Strings Attached

Chapter 2

"Heya, Castiel," Gabriel greets the boy as he comes home from school. Though they both go the Wayward High School, Gabriel takes the bus home and gets back much sooner. Castiel doesn't bother with the bus; he would rather walk the hour and a half than put up with twenty more minutes of teasing.

"Hi," Castiel mutters, then quickly runs to his room before anyone else can talk to him. He drops his backpack on the floor with a thud before launching himself onto bed, burying his face in his pillow.

He collects himself after a few minutes and takes off his sweatshirt, revealing his heavily scarred arms. They're all old scars; Castiel stopped cutting a long time ago. He realized that it wasn't helping anything; he's beyond help now. As it was, they were just getting in the way of his guitar playing as they rubbed against it.

Castiel wraps himself up in his arms, knowing he'll never get a hug from anyone but himself. He doesn't need anyone else. They'd just try to bring him down, as if it were possible to reach a lower low than he's at now.

The only thing he had going for him at the moment is his brain. He's a bright kid; he knows that. With only honors and AP classes, it may be part of his problem. He's such a nerd, even the nerds don't like him. That definitely doesn't make him popular, especially with the whole homophobic school knowing he's gay.

It's not his fault that they know. He never wanted to tell anyone. But one of the jocks came up to him one day, and Castiel made the mistake of trusting him. Well, that got a photo that ruined what little dignity he had left. Just one more thing to add to the incredibly long list of reasons why the popular and unpopular kids alike hate him.

"Castiel, we got pizza!" Lucifer calls through the door.

Castiel doesn't go out to eat it with them. Maybe he'll sneak out later that night to have a piece, but he doesn't want to deal with his family right now, or ever. He's tired of their sympathetic gaze on him all the time, wanting to help him when there's nothing they can do.

Michael and Lucifer are already in college, and have been since Castiel got to high school two years ago. Gabriel is known as the class clown, but that's no help for the class punching bag. Anna and Samandriel are too young to help even if they wanted to; they're only in middle school. That leaves Castiel not only a mess, but a lonely, helpless mess.

But he doesn't mind too much. He hates every moment of it, but maybe it's better. He's never learned people skills. Maybe it's best everyone just stay away from him, and he doesn't have to embarrass himself.