The Road to Ruin and Rapture - Hayes Grier - (boyxboy)

Flashback

Hayes' POV

What am I thinking? Is it really worth this?

I looked away as they hit him again and again. His lip was busted open and blood was pouring out of his mouth.

Dammit. I want to stop this. But what am I, a freshman, going to do against Cameron, Matthew, and my brother, Nash.

I listened as they continuously beat Connor into to the bathroom floor. It made my knees weak.

"Hayes." My brother yelled. "Come here."

As I walked to him, I tried my hardest to ignore Connor.

"Kick him" Nash pointed to Connor who was now bleeding on the floor.

"I'm not going to do that." I couldn't help Connor, but I wasn't about to hurt him.

"Okay..." He nodded his head and crossed his arm in an 'I really hope you're joking' way. "Um. Why?"

"I-I just can't" I glanced my eyes over to Connor.

How could I let it get to this? How could I be watching my best friend get beaten up, and not be doing a thing about it? I'm such a terrible person.

"Let's go." Nash grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the bathroom.

His nails dug into my bicep like hot nails as he dragged me past Connor.

"Hayes." He moved his hands to my shoulder. "I'm trying to protect you, so when you don't help to 'cleanse' the school of twats like this, I have to wonder if you are worth it."

"Why are you doing this?" I moved his arm off of me. "Why are you torturing him? He was my best friend and now he's never going to speak to me again."

"Because, have you seen him?" He raised his eyebrows dramatically. "He isn't like us. He's the typical scrawny boy that can't do anything because he's too busy studying or whatever, and quite frankly, people like that deserve to struggle."

"No they don't!" I yelled at him.

The halls echoed with my voice followed by a few brief seconds of silence. Nash looked around to see if anyone was watching before grabbing the collar of my shirt.

"Listen. I'm trying to help you." He whispered with his face close to mine. His teeth were grinding together. "I care about you, really I do, but you are going to end up like your little friend in there if you don't listen to me." He pointed towards the bathroom door. "You can't associate with him anymore if you care about yourself or me at all."