Starlight Crashing Through the Room Part Three
Two weeks passed and we fell into a comfortable if not entirely pleasant routine. Lift at 5:30, sit through boring classes, listen to Critic become increasingly pissed off about his production, more class, practice, half an hour of verbal abuse, home.
Honestly, it wasn’t that bad. After a while, it just got boring, listening to the same insults every day. After a few days of it, Linkara stopped responding to them and then a day came when they didn’t say anything at all.
“Told you,” I whispered to Linkara. “They’re done with us.”
He looked less certain. “I doubt it. They’re probably planning something worse.”
“They aren’t smart enough to plan this shit,” I said.
He laughed slightly. “Guess you’re right. They only have wrestling and girls in their heads.” He shook his head. “Good thing, too. We have an algebra test next Friday.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Wanna come over and study tomorrow? Since you need the help.”
“Sure,” he said. “If my parents let me.”
“We’re going to study, not vandalize the neighborhood.”
“My parents are kind of strict,” he mumbled.
“Well, ask them,” I said. “And you can tell me tomorrow morning.”
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll see.
*
He reported back the moment we got to school. “My parents said it’s okay as long as I get home by ten.”
“Okay,” I said. “Shouldn’t take that long for you to learn it all.”
He laughed. “It might. In case you haven’t noticed, I royally suck at math.”
“You’re better than you think,” I told him. “You just need to focus a little more.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve never been good at focusing,” he muttered.
“Neither have I,” I sighed.
We did our obligatory hour and a half of lifting and managed to avoid any sort of confrontation with the seniors. I was in a pretty good mood going into English, though a nagging voice at the back of my mind kept telling me that it wasn’t going to last. I tried to ignore it. For once, everything seemed to be going okay.
I got through the routine of the school day without incident since nothing ever happened in my classes. The thought of having Linkara over, even to study, kept me motivated to get through it. After school ended, we got downstairs and prepared for an hour of torment.
Over the last two weeks, Linkara and I had improved quite a bit in terms of our actual wrestling, or at least, I liked to think so. True, I still got pinned every round, but it took a little longer and I was able to at least break a hold. Linkara was doing even better, having managed to get a pin in one practice.
Maybe that was why we had been left alone.
Practice itself was pretty dull like everything else. I spent most of the hour pressed into the mat, trying to keep breathing and mostly succeeding. By the end of the hour, I was exhausted, but that was normal.
I got into the locker room as quickly as possible, hoping to avoid the other guys. Linkara seemed to have the same thought and we’d perfected our technique of getting in and out of the showers before the seniors had finished roughhousing with each other. I had a very good feeling that we would get out unscathed.
We got out of the showers and had just retreated to our little corner of the locker room when one of the nearest guys, a 200-pound junior from Evans’s posse named Douglas, called out, “Hey! I finally mastered that hold we’ve been working on!”
“Ah, really?” Evans asked. “I still don’t have that down. Can you demonstrate?”
“Certainly,” Douglas said. “I just need a guinea pig.”
There was a moment of silence. I was too busy trying to avoid detection to realize that every eye was suddenly on me. But I looked up and noticed that I was in immediate danger.
I weighed my options quickly. I couldn’t run, having only just gotten my boxers back on, and I didn’t have time to dress. I couldn’t fight them, even with Linkara’s help. I couldn’t do anything but stand there.
“Hey, shrimp,” Douglas said. “Get over here.”
I didn’t move. I would like to say that I was formulating a clever escape plan, but the truth is that I was frozen in fear. I had a bad feeling that whatever move Douglas wanted to demonstrate wasn’t on the list of legal holds at the high school level.
Douglas moved toward me. “I said get over here,” he repeated. “Or are you stupid as well as a pussy?”
Linkara stepped in front of me. “Back off,” he said.
Douglas laughed. “Gonna hide behind your boyfriend, fag?”
Linkara glared. “I said back off!”
Douglas shoved him aside, knocking him onto the concrete floor. Before Linkara could recover, Douglas had grabbed me by the shoulders and thrown me on my stomach. I grunted as I hit the ground, my hands flying up automatically to protect my face. I started to get up, but then Douglas was on top of me, his knees digging into my back as he grabbed my elbows and wrenched my arms back.
