Fragility: Chapter 2

Fragility: Chapter 2

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You spin around and come face to face with none other than the team captain himself, all 225 muscled pounds of him. Lunch wasn't even close to being half way over why was he here oh God you were going to regret this and you were probably going to die and suddenly you felt microscopic under his dim gaze.

Shying away with painfully slow movements, you peep, "O-oh man, I didn't meat to i-intrude! J-just let me grab my-".

You couldn't finish your sentence, what with your sudden introduction to the to the cold, hard, ceramic floor.

Your mind raced, oh god, what if you couldn't get away this time? The gymnasium and change rooms were detached from the main school - no one would hear you out here.

A solid kick in the stomach brought you back from your thoughts, sending you rolling back a few feet and you cringe before his strong hand pulls you up by the collar of your shirt. Your gut wanted you to curl in on yourself, but you had to stand up on your toes to stay in contact with the floor.

He looked you in the eye, dull brown meeting bright blue. The expression he wore wasn't one of anger, or of sadness, or of pity. But it was disgust, like you were dirty, filthy, crawling with disease. Like you weren't worth the time of day to even consider sparing.

You could feel his warm, stale breath on your face and you wanted nothing more than to scurry away and hide; under your bed and wrapped up in your blanket, with the Con Air bunny your best friend Dave had gotten you those two years ago.

Terrence's upper lip curls maliciously, and you're suddenly being thrown against one of the concrete walls. You gasp in pain and surprise when your head comes in to contact first, bearing the brunt of it, along with your recovering shoulder. Your head was reeling and you felt so, so sick. Your knees go weak underneath you. You fall onto them, and support your weight with your arms.

"Just look at you, you fuckin' little homo," you hear condescendingly from above, "On your knees like a pansy, huh? Ya wanna suck my dick that bad don'tcha?"

Oh god, you can hear the smirk in his voice and you feel your blood run cold.

You don't know how serious he was about that.

You move fast, stumbling to your feet to duck under his outstretched arm. You snatch up your backpack and book it to the entrance. The knob of the door handle turns and you can almost taste the freedom on the other side.

It swings open though, from an outside force, and what awaited you made you want to vomit.

There, between you and the cool, fresh breeze, was just a few members short of the rest of the team.

You eyes must have been wide as dinner plates because you could see even Terrence in your peripheral .

Backing up hastily and shaking like a leaf in a storm, you turn your head back and forth wildly to scope out another exit you could narrowly escape through.

But you were only met with locker-lined walls and another blow to the stomach.

So you fall onto your tailbone accept your fate.

***

The second you got home, you vowed to never, ever, ever, try something as stupid as attempt to prank your main assailant.

You kick off your shoes and slowly trudge your way upstairs to your room. Your backpack was abandoned by your desk and you flopped down onto your bed, sighing heavily into the pillow. You were just so sore. So much worse than usual.

It was only about 5 pm and sleep sounded so good. But you have homework.

Not to mention it was only Monday.

And you think you failed that math test after lunch. Calculus is so fickle.

But then again, you didn't really care. What was the point of any of this? There was no point.

Nope nope nope. Not at all.

You were just drifting off, legs dangling over the bed frame, when the open laptop on your desk starts to try and get your attention.

You desktop had gone haywire after some practice coding went bad, so your dad ended up splurging and got you a laptop as a late middle school graduation gift.

You stand up begrudgingly. Seriously, people should just start figuring out when you didn't feel like talking.

You took the first two steps towards your computer chair, but you only rest a hand on the back of it when you notice your abandoned keyboard in the corner of your room. It had been much too long since the last time you had played any kind of music on it, whether it be scales or pieces that you've actually composed. You feel bad about it.

Whoever was pestering you (you knew it was Pesterchum because of those utterly distinct beeps) could wait a little while. You were going to get reintroduced to your old main hobby.

You take a seat in on the stool, and ready yourself. Pressing the power button, you warm up with a few scales so you can get a feel for the keys again. (***) After that, the notes just begin to flow, though slightly jerky. Now where have you heard this one before? It seems so very familiar...

Oh, that was right. You wrote this one a while ago. It had to have been a few months now?

