ten
“Zack, baby, wake up, please,” Alex pleaded softly into the boy’s ear, a lump slowly rising in his throat and he placed feathery kisses on the boy’s cheek. Those assholes Blake and Jack had since left the scene, probably off to go spit on puppies or whatever it was those sick, cruel fucks did in their free time. What shocked Alex the most about the whole situation was the fact that Jack, his bubbly, bouncy and happy best friend was now acting like a total bigoted tool. And, on top of that, he was hanging out with some freaky loser that nobody knew.
The pair was sitting in the school nurse’s office. Zack was lying limply on one of three blue cots that were stationed in the back of the stark white and windowless room, still very much unconscious. Alex, on the other hand, was very conscious and practically shaking with nerves. He was nearly exploding with anger, frustration, worry, every other emotion that could even be remotely associated with the whole situation. More than anything, the blond boy just wanted to run out into the school, find that douchebag Blake and beat him until he was nothing but a gelatinous pulp in a pile on the floor. But all that the majority of his being cared about was Zack, so he just sat there at his boyfriend’s side, practically pressed against his body and pressing gentle and loving kisses all along his face and occasionally jostling the boy’s head to attempt to wake him up.
“Alex?” The boy heard the jolly nurse trill his name from over at her desk.
“Yeah?” Alex responded with a noticeable shake to his voice.
“I think Zack will be okay, you should probably go back to class now,” The woman seemed to empathize with the fact that Alex wanted to stay, but suggested the seemingly ridiculous idea anyways.
“But… I’m worried about him,” Alex felt the lump in his throat rise farther, and his voice caught. Shit. He was about to cry. He never cried in front of adults, let alone his teachers.
“I know sweetie. I could have the office call you down here when he wakes up if you want?” The nurse walked over to a trembling Alex and placed a hand affectionately on his back. Alex appreciated the gesture.
“Uh, sure,” Alex sniffled back tears, hopefully not to noticeably, and stood up. He gave his still unconscious boyfriend a slow and loving brush of his hand along the boy’s steadily rising and falling torso, and began to take slow steps out of the small room. With each step he took farther away from Zack, the worse his nerves got and the more he felt like he was going to throw up. All he wanted right now was to go back to his boyfriend, lie down next to him and hold the other boy tight until he woke up, then he wanted to go beat the living shit out of Blake.
Right as Alex neared the door, stopping for a moment to take a deep breath in order to relieve the burning anxiety rolling around in his gut, he hear the warming rill of the school nurse’s voice.
“Alex!” She sounded kind of excited about something, so Alex decided that he would go investigate what was making her call him. Besides, class could wait even if it was nothing important.
“Yeah?” Alex muttered sullenly, taken small and unwilling steps towards the back of the room where Zack lay on the uncomfortable-looking cot. He still had his head hung, staring at his toes as he hobbled the few steps it took to return to the edge of his boyfriend’s makeshift bed.
“I think he’s waking up,” The nurse muttered softly, seeming as overjoyed to say the news as Alex was to hear it. Instantly, Alex lit up and his eyes widened with joy. The pale-looking boy lying on the bed began to stir slightly, shifting his torso and limbs a few times before opening his eyes. The sight of Zack’s wonderful hazel irises was enough to make Alex’s lips pull into an impossibly wide smile, and immediately the blond boy wanted to throw himself onto his boyfriend and smother him with kisses. But, he knew that that would probably not go over too well. So instead, he lifted one hand and delicately placed it into Zack’s lacing their fingers together and giving a light, loving squeeze.
Zack sat up. He looked a little bit frail and white, but nothing too bad compared to what he looked like immediately after the incident. His nose had since stopped bleeding, and wherever Blake’s fist had made contact with his face didn’t look like it was bruising too badly. Groaning, the boy spoke softly.
“What happened?” he asked, moving one hand to cup his face in pain.
“Honey, you may not remember but your classmate Blake punched you in the face, you hit your head on a locker and fainted,” The nurse recounted the unfortunate series of blows to Zack’s upper body, making the boy wince as the pain in his face and stomach from where Jack and Blake had beat him began to intensify.
