Stay for Me (Hold Me Close Prequel)

Chapter Four: Maintaining the Lie

-=Evan=-

I was sad to find out that Sam wasn't in any of my classes. It was nice to have found someone new who didn't hate me for some given reason or another. I spent my day looking around for him, not finding him in the first half of the day and only catching a quick glimpse of him at lunch, but he hurried into the line as I walked out of it and out of sight. I also couldn't wait for him because I had promised Jason that I would meet him for lunch in the library. So I carried my tray towards the exit of the cafeteria. Well, I guess I should have expected that someone would have a problem with me walking because while I was walking someone with blue fur shoved their leg out in front of my path last second, tripping me and causing me to land on top of my tray of food, spilling it all over the floor and the front of me. I landed pretty hard on the floor, and as I got up I looked up at the face of the person who did this to me. Elliot Harrigan, Football team captain and ringleader of the "let's-fuck-up-Evan's-life-even-more" club. People were laughing, and while not everyone was like this to me, pretty much everyone else remained silent and did nothing to stop it, which is just as bad.

"What's the matter, fag?" He snickered, the words cutting me like a razor, especially the last one. I was defenseless, not able to do anything besides get up at run, and so I did, leaving the spilled tray of food in my wake. I could hear the roar of laughter all the way down the hallway as I sped towards the bathroom. I swung the door open and rushed over to the counter and sinks, wetting a paper towel and I started to clean myself up.

About ten minutes later I was able to leave the bathroom and be somewhat presentable, however there was still a large mark of wetness on the fabric of my shirt in place of what was my lunch.

I headed to the only place besides the band room that I felt safe in, the library. I walked into the quiet sanctuary and headed to the area sectioned off that had tables where very few students, mostly social outcasts such as myself, tended to eat. In the corner was Jason, eating his lunch and swiping through his phone. I was never allowed to have a phone after the accident, my father taking it and smashing it a few months after in a drunken rage. Well I mean, I wouldn't be able to afford it anyways due to the lack of money income we had, but it was still nice while I had it. Jason looked up as I sat across from him.

"What took you so long." He fake pouted, turning off and putting down his phone.

"Nothing." I quietly said, resting my chin on the table, obscured by my folded arms. I felt like shit.

"Well then where's your lunch?" He genuinely asked, noticing that I had nothing to eat.

"Elliot tripped me, okay?" I said, still upset from the whole ordeal. Now I was holding back tears. "And called me a fag." I added in dismay. Jason looked very upset, yet I knew he wasn't too surprised, this kind of stuff always happens to me, ever since I came out as gay.

"I knew I should have gone down with you, I knew something like this was going to happen!" He said rather loudly, earnig him a death glare from the librarian who was sitting at her desk.

"Don't beat yourself up over it, there's no way you could have known and also what could you have done? It would have just made the situation worse." I said. "Plus I wasn't hungry anyways." I continued, although nothing could have been further from the truth.

-<☆>-

The rest of the school day was uneventful. I still didn't see Sam during the rest of my classes, which kind of dissapointed me a little bit. I knew that he mentioned baseball and trying out for the team later today after school, so after the last period was over and the final bell rung, I decided that instead of going straight to band practice that I would go down to the sports fields and see if I could catch him there. I walked against the flow of foot traffic in the hallway, making sure to keep my alert up for anyone who would with to do me harm. I made it down to the locker room without incident, waiting outside for Sam. I waited for maybe five minutes before a red fox walked around the corner. I waved and when he saw me he stopped dead in his tracks, seemingly frozen in place. That's odd...

"Hi Sam!" I said, trying to appear happy.

"Please just leave me alone." He said. What?

"What's wrong?" I asked. His actions aren't making sense.

"Elliot told me everything, now stay away from me." He said sharply, walking around me and finding refuge in the boy's locker room. Elliot. I should have known that he would try to take away my new friend as quickly as possible. I wonder what lie he told him... I thought gravely as I walked away, deciding to just go home instead of to band. I turned around the corner of the building, hoping to get to the parking lot before Jason left, he did always leave a few minutes late. But no, the universe wasn't done with me quite yet, in fact, it had prepared the climax to today's events just around the corner. So when I made that fateful bend, I was met with a flurry of fists and pain. I put up no protest to Elliot and his gang beating the life out of me. There was truly nothing I could do.

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I know this is all being released at once so you will have no way to tell, but I managed to write a chapter of Hold Me Close and two of this book in one day, BE PROUD OF ME XD.