Chapter 12: Bullies
968 Words
I hate being bullied. But it was susceptible for me seeing as I was the visible target that they loved to aim at.
Well, it's no wonder why they'd want to pick on me. I mean, take a look at me. I'm not that tall, I'm skinny as a toothpick, I'm a nerdy artist, and I'm... gay.
Now that part, I was bullied about the most. Back in middle school, when I was confident about my sexuality, kids in the hallways would call me a faggot or say another homophobic charged epithet. Some of them tripped me in the hallway or would throw me in the trash can.
I thought about going to the adults and telling them but what good would that do? They'd probably just give them a slap on the wrist and let them off the hook with a warning. Adults these days are just so persistent about their own problems that they don't have time to respond consistently to ours.
I'm walking in the hallway during lunchtime and I come across Joe. We normally walked together to the cafeteria, chatting over what we did over the weekend.
"Yeah, it's nothing new. Just a few more projects that we have to do in class." He said. "How about you?"
"I guess I'm gonna try out some new drawing techniques," I said boldly, being the smug artist that I was. "I've been practicing this new one where you draw characters from model dolls."
It was pretty fun for me to do that.
We reached the cafeteria and took our seats after grabbing our plates from the lunch line. We sat with a few of our closest friends. Camille, the goofy one. She loved to joke a lot.
Ramona, the chill and polite girl who never took NO for an answer. She always wore her dreadlocks on the side of her head with the other part shaved.
Then, there was Alicia. My best friend. She was special to me. We could talk about anything and whenever one of us got upset, we'd be there to cheer each other up.
"Hey, Max." She said.
"Yeah?" I replied, a spoonful of corn in my muffled mouth.
"How's it going with that boy? Have you called him up yet?"
Huh. I didn't even think of him until now.
"Actually, I haven't called him yet."
"Well, what did he say? Did he like you? Are you two gonna go out?" Joe said, smirkingly.
"Wow. You're nosy. If you happen to know, he told me that he wants to meet at the diner downtown. I guess he seems nice."
"Yeah, but do you know if he's... one of them?" Camille said, gesturing her eyes over to a table of athletes and jocks from across us.
"Well, he's not mean," I said. "But it's gonna difficult to know if he's nice too. You know how shy I can be."
"Maybe you can-" Ramona began but her sentence was cut off when her eyes positioned themselves above my head. "Oh, boy."
"What?" I asked.
"Hey, fag." A resilient voice whispered in my ear.
I froze when I heard it. The voice that bugged me and made my time at school worthless than it already was. I turn my head just slightly and look from the corner of my eye to see the b***h that picked on me any chance she got.
Kathy. And there was her boy-toy named Elliot. He was one of the football athletes on the school team. He was a buff guy who played quarterback for the school. But he was so self arrogant. They both were.
"Go away, Kathy," Joe said to defend me. "Max isn't in the mood for your nonsense right now."
"Shut up, fat ass!" She breathed into his face violently. "Can't you see that I'm trying to talk to this little girl?"
"I'm not a girl..." I muttered under my breath.
Kathy raised her thin eyebrows and leaned closer in my face with her hand cupping over her ear.
"What was that?" She said sarcastically. "I- I didn't hear you, girl."
"I SAID IM NOT A GIRL, YOU DUMB b***h!!" I shouted in her face, the spit landing in her face as I retorted the words at her sharply. I didn't expect that to come out of my mouth.
Her eyes closed, exposing her blue visible eyeshadow and then opened again.
"Hmm... alright." She said. Then she walked away.
I turned back and saw the surprised looks on my friends' faces. It seems that they were rather impressed by me speaking up. But the moment was lost when I was stunned by cold, smelly water being dumped over me along with a bucket dropping onto my head.
Standing up immediately, I threw the mop bucket off my head and threw it on the floor. I began spluttering and spitting out the pungent, disgusting taste of day-old mop water. I looked down and shivered it off, seeing the water dripping off my drenched pants and shirt.
"No one calls me... a bitch." Kathy's agitated voice said, which was followed by a smack to my face with the blunt force of her boyfriend's fist. "NOBODY!"
I tumbled onto the floor but I was quickly caught by Joe from that direction. Alicia ran around the table and went up to me quickly. Her hands rested on my face, wiping away the sticky blood that was coming out my nose.
My eyes adjusted a bit from the dizziness enough for me to see Kathy and Elliot walking away out the side exit of the cafeteria, hand in hand together.
"Oh, god. Max, are you okay?!" Alicia exclaimed with a look of concern in her face.
The only thing I could let out was a weak groan before I passed out.
- Writer