“Oww,” Zack whined, laying down once more and placing an arm over his torso, “It hurts, Alex.”
“I know baby,” It hurt Alex to see his boyfriend in pain, especially because of some asshole that used to be their friend. But there was nothing he could do about it now. Besides, Jack and Blake were probably getting suspended as they spoke. Alex leaned in and gave Zack a light peck on the cheek, making the boy smile weakly. Zack turned his head slightly to look at Alex, who looked worried but at the same time relieved that his boyfriend was at least relatively okay. Zack puckered his lips cutely, making Alex giggle and bend his head over to meet his boyfriend’s lips. It felt nice to kiss him after worrying for a couple hours whether Zack had serious injuries, but judging by the fact that he seemed to be okay, Alex was much less nervous. The blond boy pulled away slightly and flashed a much reciprocated smile at Zack. Alex nuzzled his nose against Zack’s delicately, snaking an arm over his waist and brushing the boy’s side with his fingertips. Zack just laid there a smiled, taking in the public displays of affection before the nurse called Alex’s name.
“Alex?” She cooed.
“Yes?” Alex righted himself and turned around to see the nurse with a phone wedged between her shoulder and ear.
“The principal wants to see you for a minute,” Alex’s stomach dropped. He and the principal were not on the best of terms, as Alex wasn’t the greatest student and he had gotten into trouble a few times in the past. But, as far as Alex was concerned, neither he nor Zack had done anything wrong. So, reaching around to give Zack a quick affectionate rub on the stomach before starting to walk, Alex ambled out of the nurse’s office to go meet with his principal for whatever reason.
*
“Mister Germonatta?” Alex greeted the principal of Towson High School nervously, and accompanied this with a quick tap on the already open door in order to get the man’s attention.
“Ah, yes, Alex, have a seat,” The principal looked up from whatever he had been writing on and watched Alex intently as the boy timidly entered the small office and sat down in one of two empty chairs.
“So, what did you want to see me about?”
“Well I was hoping that you could tell me about today’s incident with your friend Jack and that other kid Blake. I tried to get them to tell me what happened but Blake wouldn’t talk and Jack was just being angry the whole time. So, just tell me what happened and what you saw,” The man didn’t seem to be as much of a hard-ass as he usually was, and Alex appreciated that. He didn’t much feel like being interrogated at this point in time.
“Okay,” Alex knew that he would have small amount of trouble talking about this, but he tried his best to go into as much detail as possible, hoping that Blake, or Jack, or both would get the punishment they deserved. “Well after class however many period ago, I was walking over to meet Zack by his locker and then all of a sudden I hear Jack from off in some other direction yelling at Zack like, ‘oh hey faggot’,” Alex tried to make Jack’s voice sound as ridiculous and stupid as possible, “and then he and Blake just come over and start harassing us. Zack and I aren’t doing anything, and then all of a sudden Jack just throws himself at Zack and starts beating the living shi -er, crap - out of him. The only contact I ever made with Jack was when I tried to pull him off of Zack and keep him from hurting my boyfriend-”
“Boyfriend?” Mr. Germonatta paused Alex’s recitation of his part of the story, “you two are involved romantically with each other?” The principal seemed a bit taken aback by this; gay couples were not exactly common in the school.
“Uh…yeah,” Alex mumbled. He wasn’t ashamed of it, in fact he wanted to show off his relationship with this wonderful boy to the entire world, but it was just kind of an awkward interjection of the principal to make.
“Go on.”
“Anyways, then when I was keeping Jack at bay, I was not paying attention to where Blake was or where Zack was, and then I hear this sickening crack behind me and then I hear Zack crashing into the lockers and hitting the floor. I didn’t see it, but when I turned around Blake was just standing over him, fists clenched, and Zack was unconscious and his nose was bleeding,” Alex was beginning to get a bit choked up. This memory was not exactly something he wanted to relive.
“Anything else after that?” The principal seemed to try and sympathize with Alex.
