Escape from Abuse - Skephalo

Chapter 17 - LGBTQ+?

TW: Swearing, Gay Slurs, Homophobia, Blood

Darryl

As I walked through the halls to my first class, I got many points and disgusted looks. I'm guessing it had to do what Ant was talking about. He didn't show me whatever he showed Zak, but I'm guessing it was bad. After Ant had talked to Zak for a bit, I left. I didn't want to be late for class. 

I stepped into the class, and everyone turned and stared at me. I looked at everyone. Some looked disgusted, some looked angry, some had neutral faces. What happened that was so bad?

I just decided to shrug it off and sit down in my seat near the back of the class.

I had a hard time focusing in math, mainly cause I was worried about Zak. He never came to class. I mostly just scribbled little doodles onto my math worksheet and thought about what could have happened. I mean, It's probably not that bad, right? My thoughts were interrupted by a ball of paper that had been thrown onto my desk. I opened it up and scribbled in red pen were the words, "Go to hell, you fucking faggot."

I read it over and over. I didn't know what some of these words meant. I folded the paper nicely and stuck it in my pocket so I could look up the words later. I glanced around the room to see who threw it at me. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I decided just to ignore it. It's probably a normal thing high school kids do.

After math was over, I walked to my next class. Miss Niki's class was my favorite; I liked doing art, it was very fun. When I stepped into the class, again, I got lots of stares. But I just shrugged it off again. I went to my seat and started working on my project. We were working on realistic oil pastel pictures, and I decided to do a flower. It was going really well, and I was just finishing the details of it. 

I went to grab a paper towel to help smudge the oil pastels, and when I returned, there was a giant black line drawn on my picture. Tears started forming in my eyes. I had worked so hard on that; who would have ruined it? I sat down at my seat and inspected it to see if it could be fixed, but it was too messed up. I flipped my sketchbook to the next page and just decided to start over. It sucked, but there's nothing I can do to fix it. 

My morning was finally over. I was starting to get curious about the post Ant had talked about. It's made everyone act rude to me. I still hadn't seen Zak either. I wasn't paying attention, and I bumped into a guy. He stepped back from me and yelled at me to watch where I was going. He then turned away and muttered under his breath, 

"Stupid Faggot."

What did that word mean? That's like the third time I've been called that today. Maybe I'll ask Zak later... That is If I can find him. I stepped into the cafeteria and noticed that my friends weren't at the table they were usually at. Where are they? I thought, as I glanced around the cafeteria.

I pulled out my phone from my backpack and texted Zak.

"Where are you?"

I sighed as I walked away from the cafeteria and through the hallways. Everyone was acting so odd today. I decided just to put in my headphones and listen to some music and walk the hallways while I waited for Zak to respond. I focused on each one of my steps as I listened to the music. After the night Zak and I went on a car ride, I've been listening to more music lately. 

There was a kid near his locker grabbing things from it. I assumed he'd just let me pass by, but he stuck his leg out and tripped me. I fell to the ground, and my phone went flying across the hallway. 

The kid laughed at me before walking away. I picked myself up and rubbed my hand across my nose. There was blood on my hand. I slowly got up and grabbed my phone. I then held my hand under my nose and walked to the bathroom.