Why be the judge? (Septiplier)

Chapter 22

JACKS DREAM

I sit on the lounge next to my Mum, Dad on the single, lean back chair. We're watching the news when they begin talking about the gay marriage debate in Australia.

"This is a load of bullshit," says Dad, "we know that they should just ban gay marriage. It's wrong and unnatural; people shouldn't fuck the same gender."

"But what about keeping everyone happy. Shouldn't that be top priority?" I ask

"What do you care your just a boy. And a straight one at that," he replies.

Mum places a hand on my back and gives me a slight, reassuring nod.

"Dad... I-I ... I'm not straight." I move in closer to Mum, already knowing what's about to happen.

"What?" he looks at me with great disappointment. Which quickly changes to anger. "WHAT!?!"

He rushes over and go's to grab at me. But he doesn't. Instead he grabs Mum and throws her to the floor.

"DID YOU KNOW!? DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS?!" he screams.

He turns to me. "Why? I RAISED you to be better than this. Pack your things, we're moving. Apparently there's someone here that made you like this."

I run out of the lounge room and go to my room. But before I do, I turn around. Dad's there, holding a knife upto Mum's throat. Then he...

JACKS POV

I wake gasping, tears down my cheeks. I feel a weight on the end of my bed. I look up. There, sitting on my bed is a woman. Tears have stained her cheeks red.

"Mum?" I say sleepily.

She leans over and grabs me into a warm hug.

"I'm sorry Jack. I'm so sorry."

And we sit there silently crying, hugging each other.

MARKS POV

I walk through the school gates, happy that only three of us are here this week. I see Gerard sitting in our usual spot. He looks up and gives me a small smile.

"Hey dude. What happened yesterday? Your dad kicked us out." He says.

"I just... I didn't feel well and he didn't want you to get sick," I try to say convincingly.

"How fucking dumb do you think I am? Seriously, man, what happened?"

"I broke down because I upset Jack," I mumble.

"Hey guys," calls Jack from behind, scaring me, "I just got here and I'm already being talked about. Nice."

"Sorry," I say.

I hear a pair of feet treading on the pebbles. I look to see our year adviser, Ms. Sforza, smiling at us.

"Morning boys," she says brightly, "here are your time tables for this week, I'll be your roll call teacher for the week as well." She walked away and I look at our day:

English

Science

Wood work

Math

History

PDHPE

JACKS POV

The bell for first period, English. I walk across the courtyard in silence, alone, reflecting on last nights incident. After we sat hugging each other Mum told me why she did what she did. She wanted to protect me to stop Dad from hurting me, but in the end the abuse was too much for her, and she took up drinking. She didn't even realise that she abused me with her words.

I walk in and take a seat next to Mark. But quickly I am standing back up, to do some jobs. Cart some books to the library; rearrange the room, stuff like that. We leave with the bell and head to Science. Doing more jobs to help teachers. We go on doing this all day. Finally we head to Period 5. History. We are learning about Ancient Rome and I love it. We take our seats and get out our equipment. The teacher turns to get something but turns back with a look of confusion on her face.

"Are you ok, miss?" asks Gerard.

"Unfortunately, I forgot our new text books for the class. Jack and Mark, can you go down to the library and get them please. Gerard you can stay and we can go over your assignment marks."

I get out of my seat and walk out of the classroom Mark following close behind.

"Jack! Wait up! How can you walk so fast?" he calls half laughing.

I turn to see Mark smiling, running his hand through his hair as he's walking.

"Sorry. I'm naturally just a fast walker."

MARKS POV

We are couple hundred metres from the library when I sigh.

"What's wrong?"

"Hmm? Oh, nothing, I'm just real tired," I say, only half telling the truth.

"Right," Jack answers unsurely. We walk in awkward silence, until we ask the librarian about the books and he disappears to retrieve them.

"I have something I need to talk to you about," I say awkwardly.

"Is everything ok?" he asks slowly.

"I... I, uh, just wanted to apologise about yesterday. It was rude to ask about stuff like that, especially in front of people that you don't know well," I say quickly.

"Well, if we're on apologies I guess I'm sorry that I overreacted about that yesterday. And I'm sorry about a few days before, when I first came to your place." He says ashamedly. I knew what he was talking about and I felt like crying. I had to tell him.

"Why are you sorry about that?"

"I'm a big dumb ass. I don't know why I would tell someone who beats me up for who I am, that I like them," he says.

I'm about to tell when the librarian walks back telling us to go and get the books off the shelf. We grab them quickly and silently and walk back outside. We walk like this until I spot a steel lunch table.

"I need a rest. These are heavy." I lie.

He nods and we divert over to the table and I put my books down and take a seat.

"What's the point of sitting, we're going again in about thirty seconds," he protests. His Irish accent becoming thickeras he gets impatient.

"I lied. Sit. Now." And I pull him down.

"What takes so long to talk about that we need to sit?"

"The fact you called yourself a dumb ass!" I half yell.

"Why do you care that I called myself a dumb ass?"

"Because I like YOU!" I keep a straight face. I'm using all my energy not to bang my head on the table.

"Thanks for rubbing it in. Self esteem point plus two." He says slightly unsure if I was joking or not.

"I'm serious," I say pleadingly.

"Stop fucking around Mark, let's go back to class," now slightly frustrated.