about him and Justin knows that.”

Thankfully, the guy just nodded, not pressuring me to elaborate.   We remained silent for a moment, staring down at Ashley.  I didn’t like the silence, it was awkward and made me feel uncomfortable, but I was too shy and too scared to break it.  Thankfully though, I didn’t have to.  The guy cleared his throat, sensing my awkwardness.

“My name is Daniel by the way.”

“Andy.”  I replied quietly.  “Uh, thanks for staying with us and helping.  You’re probably going to be late.”