bullying the bullies | aspir | ✓

04 | save

04

s a v e

I'm in a pretty bitter mood the next day as I walk down the corridors. Mikaela was surprisingly not in the corridor, and Alyssa has herself wrapped around her boy friend, Chase, so everything was cool for me. Everything apart from the fact that the rest of their squad was busy tormenting a poor girl who unknowingly wore a pair of blue pumps.

"You saw me wearing them yesterday, scum-face," Gertrude sneers, holding up the girl at her collar. The girl whimpers in fear, her eyes roaming around the corridor. She's a year younger than all of them. In my class, and yet I'm unable to do anything without getting hurt in the process.

I tentatively step forward, when suddenly my phone rings. It's Liam.

"Hey, Liam," I say, and using this phone call as an excuse, I walk away from the scene.

I don't get any sound from him, and I frown as I reach my locker. "Hello? Hey, Liam, can you hear me?"

I take out a few books from my locker, before banging it close. "Liam! Speak up! Are you there?"

And then I hear it. A scared, timid little whimper. "Y-yes."

My heart starts beating in fear. Something's wrong. "Liam what happened? Where are you?"

"S-school roof t-top," he stutters out.

"Oh shit," I say as I tuck my phone back into my pocket and run full pelt towards the nearest staircase. Just as I'm running up, I hear a raucous chorus of laughter. It's jarring and reverberates through the corridor, and then I see where it's coming from. It's Jeremy Cooper and the rest of the football team. And my, do they look victorious.

As I cross Jeremy, he suddenly sticks his hand out and catches my wrist. "Going up there to save that boy?" He asks with a toxic laugh. He looks back at the rest of his friends. "Well you better hurry. We might have been just a tad too harsh this time," he says with a wink.

Anger surges through me, and not because of what they did, but because of how helpless we all are. I snatch my hand away from his grasp before I continue to run up the stairs, without giving him a second glance.

I almost slip one too many times, but finally I reach the door that leads into the rooftop and I push it open hurriedly.

"Liam?!" I call out in panic. "Liam, are you here?!"

I turn around and navigate my way through the pipes and crooked railings and such. And at last my eyes meet the scene I was most terrified of seeing.

He's stuffed into an empty glass container, which looks like it used to be a fishtank. But what raises the fear quotient exponentially is where they've placed the box. It's positioned right at the edge of the rooftop, such that it teeters on the edge. Even the slightest movement would send it hurtling down three floors.

"Oh my god," I exhale as my heart thumps furiously. Liam slowly turns his neck, so as to not produce a sudden movement. I quickly walk to the side of the box, and pull on it, taking it out of the dangerous area. Once that's done, Liam slowly flexes himself out, his eyes big and scared. I help him out as well, until he's standing straight.

And without any warning the tears start flowing out of my eyes. "Liam you could have died," I cry as I pull him in for a hug. His heart is thumping erratically, and he holds me tightly burrowing his head in my hair. "You could have died," I repeat, looking up at his face.

And that's when I realize that he's breathing heavily; small, jagged breaths, and there's a slight shiver that's present.

"Liam, talk to me! Are you alright?" I ask in worry as I lightly tap his face. His hands don't leave my waist and he's holding onto me as if I'm his only lifeline.