I struggled, trying to break his grip, but he merely jerked my arms back. With most of his weight on my lower back, this mostly just caused my spine to ache.
There was laughter all around, and taunts, and I couldn’t even hear them because my shoulders and back hurt too much and I was all too aware of the fact that Douglas could very easily slam my face into the floor and break my nose if he wanted. The floor was cold against my mostly naked body and I could feel my hands and chest bruising where they had hit the ground when I fell. I was having trouble breathing with most of Douglas’s weight on me and I just wanted him to let go and get off of me.
I don’t know how long he held me there. It was at least a minute, though it was probably longer. But just when the pain grew completely unbearable, I felt another jerk in my shoulders and Douglas suddenly let go. A moment later, his weight was gone. I took several deep breaths, but didn’t move.
I could hear people talking above me, but it took a moment before I was able to focus on them.
“You got lucky, fag boy,” Douglas was saying. “Next time, I won’t let up so easy.”
“I bet,” Linkara answered. “Now go away.”
There was a beat, then the other guys started chattering as though nothing had happened. I slowly opened my eyes, though I didn’t quite have the strength to get up.
Linkara knelt down beside me. “Can you stand?” he asked quietly.
“In a minute,” I muttered. My shoulders were throbbing, but I felt sure that I’d be okay in a moment.
“Do you need help?”
I hesitated. “Only if no one’s watching.”
There was a beat, and then Linkara gently placed one hand on my wrist and the other on my ribcage. “Okay,” he said. “Can you at least get to your knees?”
It took a second, but I managed it, Linkara keeping me steady. I stayed on my knees for a minute, just breathing in and trying not to cry. Linkara didn’t let go of me, kneeling so close behind me that I could feel the heat from his body. His hands were soft and warm and big and steady and I stayed there a second longer than I had to because it felt so damn good.
Eventually, I nodded. “On the count of three,” Linkara said. “One, two, three.”
We stood up together, his hands guiding me and making sure I didn’t fall. After another second, I nodded again and he let me go. I turned and got dressed, moving slowly due to the aches in my back and shoulders.
As soon as we were both dressed, I picked up my backpack, fighting to keep my face neutral at the added weight. Linkara looked worried. “I can carry that for you,” he offered.
“I’ve got it,” I said.
“You shouldn’t strain yourself.”
“I’ve got it,” I repeated, a little more firmly.
He didn’t say any more as we left the locker room, but in the hall, he asked, “Do you still want me to come over?”
I nodded. “Please. I need the distraction.”
We headed out, Linkara chattering about nothing the whole way. I could tell he was trying to take my mind off of it, and I was grateful.
My mom was waiting for us by her car. I forced myself to relax as we went over to her. “Hi, Mom,” I said cheerfully. “This is Linkara.”
“Pleased to meet you, ma’am,” he said with a smile.
“And you,” my mom said. “You are having dinner with us, yes?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said. “Thank you.”
We got in the car. No one talked as we drove home, though Linkara kept glancing at me as though he was checking whether I was okay. I ignored him. I didn’t want to talk about it in front of my mom. It was bad enough that I hid behind Linkara in the locker room. I didn’t need to cry to my mother as well.
Once we got home, I led Linkara to my room. We dropped our backpacks on the floor and I sat down by my bed, my knees drawn to my chest, my head bent forward.
Linkara pulled out his algebra book. “Okay, so the test is on chapters five to eight…” He broke off. “Spoony?”
I didn’t move. I merely closed my eyes and hugged my knees, trying not to cry. I couldn’t, not in front of him. He didn’t need to see how weak I was.
I felt his hand on my shoulder. “We don’t have to work on math right now,” he said quietly.
I looked up at him, at his kind blue eyes and sympathetic expression and I couldn’t hold it back anymore. The tears started pouring down my face and probably making me look really stupid. I took several gulping breaths, trying to keep quiet so my mom and brother wouldn’t hear and come up to investigate and make me talk about what had happened…
Then Linkara’s arms were around me and I was sobbing into his shoulder and he was rubbing my back and petting my hair and I knew it was ridiculous and girly but it felt good so I didn’t push him away and he smelled really nice and he was so warm and strong…
I closed my eyes and cried into his shoulder and wished he would never let go.
