Please, Call Me Lara Webber. (GirlxGirl)

"Who's Lara Webber?"

"Jesus." I winced applying pressure to my busted lip. I scrambled around blindly in the changing room trying to find a way out. I couldn't see a thing. I felt my chest rise and fall with speed and anxiety began to creep up on me. I was trapped.

"L-listen. Please just let me go. I haven't done anything!" I pleaded with my attackers, cloaked in darkness but I could hear their sniggers, it didn't take a genius to figure out it was some of the girls from sports class.

"Sloane the lezzie." One spat angrily. "I bet you love watching us change."

"No!" I cried, "Please, leave me alone!"

I was too dazed to try and think of an escape route, I never thought I would be a victim of bullying, I knew it happened. Of course, it did. I didn't understand, how could they have found out?

I scrunched myself up into a ball and wrapped my arms around my knees praying it would all be over. I could feel the hot stream of tears sting my cut lip and my eyelashes stick together. I braced myself for whatever was coming.

Ping. I was blinded, the industrial white glow of the changing room lights blinded me, the gates of some sort of heaven filled with hockey sticks and stale socks had opened and I squinted up to peer at whoever was in front of me.

"Shit! C'mon Leanne!" A girl with a brown ponytail hissed. Three blurry figures darted out through the back door and suddenly I felt like I could breathe again. I released my knees and began sobbing. I couldn't control it. The dams had opened. I now knew what it really felt like to be truly afraid.

***

"Welcome! Lads, lasses and everyone in between. This community hall for the next eight weeks will be your safe haven. Everything you say here is forever bound here, everyone is here for the same reason as you. Do not be afraid. Do not hold back." Jaye said with a false tone of comfort to his voice, he'd practiced this speech a hundred times, maybe more. He had the correct hand motions for each part, he was like a well-rehearsed performer.

I sat, slouched in my too-small chair, with a paper stitch in my lip and branch's worth of leaflets. I set them down on the floor beside me and began fiddling nervously with the loose threads on my sweater.

"Why don't we all introduce ourselves? Tell each other why we are here. I'm Jaye as you all know. I'm your team leader in our 'Hope and healing for LGBT+ Teens' programme. I love mountain biking and my two cats, Biscuits and Robby." Jaye said with a smile and a quick, forced laugh. He gestured to the person in the too-small seat beside him.

They had short, unruly hair, thick eyebrows and dark eyes. They had a short, chubby frame but their clothes fitted them well; a t-shirt with cactus on it and a pair of black jeans. They glared anxiously at Jaye before clearing their throat.

"I'm Ash. He/him pronouns, please. I like...spaghetti and listening to music. I'm here-" He stopped and glanced uncertainly around the room as if he was looking for someone he might offend "I'm here because I'm being bullied by the small brained, pigheaded teenagers from my high school."

A small amount of laughter escaped into the air and it almost felt a little less tense. Ash looked content with his introduction and looked on at the person beside him.

It took nearly twenty minutes to go around the full circle. We had Ash, David, Lauren, Sydney, Nicki, Hellene, Imar, Katrina, Ralph, Wesley and me.

Jaye was half way into another spiel about feeling comfortable to talk about anything here in the community hall, safe haven for queer teens and 'all those in between' (conveniently located opposite of the local garage where homophobic teenagers like to litter around, drink cheap alcohol and scream at passer-byers) when Hellene, a particularly chatty member of the gang decided she needed to address the missing member.