No More Golden Days

Chapter 12

Dan's Pov..........

I had started my walk back home. After what just happened I was in no mood to talk or even look at anyone. The cracks in the sidewalk gave me a distraction though, because every time you stepped on one you supposedly "broke your mother's back"  which made me laugh, giving me at least something to look forward to.

I could still feel the stinging sensation from where they punched and kicked me. The dried up blood on my knee and across my face, dripping from my nose. Everything hurt, still taking gentle steps, and wincing when my side moved up and down with the rhythm of my feet.

Jason had only kissed me twenty minutes before that happened, held me in an embrace that seemed genuine to him, or so I thought. Then being shoved through the door, only to suffer from pain he created.

Who was his gang though? Through the kicks and yells I couldn't decipher the faces surrounding me. But when someone said something whilst kicking me, to either Jason or someone else around them, they sounded like Jason's sidekick, Alfie. Although Alfie was always somewhere else when Jason came along, he was there for this one time, one of the only times i've really only seen him.

No one knows what Alfie's up too when other kids are being harassed and yelled at by Jason, but some say he doesn't deal with violence. If he doesn't deal with violence why is he friends with Jason? Why was he kicking me earlier?

My thoughts are abruptly cut off when I could hear sobbing and muffled screams coming from a car. I look around trying to direct where the noise is coming from, then I see it. A black Range Rover parked in a driveway that could only be Phil's. I've seen his house a few times before, and I knew this was it.

I walk over to his driveway, pacing myself so it didn't look like I was trying to break in. Thoughts cloud my mind as I walk over to where the screams are emerging. What if this wasn't Phil? I've never seen his car so I can't tell whether it's him or not.

I make my way up the driveway and to the right side of the car. The little cracks and pebbles that my feet kick every once in a while as I go by, but can't hear when they make contact with the pavement because of the blood curdling screams.

I look in the window, although I can't make out the figure because of the tinted glass. I open the door instead, and there lies phil, hunched over holding his head in his hands rocking back and forth. My heart starts to ache. I didn't know what to do, so instead I yell for his mom only hoping they would be here

Phil doesn't seem to register that I'm here, or that he can hear me, because he's still in the same position, repeating the movements as time goes by before his mom bursts through the front door.

She urgently tells me to get Phil inside, as she turns around and props the car door open. I grab Phil and carry him bridle style through the front yard and into the house. I can hear the door slam behind me through the echoed screams of Phil.

I gently sit down with him and let him lay. The screams seemed to have calmed down, because when his head hits the pillow, he whines. He sounds like he's pleading for everything going on to stop. For anyone to at least help him. They sound desperate.

At this point I couldn't focus on anything but Phil. To his crystal blue eyes, to his pursed lips because of the agony behind his expression. My heart ached for the boy positioned before me. He looked so helpless and hurt and it made me want to hug him and never let go.

I rest his head on my lap, and his face uncurls from the cruel expression. His body goes from tensed to relaxed in seconds and his eyes close. I can feel the weight of his head as he falls asleep, and less tension trying to keep his head up.