Bruised Innocence

Chapter 1

*So, I finally have enough motivation to give it another go. Let's hope it stays till I am able to finish this.

Before you begin, I would like to warn you that this might have intense themes.*

"Look at the clouds, Matt!" I pointed to the sky.

Matt's eyes darted upwards and he kept staring at it incredulously, his long hair falling on his forehead like sea waves and his brown eyes shining with mirth.

He stood with one of the straps of his bag hung over his right shoulder, leaning on his left leg.

The upper two buttons of his shirt were open, the left edge of his shirt was falling over his trousers and the right edge was still tucked in.

"It looks like the dark cloud's army is going to attack on the white ones." I said enthusiastically.

"Only you, Arwin!" Matt shook his head and grinned at me. I grinned back and started staring back at the sky trying to decipher shapes in the clouds.

It has been only a month since Matt joined the school but he is always there for me. He finds my weird obsessions like clouds adorable and even accompanies me in them.

Last year was especially hard for me because my best friend, Rowan ditched me to fall in with the cooler people of the class after the fall.

It was lonely without him because he had been the only friend I had made at the school.

No one ever teaches us how to survive the loss of friendships and they definitely don't teach us what to do when your best friend joins others in bullying you.

I was bullied for not fitting in. I was a nerd and my parents worked in a confectionery factory.

It was only because of the scholarship that we were able to afford this school. We didn't have much but we got by.

So when Matt joined, I was apprehensive of him joining the others in bullying me but fortunately, we became friends and I couldn't have been luckier.

I used to be very self conscious before he came and it took every ounce of courage I possessed to even talk to someone new but he had made it so much better.

He even stood up to people calling me names. I knew I wasn't any of the things they said but having Matt by my side made it so much easier to survive.

He lived on the opposite side of the town across the Suwyn bridge where most of the well to do families lived and every morning he waited on his side of the bridge to walk with me to the school.

It took me about 15 minutes from my home to reach the bridge and another 10 minutes to the school but when he was around, time flew.

"It was an amazing day. We should go to the park again soon." Matt said breaking my chain of thoughts.

Mr. Amworth showed us the results of our Trigonometry test today and I got a B in it. Naturally, I was upset, so Matt offered to take me to the nearby amusement park, to cheer me up.

Initially I protested because I had the test for the scholarship the next day which was really important but when Matt insisted that I needed a break, I relented.

I had never been to the park before, so that might have been another thing to tip the scales.

The rides were actually pretty interesting and scary too especially the haunted house and the giant wheel where he had to literally drag me because I was scared like anything.

"Only if you promise you won't force me to the Haunted House." I replied.

"I promise" he grinned, flashing two crossed fingers. We had reached the bridge.

I shook my head at him and waved him goodbye. He passed me a finger salute and left.

I was crossing the bridge when suddenly it started to rain. Cursing myself for not bringing an umbrella, I started running towards the cabin at the other end of the bridge.

This cabin was a place to sit and wait for people who hiked in the adjoining woods. It was pentagonal in shape with five benches on it.

When I was younger, dad would take me on hikes in the woods which would end with a swim in the river.

As I grew up and my interests in books grew, dad started taking up more more shifts to provide for my pursuits. Education was expensive. He rarely had time.

After reaching the cabin, I realised that I was drenched from head to toe. I placed my bag on the bench next to me, looking around the open cabin.

"I am going to catch cold like this." I murmured and tried to shake off water from my hair. Suddenly I felt a prickling feeling on the back of my neck, like I was being watched .

I turned almost Immediately but there was nothing in the woods. The rain gathered momentum and it started to rain even more heavily.

"How am I going to reach home at this rate, Mom must be home already. I shouldn't have gone to the park." I sighed and took a deep calming breath.

I guess I would just have to wait the rain out.

Resisting the urge to pull out a textbook, I took time to admire the thick green foliage of the woods behind me.

The rain somehow made them look greener, the cathartic noise of rain falling on the trees brought a smile to my face.

The smell of mud and crushed leaves permeated the air and I felt strangely relaxed. So, I leaned on the bench and closed my eyes.

I was thinking about the chapters I needed to revise for the test tomorrow when I felt a sudden blow of air on my neck.

I tried to turn but someone clamped their hand over my mouth. I was lifted from the bench and dragged out of the cabin, into the woods.

I was thrashing my arms wildly and trying to shout but they wouldn't leave me. After some time, they let me down beneath a large tree.

I was feeling dizzy and I was only vaguely aware of large rain droplets falling down the tree on me.

My shirt on the back felt itchy with water and I could barely make out the blurred outline of someone standing over me, someone vaguely familiar.

*I have finally figured out where I want the story to go and have added a few more details. Do tell me what you think about it. Updated on 25/08/20*