settle down // josh dun {2}

f o u r

--Declan's P.O.V--

"You want to be taken seriously? You want to be known as a boy, but yet, every time I criticize you all you do is cry," Parker remarked as we stood in the middle of the boys' bathroom, both late to class.

I didn't want to cry. I wish that every time I was under stress that I didn't cry, but I always did. I couldn't help it.

I tried to force myself to hold my tears in as my grip tightened on the edge of the sink, but I was unsuccessful.

"I cry because you make me feel like shit, Parker and just because I cry doesn't mean that I'm not a boy," I responded. "I'm as much as a boy as you are."

"See, that's the point, Declan. You believe that you're a boy, but no one else would if they knew your little secret. You are in the boy's bathroom. All I have to do is make a comment about little Taylor Sophia and you won't be allowed in here ever again. Do you really want that?"

I tried to hold back a sob as my palms pressed down against the sink. "Why do you keep threatening me? I never did anything to you."

"You've done more to me than you think, Declan Gray," Parker told me.

My hands tightened on the edge of the white sink, my head bent down as I mumbled a few words under my breath. "It isn't my fault that you're gay, Parker."

Since my head was bent down and I wasn't looking in the mirror, I didn't see him ambush me from behind. Before I could even comprehend what was happening, my head was roughly shoved into the sink and the facet was turned on with the drain pulled up.

Cold water ran across my entire head and into my mouth, making me cough and sputter as Parker's grip tightened on the back of my head.

I was small for my age. I wasn't very strong either, so I didn't even have enough strength to fight back, which Parker obviously knew.

"I am not gay," he hissed my ear. "I'm not like you."

Parker's tone implied that I was a disgrace to the world; a burden. That was something that I already understood.

The water level hadn't reached my face yet where I was submerged, but of course, Parker Axton shoved my head down. Water filled my nose and mouth, causing my lungs to burn. He pulled me up by my hair.

"I'm sorry," I coughed, spitting out water. "Parker, please, just let me go."

Fortunately, the captain of the hockey team let go of my head, allowing me to breath without inhaling water into my lungs.

He grabbed the back of my varsity jacket, shoving me towards the paper towel dispenser. "Dry yourself off before you go back to class."

The moment the door shut behind Parker Axton, a sob that shook my whole body escaped my lungs. My hands shook as I pulled multiple brown paper towels out of the machine, desperately trying to dry my hair off before it soaked my entire back.

I didn't ask to be like this. I didn't ask for this.

Why was I treated like a mistake? Why was I treated terribly for something I couldn't control? It wasn't my fault that I wasn't born in a boy's body. It wasn't my fault.