At ten to four on Friday the 16th of September, Daniel Smith leads his best friend Kyle Simmons through the thick woodland, following a path which neither of them knows. They chat happily away, although out of breath from the distance they have walked in such an intense heat from the sun which beats down on them. After a heard day of school that was full of tormenting for Kyle, the younger boy just wants to get away from everything for a while. When he told Dan this, Dan told him about the forest which he had been to many times in his life... He just hadn't followed this particular route before...
Kyle leans against a tree with one arm hanging at his side and the other supporting himself against the bark. A film of sweat covers his face and even more drips from his hair.
"Dan, please can we stop?" He pants, stuttering every so often. His speech impediment which forbids him from speaking fluently is one of his insecurities, and his bullies never let him hear the end of it. Comments are always being thrown his way and he's always the butt of many jokes. "I'm dying over here."
Dan turns to face his best friend. His body is equally as tired and sweaty. His blazer is tied around his waist and a smile settles on his face as he looks at Kyle. The two thirteen-year-olds had been in the first year of junior school and have been inseparable since, especially now since the pair have been best friends for the most part of each other's lives.
"Sure, Ky," he answers, the smile still warm on his face. A deep breath fills his lungs and refreshes him slightly as he trails back to his best friend and takes him over to a large oak tree. Neither of them knows really where about they are, but it's very pretty here. The once green leaves on the shrubbery are turning to a crisp orange, and the singing of the birds high up above them fill the air. There's nothing, however, that particularly makes it stick out besides from the large oak tree in the middle of the clearing, where Kyle now sits.
Dan joins him and takes a seat beside him, like he has done so many times in the past, and reaches into his school bag to retrieve a bottle of water which the pair so desperately need. The trip had been spontaneous, just to let Kyle get away from everyone and everything. This is just where they have ended up.
Thoughts of concern travel through Dan's mind as he watches Kyle, particularly focused on his hands. Trailing down from his forearm is a purple bruise.
"Kyle..." The older boy mumbles quietly, gently taking hold of Kyle's arm to inspect the blotches of colour. "Your arm... What happened?" The concern etches itself onto his face.
The other boy just shakes his head, pleads in his mind to dismiss the subject without another word. Why would Dan ever want to listen to his stupid stuttering voice anyway? "It doesn't matter." He says with a quiet voice and a downcast gaze, "It was just in PE." Dan frowns, not sure if that's the full story.
A burning hatred begins to swell in his chest, rising from the pit of Dan's stomach until it feels it may begin to bellow out of his mouth. Anger replaces the concern on his face and not even the cool breeze that blows through the air calms him down.
"Was it Samuel again?" He asks with a voice so powerful it's almost demanding. Samuel Catlin is the worse of the worse. He's the biggest bully in the school and for the last seven, possibly eight years, he has made Kyle's life Hell. The boy has never had the confidence to speak up and stand up for himself. The various bloody noses and blotchy bruises he came home with didn't even tempt him into fighting back.
Kyle's silence tells Dan the answer.
"I'm going to kill him one day, Kyle," Dan growls as his fists ball up tightly. "I will actually kill him."
"N-no, Dan..." Kyle stutters out as his stomach lurches. "Please. It's fine."
As infuriating as it is for Kyle's family and Dan, it's obvious that the boy has given up on the situation; he knows he's never going to be able to stop the bullying, and he looks defeated as he leans against the large tree. He doesn't look up to Dan at all, but he holds his hand over the purple bruise to hide it from the sights of his friend. The last thing he needs after today is this.
"No, Kyle!" Dan snaps, which makes Kyle flinch. The younger boy can feel his heart pick up and tears prickle his eyes. "It's not fine! It's not fine at all! Just look at yourself. You're covered in bruises and I'm not going to stand here and act like it's all fine and that it's the first time this has ever happened, okay?" Dan throws his arms in the air and doesn't notice the way that Kyle flinches again. "He can't keep getting away with this! You let him get away with breaking your bloody nose! He's been doing this since year four and it's evil. He's evil and he needs to stop. It's unfair to you." Kyle has tears running down his face and he buries himself into his sleeve, trying desperately to hide from everything- including Dan. When Dan turns around and notices this, his face softens. "Kyle..."
The other boy pulls his knees up to his chest, and guilt sits uncomfortably upon his shoulders as though somebody had placed a sack of bricks there. The bullying had gotten so much worse over the years, and Kyle is beginning to believe the sick lies they feed him- that he's stupid, worthless, disgusting. His optimistic thoughts had been brutally pulled away from him years ago- and with his parents shouting and arguing all the time and never paying Kyle any attention when he runs through the door and skips straight up the stairs and into his bedroom to hide his bloody face doesn't help.
They never notice, anyway. They never care.
"Dan..." Kyle's voice shakes and stutters, his eyes blurring with tears. He's trying so, so hard to sound semi-normal. But when have you ever been normal? He asks himself as he takes deep breaths. "Leave it. Please. I don't want to talk about him. I don't even want to think about him." Worry overtakes the boy's body as he becomes self-conscious about the bruises that litter his arms.
Dan feels all the fire and anger in him reduce to nothing more than a kindled fire; as much as he wants to rant on more about how he's going to destroy the boy when he seems him tomorrow, the look on Kyle's face makes him sick with worry. He wants to tell Kyle that he deserves the world- but, nonetheless, he complies with his friend's wishes, and keeps quiet.
They sit like this for a short while, both of them listening to the birds singing their sweet melodies. Kyle's thoughts are occupied by his bully now, fears of what he may do or say tomorrow. Dan's thoughts are occupied by guilt and anger that he's never stood up for Kyle. Every time he goes to, Kyle pulls him back and insists he'll only ever make it worse. Rumours would be spread about the pair- not that Dan cares because, at the end of the day, they both know they're not true.
As the clock ticks ever closer to six PM, a bright orange blanket covers the stunning blue of the sky as the sun begins to set over the tree tops. The refreshing, cool breezes had turned to chills, and both of the boys are getting increasingly cold.
"Dan, we should be going home, now. Our parents will want to know where we are," Kyle says quietly, rising to his feet. He knows his parents won't even realise he's not home.
He shrugs his blazer on and offers a hand to Dan, who had been writing in a notebook and doing homework until now. Dan accepts it and follows the same ritual with his own blazer.
They follow each other down the path that leads out of the forest and stop at the entrance, where they will both part ways.
"So, do you want to do something tomorrow?" Dan offers, putting his hands away into his pockets so the cold can't bite them. Kyle shrugs.
"Yeah can do if you want to. I'll call your house at nine tomorrow, yeah?" He asks, to which Dan nods. "Right... Well, see you tomorrow, then..."
"Hey, come here," Dan says, pulling the other boy closer and wrapping his arms around him. Kyle is taller than Dan, but he stills feels he should protect him. Kyle settles into the hug, burying his head into Dan's shoulder. God knows he needs it. "I care about you."
Dan smiles as he watches his friend walk off not ten minutes later with the mental prayer that he'll have a good night tonight.