Though you don't remember each note and keystroke by memory, your hands sure seem to.

Muscle memory was just such a cool thing, you wish the school system would've gone into more depth about it during science last year.

As the music filled the room, you play absentmindedly, sometimes repeating a bar or two, but you allow your mind to wander off into uncharted territory.

This being that, you think that maybe their insults really did have some sustenance.

Maybe not faggot, and maybe not homo, but sometimes you think that you're maybe in between the norm and the widely unaccepted. Or maybe you were nothing at all, as weird and uncommon as that would be.

But these thoughts were only brought to light a few months ago.

You think you might have fallen for your best friend, whom you think is completely straight, straight as an arrow.

He also lives two timezones away, and that just makes it all the harder the cope with these emotions.

But who knows, maybe it was just some weird-ass hormones settling in. Although your voice has already lowered considerably, you knew that there was still quite a few things in your brain, chemically speaking, that had yet to change.

But now that you brought your attention to your brain, you remember just how bad of a headache you have. You stop your playing abruptly, and stand to make your way downstairs for some water.

Now for whatever reason, you don't actually know why your head hurts so much. Did you hit it? Wait, school. What homework did you have? Have you even gone to school today? No of course you did. It's like you've suddenly just blanked out on everything that happened.

You pour yourself a cold glass of water from the tap and take a large gulp, sighing as you lean back onto the counter.

It didn't do too much, but it lessened the pain slightly. There was Tylenol in the first aid kit but those were pretty much for your dad, you couldn't take pills. The thought of ingesting some weird, compacted powder capsule just kind of scared you. You've never taken any in your life, always choosing to just man it out when you had sore muscles or a stomach ache or a headache.

But this throbbing was just something else.

Whatever, you'd deal with it for now.

You go back to your room, deciding that it would probably be a good idea to see who wanted to talk to you. You sit back in your computer chair and click the spacebar a few times for the monitor to start up again.

You check to see who was trying to talk to you. To your surprise, Dave was the first.

- turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering ectoBiologist [EB] at 17:27 -

TG: yo egbert

TG: you there

TG: hello

TG: earth to john

TG: dude dont stay online when youre not around

TG: rude

TG: but yeah i just wanted to tell you something that you will prolly appreciate

TG: i mean you should appreciate everything i tell you anyway

TG: but ill lay it on you when you get your ass back online

TG: peace

- turntechGodhead [TG] ceased pestering ectoBiologist [EB] at 17:36 -

Maybe you should've answered him, you were a bit curious about what he wanted to tell you.

A second person tried talking to you as well, and you open the associated window to be greeted by friendly green text.

- gardenGnostic [GG] began pestering ectoBiologist [EB] at 17:41 -

GG: john!

GG: i havent talked to you in so long haha

GG: john~

GG: joooooooohn~

GG: … helloooo?

GG: silly, why are you online if youre not there!

EB: oh, sorry jade!

EB: hehe, i was just playing with my piano is all.

GG: there you are! C:

GG: its okay! i know how much you love your music!

GG: speaking of that, have you written anything lately? you havent sent me anything in a while

EB: uhh, no actually. this has been the first time i've really sat down at the stool for a while.

GG: aw really? is something wrong?

How does she catch on so fast?

EB: no not at all! i've just been kinda busy lately.

A bluff. All you ever seem to want to do is sleep when you have a free moment.

GG: :C

EB: uh, changing the subject!

EB: you talk to rose lately? she's almost never online when i log in.

GG: really? because i just had a nice chat with her

GG: she said her mother was taking her to italy to 'get back at her for embroidering the throw pillows' heehee

That wasn't good. You had wanted to maybe ask her for some advice.

EB: oh... when is she leaving?

GG: ummmmmm, according to her in her timezone, tomorrow morning.

Well. There go your hopes of survival.

EB: wow so soon?

EB: that kinda sucks, i wanted to talk to her about something.

GG: oh! well you know you can always talk to me john!

Something inside you really just wanted you to just tell Jade.

But you didn't want to burden her with your problems, she wouldn't understand.

EB: haha, i know jade! you're like my sister and i can always count on you.

EB: but it's nothing important...

