Survival Of The Fittest

Chapter 1

It started off as a calm Monday morning. Classes didn't start for another hour but Kane was in early to finish an important essay, he'd never been an ideal student but couldn't risk failing this class. He hurried down the corridors, his quick footsteps were gunshots against the utter silence of the rest of the school.

Although he's expected nobody to be around, already groups of students were forming and he sighed slightly at the prospect of reaching the library to find it crowded.

As he approached the cafeteria, he'd have to walk through it in order to reach the library, shouts and jeering reached his ears. It kept getting louder until he pushed open the double doors to find a crowd of people blocking the entrance. Pushing his way through, he peered over the heads of the onlookers to see three people in the middle of the circle. Two guys, both of which he knew personally, stood over a boy shaking on the floor. His pastel-pink hair stood out like a rainbow in a storm and so did the scarlet blood trickling down his pale skin and staining his flannel shirt, his nose at a jaunted angle and tears mingling with the red liquid on his lips. Kane wasn't sure if his jeans were ripped from this encounter, or whether it was intentional, and he couldn't see any other prominent injuries from his vantage point.

He could hear perfectly fine however, and felt his heart race in fury at the words being said.
"Faggot"
"Attention seeking emo"
"Freak"
"Go snog your boyfriend"
"Makeup? Fucking gay"
"P-please... S-stop" The boy on the floor let out another cry and a boot collided with his face, the plea sounding so desperate and broken that Kane found himself pushing past the others into the middle of the gathered crowd, his body moving on autopilot.
"Finn, lay off you dick. People like you are the reason there are so many teen suicides. He's not done shit to you, so how about you go fuck over someone else who can actually fight back." The tallest boy, Finn, opened his mouth to argue and probably throw insults at Kane himself, but the latter simply crouched down next to the kid on the floor and wiped the blood as best he could from his face using his sleeve. "We're leaving, come on," he helped the other to stand and began to lead him away from the group before saying to Finn "Won't even try to stop me? Fucking pathetic. Can't even be assed to try because you know you'll fail. You're disgusting, I hope to God I'm there the day you stop breathing so I can wave you off to hell." He spat the words like needles, his eyes feeling dirty for even looking at him, and saw rage burn in the others glare. Of course, Finn could do nothing about it and could only watch as Kane lead his victim away.

"What's your name?" Kane looked at the wounded boy sitting next to him, familiarity tugging at the back of his mind but unable to work out where he'd seen him before.
"K-Kyle..." He was shaking uncontrollably and Kane looked at him, biting his lip nervously. It hadn't drawn his attention before, but Kyle had a faint Australian accent, and it made his heart ache just that little bit more. He was so innocent, he didn't deserve this. Kane watched the door to the nurse's office, desperately hoping for it to open so that Kyle could go get help.

He didn't usually get involved in other people's problems, but aside from already having a personal vendetta against Finn he would never have just left Kyle there to bleed out on the floor.
"Y-you're Kane right?"
"Yeah, how'd you know?"
"I'm in your class"
"Oh... Okay then" Silence fell on the two of them once again, and Kane couldn't help feeling relief as the nurse's door swung open and the older woman stuck her head out, eyes widening as she saw the blood smeared across Kyle's face despite Kane's efforts to wipe it off with his sleeves, which were now also dyed scarlet and probably ruined.
"Oh my god, come in come in, sit down. You should have told me it was an emergency" The middle-aged woman disappeared into her small room and began digging in the cupboards for various things.

Kane stood up to leave, Kyle was in safe hands now, but felt a cold hand clutch his own and looked back to see Kyle clutching his hand like a lifeline.
"S-stay with me. Please?" Kane studied the other's face, the tear tracks down his cheeks and desperate look in his eyes, and found himself nodding with faked reluctance.
"Okay, sure, just come on. You need to get fixed up"

The nurse gently dabbed at the blood still streaming from Kyle's nose with an antiseptic wipe.
"I hate to say it but I think this is broken, there's nothing I can do for you here." Kyle let out a small whimper of pain, but she went on without giving him a second glance. "If you can get someone to drive you, you can go to the hospital and get it fixed up."
"B-but I don't have my license" Kyle's voice was small, nervous, and Kane looked at him with slight surprise. Kyle wasn't exactly stupid, so had he just never taken a test? Because Kane couldn't imagine him failing one out of inability.
"I'll take him" The words left his mouth without him even thinking about it, and although he sounded nonchalant there were ulterior motives to taking him, the main one being that he'd be able to make sure he was okay. Kyle looked at him with surprise, but the nurse was already bustling them out the door and shoving a large box of tissues with them, clearly frustrated at having spent the last twenty minutes wiping Kyle's nose for him.
"Thank you Kane." And for the first time that day, Kane saw a small smile on the other's features.

The entire drive to the hospital, Kyle let out small whimpering noises and Kane found his gaze sliding over to the other every couple of seconds, whilst also trying to drive.
"It'll be okay Kyle, I promise. It might not even be that bad"
"I-it hurts Kane"
"I know, I'm sorry I got there too late"
"It's fine. I'm just grateful you got there at all." Kyle's voice was small, and Kane saw in his pocket a pair of broken glasses. Kane knew his nose was probably broken, so he couldn't wear his glasses, and the whole thing must be being made worse because he couldn't see clearly, which explained the tension in his shoulders.

In attempt to distract Kyle from what must be a lot more pain than he was letting on, Kane said
"So why do they hate you so much anyway?"
"I don't know..." Kyle shrugged "they make fun of me for being gay, or bi, or... Well I'm not really sure what my sexuality is but they make fun of that. And my hair, they make fun of me for dyeing it even though it's naturally pink. I think it might just be a way for them to deal with their own issues." He sighed slightly, and went from looking out the window to meeting Kane's eyes "Thanks... For everything" his gaze flickered away once again "you're the first person to ever help me... So thanks"
"It's completely alright, I wasn't just gonna leave you there. Dick move much" Kane gave him a small smile, hoping to see Kyle's once again. It didn't appear.

Kane found himself struggling to understand. Why did nobody help Kyle? What had he ever done to deserve being abandoned by everyone? Studying the others face, he felt pain ripple through him for Kyle, but didn't have time to linger on it before they reached the hospital, where as he pulled up he heard a cry of pain from the pastel-haired male and could only watch as he pushed his way out the car, and fell to the ground.