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Honestly, it wasn’t that bad. After a while, it just got boring, listening to the same insults every day. After a few days of it, Linkara stopped responding to them and then a day came when they didn’t say anything at all.
“Told you,” I whispered to Linkara. “They’re done with us.”
He looked less certain. “I doubt it. They’re probably planning something worse.”
“They aren’t smart enough to plan this shit,” I said.
He laughed slightly. “Guess you’re right. They only have wrestling and girls in their heads.” He shook his head. “Good thing, too. We have an algebra test next Friday.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Wanna come over and study tomorrow? Since you need the help.”
“Sure,” he said. “If my parents let me.”
“We’re going to study, not vandalize the neighborhood.”
“My parents are kind of strict,” he mumbled.
“Well, ask them,” I said. “And you can tell me tomorrow morning.”
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll see.
*
He reported back the moment we got to school. “My parents said it’s okay as long as I get home by ten.”
“Okay,” I said. “Shouldn’t take that long for you to learn it all.”
He laughed. “It might. In case you haven’t noticed, I royally suck at math.”
“You’re better than you think,” I told him. “You just need to focus a little more.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve never been good at focusing,” he muttered.
“Neither have I,” I sighed.
We did our obligatory hour and a half of lifting and managed to avoid any sort of confrontation with the seniors. I was in a pretty good mood going into English, though a nagging voice at the back of my mind kept telling me that it wasn’t going to last. I tried to ignore it. For once, everything seemed to be going okay.
I got through the routine of the school day without incident since nothing ever happened in my classes. The thought of having Linkara over, even to study, kept me motivated to get through it. After school ended, we got downstairs and prepared for an hour of torment.
Over the last two weeks, Linkara and I had improved quite a bit in terms of our actual wrestling, or at least, I liked to think so. True, I still got pinned every round, but it took a little longer and I was able to at least break a hold. Linkara was doing even better, having managed to get a pin in one practice.
Maybe that was why we had been left alone.
Practice itself was pretty dull like everything else. I spent most of the hour pressed into the mat, trying to keep breathing and mostly succeeding. By the end of the hour, I was exhausted, but that was normal.
I got into the locker room as quickly as possible, hoping to avoid the other guys. Linkara seemed to have the same thought and we’d perfected our technique of getting in and out of the showers before the seniors had finished roughhousing with each other. I had a very good feeling that we would get out unscathed.
We got out of the showers and had just retreated to our little corner of the locker room when one of the nearest guys, a 200-pound junior from Evans’s posse named Douglas, called out, “Hey! I finally mastered that hold we’ve been working on!”
“Ah, really?” Evans asked. “I still don’t have that down. Can you demonstrate?”
“Certainly,” Douglas said. “I just need a guinea pig.”
There was a moment of silence. I was too busy trying to avoid detection to realize that every eye was suddenly on me. But I looked up and noticed that I was in immediate danger.
I weighed my options quickly. I couldn’t run, having only just gotten my boxers back on, and I didn’t have time to dress. I couldn’t fight them, even with Linkara’s help. I couldn’t do anything but stand there.
“Hey, shrimp,” Douglas said. “Get over here.”
I didn’t move. I would like to say that I was formulating a clever escape plan, but the truth is that I was frozen in fear. I had a bad feeling that whatever move Douglas wanted to demonstrate wasn’t on the list of legal holds at the high school level.
Douglas moved toward me. “I said get over here,” he repeated. “Or are you stupid as well as a pussy?”
Linkara stepped in front of me. “Back off,” he said.
Douglas laughed. “Gonna hide behind your boyfriend, fag?”
Linkara glared. “I said back off!”
Douglas shoved him aside, knocking him onto the concrete floor. Before Linkara could recover, Douglas had grabbed me by the shoulders and thrown me on my stomach. I grunted as I hit the ground, my hands flying up automatically to protect my face. I started to get up, but then Douglas was on top of me, his knees digging into my back as he grabbed my elbows and wrenched my arms back.
