Short Stories

Bad News (Part 1)

Edited

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"Why is he bleeding?"
"Because he's an idiot."
"I didn't know that idiocy caused people to start spontaneously bleeding from the nose."
"I think it's a new phenomenon." Mina sighed as she watched Jack's feeble attempts to stop the blood that poured from his nose. Jack was always getting into fights these days. Mina glanced back at her companion Nate. The two of them made eye contact before they looked back at Jack.

"We should help him, shouldn't we?" Nate said.
"Yeah, Jack is our friend." Mina said and started off towards the bleeding boy.

Jack watched the conversation between his two friends out of the corner of his eye. He knew that his friends wanted to know why he was always in fights. Hell, he wanted to know why they picked fights with him in the first place. Jack grimaced as he dabbed the back of his hand against his nose. His eyes watered at the contact and he thought that it was quite possible those bastards had broken his nose. A hand popped into his line of vision and Jack looked up. Standing in front of him were Mina and Nate, they both had looks of exasperation on their faces, but it was underlined with concern.

"Get up Jack, we need to get you cleaned up," Mina said softly, concern lingered in her voice. She wriggled her fingers at him, an invitation to take her hand. Jack grasped her hand and allowed her to pull him up. Jack stumbled and felt the sturdiness of Nate's frame behind him, holding him up. Jack shot a grateful but painful smile at his friends and let them lead him back into the school building.

"You're an idiot Jack." Mina's voiced carried through the empty hallway.
"I am not!" Jack retorted, an affronted look crossed his face at Mina's words.
"Yeah, you kind of are..." Nate began, but once he caught the look on Jack's face he stopped and shrugged.

"This is the third time in the last fortnight that you've been beaten to a pulp!" Mina exclaimed, she jerked the two boys into the boy's locker room. She dragged them towards a bench close to the showers and set Nate off on the job of collecting as much tissue as possible. She then proceeded to wrestle Jack's shirt off his body.

"Sit still!" She commanded as she bent to examine the bruises that were beginning to form on Jack's torso.
"What's a fortnight?" Nate asked when he returned with his arms piled with tissue.
"Huh?" Jack and Mina both looked at him with confusion.
"A fortnight. You said it while you were chewing Jack out." Nate said and handed over the tissue to Mina. A look of realisation spread over Mina's face.
"Oh! A fortnight is two weeks. You take advanced English Nate, why don't you know that?" She told him and dumped the tissue onto the bench next to Jack.

Jack winced when Mina forcefully turned his head to the left. He released small whines as she dabbed at his cuts with wet tissue. Jack's eyes were locked on the row of lockers that stood behind Nate, he couldn't bear to look Nate in the eye because he knew what he would find there. Jack knew that when he looked at Nate he would see pain, he knew that he was hurting his friends, but he couldn't stop. They just made him so angry.

"Ow!" Jack shrieked and shoved Mina's hand away from his face.
"I didn't even touch you!" She exclaimed with a guilty look on her face.
"It still hurt." Jack grumbled and tentatively touched the sore spot just next to his mouth. Pain seared from the spot under his fingertips and he jerked his hand away from his face at the speed of light.
"Bugger," He whispered and dropped his head down.
"Bugger is right." Mina mumbled, "Nate help me get him up, look at the blood caking on his body. We need to clean him up." Jack winced again as the other two grabbed him under the armpits and hoisted him up into a standing position.
"Do you still have a spare shirt in your locker?" Mina said, both of Jack's friends completely ignoring him as they worked out how to make him look more presentable.