GG: hmmmmm

GG: are you sure

EB: yep!

GG: okay john whatever you say!

GG: but if things get too hot to handle you just tell me okay!

EB: no problem jade!

GG: good!

GG: buuuut im gonna go take a nap now okay?

GG: ttyl bro, heehee

- gardenGnostic [GG] ceased pestering ectoBiologist [EB] at 17:57 -

You exit that window and pull up Daves. He was still online so you start bugging him instead.

- ectoBiologist [EB] began pestering turntechGodhead [TG] at 17:58 -

EB: dave!

EB: sorry i wasn't responding there, i was just kinda preoccupied.

TG: ah yeah

TG: so you werent just ignoring me right

TG: seriously bro my heart was broken

TG: bled all over the fucking carpet

EB: come on no need to be dramatic about it.

EB: i was just playing piano is all.

TG: alright that is an acceptable excuse

TG: so howd that go

EB: fine for the most part, i haven't really bothered to fiddle around with it for a while though so i'm getting kind of rusty.

TG: why not

TG: i thought you fuckin worshipped that thing

TG: then you let it collect dust

TG somethings bothering you aint it

Why was everyone being so perceptive today...?

TG: cmon spill

EB: do you even read half the crap you type?

EB: i've just been busy okay? nothing's wrong...

TG: uh huh

EB: what?

TG: not believing you

TG: somethings up

EB: ugh, dude, can we just drop it?

TG: yeah sure whatever

TG: if anyones giving you a hard time though you just gimme a holler alright

EB: yeah of course!

EB: so... earlier you said you had something to tell me?

TG: oh yeah

TG: so you know how its nearing the time that we're all supposed to meet each other right

EB: whoa already?

TG: yeah

TG: good news for you though

TG: youre gonna be the only one not paying airfare

EB: you mean...

TG: we're all coming up to washington

Oh no.

EB: but wouldn't it be better to go to roses place? i mean it's like, bigger and everything right?

TG: she wont be around

TG: lalondes gonna be up in rome taking sweet photos and ogling the marble statue dicks

EB: so shes not coming at all.

TG: unfortunately

They... they couldn't. Jade and Dave couldn't meet you. Not in your state.

Shit.

EB: so when are you and jade coming, exactly?

TG: you ask a shit ton of questions

TG: but idk

EB: oh...

Dave took a second to respond, you chewed on your thumbnail.

TG: dude seriously whats wrong

He said he was going to drop it...

EB: nothing's wrong! this is great news, hehe.

You just wanted so badly to tell him, and just get it off your chest. But you're afraid he'll stop talking to you if you did that. Who would want such a weak person as their best friend? Not to mention, the other things you want to admit to Dave.

But right now, you don't want to fuck up your friendship for anything. Especially not your enamoured feelings towards him

TG: you sure

TG: b/c dude you dont really seem to be taking this real well

EB: lies, i'm taking it like a champ.

TG: the champ of what

TG: utter bullshit?

EB: …

TG: yeah sorry too far

TG: besides thats me apparently

EB: yep, the title 'king of complete bullshit' will always belong to you.

EB: can't be out and about stealing your throne!

TG: good good

EB: i'm gonna go get some shuteye though.

TG: why its only like 6 in wa

EB: had a stressful day, just tired bro.

EB: but uh. actually i uh

No, you mentally berate yourself, Don't give in you idiot, this is your problem, not anyone else's!

EB: you know what, never mind.

TG: okay?

TG: then i wont keep you from your beauty sleep

TG: see ya

EB: night dave

EB: i lo

Holy shit. It's definitely a good thing you caught yourself there. But you pressed enter instead of backspace!

TG: what

EB: ehehe, nothing!!!

EB: bye!!!!!

- ectoBiologist [EB] ceased pestering turntechGodhead [TG] at 18:13 -

Your heart thumped so hard in your chest that you could almost see the pulsing in your eyesight. How could you have let that slip? So stupid! Stupid brain!

But you felt terrible. You were physically and mentally drained, so at least you had an excuse.

You skip out on dinner (you didn't have much of an appetite anymore) and decide to take a hot shower to ease your nerves and muscles before crashing in bed. And getting some 'beauty sleep'.