The Cat on the Balcony

12- Everything Used To Be So Simple

UNEDITED

It's been a couple weeks since I got hit in the face with the basketball. The bruise is mostly faded and the swelling is completely gone. Ever since I had my freak-out in Tyler's car, I've felt closer to him; a bit more open.

Every other day or so texts me or asks me how I'm doing, and I really appreciate it. Just knowing that he and the others care takes a huge weight off of me, but it's still there.

That's another thing, I haven't been alone at school once throughout the past few weeks; someone is always stuck to me like glue. They even follow me to the bathroom, which is a bit much.

There haven't been any more physical confrontations with Kellin, Ronnie, or Max. However, they have been saying hateful words or insults to me in passing, like as I'm walking down the hallway or going past a desk one of them is sitting in.

If they do it while either Jack or Brendon are with me, before I can even get one word out, they're spewing out ridiculous explicit insults. These are normally met with the yelling of a teacher or whomever they were insulting telling them to stay out of it before they get hurt too. This always made me panic, but Brendon and Jack always brushed them off. Those two were really a piece of work, but I'm thankful for them.

If it happens when Tyler is with me, he just glares at them while pushing me to go faster, and then insults them to me once we're out of hearing range. Patrick, well he gets a little jumpy around those three, but I don't blame him one bit. If they even come close to us, he grabs my wrist and tries to run down the hall away from them. He never says a word.

This was working great, until today. Jack was hung-over and decided to skip (Crazy night out with Alex Gaskarth, who also ditched today. Hmmm...) and to my misfortune I shared study hall with Kellin and Max.

I sat near the back in a big cluster of people, hoping to blend in a little bit. It's kind of hard to blend when you have neon purple hair though, I may need to re-think that. Kellin and Max walked in five minutes late, so they had to sit towards the front of the room.

However, the stupid teacher left. Mr. Perry claimed to have to go make copies, but everyone knew he was banging the sex ed teacher Mr. Fuentes, but he tells everyone to call him Mike. Both teachers were pretty cool; they had tattoos and piercings which I'm surprised the school let them, but on the other hand there was also Mr. Way with his fire truck red hair, so I guess the school is just more lax about those kinds of things. I'm not complaining.

Anyways; Mr. freaking Perry left the freaking room to go bang the sex ed teacher. After he left the room, Kellin and Max got out of their seats and walked over to me. I kept my head down, pretending to do my work. Maybe if I ignore them they'll go away...I had no such luck. They made two kids to my left move to where they had been previously sitting.

"So, Josh, where's your guard dog?" Max spoke. I said nothing.

"What, no witty comebacks today?"Kellin asked.

I continued to try to ignore them; I slid down in my seat a little bit and held my text-book closer to my face. Suddenly, fingers with black nail polish grabbed the top of my book and slammed it down on the desk. I jumped; hitting my legs on the underside of my desk. Max glared down at me.

"It will be a benefit for you, and your friends, if you listen to us right now, Dun."

"Ok." I said quietly. Kellin was the next to speak.

"Good boy. Now, we have a little proposition for you. All your little friends are gay or something of the sorts. They weren't very over-the top about it though, which is why we've mostly let them slide. But you, with your stupid pink or purple hair and googly eyes you always make at that small kid with the brown hair, have pushed things too far.