OUTCASTS // randy/macklyn (ON HIATUS)

twenty-three

October 31, Wednesday

"Do be more careful, Ryan."

Said brunette only gave his mother a smile as she worriedly stroked the faint discoloration of blue, purple and gray, smeared on his left cheek. The bruise was almost faded, barely even there, and his left hand, although it occasionally aches as his knuckles were still sporting an ugly injury, was gradually healing.

It was already four days past the party incident.

"Will do, mom," he said and kissed his mother goodbye.

The brunette adjusted his glasses, his spare ones, as his other pair was helplessly wrecked—before waiting for a bus to arrive. Not long after, he rode on one and nodded his head politely towards the bus driver in greeting, who smiled back at him, and finally took a seat somewhere in the middle.

He turned his head and gazed out the bus window, mindlessly taking in the early morning scenery that soon became a beautiful blur as the bus started speeding up, heading for school.

School.

Rye sighed to himself as he remembered the past occurrences unfolded in there.

Ever since Zach's party—things had changed.

From being a clear nobody, Rye has become one of the names coming out from people's mouths. The school has now regarded him as 'that ballsy nerd kid'. He would welcome lots of angry glares and discrete shoving from the athletes in the hallways. He would hear harsh whispers about him, from the cheerleaders at the back of their shared classes. Many people scorn him, although, some commend him for what he did.

But Rye does not care about all those stupid things about him. What he cares about is his friends—one of the few things he holds dear—who definitely does not deserve every dislike and hate they were getting from everyone else... when they only meant well. They were only showing who they truly are.

They were only standing up for themselves. And yet, everyone seems to have a problem with that.

Two days ago, when Monday rolled around—it was a time that Rye was feeling tense, down to his nerves.

As he had expected, him, Andy, Brooklyn, Jack and Mikey were the talk of people. Gossips of what occurred last Saturday circulated the school like wildfire. But Rye heeded the glaring and chattering people no mind, and proceeded his way through the hallways. The bespectacled boy would not waste his time minding over students who could not mind their own businesses—much less hating over others when they do not even know them.

He was almost near his locker when something caught his eye.

Cautiously, the brunette approached the notice board, walking past the small crowd formed in front of it. Rye exasperatedly exhaled when he saw it was a badly taken photo of Andy and Kit, the pair standing in the middle of the dance floor, back at Zach's house.

Although Andy's face was angled in a way that could not be clearly seen in the photo, everyone else could see that Kit had his head buried on the blonde's neck, as if, he was leaving a love bite.

Rye had to suppress down the familiar sensation arising from the pits of his stomach as he struggled to leave his envious eyes from Kit's figure towards the written message scrawled on top of the photo. 'GO TO HELL FAGGOTS' in big, bold capital letters, is what it says, and now the jealous feeling within the bespectacled boy was left forgotten as anger took its place.

Without thinking, he ripped the photo apart from the notice board and teared it into pieces, before throwing it into a nearby trash bin.

Without looking back, he returned back to his locker, and pretty much ignored everyone else staring at him. Afterwards, he made his way towards his first class—the Autobiography Project. When he opened the door, he could only blink when everyone paused and glanced his way. He bowed his head and ignored them as he walked over the corner, where Mikey and Jack were already sat.