𝑐𝑟𝑢𝑒𝑙 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑑, 𝑘𝑎𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑑

chapter one. fist fights and expulsion

chapter one, fist fights and expulsion

!! trigger warning for mention of homophobia and slight hate crimey activities and the d slur!!

every day was like a talent contest for matthew verona, being around her was like watching a circus that was set on fire. she was smart, talented and was seen as a child prodigy. she had been raised by her mother who wanted the perfect child while her brother, paterick, was raised by their dad who was barely around. three months before the start of the school year, their dad dies in a way that matthew's mother never disclosed to her, but she knew her father, knew what he was like. she guessed it had something to do with drugs or money he loaned from someone, but she never brought it up. 

when their father passed away, that meant paterick had to live with his mother, his sister and his stepfather. despite the fact that for the first time in their lives they lived in the same country, they never saw one another because they never knew one another. 

matthew tried but it didn't seem like the two had all that much in common, paterick was scary, he lived life the only way he knew how to, his way. matthew was more rule orientated, she did what she was told, never stepping out of the line which meant they stepped on each other's toes a lot. 

three months passed and paterick was still distant until one day when he was ditching class like he always did when he saw someone trying to push matthew around. she was a small girl, barely five four and the boy picking on her was probably double her size. 

patertick didn't know what took over him, he and matthew weren't close but suddenly he found himself pushing the boy off her. his anger took over, all the anger he had been holding onto since before he knew what to do with it. he was punching the blonde asshole when he stopped, there was a crowd gathered as he took matthew's hands into his own, making her hold her thick geometry book with force before he stood back and watched the rage bubble over her sister. she lost her sense of right in that moment. 

the blonde dirtbag, harvey, had been bothering her for as long as they knew one another. at first he would flirt with her nonstop. then he found out she was a lesbian, a taboo topic for their time and started pushing her around. he told her if she wanted to like things that were meant for boys, he was going to treat her like a boy. 

once when she was fourteen, still flat chested while the rest of the girls had grown in the chest area, he and his friends took off her shirt and laughed at her, writing the word dyke across her flat chest as they left her crying in the boy's bathroom. she never told anyone; she fought the memories as much as she could but now that was all she could think about as she slammed her book across his body. 

when the fight was broken up, both paterick and matthew were expelled for a month. the only reason why harvey didn't press charges was because he knew what he had done to her and the only reason why his parents didn't press charges was because everyone knew their mother. everyone feared her, there was nothing they could do. 

for the month they were gone, the rumors started spreading like wildfire and when matthew verona came back, she had lost her good girl reputation, she was a social pariah but at least now she and paterick finally understood one another. for the first time in her life, she wasn't alone anymore.