Vulnerable

Ten- Rye

Today I was going to get rid of my feelings for him. I was going to join in when he was pinned to the lockers and, I was going to laugh. I was then going to meet up with some girl after getting really drunk and prove to myself that I liked girls. I had to prove it to myself. I brushed my hand over my sore wrists and thought about what people would think. I'm a jock for gods sake. Stereotypically I'm supposed to be cool, buff, straight as a ruler, get drunk, go to parties and get girls. As well as somehow passing my classes, but not really working for my grades. I fit very little of this profile. And straight as a ruler? Possibly, but the ruler may have to be one of those bendy ones at this point. I'm already failing at my ONE task.

I shake my head. No. These feelings they have. To. Go. I arrived at school and walked over to Mikey and Jack. They could tell something was wrong. Of course they could, other than Andy they were my oldest friends. They looked at me and asked if I was okay. I wasn't, he was still on my mind. To them, I just nodded and continued to the school building. I knew I was early, weird for me, but I needed to try and clear my head dammit.

I walked into school, another
day, another week. Now even worse as I had a secret that could break me. I loved him. I tramped through the front doors and saw the hunched figure of the one I loved so much, but couldn't have. I shouldn't want him this bad. And he sure as hell won't want me after all the shit I have put him through.

I remembered the deep, ocean-blue of his eyes and the pinkness of his lips. how fragile his frame was, how vulnerable he was. I realized no matter how much I tried to suppress my feelings they would always be there to taunt me. Make me feel inadequate and different.

all of a sudden he looked as if he was swaying on the spot, I tried to push through the crowds to get to him, I called for the nurse and she came running down the corridor to him, I looked at him with worry and concern before pulling back his hood and gasping with shock at the bruises that were there, the bruises I knew were not from in school. I knew his father before his mother died, he was always pretty loose with his fists, every now and again Andy would have a pinkish cheek or a little bruise from a too-hard slap. But these marks, they were not inflicted by my friends and they were not the result of a little slap. What was happening to him at home.

I helped the nurse carry him into the reception and sat him down carefully onto one of the chairs, I knew he wouldn't remember me taking him in here, he was out cold. the nurse murmured something about calling his dad, and I felt a cold feeling. I didn't want her to call his dad, I felt like something was off. I blamed his father for those bruises and his malnourishment. He looked like he was on deaths doorstep, it made me so sad just looking at how broken he was.

I couldn't stop her phoning his father, she shooed me out of the reception area as she got onto the phone. so I had to leave but I did not go far. I still had this uneasy feeling about what would happen. within ten minutes I was Andy begin to stir, he had regained consciousness and was immediately greeted by the large frame of his father. I could see his father smile at the nurse, but the moment she left he turned to Andy and I saw a different look enter his eyes. It was him. He was the one leaving those marks of Andy. he was the reason that andy's shoulder was bleeding so badly that time. What did he use, because unfortunately I know from experiences that punching someone does not make a wound that bleeds like that for that long.

I had no idea what was going to happen when he was taken home, so I followed them outside, I saw Andy struggle against his fathers' grip as he was thrown into a beaten-down car. I had no idea what came over me but I knew that I had to follow them. So I ran, faster than I had ever run before, I felt my lungs burn as they demanded more oxygen but I couldn't stop. Not when I knew what that monster was about to do to the boy I broke, to the boy I couldn't get out of my head.

The old car stopped outside of Andy's old crumbling home, it looked as if it had died with his mother, not the beautiful loving family home I was once invited into as a friend. I snapped myself out of the daydream and ran. I saw the door had been left ajar and I heard begging from inside. without hesitation, I ran inside and pulled the small figure out from under his father's grasp. out from the danger. I saw the rage boil up inside the eyes of his father and I felt hatred for this man, hatred like I had never known could exist.

I turned to andy and gave him my phone, begging him to call the police. weakly he nodded and lifted the mobile to his ear. I stood in front of him, I had to protect this beautiful soul. His father ran at me, fists raised and we fell on the floor, grappling and punching. I could feel myself getting hit, but I didn't care, all that mattered was andy. The rolling around didn't stop even as I heard a siren approach. I just tried to block his punches and deliver a few of my own. Unfortunately for me, he was larger and stronger than me, so he rolled himself on top of me and punched me over and over again.

blue lights and sirens wailed from outside and uniformed men and women stormed into the turmoil, dragging the beast of a man away from me. I knew I was hurt, but Andy was safe. I had managed to get him the hell away from the beast that he called his father. The man who made sure he didn't have a home and the one that I wanted was truly broken, thinking that nobody loved him. But that man would go to jail, all the police were first hand witnesses, Andy could finally be okay, that was all that mattered to me, as for the first time in years I felt myself black out. The pain and exhaustion finally catching up on me, I allowed myself to fall into the darkness.