Bullied

Bullied - Oneshot

Wally hated going to school. He hated coming home too. Learning was great. Homework was tolerable. But school itself, and all the stuff that came with it, Wally wished he could go without.

He had enjoyed school at first. Elementary was fantastic. He was smart and funny and energetic and got along with everybody, so it was no surprise he liked it.

Middle school brought problems. He'd grown, gotten older. He was still smart and funny and energetic and he could get along with anyone if they gave him the opportunity. But the thing is, they didn't. They didn't give him the opportunity to get along with them, because while those fundamental parts of him were the same, other things had changed.

Other guys talked about the cute girls in their classes while they changed in the locker room. Wally spent that time blushing furiously while he avoided looking at anyone else. Other guys flirted with girls, went on dates, and kept talking about who was prettiest and who they wanted to take to their first school dance. Wally joked and laughed along, pretending to like this girl or that one, but in reality he just picked a random girl who looked similar to a guy he was actually crushing on.

People noticed he was weird, that he didn't act the same way as the other guys and that he never went to any of the school dances with a date, despite the fact that he actually could have gotten one if he wanted. Because he was smart and funny and energetic and now he was starting to get attractive too, and any girl would have gone to the dance with him if he asked, but he didn't ask.

And so people got distant. His friends noticed that he stared too long at them, that his touches lingered, that he never did either of those things with the girls. They grew distant. They never said anything, because they wanted to be wrong. Wally was their friend and they didn't want to be right, but they thought they were so they drifted away.

Then High School arrived and nobody seemed to care about their old friend, Wally. Nobody cared if they were wrong. A good portion wanted to be right. They laughed and joked and made fun of him. The guys made kissing faces and the girls stayed as far away as they could. Wally upped his game with the flirting, but everyone seemed to know his secret, so they knew it was an act, all the flirting.

An act to cover up that he was gay.

Things got worse quickly. The first month of school people joked. Halfway through the year, they pulled pranks. At the end of freshman year, one guy pretended to flirt with Wally, the gullible redhead falling for it, while another secretly filmed it on his phone before sending it to the rest of the school.

Sophomore year started. Things were looking up because Robin and Kaldur and he were starting a team, with a new guy named Connor. Wally wished Roy had joined up, but he understood why he didn't. He got along well with the team, because he was smart and funny and energetic, and he made sure to flirt with M'gann always and Dick never. Nobody figured out his little secret.

That didn't make school any better. The first time Wally came home with a black eye, Wally waved it off as a gym accident. After the sixth time, the school called his parents to inform him of the rumors that Wally was gay, and that that was why he was being bullied. His parents didn't believe it at first, but Wally was tired of lying to the people closest to him. He admitted it, and that started a whole new ballgame.

Turns out, Rudolph West was a Homophobe. He couldn't stand the idea of a gay son. At first, he tried to rebuke it out of Wally, then ground it out of Wally. Then, maybe Wally would get the message if he took away his electronics.

Maybe Wally would finally get it when Rudy started beating it out of him. Maybe he would get it when Rudy pinned him to the wall with his forearms against Wally's neck, forcing him to repeat over and over, "I am not a faggot. I am not a faggot."