Saving Him

Chapter 7

My life was beginning to feel extremely repetitive. I woke up, went to school, got ignored by Marcus, received accusing stares from all my classmates, went home, and rested so that I could do it all again the next day.

The days kept droning on, and it felt like time wasn't even passing.

Why am I so worked up over him? It's been maybe a week since I've spoken to him, but it feels like a year.

I feel almost guilty about how he's living this awful life and I can't do anything about it.

Or..

No. I can't just call the cops and say there's a man abusing my friend. Or, my acquaintance now, I guess. Would he hate me even more? Or be grateful? I need to speak to him.

On my way to school that day, Marcus wasn't sitting in front of his house, yet again.

Ever since I started talking to Marcus, I was beginning to become less and less popular at school. Nobody greeted me on my way in. Nobody offered to carry anything for me or help me with my homework. Nobody stands around me all the time blabbering about something uninteresting.

It's kind of nice, but I don't have any real friends to fall back on. It gets really lonely.

Marcus wasn't there on Monday.

Or Tuesday.

Or Wednesday.

He doesn't just ditch like this. He didn't have good grades, or good behavior, or good friends, but he definitely had good attendance. I guess school was a lot better than home for him.

I told myself if he wasn't here today, I would go to his house after school. I need to make sure he's alright.

Sure enough, he wasn't there.

I was in panic mode all day on Thursday. As soon as the bell rang, I walked as fast as I could and reached Marcus' house.

I was extremely hesitant, but I knocked on the door. Once again, it hadn't occurred to me that his father could open the door.

There was no sound. As if nobody was home, but there were two cars parked in the driveway.

I knocked twice more, but there was no response.

I decided to go around back and knock on his window. His room was in the back right corner of the house.

But first I had to jump the fence.

After a total of six attempts, I got over it and walked swiftly to Marcus' window and knocked on it.

I saw the curtain move, but it didn't open.

Just when I was about to yell for him, I heard a screen door slam.

I looked to my right and his father was standing there, glaring at me.

"What do you think you're doing back here? This here's trespassing! You've been causing way too much trouble lately!" He started towards me.

I successfully got over the fence before he could get to me. I kept screaming Marcus' name, hoping he was near and could hear me.

"Marcus! Help me!" I could hear the father yelling and getting closer, he's probably walking through the house.

Then, a curtain opened. It was him.

I was happy, but it quickly changed when I saw his yellowing, swollen face covered with bruises and dried blood.

That's it.

He yelled again. "Girl, you had better leave!"

"Let Marcus go!" I screamed. "If you don't, I'm gonna call the cops and you'll be put away for years, you drunken monster!" It was difficult to get those words out, I was crying too hard.