Kitty

11

TW: Homophobia & Violence

I'm not in the best condition to kick some ass today, but I decide to do it anyway.

Sweaty Shovy Guy shoves me off of him, muttering a homophobic slur as he does. Wow. How surprising. I shove him back with my tiny little arms.

"The hell?" He says, surprised I'm fighting back I guess. He shoves me back again, hard. I try to hide how much that hurt, and give him the middle finger. Then, I turn around and start walking away, bracing myself for what he'll probably do next.

He's so predictable. He barrels into me, all 170 pounds of him slamming into me. Fuck. That hurt.

Sweaty Shovy Guy now pins me down under him, swinging at my face over and over again. And I let him. On purpose. This will come to my defense later.

"Mm, you-*oof*-seem to like having a gay guy under-*ouch*-you," I say, cocking the eyebrow that still works.

He's about to either respond or punch me harder, but someone rips him off of me. Finally. I was wondering when the crowd of students around us would alert the teachers that there was something happening. My P.E. teacher restrains him, giving me time to start crying pitifully.

Some random teacher helps me up, looking at me sympathetically. Good, everything is going according to plan. The teacher in charge of the field trip, who turns out to be a big burly History teacher, has us tell our sides of the story, then decides Sweaty Shovy Dude will be sent back to school to sit in suspension. I make sure to keep up my 'I'm the Victim' act, which is quite convincing due to my small body, many tears, and bruised up face. I consider standing in an extra windy spot so my shirt will fly up and show all my other bruises, but my pitiful story works just fine without it.

Soon, I'm free to go, and I head back to my spot on the beach, a sparkling water in my hand. The Botany teacher gave it to me, worried about me. I sit down under the umbrella, tugging my converse off. I pull my knees to my chest, hugging them. Spam wanders over, mouth open at the sight of me.

"I'm sooo sorry," she says, actual tears welling in her blue eyes. "I tried to get to you and back you up in the fight, but everyone was crowded around and I couldn't get through and-"

"It's fine, Spam," I interrupt, smiling at her. Oh, fuck, it hurts to smile. "Now, did you put the jellyfish back?"

She nods, sitting down beside me.

"Good. Don't ever do that again. Then, I'll actually be mad at you."

She nods again, sniffling.

"Aye, I'm sorry for making you worry. You do know I purposely started that fight to get him in trouble."

She gasps, "You little devillll," a smirk coming across her face. "Alright, I'm gonna go back to swimming like a fun person, now that I know you're okay." And she runs off towards the ocean crazily.

I watch her splash around for a while until a shadow appears in front of me. I squint up into a pair of piercing gold eyes. Jay drops down in front of me, snatching the sparkling water from beside me. He presses it to the swelling around my right eye, his own eyes back to a wonderful brown due to the shade.

"Does that feel better? You need to ice bruises like this." He says, eyebrows scrunched together in worry. I must admit, that does feel better, and I lean into the cool bottle, closing my eyes. We stay like that for a while, comfortable with the silence.

Until Jay breaks it. "Do you wanna come over to my house this weekend?" My eyes snap open, flicking up to look at him. He's staring at me seriously, waiting for my response.

"Yeah, I'll check with my parents first. When do you want me to come over?"

"Tonight." He says with no hesitation, flipping the sparkling water bottle over and pressing the cool side to my face.

I blush, now aware of how close Jay is to me, and also due to his sleepover request. "Oh, ok, is 7 pm a good time?"

"Mhm," he says, staring at me intently. I look down, suddenly self conscious. I fiddle with my rings, trying to focus on anything but my beating heart.

Suddenly, Jay sighs and puts the bottle down, standing up. I look up, confused if I did something wrong, but he's holding a hand out for me. I softly take it, and he helps lift me off the ground. I flinch as I stand up, grabbing the side that hurts the most. I take some deep breaths before I glance over at Jay, who's looking at me curiously.

I ignore him, not wanting any questions asked, and head towards a mostly empty part of the beach. Jay catches up to me quickly, making footsteps in the sand beside me.

We sit down in the sticky sand and Jay starts drawing in it with his finger. I watch him for a little bit then decide to build a sand castle with a tiny moat around it. While I'm building, I try to start a conversation.

"Who're the guys you hang out with in math class?"

He looks up from his drawing, which I now realize is a cat, and says, "CJ, Alex, Trey, Maddox, and Nate. Why?"

"Huh? Oh, I was just wondering. I don't pay much attention to my classmates so I couldn't remember their names. You always seem to have a lot of friends hovering around you." I say, focusing intently on forming a structure from the big sand pile in front of me.

He snorts, going back to draw stripes on his cat. "Really? I always feel like I'm the one hovering around them."

Now it's my turn to snort in amusement. "Pfft, yeah right. They thrive off your happiness. You're too modest, Jay."

I look up to see him staring at me like I just gave him a kitten. I look away quickly, his intense gaze too powerful for my weak heart. We have a lot of eye contact these days.

I sit there shaping my sand castle until a wave suddenly races along the shore, resulting in me scurrying away and my sand castle being ruined.

I stare sadly at the clumps of sand washing away, hearing laughter come from Jay, who was smart enough to draw his cat out of the water's reach.

I dejectedly plod over to Jay, sitting down gently next to him. I stare at his cat drawing, puzzled at what lies in front of me.

"What's that?" I say, pointing at the two holes in the cat.

Jay's expression turns to one of sadness as he explains. "The Kitty that I've been asking you about got hurt last night... terribly hurt. I'm not sure he made it because he had left by the time I woke up."

Okay, I feel awful about leaving now.

"Oh, Jay, I'm sure he'll be fine," I say, scooping up some sand and pouring it in the little holes he made in the cat.

"B-but I looked it up and cats run away when they're about to die," he says, on the verge of crying. Oh my god, I am a terrible person.

"Hey, hey, it's okay Jay, there's many reasons for cats to run away. And maybe he's just a bit scared since he doesn't know you that well. Or maybe he went back to his owners. And did you know sometimes when cats don't feel well they run away to recover in solitude. See? There's many reasons he could've run away."

He looks at me, wiping away a tear that managed to slip out.

"How'd you know he has owners?" He says.

Ah, fuck. "Hm? I was assuming because you told me he had a collar."

"Oh, did I? Well, you're right, Kitty probably had a good reason to run away." He says, eyes flickering back down to his drawing. He sweeps his hand back and forth through the cat drawing, sand settling back into place.

Suddenly, Jay's whole mood changes, his eyes brightening as he asks, "Wanna go swim?"