The Boy With the Bruise - benjey

4 - Softly Spoken

Benji's POV.

It started off as an annoying itch on the back of his neck.

Well, not necessarily an itch. When Benji really thought about it, it felt like the tingling sensation that he got whenever someone gently blew on the back of his neck, combined with the unsettling feeling he got whenever someone stared at him for prolonged periods of time.

Whatever it was, he hated it.

"Oi, Krol!" Coach shouted from across the field, waving a clipboard at the confused boy. "You're late! Go change, before I take off even more participation points from your grade, boy!" With a sigh and roll of the eyes, Benji began slowly jogging towards the locker rooms.

It's not like Coach would actually fail Benji. He just liked to make empty threats. Benji had been his favorite student ever since he'd tried for football, and ever since he qualified for the team, he'd been Coach's star player. If he failed PE, he failed at any chance at a scholarship... which meant that Coach would never be recognized as the "man who brought up Benji Krol's football career" and dumb shit like that.

Bottom line? It's wouldn't be that big of a deal if Benji was a few minutes late.

Sighing, Benji pulled out his phone as he sauntered towards the locker rooms, scrolling through Instagram lazily as he tried desperately to waste time. His eyebrows furrowed when he saw a new post by the school Instagram - that stupid high school 'drama alert' Instagram - and realized it was a new video of the same spanish boy that had been videotaped going on a date with his boyfriend.

It showed a slightly shaky video of the small, brown-haired boy sitting next to an older blonde girl, his head drooped down on the crook of her neck as his shoulders visibly shook. Benji's heart tightened when the video showed the image of the girl lifting up his bruised face to try and clean off the blood that dripped down from his nose to his chin. Disgusted, Benji clenched his phone tightly and lowered it.

Who would do that to someone? Who would do that to him?

Benji had seen the small boy before, in English. He seemed to really struggle in it, and although Benji really wanted to go help him out with his work, his tablemates had always refused he go. Of course, Benji knew he was always at the liberty just get up and sit by him - it's not like anyone was really stopping him: and, knowing this, Benji felt guilty every time he saw the boy.

If the video of the crying boy got Benji mad, the caption got Benji mad mad. It said: homosexuals are not🙅‍♂️❌allowed in our school. get out of our school before we make u, spanish faggot. @MHSnohomo02

Homosexuals weren't allowed? Benji scoffed. He'd met at least four outed ones, excluding his other closeted friends. For example: the most popular girl in school, Hannah, was pansexual. Their linebacker, Liam, was gay. The new boy, who transferred from California, was transgender. Hell, even their teacher was an outed gay man, married and prideful. Whoever ran this account was a dumbass. 

The username at the end of the caption led to a page with no content, but, whoever whoever owned it was live streaming.

When Benji first joined, he immediately recognized that it was a view of the small spanish boy, who was quickly walking into the bathrooms outside of the locker rooms.

What?

Benji, confused, looked up from his phone and towards the bathroom, where he caught a glimpse of the spanish boy slipping in through the door. Benji went to quickly follow him, but quickly came to a halt when he realized that a group of four different boys had the same idea.