New Kid On An Old Block

Chapter Seven

It was rainy at school today. Mondays sucked, and Jack and I had to be separated for class. Yay.
Rian wasn't here, so my walks through the hall were lonely ones. It was okay, since I got to be with Jack after school of course, but I'd become so used to not being alone in the hallways, so it was weird to find myself the loner again.

I let out a grunt as I got shoved face first against a locker, my face getting cut by the edge of one on the top, my forehead banging against the combination lock.
I heard a crowd of laughter behind me. I turned to look at them, watching the same asshole in the letterman jacket and his girlfriend, along with some buddies laughing.
I sighed and kept walking.
I stopped in the bathroom to look at my face. My forehead had a huge red mark on it that was certain to turn into a bump, and my cheek was bleeding. I grabbed some paper towels and pressed them to my cut. I left the bathroom and headed to my class.
I took my seat in the back and just tried to focus. 
After my first classes and break, which I didn't get to see Jack at because it was so short and he was on the opposite side of campus for his class before, I found myself hunting for him in the cafeteria. 
He came up behind me with his tray and tapped my shoulder. I jumped a little, then turned to face him. I smiled at him, and he looked concerned. I hated that look on him. He always seemed to have it around me.
"What?" I asked, stealing a piece of chicken out of his salad before getting in line to get my own food. 
"Who hit you?" He sounded angry.
I sighed, "Don't worry about it. Just some assholes. Usual for me. I'm used to it, remember?" I grabbed a tray once it was my turn and grabbed some taquitos and a couple little cups of salsa, then a Pepsi. 

We walked to our usual table and sat down. Jack sat down on the same bench as me, "Who hit you?" He asked again.
"Dude in the letterman jacket. I forgot his name. Don't care to remember it so you don't have to tell me." I scooped up salsa on my taquito and took a bite, looking around the cafeteria.
"You shouldn't be so calm about this shit." He sighed, picking at his food.
"Will you just eat? It's no big deal. It's a bump and a cut. No big deal." I shrugged, because it really wasn't. I didn't get my head dunked in a toilet, I didn't get punched or kicked, I didn't get screamed at...I just got my face shoved in a locker. It sucked, but it was better than anything else.
"It's not just a cut Alex. It's huge." He leaned over to look at it.
I rolled my eyes, "Just leave it alone Jack. It's fine. I'm fine. I will survive." My tone was sarcastic, he didn't like that.
"You have to stop acting like you deserve this shit." He went silent after that and ate his food.
I just shrugged and ate my food. I didn't mind the silence. If he wanted to be mad, he could be mad. I was mad too, I just didn't need to act like it. I was used to it. It didn't mean that I enjoyed it happening, it just meant that there's no point to me in being angry about it for the rest of the day when instead, I could let it go and be productive.

I got my sketchbook out for my art class, flipped from the project I was working on and started drawing. I wasn't paying attention to anyone or anything around me, this was one of my new favorite distractions when I found myself wanting to do something else. Not that I wanted to do that something else right now, I just wanted to draw. I lost myself in it. 
I sketched out some dark trees on both sides of the page, blacked out branches interlacing between each other over the top of the page, using my finger to smudge everything and using what was on my finger for some shading around the trees. I stopped when Jack nudged me. 
"Bell rang, Lex." He said quietly, looking at my drawing. "What's that gonna wind up being? It looks cool." He gave me a little smile. He was mad, but it was apparent that he wasn't mad at me.
"I don't really know." I shrugged.
"Well, I can't wait to find out. Meet me at the gates, mom will pick us up." He got up, but I pulled him back down.
"Hey, I had a question about you know. What happened on Halloween, the other night. How do you know so much about that? I mean, you're 14." I asked with a blush on my face.
"I had an ex you know. Don't worry though. I've never gone like, all the way. I just know how to give a good blowjob, and some other things." He grinned, got up and headed to class. 
I shook my head, looking amused. I got up and went to my last couple classes. 

After the final bell rang, I went to meet Jack at the gate, but he wasn't there. 
I looked around, then sighed. Maybe he was just running late. 
I sat down on the ground next to the gate and jumped a little when one of letterman jacket dude's friends knocks my head against the concrete. Why?
"What the hell man?" I sat up again, pressing my hand to the side of my head, feeling dizzy.
He shrugged, "Easy to pick on the new fag in school. Your boyfriend doesn't care when we do shit to him. It's really annoying." He walked away.
I just rubbed the side of my head and squeezed my eyes shut.
"Alex?" I looked up to see Jack.
"Great timing." I grumbled, standing up. 
"What happened?"
I pointed at the other asshole, "Pushed my head into the ground. Hurts. Said you got old trying to pick on so they have to pick on the new school fag now." I sighed, following him to his mom's car.
"Stupid. I'm sorry." He said quietly, "You okay?"
"I'm not that emotionally fragile. I just have abandonment issues and I cry a lot." I smirked.
"Oh, so you're not emotionally fragile, that's right." He laughed a little and got in the back seat with me.
"How was school boys?" Joyce asked, looking back at me, "What happened to your head and cheek?!" She exclaimed, worried.
"Got my face shoved into a locker, head hit the lock, cheek got cut. Then just now I got my head slammed onto the sidewalk." I shrugged, "It's fine. Doesn't hurt so bad." 
Joyce sighed, "Your forehead is turning purple." 
"And I don't know how to use makeup to cover it" I complained.
"It wouldn't help anyway, you've got a bump starting. Let Bassam look at it when we get home." She said as she started heading back to their house.
"I thought he delivers babies though." I muttered.
Jack laughed, "He still had to get a general medicine residency done, you know." 
I shrugged.

At the house, Joyce fussed over me, getting me an ice pack and telling me to switch it off from my forehead to the other side of my head that hit the concrete, while Bassam looked me over and said I'd be fine, which I already knew, while he cleaned up the cut on my cheek and stuck a bandage over it. 
I went up to Jack's room and sat on his floor, taking my homework out, laying on my stomach and looking it over. 
I'd abandoned the ice pack on his desk when I walked in.
I sighed, going through the assignments that I didn't want to do, but started working on my English homework anyway. I liked writing, so it was a nice distraction from everything.
I was currently writing a poem. The assignment was to write a personal poem. 

'This is me asking for a brick to be thrown through my window,

a message attached that reads, "Why can't you just wake up?"