𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐝 𝐁𝐨𝐲'𝐬 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞

43 | 𝐻𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑖𝑒𝑟, 𝐼 𝐺𝑢𝑒𝑠𝑠

I should know by now that when things are starting to look good, it doesn't last long. I thought that I had things under control, but who would've guessed that my feelings would throw everything off balance. 

My feelings for Sullivan were starting to become reciprocated and I was beginning to gain knowledge from Victor that I could use. Having him do things to me meant that when I'd do them with Sullivan, I'd look like the experienced one.

However, when I walked into school that day, it was anything but normal. The atmosphere felt shifted, and as I walked down the halls, voices seemed lower than usual. People were still getting to class and we were learning the same boring things as the day prior, but I felt this wavering feeling in my gut become harder and more rigid in my chest as if it couldn't move.

I could be having a heart attack. That is very possible. With reluctance to admit, I wasn't, but it was the prolonged inevitably of Victor ever becoming aware of what I'd done, or more importantly what Sullivan did, specifically about the picture of me in the woods. I didn't know why I didn't share the news with him, but I think it was because deep down, I knew it myself, it was sort of wrong. 

There before my eyes, outside of the math classroom, I saw Sullivan pinned up against the navy blue metal locker banks with Victor in his face, pummeling Sullivan's face over and over again.

Tears pricked my eyes, my skin was reddened with fear and my pointless words were thrown out into the air, in hope that someone would catch them. I'd finally neared, prying Victor off, but his eyes were more menacing and darker than they'd been in San Francisco. His cheeks were flared and his body was tense, there was no turning him back from the devouring look in his eyes. Sullivan took each punch, mainly since his limbs had become weak as they continuously thundered against the metal, rippling the cubbies in continuous reverberations.

I was screaming now, ignoring the crowd that had formed with phone flashlights lighting my face and revealing the streaks of tears. Just as I was trying to peel Victor's body off of Sullivan's, they were propelled to the ground by their own violence and Victor was on top of Sullivan, giving himself an advantage.

Hands latched onto my body, removing me from the scene as I helplessly cried for someone to answer me, but my heart was stuck in that fight, my body had long disappeared around the hallway. People's chants and screams of euphoria and fright emptied the building as I sobbed into someone's arms.

What came over me was an indescribable feeling. Victor's opinion mattered to me, and despite knowing his hatred for Sullivan, I was wearisome and filled with an overflowing amount of pathetic empathy. I was too tired to move a muscle back to the scene as I heard the principal's radioactive voice penetrate the building.

When I separated from the person, my words were mumbles and slobbery attempts at speaking. I was hiccuping and throwing my hands up, but I couldn't even think, until I pulled myself together once the bell rang and sighed in completion. My face still stiff and terribly dry, the wet remembrance of tears on my waterline, now itchy and irritated.

"Sorry," I murmured, "but thanks. I don't know what I was doing trying to stop that fight," I joke. 

Kayla nodded slowly in agreement, softening her laugh. "Yeah, but it was worth a try. I think you could've done it eventually, but nothing's stopping Vislocky when he gets in that zone." Her voice was equally just as tired and her eyes were lowered to the multi-colored tiled flooring.

The hallway lights had to have dimmed, or it was just dark in the building at that moment. Of course, with the additive of the cold chill on the second floor.

Kayla urged me with her hand to the hallway extending from where we were. It was a white tiled bridge atop the courtyard. The walls were all made of protective and sturdy glass, and the bridge was wide enough like any other school hallway. To the opposing side, it was the normal enclosed hallway, but for a moment, Kayla and I stood on the glass bridge, viewing the grass and pink flowers underneath.