Song: Glory and Gore by Lorde
"You're such a stupid fucking Jew." A kid said and spat at Kyle before walking away in disgust.
December wasn't the best time in the world for Kyle. Sure, he liked celebrating Hanukkah with his family and all, but he was the only Jewish family in the whole town. And everyone else celebrated Christmas, unlike his family. He was torn apart a lot for that around this time of the year.
Disgusted, but not surprised, Kyle wiped the spit off of his cheek with his sleeve and sighed heavily. He closed his locker and walked to class. As per usual, as he did, Kyle saw a few kids saying "Sieg heil" and putting their arms up like nazis, watching him and laughing. Kyle sighed, and just tried to ignore them. He should be used to all of this after so many years, after all. Or, maybe it'd just never get better for him.
Kyle walked into class, avoiding pretty much everyone, besides his now even smaller group of friends.
He sat down at his desk, right between Stan and Kenny and just looked ahead at the board dully, sighing. It wasn't long before Stan noticed that Kyle had a pretty bad cough, had bags under his eyes, and was paler than usual.
"Hey dude," Stan said to Kyle, "You look sick."
He didn't really bother to question if anything specifically was wrong. Hell, nobody in this school had been doing okay these past months. With the death of literally five people since the year started, and the fact that they all had went to elementary school with all of them, it was pretty tough on many people.
Kyle shrugged. "Stayed up late and took a walk." He replied simply.
"And all you did was take a walk?"
"I smoked a few cigarettes..."
Stan sighed, "How many do you consider a few?"
"A half a pack... It's no big deal." Kyle tried to push this off to the side.
"It is a big deal, dude." Kenny then jumped in. "That's gonna end up killing you..."
Kyle shrugged again. "Not like it matters. I can quit any time that I want."
"Then why don't you quit now?" Stan asked, causing Kyle to go silent for a few seconds.
"...When are you gonna stop all that drinking?" It was now Stan's turn to be at a loss for words.
"Both of you need help..." Kenny said with a sigh.
"Look who's talking..." Kyle said. "You have an addiction. Just not to something all that dangerous."
It only took three class periods for Kyle to decide he needed a smoke. He was in the middle of a chemistry lecture, when he raised his hand. After a few seconds, his teacher called on him.
"Can I go to the bathroom?" Kyle asked numbly.
"Hurry back." The teacher said with a sigh. Kyle stood up and walked to the vacant bathroom, in which Stan usually took a drink break.
He leaned against the wall. He didn't even bother to go into a stall. Who would come in here, anyway? It's not like it mattered. So, he just took out his pack of cigarettes and started smoking.
As he did this, Kyle took out his necklace. It was the Star of David charm, so obviously he was going to hide it from everyone in school. But, he still wanted to wear it, because maybe, he could still have his religion, and maybe the slightest bit of hope left.
Kyle remembered getting this last year for Hanukah from his mom.
"Go ahead, open it Bubby!" Sheila said, smiling down at her son, who had a small, neatly wrapped box in front of him.
Kyle, smiling a bit, unwrapped the blue wrapping and opened the smooth black box. Inside, he saw a silver chain with a matching-colored charm in the shape of the Star of David. The light reflecting on it almost made it look similar to a mirror.
"Isn't it beautiful, Kyle?" Sheila asked happily.
"It really is... Thanks Ma, I love it."
"Well go ahead, put it on." Gerald said from across the table.
Kyle was careful not to get finger prints on the charm itself. He unlatched the chain and put it around his neck, watching it shimmer in the light.
"Thank you... I really like it."
Kyle rested the necklace back down on his chest and looked up, staring forward at the door as he smoked. This was when he started to have his... Thoughts again.
The thoughts that were once only occasional, but were now all too frequent for him to bear. He looked down a bit, trying to escape these thoughts. But, no matter what he tried to do, they would have a grip as strong as steel.
Getting entangled in his own mind, Kyle sat down on the ground, considering to go through with these thoughts. If he did, he could finally escape all of these struggles and all these people and these fucking thoughts.
Kyle went through only a couple cigarettes surprisingly. He checked his phone to see the time, and saw that the bell would ring soon. He stood up after putting out his last one and walked back to class. He didn't hurry all that much; he could just make up some excuse as to why he took that long, so it didn't matter.
As he walked, he noticed that the people who were in the hallway were staring at him and watching him pass by. This was something that Kyle simply shrugged off; it was probably just because he was the Jew, or "Christ Killer" of the school. He was used to it by now, so it didn't bother him.
As Kyle walked back in the class, everyone looked over at him. The bell then rang while he walked to his desk, and everyone was still watching him. He stared to feel a bit uneasy at this, especially when they started pointing and laughing. While he bent down and grabbed his bag, he paused.
He had forgotten to tuck his necklace back in.
Kyle quickly tucked it back into his shirt and picked up his bag, looking down and walking out dismissively. He knew that the kids who saw it would point it out; there was no doubt about that. But, oh well. What was the worst that would happen? Everyone would rip on him for a while, and move on. That was how it usually was.
The rest of the school day was completely grueling. Kyle was glad to finally start walking out of the school. He didn't know where Kenny or Stan were, so he was walking alone.
This was his first mistake.
A group of kids then walked up to Kyle. He noticed that a lot of them wore the cross around their necks. There had to be at least six of them. And, now that he thought about it... They looked familiar. They had to be in some class with him...
Chemistry.
They saw his necklace.
Oh dear god.
