if you look at him, he'll kill you!

9: baseball bats

tw: graphic depictions of violence, abuse, homophobic slur

the next day at school caused josh to extremely rethink his choice in friends. he didn't really know if he could consider them friends, honestly. they were assholes.

in world geography, they made fun of the fact that tyler looked like absolute shit. his face was bruised to all hell and it honestly looked like there was some sort of makeup used at an attempt to cover it all.

it didn't work.

josh was worried.

he had told himself he wasn't going to get involved with tyler but he didn't know if he could continue seeing the boy like this. he was pretty sure that if he just let this continue, tyler would be dead within a month.

maybe he could meet with tyler in private. they are neighbors. the guys at school would never have to know.

josh was pretty sure he had seen tyler walking towards the beach in the middle of the night almost every night. he'd go down there tonight, and attempt to apologize.

yeah, that's what he'd do. he'd go down to the beach tonight and he'd make it his mission to find tyler and apologize.

he took one last glance to the boy behind him before he focused back onto the paper on the desk in front of him.

-

it's 2:46 am and josh watched as tyler slid down the roof of his house, quickly walking over to the jeep in the driveway of his house.

he hadn't seen tyler on the walk home today, maybe one of his parents gave him a ride or something.

soon, the alarm began to sound on the vehicle. tyler's eyes went wide in panic and he quickly tried to climb back up the side of the house, but he couldn't quite get there.

josh cried out as he watched a man come out of the house, a large baseball bat in his hands. the man clicked a button on a set of keys, causing the alarm to cease it's alarm.

the man began to yell and tyler seemed to just sink down to the floor, as if accepting his fate. the man grabbed tyler by the collar of his shirt, pulling him over to the side of the jeep, as if attempting to hide him from anyone who might possibly be looking.

josh opened his window a small bit to try and hear what the man was saying.

"...only to find none other than my faggot son trying to steal my fucking cigarettes! you're lucky i don't beat your fucking ass right here!"

josh couldn't hear tyler's response as it was very quiet and unheard in the scared state of tyler's body.

"you aren't sorry. you weren't sorry when you kissed that boy, you weren't sorry when you ruined my life, you weren't sorry when you were born so why should i believe that you're sorry now? huh?" the man brought the bat down onto tyler's left knee and josh cried out in terror.

josh was surprised tyler didn't even make a noise at that. the man brought the bat down again onto the same knee and this time tyler curled his whole body up in pain but still hadn't made any noises.

the bat was halfway down on its 6th swing when josh couldn't take it anymore. he pushed the window open, screaming out before he could stop himself.

"stop that!"

he heard the metallic clatter of the bat hitting the concrete driveway as he jumped out of the window, climbing across the roof and jumping. he didn't even think to put shoes on so when he landed directly on a stick it didn't feel very good but he couldn't find it in himself to care.

"who the hell are you?" the man yelled, his eyes burning holes in josh's face.

"nobody important. why are you doing that to him?"

"it's none of your business, kid. go home and let mommy tuck you back into bed," he replied, turning back around and pulling tyler up by his shirt.

"let him go."

the man, who josh assumed was tyler's father, dropped the boy again, his head just barely missing the concrete of the driveway. "excuse me? what the hell did you just say to me?"

josh had never seen someone this angry before.

"i said, let him the fuck go. what the hell did he do to deserve this? kiss a dude? what the hell does it matter? just leave him alone."

josh's eyes flashed over to the crumpled boy on the ground who was shaking his head as if telling josh to not bother.

"it matters a hell of a lot. what, you a fag too?" the man asked, stepping closer to josh.

"so what if i am? you gonna beat me too?" josh didn't know where this sudden surge of confidence came from but he didn't exactly hate it. he just hoped it wouldn't get him killed.

"get the hell out of here. i didn't ask for your opinion on how to raise my kid. so back off before i kick your ass."

"i'd rather you do it to me than for you to kill him. because i can promise you that if you keep this up, your kid is gonna be dead soon."

josh heard a house door open, and a little girl stepped out of the house.

"dad? what's going on?"

"nothing, sweetheart. just go back inside and go to bed. you shouldn't be up." his voice had went from angry asshole to caring dad in less than three seconds and josh could tell that something was horribly wrong in that man's head.

the girl looked down at tyler, who looked back up at her and made a shooing motion with his hand, and then gave a sad smile before turning on her heel and going back in.

"sir, can i ask why you're so nice to her but you're a total ass to him?" josh smiled, pointing down at tyler.

"look, this faggot doesn't deserve to be treated right. so i'm gonna go back inside and since he wanted to jump out of his goddamn window he can stay out here for the night. do what you damn well please with him."

and with that, the man walked back into his house and josh heard soft sobs begin to erupt from tyler's fragile frame.

"tyler?" josh asked tentatively, slowly walking towards the boy.

"what- what are y-you doing here? you gon-gonna throw rocks at- at me again?"

josh's heart instantly dropped at that.

"n-no! i'm sorry about that. i don't know what i was thinking and i'm real-"

"i don't care how sorry you say you are just leave me alone. just go back home and forget about me. go back to picking on me with your asshole friends because that's ultimately better than you pretending you care about me when they aren't in the picture. i don't need your fucking charity."

and so josh did just that, he walked away.

like the fucking idiot he is.

-

1181 words

published on august 2, 2019