Another Day, Another Door

Chapter 8

Patrick's free periods were usually pretty lonely. He was too shy to talk to Louisa and Dan had class so he usually sat by himself outside. But since today was one of the last cool days of November he thought he'd take a walk around the outside of school.

He took in the smell of the rain that had just stopped falling and felt a strange sense of peace wash over him. But the feeling didn't last long. 

"How's our virgin doing?" he heard a familiar voice from behind him. Patrick didn't even turn around, he just quickly started to walk away. 

"Hold on there," Lyle said as he grabbed Patrick's backpack. "We just want to talk to you. Right guys?" The four others standing around Patrick nodded.

"What do you want?" Patrick asked nervously. Lyle cackled and put an arm around Patrick. "You know that cute little chick, what's her name? Lucy? Louise?"

"Louisa?" Patrick said in a slightly defensive tone. "That's the one!" Lyle lit up. "You wouldn't happen to know where she'd be after school would you?"

Patrick shrugged Lyle's arm off of his shoulder and took a few steps back. "No. And I wouldn't tell you if I did," Patrick tried to sound confident. He didn't know what Lyle wanted with Louisa but he knew the intentions weren't good. 

Lyle shook his head, "Stumpy, I thought you were smarter than this. I don't want to make you have to tell me. So, one more time...where's she going to be?"

Honestly, Patrick did know where she was going to be. It was Tuesday, which meant she had art club after school.

"Leave her alone," Patrick said angrily. Lyle immediately backhanded him across the face. "Mind changing your answer?" he asked.

"Bite me," Patrick found a little courage and spit in Lyle's face. He instantly regretted it as he got slammed into the school's brick wall. 

"I tried being nice," Lyle said as he pinned Patrick against the wall with one hand. "I really tried, but you had to go and be a hero. Well, here's how we treat heroes around here." Lyle took a switchblade out of his pocket and held it up to Patrick's throat.

All of a sudden Lyle felt an extremely sharp pain as he was being pulled off of Patrick by the hair. 

Dan had come at him out of nowhere and he was furious. Even Patrick got a little frightened at the look on his friend's face.

Dan was like a raging bull as he punched Lyle to the ground. 

Immediately two of the other four in Lyle's group jumped on top of him. He harshly threw one of them onto the ground and rammed the other one into the building. Patrick could've sworn he heard a cracking noise when that happened. The boy that had been slammed against the building collapsed and lied unconscious.

"Dan, stop!" Patrick pleaded. But Dan couldn't hear him over the shouting and blind rage he had. The others in the group merely ran away in fright leaving only Lyle and the other boy who Dan threw on the ground.

Dan kicked the breath out of the other before he turned to Lyle. He got a tight grip around Lyle's collar and stood him up just to punch him back down again. 

"Dan! He's had enough!" Patrick said frantically but Dan blocked him out.

As Lyle scrambled to get away, Dan shoved him back down, one knee on Lyle's chest. "If you touch him again I swear to God I will kill you," Dan said fiercely as he threw punch after punch at Lyle. 

"Dan!" Patrick tried pulling his friend off. But Dan shoved him back, accidentally knocking Patrick down. "Stay out of this Patrick!"

Lyle's face was covered in blood and bruises and he was almost unrecognizable. Yet Dan continued to beat him until he became unconscious. Suddenly Patrick saw a teacher running towards them.

"Hey! Get off of him! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" the teacher yelled as he ran up to Dan. He tried pulling Dan off but Dan just pushed him away. "I said stay out of this Patrick!" He was so caught up in defending his friend that he wasn't aware he was shoving a teacher. 

"Reynolds!" the teacher yelled angrily. "What?!" Dan looked up at the teacher.

He suddenly became aware of what he was doing when he saw the very angered look on the teacher's face, it was almost as red as the blood on Dan's fists.

"You go get the school nurse," the teacher pointed to Patrick. Patrick, still in shock, ran off towards the nurse's office.

The teacher then took out his phone and dialed 911. He explained the situation as he pulled a shocked Dan off of Lyle. 

Dan looked down at his bloodied hands and still couldn't believe what he had just done.