The Labyrinth of Suffering

Two

|| Write a chapter in which a character is abused for their sexuality. ||

I have no one to impress, and yet I stood in art class in my best summer dress decorated with thick orange-and-white stripes with eyeliner made from sunshine shimmering over my lashes. Oliver even paused before jeering at me to check out my usually covered legs. Unfortunately, Amber was not to do the same; she simply smiled a meaningless smile at me, same as always. Why do we love people who ignore us? Why, oh why, oh why?

Art is by no means my favourite class. I like art, don't get me wrong, but I only do it because Honey does. Somehow, that girl just makes you do things! "Look who's looking hot today, babycakes!" she greeted me, tapping my stomach and winking.

"Keep the PDA to a minimum, please, girls. We don't want anyone puking." Red crescents appeared on my cheeks at Oliver's words. Honey was not the same.

"You're just jealous that no one's checking you out, Harrison," she sassed, "while you definitely took a look towards Elisa's lower region. Shame that absolutely nobody's type is a ginormous homophobe with a fondness for DIY bro tanks."

The whole class stifled giggles, including Oliver's crew. He was the only outlier. Instead of laughing, he clenched his fist and warned Honey, "You should be glad I'm against animal abuse, Syrup- or whatever your dumb name is. Otherwise, I'd punch you right now. No doubt about it."

How I wish Honey hadn't  offended back with a witty, "Aw, the little baby's resorted to internet insults, has he? How sweet." for at that moment, Oliver decided that holding back his anger was not the way to go.

One swift blow to Honey's nose was all it took.

Screaming like a wild hyena, Oliver leapt onto Honey and punched her brutally over and over, repeating the same damned word - "Dyke, dyke, dyke" - until Mr Jenkins managed to rip him off her and yell at the class to keep it down while he took Mr Harrison to the headmistress' office. As soon as that beast of a boy was out of my sight, I kneeled down to see how Honey was doing. Two other girls bent down with me and asked Honey how she was feeling. Her answer was a low groan. Crimson layered her face in thick stripes, and I couldn't help but wonder if she looked like the pattern on my dress.

_____

As it turns out, the redheaded girl with the many wristbands was called Maggie, and the lip-ring-wearing girl with hair the same shade as Kate's was called Loretta.

Maggie was being nice by helping me escort Honey to the nurse's office, whereas Loretta told me that she knew Honey through a shared friend of theirs. "Haven't talked to either of them in years, though," she mentioned whilst laying Honey's arm onto the nurse's sofa.

"You should probably go to the headmaster's office," the nurse told us.

Oliver was already inside, thank goodness; I would not like to have faced him so soon. He's always been horrible to us, especially Honey because of how gorgeous she is, but he'd never gone this far before. It was horrifying to think of what he could do if he'd not been so riled up. If he'd been focused, and knew exactly what he was doing, he could have done a lot more damage than a black eye or a cut lip.

I stopped thinking about it, and clutched Loretta's arm tightly, not caring about what she thought.

A/N: This was hard for me to write. It's been written with experience in mind. I'm a closeted pansexual, as it says on my profile, but one of my friend's is an out bisexual. And it's not been easy for them.

I don't think anyone at all is reading this (if you are, comment so I can show you the right appreciation) but I don't care. This is for me.