Water and Fire (BL)

Chapter 17: Downpour of Emotions

Chapter 17: Downpour of Emotions

Weeks had passed by since the outrageous situation in the third floor happened. Charlie eventually recovered. The three bullies were reported to the guidance office, and this time was sanctioned by being required to do hours of community service—the school disciplining board eventually grew tired of their helpless case and though they were sons of board members of the school, they were finally disciplined accordingly.

Meanwhile, the malicious posts in the school's unofficial blog were finally deleted. The post about an anonymous gay guy's perverse fantasy towards Eric was stricken down by the school's board because it was, in their own words, "a perverse post that runs counter to the values and decency that's upheld by the school." They also released a statement that whoever did the post might get disciplined once they find out who it was. Likewise, the malicious photos that were posted were also taken down by the administration. The photos of the guy with the blurred face and with the uncircumcised member were deleted for being "indecent and devoid of morals."

Because of this current turn of events, the school administration decided to control the unofficial blog and would be the one to filter or censor the posts that would be posted there. In their own words, this decision "is for the betterment of the reputation and image of our noble school that has been marred by juvenile violence that seemed to have characterized our school years and years ago."

Fortunately for everybody else, Jarwin, Loco, and Jaguar seemed to have mellowed down after being disciplined properly, although they would still glare at David, Eric, Charlie, and Olivia, and would occasionally bump Charlie in the hallways.

Fortunately for David, his photos wouldn't get its way to the school's now official blog, although he was still worried about his photos being stored in Jarwin's phone like a prized trophy.

Celeste, on the other hand, seemed to act like nothing happened. She broke up with Jarwin and is now going back and forth flirting with Eric and David as if they were hero figures who just killed a despicable beast. But unfortunately for her, Eric nor David didn't reciprocate her obvious flirtations, and even outright dismissed her. David disgusted her. Likewise, Eric had thought that Celeste might have concocted the story about Charlie's sexually harassing her, just to seek attention or something.

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At the last class of the day, it began to rain so hard that there was near zero visibility outside. Ferocious wind blew through the window, chilling the students inside and blowing some notebooks and papers away.

"Okay, class, this storm is so strong. Class dismissed." And with that, the class was dismissed earlier than usual.

"Hey Eric, let's go home together," Olivia said, holding her umbrella.

"But the rain's still so hard. I might have to wait this out."

The truth is, Eric didn't have an umbrella, and he was also worried about his leather shoes. His shoes had holes on it, and he was worried flood water might flood his feet inside. He also had some wounds on his left foot so he worried even more that leptospirosis might get in his wounds from the dirty floodwater.

Thirty minutes had passed and Olivia already wanted to go home. "This rain might not let up soon," she said. "Let's go home now."

"You go ahead. I'm gonna wait it out."

Olivia nodded. "Okay then, I'm going home now." She looked around the almost deserted classroom. Seeing Charlie in the corner, Olivia unexplainably blushed. "Hey, Charlie... um... let's go home?"

Ever since Charlie got victimized so bad, Olivia seemed to have started caring for Charlie. After all, Charlie's bones haven't healed fully yet and bandages were still wrapped round his arms and legs, so Olivia cared for him.