A losing bet // HARRINGROVE

Chapter 5

Tuesday, after school
Steve's POV
"NO WAYY?!? You didn't get expelled?? CONGRATS MAN!", Dustin's voiced thundered through the walkie talkie. "Yeah but I have a 2 hour detention with Tommy later, to reflect on our actions.", I replied, feeling elated and relieved that I'm not in that much of trouble, considering I did beaten someone up. "Aight, I gotta go man, see you and the rest tomorrow after school for the D&D campaign at my place, Steve signing off.", with that I put my walkie talkie into my bag and started walking to the library where the detention is being held.

I was almost nearing to the library when a guy snatched my bag pack from my hands and started sprinting off, I was caught off guard as I ran after the person, determined to retrieve my bag as it holds many homework, class sheets and belongings inside, it'd be a great hassle to replace all of them.

The guy ran through the hallway as I tried to catch up to him, I almost running into every student in sight. "He's too fast", I breathed out, gasping for air. "Where is he going with my bag, there's nothing valuable in there so what's all this about?", I thought to myself, trying to find the reason of all this, when suddenly I finally caught up to him at the boy's restroom, I thought "why did he run to the toilet? There's only 1 way in and 1 way ou-". "BAM! Click. Click.", the restroom's door slammed shut before I could even finish my train of thoughts, locking us both in. Only for me to realize a few seconds later... we aren't the only ones in here.

"Shit.", i muttered under my breath, fast realizing what is going on, Tommy is taking his revenge on me right now. This was all a set up. The stolen bag. The chase to the toilet. And I fell right into it. My fear was heightened when I saw at least 8 figures stepping towards me in the dark bathroom. As my eyes started to adjust to the darkness, I could see some figures standing in the dark. "Fuck it must be some members of the basketball team, Tommy must've sent them to get me", I began to panic as I quickly realized I was way out numbered.

    I started backing away from the figures and my back hit the sink. I realized I couldn't do anything to avoid or even lessen this mess as they wouldn't let this go easily. "Who wants to go first in teaching this dog a lesson??", a voice whose I presume belongs to Jason Carver echoed through the bathroom walls. "Let me do the honors, by the time I'm done with him, he'll finally learn respect and that his parent's money doesn't mean jack shit, letting him get away with shit.", I recognize that voice, I gasped, it's Hargrove's... and I could tell without even seeing his face that he's probably smirking cockily.

    "Ok, no matter how much pain I'll have to endure, I must NOT fight back, I can't have myself expelled just cause of Tommy.", I made a mental promise to myself before trying my luck as I shoved through the figures and sprinted to the door pulling it with great force, but to no avail, it was locked from outside. "WHAT THE FUCK KIND OF BATHROOM DOOR IS LOCKED FROM OUTSIDE, MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!?!", I screamed out. I try to shove my body against the door to call for help, "ARGHHH SOMEONE HELP, HEL-", but the figures were fast and they forcefully pulled my hands behind my back, I tried to push them away but their patience were clearly running thin with me as Hargrove forcefully kneed me in the stomach. I fell over to the ground, wincing with my knees against my stomach, trying to ease the pain. Suddenly, my vision went to darkness, I realized that as I was worrying about my stomach, I didn't realize that Hargrove was blind folding me.

    Not only were my eyes blind folded, but my hands were also tightly wrapped behind my back. "What are you guys doing to me.", I managed to groan out. I heard some snickers before I was suddenly lifted up from the ground and was firmly planted on my feet, I was then being turned around in circles vigorously, once, twice but it didn't just stop there, by the time they stopped I had already lost count.

I feel really dizzy, my legs wobbling as I try to walk it off but was suddenly sent flying across the bathroom, slamming face first with the wall by a powerful kick to my back. I groaned, tasting some metallic liquid in my mouth, I spat out the blood as I try to feel the wall and the ground in an attempt to stand up. My attempts were in vain when Hargrove threw a fist across my face and I slide back down to the ground. I could tell the members of the basketball team were also joining in as I took a kick to my face, I tried to block the next moves and the swings and it was going well for a while.. until I felt a painful grab on my hair. The person pulled me back up to my feet and harshly pulled my face upwards, i felt goosebumps on my skin as the person came closer and closer to me, whispering into my ears "this is what you get for causing troubles for my friends.", it took me some time to process whatever he just said as my ears were ringing from all the punches and a few more seconds to realize that it was Hargrove's voice.

With that, he threw one last final punch to my forehead and from the impact, my head hit the wall. My vision started to blur, my head started pounding, my eyes suddenly felt really heavy and I decided I was just going to take a nap, just for a little....while...

My feet swayed as I collapsed to the ground...

Billy's POV
The basketball team left after Harrington passed out but somehow, I'm still standing here in the bathroom above Harrington's unmoving body, except for his shallow and uneven breathing every now and then. I crouched down and placed his bag pack beside his body and slowly untied the cloth tied around his hands behind his back. I proceed to lay him in a comfortable position and I sat there beside him. I, myself don't even know why I'm wasting my time accompanying him but I sat there in silence, occasionally playing with his soft, brunet hair. "It smells good", I thought to myself as I chuckled silently. "Wait what, stop what the fuck are you even doing Billy.", I mentally scolded myself as I cringed.

After an hour or so, Harrington started to stir awake and I took that as my queue to quietly and hurriedly leave the bathroom. I wouldn't tell anyone this, but I felt relief flush over me as he is fine and wasn't hurt that badly.

Steve's POV
"Fuck.. my head hurts..", I managed to say out loud though it hurts my throat to do so. I realized my hands were untied but my eyes were still blind folded.. weird.. why did they even bother to untie 1 if they weren't gonna do both? I slowly untied the cloth carefully avoiding some gashes to make my wounds worse than it already is. "Well at least Tommy has gotten his revenge, I think we're even now..?", I tried to sound hopeful but my voice wavers, knowing fully well that he still won't stop picking on me after this incident and will find ways to make the rest of my high school life a living hell.

I grabbed my bag pack as I realized it was placed right beside me, I looked down at my watch realizing that I had completely missed detention. "I give up, whatever.", I make my way to my car hoping to get home as quickly as I could to treat my wounds and just go to sleep to end this awful day. As I sat down in my car, I could see my reflection on the rear view mirror and was almost startled to see a huge bruise starting to form around my left cheek.

I finally finished cleaning up all my wounds with some alcohol pads, "god I'm so tired..tomorrow better be a better day I swear to god", I yawned, as I drifted into a dreamless sleep...