Unsettling Malfunctions

True Love

DATE: February 14 2013

The day when everyone sends each other love letters finally came. It is a popular day, named after St Valentine, and is the day when everyone believes that love is in the air. Bailey Ørnberg finally returns to school for the first time. At the middle school area, that had the most beautiful structure, Bailey noticed that each white envelope was taped to a locker in the middle school area. He walked past them, and when he reached his locker, he saw that he didn't have an envelope. Didn't Benjamin love him anymore, because he couldn't make it to school for a week? Bailey didn't cry, because he knows love doesn't last in one person forever. Love is like energy, it cannot be created and it cannot disappear.

The locker area was quiet, but a small amount of footsteps were made, and they were done by the teachers. Bailey unlocked his locker and grabbed his English books from the top shelf, slammed the door shut, locked it, and walked away. Benjamin walked to Bailey's locker, posted a white envelope on his locker door with duct tape and quickly ran away. When Bailey walked inside 8M home room, he noticed he was late. Natalia was reading the notices out loud, when she turned around to see Bailey, standing by the door. All the other eighth graders turned to him. He felt that those eyes were piercing inside him, and when Natalia asked politely yet stubbornly why he was late to class, he slammed the door shut and ran to hide at the middle school locker area.

Bailey found a brown paper bag, lying next to him, so he picked it up and covered his head and sat there, crying. Natalia noticed him as she walked past him, so she lowered and sat beside him and with sympathy she asked what was wrong with him. "I don't think I can live for very long." Bailey replied with a croaky voice, "Everyone hates me, Dr Harrison told me to commit suicide, I'm an accident, boys in school try to beat me to death..." He quickly stopped and there was a ten second silence between the two, until Bailey was prepared to tell Natalia, something that she wasn't prepared for.

Bailey whipped the brown paper bag off his head and wiped the tears off his rosy face, and tried to keep his bloodshot eyes open. He quietly told her, "I'm homosexual." Natalia seemed disappointed with how he was treated. Too much stress due to his sexuality. The two got up and walked to her office, where they spoke more about his sexuality. Natalia asked questions about why, how and what made him become homosexual, explained that sexual exploration is a part of adolescences, and advised him to meet the school counsellor and explain his sexuality to him.

Bailey walked out, feeling fresher and glad that he opened up to a caring person. It didn't last for very long, because when he turned up to math class, his teacher Mrs Minos wasn't very happy. She sat at her desk, on the computer when she turned to him. She had short brown hair, often had sunglasses on her head, brown eyes and dressed in blue. She politely asked, "Who are you?" Bailey spoke up, "Bailey..." Mrs Minos barked, "Bailey what?!" "Bailey Ørnberg," Bailey rapidly spoke. It was obvious that he was frightened. Natalia stormed inside to speak with Mrs Minos, "Bailey is one of your students. He's late because I had to have a word with him." Mrs Minos told her that Bailey wasn't on her roll call, so Natalia pointed it out to her that Bailey was on her roll call.

It was recess time, and everyone got out of their classrooms like mad lions breaking out of their cages. Bailey was at Math class, sitting at the desk, finishing his algebra worksheet, and didn't pay any attention to the young crowd. Five minutes later, Mrs Minos let Bailey out the room, and he rushed to his locker, and noticed the envelope that was on his locker was gone. He stared at his locker door with a shocked face, and turned around to see a group of boys. The group of boys were the same group who harassed him at the bus stop and tried to beat him to death at school. They wanted to kill Bailey, because they were afraid that Bailey was seducing their leader, Benjamin.

Bailey also noticed that Benjamin was with the group. His arms were crossed, was narrow eyed and had scars on his face and arms. He looked very angry but depressed at the same time. Bailey fretted, "Why 'ya mad at me? What did I do?!" One of Benjamin's gang boomed at Bailey, "Trying to seduce our leader!" Bailey screeched, "What? I did not! He seduced me!" Benjamin was in worry, and tried his hardest to make sure the boys didn't know he liked Bailey. He snapped, "Liar, liar, pants on fire! Go kill yourself bitch with a capital B!" And quickly covered his mouth with two hands.

The boys laughed their heads off while Bailey walked away into the restroom, and gave a one finger salute. Benjamin felt bad that he lost his boyfriend. He turned to his boys, "He was my boyfriend. I lied! I seduced him because I loved him. I noticed that you were against gays, and I was afraid that I will lose my boys if they knew I was gay. Now I don't give a flying fuck anymore. I'm leaving, goodbye." He blew a kiss with two fingers and walked to the oval.

After a daunting day at school, Bailey sat on the rickety wooden bench at the public bus stop. He waited longer considering he missed the bus. Thinking about his embarrassing moment at school, tears gradually leaked from his bloodshot eyes. He saw Benjamin walking towards him from behind, grabbed his bag and fled as fast as a leopard into the prickly green bushes. He bit his lip and tried to keep it shut, to avoid getting attention from Benjamin. He noticed a broken beer bottle under the bench Benjamin was sitting on, and slowly crawled toward it. He quickly got under the bench when Benjamin turned around. Benjamin looked back at the cars passing by, which gave Bailey a chance to take the broken beer bottle and crawl back into the bushes.

At last, Bailey lightly pierced his wrist and drew it across his arm, gradually getting a deeper cut. He couldn't hold so much pain inside, so he screamed like nails on a chalkboard. This was the second time Bailey attempted suicide. The bus was on its way to Benjamin's stop, but after thinking about his actions, he dashed to the bushes and grabbed the bottle off Bailey's hand. He pulled a plastic bag from his pocket and wrapped it around Bailey's scarred arm. There was a ten second silence between the boys, and then Benjamin grabbed Bailey by the collar and suddenly kissed his mouth. Five seconds later, he slowly let go and whispered into Bailey's right ear, "I love you,"

Bailey was confused. He was harassed at school but all of a sudden, a kiss just happened. It wasn't just a kiss, it was proven that Benjamin loved him the whole time. Benjamin told Bailey, "I got very sexually excited every time I saw you, but I couldn't go off because I was with my boys. My group were just mean people, they were the reason people got bullied over nothing. I use to make fun of gays until I really thought of myself. I discovered my sexuality when I was eleven, and I had nobody to open up to. I would break myself down inside and on the outside, I would break other people down. Terrible mistakes I made, and I regret it."

Benjamin gently grabbed hold of Bailey's arm, and slowly pulled him closer, where he sat on Benjamin's thighs. He caressed, "I'm sorry for everything I did to you! The only boy I need is you!" He squeezed Bailey tight because of his love for him. Bailey whispered into his ear, "Love happens anytime in anywhere. I didn't see that coming, which is why I'm really excited. Nobody can tell you who to love. After all this stress that nearly killed me, you came to save me from suicide, because you truly cared about me. I guess it's true love." Bailey grabbed Benjamin by the neck, pulled towards him and pressed his lips against his other.