Weekends

5- Benevolence and Beatings- B

I saw Dallon walk into the school and completely avoid his normal meeting place with his friends. He went to the bathroom with his head down. I was kind of worried even though I'd only know him for a few days. I'd known of him for a while, and he always seemed so happy.

When he walked out of the bathroom, he saw me. I greeted him with a smile as I went up to him. "Hey, Brendon," he said, a smile finding its way to his normally happy face. "You said you liked listening to me play piano, and I usually go to the music room in the mornings and play. I was wondering if you'd like to come with me this morning," I wrote. His smile grew, and he nodded. I motioned for him to follow me. As I turned into the music room, Dallon kept walking, so I grabbed his hand and pulled him through the doorway.

Our hands were still attached when I was looking for a chair for him to sit in. I didn't realize until I saw him look down at our hands and smile. I quickly let go and pulled the nearest chair over to a spot beside the piano.

I was sort of nervous to play in front of him. I really wanted to impress him, so I sat down and played one of my original compositions. It wasn't written down. It was all in my head. Dallon's jaw was nearly to the floor by the time I reached the middle of the song. I felt my lips curl up into a smile as I continued playing.

My hair kept falling into my eyes, making it harder for me to see the keys, but that didn't matter. I flipped my hair out of my face and played my heart out. He seemed to like it when I flipped my hair. I saw him smile when I grew more passionate during the song.

Once it was over, he stood up and began clapping. My face turned a deep shade of crimson as he raved about how amazing the song was. "That was absolutely incredible, Brendon! Did you write that?" I nodded my head, laughing at how excited he was.

Then, Jack walked into the room. "Hey, Bren, I heard the p- why are you in here? You better not be here to bother him," he looked to Dallon whose smile had fallen. "Brendon wanted to play the piano for me," Dallon said in a softer voice than normal. Jack walked over to me. "Is he telling the truth?" I nodded and let my eyes drift over to Dallon's uncomfortable expression. "I'll just um go. That was really good, Brendon. I'll see you in chemistry la-" he was cut off by Jack's apology. "No, you don't have to leave. It's just that people like you aren't exactly nice to Brendon, and he's my friend. I want to protect him as much as possible," Jack said. Dallon nodded in understanding.

"I get that. I just- I heard him playing yesterday and told him that he was really good, so he wanted me to come in and watch this morning," Dallon explained. "Okay, I'll go. I didn't mean to intrude on you guys," Jack said, smirking at me and walking out of the room. "He seems nice," Dallon told me. I nodded.

"Okay, but you're seriously an incredible pianist. I can't even play a scale on a piano, let alone compose a full fucking song!" I laughed as he kept talking. "Do you want me to show you how to play," I wrote. "Sure," he grinned.

I moved his hands to the correct position, individually placing his fingers on the keys. "Follow what I do." Dallon nodded and watched my hands. I played a c chord and giggled as he failed to control his fingers. "Hey, don't laugh at me," he laughed with me. I played the beginning of Flight of the Bumblebee by Korsakov as fast as I could just to tease him.

He took his hands off the keys and put them over his face. "I give up," he whined, trying not to laugh through his fake complaints. Our fun moment was cut short by the school bell ringing, signaling that Dallon had to go to his first period. "Thanks for playing for me," he said, smiling at me and letting his hand touch my arm before he slung his backpack over his shoulder and left the room.

🎶🎶

Jack had a different lunch than I did, and Dallon sat with the other popular kids, not that I'd expect him to want to sit with me. I had to walk to lunch on my own, hoping that no one felt the need to corner me. Today, I wasn't so lucky.

"Baby Brendon, are you even going to eat today, or are you planning on throwing it up in the bathroom," Steve found a spot walking next to me. I tried to ignore him, but I knew that sooner or later he'd start bothering me. "Where are we sitting today, stupid," he grabbed me by the neck and led me to a table in the middle of the cafeteria. "I don't want to sit here." I heard some of them laugh from behind me.

"You think that's up to you," Jason asked as he and Steve forced me to sit between them. "Look at how small he is, Jase. I could fucking kill him with one blow to the back of his head," the group of bullies cackled as Steve and Jason scooted so close to me that we were all shoulder to shoulder.

"He's a little fag too."

"Yeah, little bitch over here sucks dicks all day long, don't you Brendon?"

"I wonder how much the little sissy could even take."

"Maybe we should see."

Steve tried to shove my head down so I'd be level with his crotch. I pushed away from him only to be met with Jason's elbow colliding with my chest. I let out a small pained squeak. It was hard for me to catch my breath after Jason had elbowed me for the fifth time. After I was clearly weakened by my chest being hit five times with the strength of a football player, Jason let me fall backwards off of the bench.

I felt something wet under me and realized that someone had dropped a slice of pizza right where I had fallen. Tears began falling from my eyes as I stood up and tried to rush into the bathrooms and away from the table of bullies.