17 again.

32

Fin

"Leave me alone Damien." I stepped around him, slinging my gym bag over my shoulder. Damien's been a bit of a shit for the past few days.

"Why the hell would you leave Lacey Lowe for him?" It's not secret that like most guys in their school he was infatuated with Lacey Lowe. I'm not quite sure why. She's pretty but there has to be more to it right? Maybe it was because she was to nice and boys just mistook her kindness for flirting?

Can't a girl just be nice without getting harassed?

"What part of being gay don't you understand? Or is the word to complicated for you're last brain cell to handle?" I walked away, deciding not to get into another fight with Damien.

He was the one responsible for the bruising. I gave him a few too, most prominently the bruise over his eye that was turning a lovely shade of dark blue. He hadn't expected me to fight back. He was the type that thought their size should be enough to scare anyone of.

Looking at the bruise made me sick. I wasn't a fan of violence, even though I know I was only defending myself.

"What the fuck did you just say to me fag?" Damien grabbed onto my upper arm, pulling me back.

"Damien just leave him alone. You went way to far yesterday." Someone spoke up and pulled me out of Damien's grip.

"Fuck of Oliver. This is between me and the fairy." He cracked his knuckles and stepped forward. "Don't make me show you what happens when you get involved in my business again."

Oliver winced, probably remembering the bruise on his jaw Damien gave him yesterday. I stepped closer to the exit, pulling Oliver along with me. I wasn't in the mood for this.

"Oliver's right. Leave him alone." Someone else spoke up and soon enough more and more people spoke up.

If they thought their words would calm him down they were sorely mistaken. He just got angrier and angrier till he charged right at me.

I'm not ashamed to admit it: I ran out the door, letting out a very manly squeak and almost slipping on the water around the edge of the pool.

"Fin! What the hell's..." Cole trailed of when Damien burst through the changing room doors. "You! You must be the little shit that hit my boyfriend."

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"You're an idiot." We're right outside the principles office, while Damien gets chewed out, waiting for our turn.

Cole just smiles like he hadn't gotten himself into a heap of trouble. "It was definitely worth it."

I punch him in the shoulder and he winces, must have managed to hurt there too. "You shouldn't have hit him."

"He shouldn't have have hit you."

"Two wrongs don't make a right."

"Since when did you speak in fortune cookie?"

"Don't change the subject. You could have gotten seriously hurt." The two of them had beaten each other to a stalemate, not separating till someone thought to call security to break them up.

"I can't just let him hurt you."

I didn't get a chance to respond. Damien stepped out and Ms. Davison, the principal, called Cole in. Damien took his seat as far away from me as humanly possible, tugging violently at the rosary around his neck. Seeing him with one made me feel awful for even owning one.

Why do people like him have to give the rest of us a bad name?

Minutes later Cole steps out and I'm ushered in to Ms. Davison's room after him.

"Take a seat Finnian." I did as she said. "I never expected to see you in here for something like this. What happened?"

I told her my side of the story and she listened patiently till I was done.

"You're the first one to give me a clear answer. Damien mostly just cussed." She sighs, twirling the cross pendant of her silver necklace between her fingertips. "People like him make the rest of us seem like monsters."

"Your parents have of course been notified of today's incident. They declined to come in." I didn't respond, mostly because I didn't know how, and she continued. "Now I'm going to keep this of all of your permanent records, mostly because you didn't really do anything. The other two will just get detentions, separate ones of course."

I thanked her then left once I was dismissed, pulling Cole out by the ear as I went.

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"Cole Mathew Winter's I thought I raised you better!"

"Mum I-"

"Fighting on school grounds? The nerve."

"I-"

"You're supposed to take that outside!"

"What!?"

"You heard me." She made a sharp turn into their street. "Violence is never the answer but I can't say he didn't have it coming."

"And Fin." She parks in front of the car and twists in her seat to glare at me. "I know you people are into turning the other cheek but if someone hurts you you need to do something or it's going to keep happening."

"Now get out of my car."