Isolation (Bennoda)

Chapter Two

"Hey..can you hear me?" I spoke carefully. I could see the person try to respond so I got closer and kneeled on the floor.

"Mmm.." I heard the boy groan once again in pain and I tried to help him up. He was wearing a black sweatshirt that nearly swallowed him and slowly, he raised his head to look at me.

He was wearing dark sunglasses and had spikey blonde hair. Unfortunately, the rest of him didn't look so good. His lip was dripping with blood and there were a handful of bruises all over his body.

"Please..don't hurt me.." I heard him utter gently.

"Come on, I got you." I carefully threw his arm over my shoulders to walk him to the nearest bench. I grabbed what I assumed was his backpack and sat down as well.

A silence went by as I let him rest for a second. He kept his head to the floor as if he was afraid to look at me.

"What happened to you, are you okay?"

I heard him struggle to speak, probably trying to regain his composure. He still refused to lift his head up. I stayed silent in hopes that he could get it out.

"I- these guys..they-..."

"What, what'd they do?" I continued to look at him with concern and he finally met my gaze.

As he looked up, he hesitated. I saw him study my face for a few seconds and look down in thought. 

"I-I think I remember you.." He said softly.

I looked at him questionably. "What do you mean?"

-

Seven Years Ago:

The school bell just rang at the end of the day for recess and I headed out toward the swings. The swings weren't usually taken because there were only two and all the other kids like playing on the jungle gym.

So, that means I had them all to myself. I usually went to the swings every day just to be by myself, that way nobody would bother me. Not that anyone cared, no one liked me anyways.

I hadn't quite learned how to swing, because I was so short and I could never gain enough momentum to do anything but sit there so I just messed with the gravel.

I just swung my legs back and forth and started singing a small tune that just popped into my head.

"Hey." I heard a voice come from behind me.

I turned around and saw a kid with black hair with kind eyes smile at me. I was kind of nervous because no one had ever said anything to me before.

"H-hey," I uttered back quietly.

The boy sat down beside me on the other swing. "You have a nice voice." He said and I felt my stomach drop.

"Y-you heard me?"

"Yeah, " he said simply. Suddenly he started swinging all the way to the top and I just watched in awe.

"Hey...how do you do that?" I asked quietly.

He put his foot on the ground to stop his swing and looked at me.

"What, swing?" I nodded.

He chuckled. "Look," he said as he started to swing again.

"All you gotta do is swing your legs back and forth, like this." He did it and I watched his legs eventually propel his swing higher and higher.

"Oh," I said and tried to do it myself. It worked a little bit but my legs were still too short to get me very high. I sighed in discouragement.

"Don't feel bad, you'll get it eventually." He smiled at me and got off the swing. I saw him kneel to the ground and pick something up. "Hey, look."

He showed me a pendant in his hand that looked like a star. Probably from a broken necklace. "This is cool, you should have this," he said.

He placed it in my hand and I looked at it. "Why?" I asked.

"Because I bet you'll be a star one day," he chuckled softly.

I held the pendant then put it in my jacket pocket. "T-thanks."

I could see cars of parents pulling up in the parking lot as each kid grabbed their bags and got in the car.

He stood in front of me. "I'm Michael, what's your name?"

"Um...Chester." I said softly and he smiled.

"Okay, Chester, hold on tight." He said and stood behind my swing.

I did as he said then suddenly felt my swing going higher and higher in the air and I felt scared but at the same time, it felt fun.

As he let my swing go, it eventually slowed down more and more. I looked over and saw a woman approaching behind him.

"Let's go, Michael," I heard her say. He turned around and faced her. I could hear him protest as they started walking farther from me.

I heard her utter something. "That Bennington boy....not good for you...don't need to be hanging around anymore.."

I felt my heart sink and let eyes drop to the ground. I could feel my cheeks heat up and moisture fill my eyes.

I saw that everyone was pretty much gone when I looked back up. Michael was gone, and I'd probably never see him again. I got off the swing and pulled the star out from my pocket. I just held it in my hand as I started walking home.

-

As I awoke from my thoughts I shook my head. "No, nevermind, " I said.

"Really, what do you mean?"

I started accumulating a lie in my mind and spoke quietly.

"Nothing, I just moved here, I guess you just reminded me of someone."

He was silent for a second as he played with his zipper on his hoodie. "You just moved here?"

I nodded.

"Yeah, I did too about a month ago."

I looked up at him. "No way."

"Yeah, my mother moves around a lot."

I chuckled lightly. "Well, then I guess you don't really know anyone either."

"Well, I've got two penpal friends who live here, I met them in person a few weeks ago, but that's pretty much it."

I looked down. He must really be likable to already have people who wanna be friends with him. Which wasn't a bad thing, but I felt kind of discouraged.

"Hey.." He started to say. "You wanna come over tomorrow night? I don't really do anything but stay in my room anyways."

I hesitated with anxiety but choked something out anyways.

"Y-yeah, that'd be fine."

He smiled and gave me his cell number and said he had to get home soon. I wonder why. But regardless, it would be nice to hang out with someone.

~~~~~