I struggled, trying to break his grip, but he merely jerked my arms back. With most of his weight on my lower back, this mostly just caused my spine to ache.
There was laughter all around, and taunts, and I couldn’t even hear them because my shoulders and back hurt too much and I was all too aware of the fact that Douglas could very easily slam my face into the floor and break my nose if he wanted. The floor was cold against my mostly naked body and I could feel my hands and chest bruising where they had hit the ground when I fell. I was having trouble breathing with most of Douglas’s weight on me and I just wanted him to let go and get off of me.
I don’t know how long he held me there. It was at least a minute, though it was probably longer. But just when the pain grew completely unbearable, I felt another jerk in my shoulders and Douglas suddenly let go. A moment later, his weight was gone. I took several deep breaths, but didn’t move.
I could hear people talking above me, but it took a moment before I was able to focus on them.
“You got lucky, fag boy,” Douglas was saying. “Next time, I won’t let up so easy.”
“I bet,” Linkara answered. “Now go away.”
There was a beat, then the other guys started chattering as though nothing had happened. I slowly opened my eyes, though I didn’t quite have the strength to get up.
Linkara knelt down beside me. “Can you stand?” he asked quietly.
“In a minute,” I muttered. My shoulders were throbbing, but I felt sure that I’d be okay in a moment.
“Do you need help?”
I hesitated. “Only if no one’s watching.”
There was a beat, and then Linkara gently placed one hand on my wrist and the other on my ribcage. “Okay,” he said. “Can you at least get to your knees?”
It took a second, but I managed it, Linkara keeping me steady. I stayed on my knees for a minute, just breathing in and trying not to cry. Linkara didn’t let go of me, kneeling so close behind me that I could feel the heat from his body. His hands were soft and warm and big and steady and I stayed there a second longer than I had to because it felt so damn good.
Eventually, I nodded. “On the count of three,” Linkara said. “One, two, three.”
We stood up together, his hands guiding me and making sure I didn’t fall. After another second, I nodded again and he let me go. I turned and got dressed, moving slowly due to the aches in my back and shoulders.
As soon as we were both dressed, I picked up my backpack, fighting to keep my face neutral at the added weight. Linkara looked worried. “I can carry that for you,” he offered.
“I’ve got it,” I said.
“You shouldn’t strain yourself.”
“I’ve got it,” I repeated, a little more firmly.
He didn’t say any more as we left the locker room, but in the hall, he asked, “Do you still want me to come over?”
I nodded. “Please. I need the distraction.”
We headed out, Linkara chattering about nothing the whole way. I could tell he was trying to take my mind off of it, and I was grateful.
My mom was waiting for us by her car. I forced myself to relax as we went over to her. “Hi, Mom,” I said cheerfully. “This is Linkara.”
“Pleased to meet you, ma’am,” he said with a smile.
“And you,” my mom said. “You are having dinner with us, yes?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said. “Thank you.”
We got in the car. No one talked as we drove home, though Linkara kept glancing at me as though he was checking whether I was okay. I ignored him. I didn’t want to talk about it in front of my mom. It was bad enough that I hid behind Linkara in the locker room. I didn’t need to cry to my mother as well.
Once we got home, I led Linkara to my room. We dropped our backpacks on the floor and I sat down by my bed, my knees drawn to my chest, my head bent forward.
Linkara pulled out his algebra book. “Okay, so the test is on chapters five to eight…” He broke off. “Spoony?”
I didn’t move. I merely closed my eyes and hugged my knees, trying not to cry. I couldn’t, not in front of him. He didn’t need to see how weak I was.
I felt his hand on my shoulder. “We don’t have to work on math right now,” he said quietly.
I looked up at him, at his kind blue eyes and sympathetic expression and I couldn’t hold it back anymore. The tears started pouring down my face and probably making me look really stupid. I took several gulping breaths, trying to keep quiet so my mom and brother wouldn’t hear and come up to investigate and make me talk about what had happened…
Then Linkara’s arms were around me and I was sobbing into his shoulder and he was rubbing my back and petting my hair and I knew it was ridiculous and girly but it felt good so I didn’t push him away and he smelled really nice and he was so warm and strong…
I closed my eyes and cried into his shoulder and wished he would never let go.
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