Experimenting

MHMM

"Hey, faggot!"

A voice came from behind me further down the hall. I kept facing forward but stopped walking on as my friend Alex turned around inquisitively.

"Are you talking to me?" He asked confused.

"Course I'm talking to you," Came the sneered reply, the voice catching up to us, "Are you stupid as well as being a gaytard?"

Alex turned back to look at me and upon seeing the murderous calm enshrouding my face, tried to smile and act unaffected by the blatant insults being hurled at him. "We better get going, don't want to miss Maths. C'mon-"

"Heard about you too, apparently you're some kind of kinky shit." The same voice cut in behind me.

By this point, my gaze was murderous but had been pinned to the wall. As he finished his sentence I whipped around to finally face him but said nothing, letting my eyes tell him everything he needed to know.

He took a step back but it seemed unintentional as if he hadn't meant to do it. Fear had been creeping into his facial expression but it soon turned straight back to arrogance, trying not to act affected and brushing it off. "There must be a reason you hang out with this faggot. Perhaps you're gay too, you really are kinky shit."

Okay, now I was so done. Done with his names, done with his sneering voice, done with his pathetic face so close to mine. I'd had a bad day and then some douche comes along almost before lunch and proves the words running in my mind earlier this morning right. Yes, this day can get worse. I was hungry, I was tired and I was in pain. Being poked at really wasn't improving my mood any.

Before he knew it was coming I shoved him, hard. He went stumbling back and ended up on the floor. It was only at the sound of laughter that I realised that we had an audience. People were watching us as they passed us by a few stopped and stared but most lingered only to whisper to their friends and then walk on. It didn't change the fact that almost a hallway worth of students had seen me humiliating my tormentor. They had been silent until now, probably wondering what I was going to do this time. People knew not to insult Adam. He was too kind, to innocent to be caught up in this stuff.

A small part of me was glad that people found the bullies fall funny, it made him that much more embarrassed. I didn't want to do this, at least not in front of Adam and without someone to keep me from going too far.

Leaning down so that only he could hear my rough whispers I said, "Do not insult me or my friends, you are so damn lucky that I don't have backup and that we're in school right now otherwise I would have your face pressed to the ground begging me to stop while I make you eat dirt. If you don't leave my loved ones alone then I can make exactly that happen," with that I stood up straight and finished with, "But I guess it's up to you."

I turned back to Adam and pleaded with my eyes for us to leave. He nodded back and gently grabbed my forearm. We wound our way through the corridors until we reached one of the fire exit doors. The alarm to signal someone opening it hadn't worked for as long as I had been at this school and it was used by the few students who sneaked out to smoke. Once outside we sat on the steps and just breathed for a minute.

Adam was sitting restlessly and kept on opening his mouth as if to say something. In the end, I started the conversation for him.

"I'm sorry Adam, really I am. I didn't mean to, I just...I just snapped I guess. I couldn't take what he was saying anymore. You don't deserve any of this. The bullying, the name calling. You're too nice a person for anyone to hate." I felt angry still, this time I was angry at myself.

"Echo, stop it okay. I understand that people like him get to you. It's my fault anyway, I'm the one who causes you to fight." His eyes are kind, nurturing. He doesn't blame me but that's what makes me mad at myself. He starts to blame himself instead.