“Uhm, no, not really, Blake and Jack just sort of took off and left Zack on the floor. I knelt down beside Zack and tried to wake up until the nurse came over with her wheelchair and took me and Zack up to her office.” Alex recalled the moment perfectly. He had held Zack’s limp and unresponsive hand all the way to the cot in the pale and bleak room.
“Okay, if that’s everything then that’s all I needed to hear,” Mr. Germonatta had scrawled a few notes of the incident on a paper in front of him, and he skimmed them over briefly. “Are you okay?”
Alex was a bit surprised at the fact that the usually strict and coldhearted principal was trying to get Alex to open up to him, but he talked, “Yeah. I’m fine. I was worried about Zack, but now I guess I’m okay, just kind of mad at Blake and Jack.”
“I understand,” The principal had adopted a softer tone to his voice, “Is Zack okay? Is he awake and everything?”
“Yeah, he’s doing well. Hurting, but he’s at least awake,” Alex exhaled.
“Glad to hear it,” Mr. Germonatta smiled a small amount before giving Alex a very relieving piece of news, “And I think you’ll be glad to hear that I talked to Jack and Blake earlier, as you probably guessed.”
“Oh?” Alex didn’t know whether to actually be glad yet.
“Yup, I have decided to suspend both the boys from school, Jack for ten days and Blake for one month. Obviously Jack doesn’t usually do things like this as you probably know,” Alex nodded in agreement, “But we’re sick of dealing with Blake every other day. Kid can’t stay out of trouble.”
Alex was absolutely thrilled to hear this. He wouldn’t have to deal with those two asinine bastards for a whole month. Well, Jack he would need to deal with after ten days but that didn’t matter as much. It was Blake he was really afraid of, but he wouldn’t have to see the kid for a whole month, and neither would Zack. A huge smile stretched across his cheeks and Alex muttered ‘yes’ under his breath.
“I assume you’re happy to hear this,” Alex nodded vigorously in response. “Well, that will be all Mr. Gaskarth. You can go back to Zack if you want, tell him I said to feel better ASAP.”
“Thank you, Mr. Germonatta, and I definitely will,” The very excited blond boy tried to sound as sincere as possible. Alex stood up out of this chair, waved a little goodbye wave at the principal and walked back to the nurse’s office with a little hop in his step. Now, to get back to Zack and give him the wonderful news of his attackers’ suspension.
The pair was sitting in the school nurse’s office. Zack was lying limply on one of three blue cots that were stationed in the back of the stark white and windowless room, still very much unconscious. Alex, on the other hand, was very conscious and practically shaking with nerves. He was nearly exploding with anger, frustration, worry, every other emotion that could even be remotely associated with the whole situation. More than anything, the blond boy just wanted to run out into the school, find that douchebag Blake and beat him until he was nothing but a gelatinous pulp in a pile on the floor. But all that the majority of his being cared about was Zack, so he just sat there at his boyfriend’s side, practically pressed against his body and pressing gentle and loving kisses all along his face and occasionally jostling the boy’s head to attempt to wake him up.
“Alex?” The boy heard the jolly nurse trill his name from over at her desk.
“Yeah?” Alex responded with a noticeable shake to his voice.
“I think Zack will be okay, you should probably go back to class now,” The woman seemed to empathize with the fact that Alex wanted to stay, but suggested the seemingly ridiculous idea anyways.
“But… I’m worried about him,” Alex felt the lump in his throat rise farther, and his voice caught. Shit. He was about to cry. He never cried in front of adults, let alone his teachers.
“I know sweetie. I could have the office call you down here when he wakes up if you want?” The nurse walked over to a trembling Alex and placed a hand affectionately on his back. Alex appreciated the gesture.
“Uh, sure,” Alex sniffled back tears, hopefully not to noticeably, and stood up. He gave his still unconscious boyfriend a slow and loving brush of his hand along the boy’s steadily rising and falling torso, and began to take slow steps out of the small room. With each step he took farther away from Zack, the worse his nerves got and the more he felt like he was going to throw up. All he wanted right now was to go back to his boyfriend, lie down next to him and hold the other boy tight until he woke up, then he wanted to go beat the living shit out of Blake.
