The Journal [boyxboy]

The Journal {11}

                Naturally I was nervous to see Frank today. I still have light bruises on my wrist from him grabbing me.

                But, as usual, the boy was nowhere in sight when I got to school. I asked the twins, but they hadn’t seen him either.

                I tried to push it out of my mind since he did this all the time. I was just praying that he would be in a better mood today. I don’t think I could’ve handled Frank again.

                He was on my mind all morning, and I found myself absentmindedly running my fingers over the bruises from time to time. I was doing that during study hall before lunch and Ms. Michaels asked me-

                “How did you get those bruises?”

                Her concerned voice had me looking up at her. I realized that I was, once again, tracing my fingers lightly over the bruises on my wrist.

                “I fell and hit my wrist,” I lied.

                “Nash, that looks like someone grabbed you,” she said, frowning deeply and inspecting the bruises. “Did somebody hurt you?”

                “No one hurt me,” I said, shifting uncomfortably. “I just fell yesterday and banged my wrist.”

                She sat down at the desk next to mine and looked into my eyes. “Nash, you can trust me. You can talk to me. I just want to help you. If someone is hurting you, you need to tell someone.”

                “No one is hurting me!” I said, working to keep my voice down so that the people around us wouldn’t hear me.

                “Those are in the shape of someone’s fingers,” she said, nodding towards my injured wrist.

                “No one hurt me,” I said, dropping my gaze to the bruises. “It was an accident. That’s all it was.”

                And it had been an accident. Frank would never intentionally hurt me. He was just angry and hadn’t realized how rough he was being. He wouldn’t do it again. It had only been an accident.

                “If you ever need to talk to me, you know you can Nash,” Ms. Michaels said sincerely. “Especially if someone is hurting you. Even if it’s someone at home, a friend, a bully…even a boyfriend or girlfriend.” Her tone was hinting at something.

                I narrowed my eyes at her suspiciously. “What do you mean?”

                “I’ve seen you and Francis Phillips around school, and I heard Damien and Callahan talking about you two dating one day. I know Francis is a good kid, but I also know he can have a temper sometimes,” she said carefully.

                “Francis would never hurt me,” I said furiously, but I could hear the desperation in my own voice. “Never. I told you that this was an accident! Let it drop already!”

                “Okay. But I’m here if you need to talk about anything. You can trust me, Nash,” she said gently, getting up and moving to her desk at the front of the room.

                The bell rang and I gathered my stuff, storming out of the room and heading to the cafeteria. I sat down at the table with the twins, and they looked at me in surprise.