𝖎 𝖑𝖔𝖛𝖊 𝖞𝖔𝖚, 𝖆𝖑𝖜𝖆𝖞𝖘 | 𝖘𝖙𝖎𝖈𝖐𝖘 & 𝖘𝖙𝖔𝖓𝖊𝖘

☄

After the first 20 minutes of math had gone by my teacher pulled me out of the classroom and asked what happened. I told her the lie I had come up with and she believed it then sent me to the nurse, I spent the rest of the period there. 

She cleaned up my open wounds with rubbing alcohol which hurt like a bitch then put some neosporin on it. She offered to put a bandaid on it but because of where the scrape was, I knew that it was only gonna crinkle up when I talked so, I politely declined her offer. The nurse emailed my teachers, telling them what happened so they wouldn't pull me out of class each period asking. 

The day went on and things were fine, I had my head down a lot to avoid all of the stairs in the hall, it worked pretty well because my hair could cover it. In English, we were doing independent work so I was careful to not let any of the boys see. 

When the final bell rang I put away my things and quickly walked out the door, making my way out of the school. "Nat," Joey called, "Natalie," I didn't say anything, I felt someone grab my arm forcing me to turn around, "Why are you ignoring us-" Mouth paused when he saw my face, he let go of me. 

"Holy shit, what happened?" Joey asked, "Nothing," "Bullshit" he spoke, his tone mildly frustrated, "Was it, Hayes?" My eyes met with Book's as he said that, I just looked away. 

"God I'm gonna kill him" Mouth swore, "No you're not" I looked up at him, "Why? Why are you so against doing something about this, he fucked up your face and almost killed you will a baseball" "I'm kind of with Mouth on this one," Joey agreed, I sigh, "This isn't your problem it's mine" "Hayes messes with all of us" Book added, "I know he does, but you guys want to get on his ass right now because he's been fucking with me". 

"Give us a good reason not to" "It's not your problem Mouth!" "Fine, when he comes around and kicks your ass don't come crying to me," he said harshly, "I was never planning on it" Mouth rolled his eyes and walked off, Book shrugged and followed him. 

I let out a deep exhale and ran my fingers through my hair, "Aren't you gonna go too?" I asked Joey, "I mean you can handle things on your own terms but if he does keep doing shit like this, we are gonna do something, it's not that we think you can't handle yourself we just wanna make sure you're safe" I looked up at him and gave a warm smile which he returned. 

Although Mouth might not anymore, they would reassure me that they would protect me either by showing it or saying it. That's something no one had ever really done for me. I've always had to deal with it all on my own so it's nice now knowing that someone has my back. 

"Come on, I'll walk you home" Joey offered "Okay"