Right as Alex neared the door, stopping for a moment to take a deep breath in order to relieve the burning anxiety rolling around in his gut, he hear the warming rill of the school nurse’s voice.
“Alex!” She sounded kind of excited about something, so Alex decided that he would go investigate what was making her call him. Besides, class could wait even if it was nothing important.
“Yeah?” Alex muttered sullenly, taken small and unwilling steps towards the back of the room where Zack lay on the uncomfortable-looking cot. He still had his head hung, staring at his toes as he hobbled the few steps it took to return to the edge of his boyfriend’s makeshift bed.
“I think he’s waking up,” The nurse muttered softly, seeming as overjoyed to say the news as Alex was to hear it. Instantly, Alex lit up and his eyes widened with joy. The pale-looking boy lying on the bed began to stir slightly, shifting his torso and limbs a few times before opening his eyes. The sight of Zack’s wonderful hazel irises was enough to make Alex’s lips pull into an impossibly wide smile, and immediately the blond boy wanted to throw himself onto his boyfriend and smother him with kisses. But, he knew that that would probably not go over too well. So instead, he lifted one hand and delicately placed it into Zack’s lacing their fingers together and giving a light, loving squeeze.
Zack sat up. He looked a little bit frail and white, but nothing too bad compared to what he looked like immediately after the incident. His nose had since stopped bleeding, and wherever Blake’s fist had made contact with his face didn’t look like it was bruising too badly. Groaning, the boy spoke softly.
“What happened?” he asked, moving one hand to cup his face in pain.
“Honey, you may not remember but your classmate Blake punched you in the face, you hit your head on a locker and fainted,” The nurse recounted the unfortunate series of blows to Zack’s upper body, making the boy wince as the pain in his face and stomach from where Jack and Blake had beat him began to intensify.
“Oww,” Zack whined, laying down once more and placing an arm over his torso, “It hurts, Alex.”
“I know baby,” It hurt Alex to see his boyfriend in pain, especially because of some asshole that used to be their friend. But there was nothing he could do about it now. Besides, Jack and Blake were probably getting suspended as they spoke. Alex leaned in and gave Zack a light peck on the cheek, making the boy smile weakly. Zack turned his head slightly to look at Alex, who looked worried but at the same time relieved that his boyfriend was at least relatively okay. Zack puckered his lips cutely, making Alex giggle and bend his head over to meet his boyfriend’s lips. It felt nice to kiss him after worrying for a couple hours whether Zack had serious injuries, but judging by the fact that he seemed to be okay, Alex was much less nervous. The blond boy pulled away slightly and flashed a much reciprocated smile at Zack. Alex nuzzled his nose against Zack’s delicately, snaking an arm over his waist and brushing the boy’s side with his fingertips. Zack just laid there a smiled, taking in the public displays of affection before the nurse called Alex’s name.
“Alex?” She cooed.
“Yes?” Alex righted himself and turned around to see the nurse with a phone wedged between her shoulder and ear.
“The principal wants to see you for a minute,” Alex’s stomach dropped. He and the principal were not on the best of terms, as Alex wasn’t the greatest student and he had gotten into trouble a few times in the past. But, as far as Alex was concerned, neither he nor Zack had done anything wrong. So, reaching around to give Zack a quick affectionate rub on the stomach before starting to walk, Alex ambled out of the nurse’s office to go meet with his principal for whatever reason.
*
“Mister Germonatta?” Alex greeted the principal of Towson High School nervously, and accompanied this with a quick tap on the already open door in order to get the man’s attention.
“Ah, yes, Alex, have a seat,” The principal looked up from whatever he had been writing on and watched Alex intently as the boy timidly entered the small office and sat down in one of two empty chairs.
“So, what did you want to see me about?”
“Well I was hoping that you could tell me about today’s incident with your friend Jack and that other kid Blake. I tried to get them to tell me what happened but Blake wouldn’t talk and Jack was just being angry the whole time. So, just tell me what happened and what you saw,” The man didn’t seem to be as much of a hard-ass as he usually was, and Alex appreciated that. He didn’t much feel like being interrogated at this point in time.
