I am yours. {#Wattys2016}

46.

11 years ago...

It was the end of the school day and I waited for Avi. He'd usually be out in 5 minutes. I waited 20 minutes for him but he didn't show. So I went to his house. Was I worried? Slightly. Avi always waited for me and I always waited for him. He would've told me if he wasn't going to wait for me. I decided to take myself to his house, to see if he was there.

He lived a decent distance away from school, so I walked all the way there. I got to his house and knocked on the door. His mother opened the door. "Hi Mrs Kaplan, is Avi home?" I asked politely.

"Oh Scott, I'm so glad your here. Come in" She instructed and I followed. "Avi's upstairs but he has me worried right now" She spoke, sparking my intrigue.

"What did he do?" I asked with pure curiosity.

"When he comes home, he usually says hello to me before going up to his room. Today, he basically rushed to his room." My eyes widened slightly. "I tried to go to see him, but he was unresponsive and I...I just don't know what to do" Her tone made me feel so much sympathy for her.

"Do you want me to go try and see what is going on with him?" I asked and she nodded.

I placed my backpack down and went up the many steps to his room. As I went further up, it felt as if the atmosphere had changed. It went from warm and inviting, to cold and eerie. It was a very uncomfortable mood change but I continued to go up anyway.

As I approached his door, I could hear sniffing. My heart already softened at the sound. I knocked on the door. "Avi?" I called out to him softly. "Avi it's me." I got no response. "I'm coming in" I twisted the door knob and let myself into his dark, chilly room.

A gust of cold air hit me and I walked in the room. I saw him laying on his bed in tears. Whimpering and trembling. "Oh my God, Avi" I rushed to his side. His hands were covering his face, so I couldn't see if there was problem. "What happened?" I asked. He didn't respond. "Avi. Please. Tell me" I pleaded.

He slowly moved his hands out of his face, revealing a purple and red bruise around his right eye. Purple bruises laced upon his arms. "They did it again, Scott" He cried out. Those fucking bullies always targeted Avi. They had no reasoning to. I wrapped him into a hug as his tears soaked the material on my t-shirt.

"I'll deal with them. Don't you worry" I promised. I couldn't allow them to always hurt him. Anytime they hurt him, he wouldn't come into school. Either due to fear or pain.

After 2 hours of staying at his house (comforting him), like I normally did, I took myself home. But I made a quick stop on my way.

The park.

Where all those bullies hung out after school. I was going to teach them not to hurt my best friend. I saw the first bully and  he saw me too. Before he could say anything, my fist. I left them no time to speak. Their words weren't worth being spoken. After I was done, they were bleeding from their noses. "If you come near Avi again, I will hurt you. More so than I've done already" I threatened as I continued my walk home.

No one would ever mess with Avi and that was a promise I intended on keeping.