Decadent

Chapter Twenty-Six: Victim

    The next morning...I get ready for school. Garry is still asleep when I leave.
    At school, it's strange. I get weird glances my way...Scruggs doesn't even look at me. Jaxx is even disgusted as I go to my first class.
    In my first class, the teacher gets ready to do a Power Point on the screen that's over chemicals and whatnot.
    I use to pay attention to this class to learn new tricks I could do with household products to torture Octavius without damaging him too bad...but now I see no point.
    I bow my head as I start doodling on my notes...just swirly lines looping around each other...with many curves...no direction at all...just random. The lights are off...and the teacher is doing his introduction before starting the presentation. I feel eyes on me every second of this class. It's unnerving. I just want to be out of here and forget what happened between Dante and me. I want to forget about the stupid stalker and the picture that was taken.
    I want to be dead.
    I'm already bored out of my mind.
    The next thing I know though...is when everybody starts gasping when the teacher finally starts the presentation on the screen...
    Then I really feel eyes on me.
    Slowly, I raise my head to see why everyone was staring at me and that's when I see it...
    The picture of Dante and I...with the words “fag” drawn on under the actually picture on the screen.
    I close my eyes as I try to pretend I didn't see that.
    “Mr. Knueppel,” the teacher, Mr. Pounds, speaks up.
    “Yeah?” I speak up with distress.
    “Go to the office. Now.”
    My face feels red with total embarrassment as I stand up slowly and pack up my things into my binder. There is several snickers and muffled laughter. Some of the guys even mutter “gay” under their breath.
    They all know that the person up there that looks like a girl...isn't a girl...
    All because my stalker had to tell the biggest motor-mouth in the world.
    My mom.
    Now everyone knows that I had sex with a man...that only physically looks like a girl. Now they're making fun of me. I don't think I have anymore friends.
    I bet the girls don't like me anymore either. 
    “I had no idea that she was a guy” is what I want to tell them...but what good would it do? It'll only add more fuel to the fire. They won't listen to me. 
    I should have seen it coming...there's no damn way a girl would actually pay attention to me. Yet I seem no problems getting what I don't want.
    As I walk down the aisle towards the exit of the classroom, someone sticks their foot out, but I easily step over it.
    It's a classic bully move...I already know the gist.
    “Oh, and Remiel,” the teacher calls my name with a smirk.
    “What?” I ask sharply.
    “If you're going to do your business with someone...make sure no one is watching,” he sneers.
    The class laughs in response to his sly comment, but I ignore them as I walk out of the classroom, slamming the door behind me so hard that the glass window on the door vibrates. 
    “Make sure no one is watching,” I mutter bitterly. “Thanks for the embarrassment, Mr. Pounds.”
    But instead of going to the principal's, I go into Rath's office.
    When I walk in, Rath in on the phone while taking notes.
    “Yes, I will see you when I get home,” he says with irritation. He looks up at me as his eyes roll in annoyance. “Well, I don't know! I've never been married before!”
    I hear a woman's muffled yelling on Rath's phone. She's pissed.
    “Look, here,” Rath says angrily. “We're doing it how she wants the wedding done. If you can't accept what your daughter wants then you can forget about coming. By the way, when I first met you and had dinner with you...I pissed in your lemonade. That's why it tasted weird, you bitch.”
    Rath hangs up with his face flustered with rage.
    “Was that your...fiance?” I ask him curiously.
    “That was my fiance's mother. I swear, she's the worst. She keeps coming up with ideas of how the wedding should be...she wants it to be this expensive-looking wedding, and all my fiance wants is a simple wedding...in a barn somewhere. She doesn't want to wear a dress. She wants to wear jeans and a T-shirt. And her mother is complaining about that instead of respecting what she wants. I've never met anyone so hard-headed in my life besides my fiance,” Rath complains. “I'm sorry. Is there something you need, Remiel?”
    “Uh...I just came in here to avoid trouble...” I trail off.
    Rath nods. “I heard about that...this girl you were trying so hard to get...turned out to be a guy?”
    “Yeah,” I answer glumly. “She had a sex change and everything. I never would've thought she was a man if my brother hadn't said anything.”
    “And how do you feel now?” Rath asks me quietly.
    “I feel...” I trail off. “Hurt. Mostly hurt that she didn't tell me. I feel used...I told her that I loved her...she never said it back...now I know why. She was hiding something like that...so I kicked her out of my house...and I broke it off. Then my mom kicked me out. I was going to sleep in my car...but I ended up being taken in by a friend in his trailer...I had a rough night...then in my first class...I guess someone got on Mr. Pounds' Power Point thing...and put the picture of Dante and I up there on the screen...so if anyone never saw it...they saw it now. Scruggs...he won't talk to me. Jaxx hasn't spoken to me either. No one has.”
    “Has Tempest spoken to you?” Rath asks me gently.
    “I haven't seen her yet...but I wouldn't be surprised if she's too disgusted to even look at me for what I did...but I had no idea...” I trail off as I look down at the floor.
    “Sit down, Remiel,” Rath tells me quietly. I easily do as he says before looking up at him as he continues to speak. “Does it hurt? Even though you got rid of this girl for lying to you...do you feel horrible inside?”
    “Yes,” I answer quietly. My voice is grittier than normal. “To be honest, I don't even blame her for the picture that was taken of us together...”
    “So you're upset at the fact that she lied to you, is that right?”
    “I feel like I don't even know her...” I say quietly. “But, at the same time, I want her back...but I don't want to see her again. The thought of her moving on and going on with her life bothers me...never seeing her again bothers me...my chest always hurts...”
    “You miss her, Remiel,” Rath says with a sad smile. “If you miss her, then go for her. Who cares if she was born a man? She's a woman now. She may not be able to have kids like the generic woman...but she is a woman. That's why she got the change and everything.”
    Despite his advice, it does not make me feel better. Mostly, because he was right. I do miss her.