Good Boy, Bad Girl

Being Right Sucks

I'm back! I doubt anyone particularly missed me, but I should be back to regular update schedule, although I'm going to have to cancel the two a day per weekend thing as it's simply undoable because I'm a procrastinating little shit. I'm also not sure whether or not I'll update tomorrow, as the next chapter will be probably the longest of them all, so I might work on it across the weekend instead of rushing it. Also, I'll warn you now, this chapter could be triggering for those who've been through abuse.

I never noticed how dark his skin tone was? Yeah, right. Nice try Mel, but he's the colour of a cloud.

Our little group of four are sat around our table in a bustling canteen. Nobody could hear us if they tried, but considering two of the people on this table are social outcasts I doubt we'd have any eavesdroppers. We all seem to have our respective seats now too - Angel on the right, me on her left, Mel opposite Angel and Taylor opposite me.

It's silent at our table, which is beyond unusual. Normally one of us would do something to break the tension, but Taylor's probably too awkward and I'm deep in thought, as are Angel and Mel.

It's been eleven days since we had our conversation on text about Taylor, and we've had several more since. They were all of the same general tone - debates about possibilities and how to painfully murder someone a foot taller than Angel. But we reached a "breakthrough", so to speak, yesterday. We had PE as our last lesson, and the lesson had been so horrific I'd been swept up in relief, so much so that I almost forgot to check Taylor for bruises. Apparently he was also in a forgetful mood, because whilst he was reasonably covered before (as in, he wore a vest under everything) he wasn't that day, and the first thing I saw when I glanced in his direction was a large, ugly, deep purple bruise.

The more I looked the more bruises appeared in a myriad of ugly shades of otherwise pretty colours - putrid yellows and purples, occasionally a flash of jade or cobalt. Even looking at it made me feel sick, and I glanced away, already resolving to immediately text Mel and Angel and tell them.

A snippet of our conversation:

Mel: Oh god, oh god it's actually true...

Bobby: It could be from other things... does he do wrestling?

Angel: More importantly, what's his address? I have a dickhead to beat to a pulp.

Mel: He doesn't do any extra-curricular actives or anything outside of school, he told me. And Angie, we all want to do that right now but it won't help anything. We need him to tell us honestly.

Angel: For proof? Don't you think we have enough of that?

Mel: Well, yes, but I want Taylor to honestly trust us enough to tell. We weren't exactly being particularly good people by prying into Taylor's business, although getting him out of that house could be a good thing. I want him to honestly trust me.

Bobby: Haven't we already betrayed his trust by doing this?

Mel: Yes... but even if it was a bad thing we did, it will have a good outcome of we can get Taylor out of that house. I just want him to forgive us and tell us what's really going on. I started this project to befriend him, and that involves him trusting me. And I'm not giving up now.

Angel: I don't know... people who've been through things like that don't trust easily.

Now we're here, and although all three of us agree that we need to talk to him, none of us know how to start. Hey Taylor, so we invaded your privacy and found out that you're probably being abused by your own family member. Mind telling us about that?