Christmas with the bad boy

Chapter 9

Jason and Delia looked around the college to look for Damien.

"Hi Damien. Meet us at lunch by the main gates." "Why bother?" "Just do it." "I'm a lone bad boy. You can't tell me what to do." Delia and Jason walked past them until Delia was suddenly taken by one of the boys. "Ow. Let me go." "Dude. Let her go." "You're like her. A nerd." "Just because she wears glasses, it doesn't mean that she's a nerd. They're for people who have vision trouble. I have trouble reading from the board and from paper. That's why I need them. Other than that I'm fine." "Deal with it. Now," he then looked at Delia. "What to do with you?" She didn't feel safe. "Let her go Roy." "Fine then." He pushed her towards Damien and he caught her. "Don't go near her again." "Or what?" "You don't want to know."

At lunch, Delia and Jason were sat at a table when they saw Damien talking to somebody. "Don't worry if he doesn't sit with us. He usually does it when he's been upset." "Was he upset last night?" "Yeah. He just misses his mum." "How long has she been gone?" "Since the day he was born." "Poor thing." "Yeah. He doesn't like talking about it, but if he feels like opening up, he will. Are you still feeling fine? After what happened earlier?" "Yeah. I'm fine. How are you?" "Better. I'll call my parents when I get to Damien's." "Are you sure they're fine with you staying with him?" "Yeah. They understand that I can't stay there for a while."

When the time came before it was time to leave, Damien was staring at Delia and she continued to write down what the teacher told her and the other students to write. The bell rang and the students stood up and ran out of the room. Delia and Damien didn't run and walked out of the room and found Jason waiting for them.

"Hi guys." "Hi Jason." "I'm going to call my parents when we get to your house." "Fine."

When Jason, Delia and Damien were at the house, they went to the living room and put their bags down. "Thanks for helping me earlier Damien. Did you know them?" "Yeah, sadly. He's in his own gang. I hang out with him sometimes when I feel like I need someone to talk to."

Damien switched the television on and flicked through the channels and found that there was nothing worth watching on, so he switched the television off and everyone remained silent. Damien then felt tears beginning to prick in the corners of his eyes. He quickly wiped them away before his friends noticed. Delia turned to face him and saw tears fall down his cheeks. She took his right hand and squeezed it reassuringly. "You'll be fine." He smiled and thanked her.

After a few hours, Damien and his father were in bed and his father woke up for no reason. He didn't have a bad dream and he didn't hear Damien. He got out of bed and checked on him. He was fast asleep and he moved to lay on his back while his right arm was resting on top of the cover over his stomach. He carefully approached his son and stood next to him as he then took his son's arm, carefully lifted it up and put his arm back under the cover. "Stay warm son. I need you." He smiled sadly and suddenly saw a tear fall from the right eye of his son.

Damien jolted awake at seven o'clock in the morning. He stretched, got out of bed and walked to his fathers room to find that he was still asleep. He then had a shower, got dressed and went downstairs and had some breakfast.

"Hi son." "Hi dad." "You slept well last night." "Good." "But I saw a tear fall from your eye. Can you tell me why?" "It was just a dream." "Do you want to talk about it?" "Not right now. Jason isn't one hundred percent so I think he's staying here today." "Does he need me to help?" "No. He'll be fine. He was sick."

Damien left and met with Delia at the gates. "Hey." "Hi Damien." "Are you ready for our lessons today?" "Yeah. Where's Jason?" "At my house. Sick." "I'll go home with you and check on him." "I'm sure he'd like that."

Damien was stressed in his English class. He kept misspelling words and he got frustrated. His teacher told him to get some air for a few minutes and when he returned five minutes later, he felt better, but his spelling was still bad. "Damien, a word." He stood up and followed his teacher outside of the room. "What's wrong?" He gently asked. "I can't spell right." Delia looked at him and felt sorry for him. He grew up without a mother, his father bringing him up and also with his father still recovering from the car accident. He went through enough.

Delia turned back to her work when she saw Damien and the teacher faced the door and entered the room again. "What are you finding hard to spell?" He asked as he peered at his work. He told him what word it was and he told him calmly. "Why don't you tell me what words you struggle to spell and I'll write them down?" He thanked him as he walked to his desk while he continued to work. The teacher then returned to his desk and squatted down. "Right then. Tell me what you find difficult to spell and I'll write it." He told him and he wrote them down, leaving the sheet on his desk. "Thanks sir." "Never hesitate to ask if you need help Damien. That's what the teachers job is about."

After a long day, Damien walked to his house with Delia and they walked inside.