“Okay,” Alex knew that he would have small amount of trouble talking about this, but he tried his best to go into as much detail as possible, hoping that Blake, or Jack, or both would get the punishment they deserved. “Well after class however many period ago, I was walking over to meet Zack by his locker and then all of a sudden I hear Jack from off in some other direction yelling at Zack like, ‘oh hey faggot’,” Alex tried to make Jack’s voice sound as ridiculous and stupid as possible, “and then he and Blake just come over and start harassing us. Zack and I aren’t doing anything, and then all of a sudden Jack just throws himself at Zack and starts beating the living shi -er, crap - out of him. The only contact I ever made with Jack was when I tried to pull him off of Zack and keep him from hurting my boyfriend-”
“Boyfriend?” Mr. Germonatta paused Alex’s recitation of his part of the story, “you two are involved romantically with each other?” The principal seemed a bit taken aback by this; gay couples were not exactly common in the school.
“Uh…yeah,” Alex mumbled. He wasn’t ashamed of it, in fact he wanted to show off his relationship with this wonderful boy to the entire world, but it was just kind of an awkward interjection of the principal to make.
“Go on.”
“Anyways, then when I was keeping Jack at bay, I was not paying attention to where Blake was or where Zack was, and then I hear this sickening crack behind me and then I hear Zack crashing into the lockers and hitting the floor. I didn’t see it, but when I turned around Blake was just standing over him, fists clenched, and Zack was unconscious and his nose was bleeding,” Alex was beginning to get a bit choked up. This memory was not exactly something he wanted to relive.
“Anything else after that?” The principal seemed to try and sympathize with Alex.
“Uhm, no, not really, Blake and Jack just sort of took off and left Zack on the floor. I knelt down beside Zack and tried to wake up until the nurse came over with her wheelchair and took me and Zack up to her office.” Alex recalled the moment perfectly. He had held Zack’s limp and unresponsive hand all the way to the cot in the pale and bleak room.
“Okay, if that’s everything then that’s all I needed to hear,” Mr. Germonatta had scrawled a few notes of the incident on a paper in front of him, and he skimmed them over briefly. “Are you okay?”
Alex was a bit surprised at the fact that the usually strict and coldhearted principal was trying to get Alex to open up to him, but he talked, “Yeah. I’m fine. I was worried about Zack, but now I guess I’m okay, just kind of mad at Blake and Jack.”
“I understand,” The principal had adopted a softer tone to his voice, “Is Zack okay? Is he awake and everything?”
“Yeah, he’s doing well. Hurting, but he’s at least awake,” Alex exhaled.
“Glad to hear it,” Mr. Germonatta smiled a small amount before giving Alex a very relieving piece of news, “And I think you’ll be glad to hear that I talked to Jack and Blake earlier, as you probably guessed.”
“Oh?” Alex didn’t know whether to actually be glad yet.
“Yup, I have decided to suspend both the boys from school, Jack for ten days and Blake for one month. Obviously Jack doesn’t usually do things like this as you probably know,” Alex nodded in agreement, “But we’re sick of dealing with Blake every other day. Kid can’t stay out of trouble.”
Alex was absolutely thrilled to hear this. He wouldn’t have to deal with those two asinine bastards for a whole month. Well, Jack he would need to deal with after ten days but that didn’t matter as much. It was Blake he was really afraid of, but he wouldn’t have to see the kid for a whole month, and neither would Zack. A huge smile stretched across his cheeks and Alex muttered ‘yes’ under his breath.
“I assume you’re happy to hear this,” Alex nodded vigorously in response. “Well, that will be all Mr. Gaskarth. You can go back to Zack if you want, tell him I said to feel better ASAP.”
“Thank you, Mr. Germonatta, and I definitely will,” The very excited blond boy tried to sound as sincere as possible. Alex stood up out of this chair, waved a little goodbye wave at the principal and walked back to the nurse’s office with a little hop in his step. Now, to get back to Zack and give him the wonderful news of his attackers’ suspension.