Wrong dose

Chapter 5 (Jake)

Jake slowly opened the door to the boys' locker rooms, a sense of foreboding settling in his stomach. Despite Skylar's reassurances, he was sure Megan would try to get revenge for being humiliated like that during lunch. And what better way to get it than to gang up on the one who couldn't defend himself, the weak, crippled boy. Jake himself. It wasn't that Jake was not grateful Skylar had defended him. He was, he really was. But now the populars had their attention on Skylar, and that was far from good.

The sharp tang of body odor invaded Jake's nostrils and the loud voices hit him as he entered the locker room. Jake looked around cautiously before heading into a corner to change. Though he couldn't see anyone outright staring at him, Jake couldn't shake off the feeling that he was being watched. His stomach clenched with worry. He changed into his P.E. uniform more slowly than usual, observing boys trickle out of the locker room in small groups talking loudly.

Even as the locker room slowly emptied out, the feeling remained. Jake decided to hurry. Despite the fact that he hated P.E., he wanted to leave the room as soon as possible and get to the gym, where there would be other students and supervision. The locker room was completely empty now, so why did he still feel like something was wrong? Jake knew he had to get out as soon as possible. He fumbled with his shoelaces and practically ran towards the door.

He was about to stretch his hand out towards the handle when something grabbed his ankle. Jake yelped in surprise and crashed unceremoniously to the ground. Just as he twisted to get up, a weight fell on his shoulders, causing him to fall back down.

"Help!" shouted Jake, panicking, "Someone he--" A hand slapped over his mouth, muffling his voice. Jake's heart went into overdrive. He twisted and writhed furiously, managing to flip onto his back.

"Hey, cripple," sneered Ben.

Jake knew he was done for anyways, so what did he have to lose?

"C-come to finish what you st-started this morning?" stuttered Jake defiantly.

Ben roared with laughter. He leered at him mockingly. "Oh, so now the cripple talks?" he taunted. "But can the cripple fight?"

Ben yanked Jake up by a sleeve and pinned him against the locker room door. "Your thug of a friend isn't here to defend you now, is she?" Ben asked with a cruel glint in his eyes. "Why don't we continue from where we left off in the morning?" He rammed his foot into Jake's kneecap. Jake yelled in pain, crumpling to the floor. He was powerless and Ben knew it.

He kicked Jake's rib once, twice, three times. Jake couldn't breathe. Four, five, six times. He gasped for air. Seven, eight, nine, ten times. A whimper escaped from Jake's lips. Ben's smile of satisfaction was close to maniacal.

"Already in pain?" laughed Ben, "But I've barely started!"

He slammed his foot down on Jake's shoulder. A nasty crack echoed through the air and Jake yelled again.

How long would this go on?

A punch in the stomach soon followed. Jake curled up into a fetal position on the floor, his stomach pulsing with pain, his eyes watering with unshed tears of pain.

A punch sailed through the air and hit him square in the face. Any resistance he might have tried to put up before crumbled down. The pain was unbearable.

"S..St..Stop....", groaned Jake, his tears mixing with the blood that was flowing out of his nose.

"I don't think so!" sang Ben cruelly. "Now be quiet."

He punched Jake in the mouth.

Kicked his other shoulder.

Grabbed him from the ground and then slammed him down again.

Jake saw stars. He'd been bullied and beat up before but this time was by far the worst. It occured through him through a haze of pain that Ben could kill him.

Ben jumped on his hand. There was another cracking sound.

Then came a punch on the jaw.

Then a punch in the eye.

Jake's screams of pain had subsided to low, broken moans.

After a while his entire body was hurting so much he couldn't even feel the blows that rained down on him anymore.

Was this ever going to stop?

After what seemed like an eternity, it stopped. Through his swollen eyes Jake saw Ben lean over him with a triumphant expression twisting his features.

"If you tell anyone who did this, I'll make sure to actually break a few ribs. Oh, and how about a strong concussion while we're at it?", Ben hissed threateningly. "When class is over I don't want to see you here. Go to the nurse or something. But if I find out you told anyone..." The menacing sentence hung unfinished in the air. The threat was more than unsubtle, yet even with his pain-muddled mind, Jake had no doubt he would go through with it.

"Now move," hissed Ben, kicking him in the temple one last time.

Jake's vision flickered in and out.

He was going to die here, in the locker room because of bullying. When he hadn't done anything. He was going to die all alone. When the other students would come back from class they would find him laying dead in a puddle of his own blood with half his bones broken. There would be a funeral. But then he would be forgotten. He'd become a story his classmates would tell in several years when they were in college. They would remember that poor crippled boy who had died in the locker rooms. The one who had done it had never been punished.

Then Jake thought about Skylar. Probably his only friend in his entire life. Why should a friendship that had begun just that morning, just a few hours ago, end so soon? Would Skylar have defended him for nothing?

No. That wouldn't be fair to her.

Besides, he'd promised to lend her his book tomorrow.

Jake almost screamed in pain again as he used his sheer willpower to pull himself up. Everything hurt. Everything felt broken.

But he had to get out of the locker room as fast as possible. He didn't even know how much time had passed since the beginning of class. P.E. might almost be over for all he knew, and if he was still there when they came back...Ben had made the consequences of that more than clear.

Maybe it was the thought of all the other things Ben would do to him, or maybe it was his thoughts of his newly formed friendship with Skylar that fueled Jake's steps. In the years that would come, when Jake looked back to that moment, he would never quite figure out how he had made it to the nurse's office.

He wouldn't have needed the look of horror the nurse gave him to know that he looked like a wreck. His nose was still bleeding profusely, he had a black eye, he was limping...Every part of his body hurt like someone had slammed a basball bat on it. Which, to be quite honest, wasn't extremely far from the truth.

And since the nurse must not have been competent enough to be certain of how badly Jake had been injured, he soon found himself in the back of an ambulance, being wheeled away to the local hospital.

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Ok first of all, thanks so much for almost 20 votes and over 100 reads!!! I wasnt expecting to get so many reads so quickly! :D

Also, I would rly appreciate comments about my story: what do you like, what would u change? I would really like some criticism so that i know what to make better in the future.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter!!! Vote and comment!!

PS. There's going to be a lot more action in the next few chapters so don't worry, i know these first few ones weren't that interesting. That was just because I wanted to write about jake and skylar's daily lives first.

ok byeee!