Sugarcane Chronicles Volume I: One and Lonely (ryden)

School Fight

*Ryan’s POV*

My phone rang and I picked it up off the table. I looked at the caller ID. It was Daniel.

“I gotta take this,” I said quietly, standing up. I went to the door that lead outside and left the room to answer.

“Hey Daniel, what’s up?” I said into the phone.

“Hi Kitty-Cat,” he said, cheerily. “I wanted to see if you could video chat.”

I chuckled a bit. “I’m on lunch break at school. I can’t Skype you right now.”

“That’s why I called at lunch,” he said. “You can run home and get on for, like, five minutes.”

“I really can’t,” I laughed.

“But I need to see your face!” he said.

“I’ll send you a selfie or something later,” I said. “I gotta go now.”

“Awh, but I just got home and Phillip’s not off work yet so we can talk without interruptions for a while,” he said.

“Dan, I have to go,” I said. “I’ll talk to you later.”

“Alright,” he sighed. “Talk to you later. Bye.”

“Bye,” I hung up, putting my phone in my back pocket. I turned around, only to be face-to-face with the school bully—Brent.

“Was that your boyfriend?” he asked, smug smirk on his face.

“Brent, I don’t have time for this right now,” I said, trying to get past him and his gang.

“Whoa, whoa. Where do you think you’re going?” the one with unnaturally bright red hair said, sticking his arm out to block me.

“If you must know, I’m going to go enjoy the rest of my lunch with my friends,” I said, trying not to look at any of the goons.

“Well why don’t you enjoy the rest of it with us?” Brent said, putting his arm around my shoulder and leading me to a bench. “We just want to talk.”

I know from experience that when bullies say ‘talk’ they don’t mean talk, unless they talk with their fists.

“Guys, I seriously don’t have time for this,” I said, starting to stand up.

“And we seriously need to talk,” Brent pulled me back down to the bench. “Word on the street is that you’re dating a new guy—Brandon.”

“His name is Brendon, first of all,” I said. “And we’re just friends. By the way, I’m straight, and you guys should know that.”

“So you’re straight? And you live in a house with two other guys, right?” Brent stared me down.

“They’re my brothers by law,” I said, looking down.

“Aren’t your ‘parents’ two guys?” he did air quotes when he said ‘parents.’

“Jon and Pete are my legal guardians because I have no actual parents,” I said. “And they’re not a couple. Jon is straight and Pete’s bi-sexual, but falls more on the straight side.”

“And what about your brothers?”

“Would you please stop asking questions and let me go?” I stood up.

“How about we don’t?” Brent pulled me down again, this time harder.

“I don’t want any trouble, guys. I just want to spend time with my friends.” I tried to stand up again, but Brent had a tight hold on me.

“You’re not going anywhere,” he said. Brent turned toward the short goon. “Frank, you can have the first punch.”

Frank stepped in front of me and I tried to protest.

“C’mon, man, you don’t want to do this,” I said to him, even though I knew it wouldn’t work. Couldn’t hurt to try.

He leaned back and threw a punch. He hit me right on my cheek, making the inside of my mouth bleed. A lot.

They punched and kicked me until I was on the ground.

I coughed up a little blood. “Please. Stop.”

I saw Brendon running up behind them all.

“Awh, who you gonna call?” the red-haired one said. I never caught his name.

“Ghostbusters!” Brendon yelling, trusting his fist into the air, accidentally hitting the red one in the back of his head.

I heard Spencer yell, “Thanks a lot, Brendon! You blew our cover!”

“Well you’re not helping!” Brendon yelled back.

Brent and his goons turned to face them.

“Are you ladies finished yet?” Brent said.

“Nope, we’re only getting started,” Spencer said, grabbing Frank by the collar of his shirt and pulling his close, lifting him off the ground a bit. Spencer punch him in the eye.

Brent looked at me. “Hey look. Your boyfriend came to save you.” He stomped on my arm/wrist area and I screamed in pain. He turned back to Brendon and Spencer, mostly looking at Brendon, then back at me.

“Is this your faggot boyfriend?” he said, pointing to Brendon.

“What did you just call me?” Brendon said stepping behind Brent. Brent turned to face Brendon.

“You know what I called you; fa—” Brendon punched Brent in the face. He punched him so hard that Brent fell to the ground.

“Say it again,” Brendon said through gritted teeth.

“Faggot. I called you—” and Brent got kicked in the side. I watched Spencer punch Red and Frank one at a time over and over again.

It seemed like everything was in slow motion until I looked at my wrist. It was swollen, pink, slightly crooked and I’m pretty sure it was bleeding a little. It suddenly started to hurt—a lot. I screamed again before I was suddenly elevated. I turned and saw Patrick, trying to help me up.

“Need a hand?” he said.

“More like a wrist,” I replied.

“We need to get you to the hospital,” he said, helping me up. “And I went to the principal’s office about the fight.”

“Are they gonna want to talk to me?” I asked, limping with the support of Patrick keeping me from falling flat on my face.

“After we get you a cast,” he said.

“Can I do one thing?”

“After we get you a cast.”

I sighed and continued limping with Patrick.

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THREE CHAPTERS IN (kind of) ONE DAY WHUT

picture to the right is Gerard and Frank, Brent's goons