Are You Okay? // Colby Brock

Took It Too Far

Prompt: When Sam and Colby were in high school, they've spoken about being bullied pretty heavily. Here's a little short about one time when a bully took things too far [inspired by: When You're Broken on the Ground (You Will Be Found) by trashmouthtrash on ao3]

"I'll meet you at your place bro, I need to clean out my locker," Colby says, veering off his and Sam's path as they make their way down the hallway. "Ms. Harper's been bugging me for a while about it so I better just get it done and bring home some of my textbooks. They're just laying around for no reason so I suppose she has somewhat of a point."

Sam nods and laughs. "Yeah. But still, Ms. Harper really can't let things go. She kept reminding me of my fifty in her class last semester and wouldn't let it go. Anyways, no probs, bro. I'll meet you there?"

They say bye with their signature dorky handshake and they both giggle in amusement at the gesture, parting ways. Colby stops at his locker and exhales as he puts the combination into his lock, opening the door with a creak. The hallways are mostly empty, which makes Colby's paranoia of being caught alone at school (to be bullied) decrease with each second that goes by. Staring into his admittedly very messy locker, Colby begins to sift through his unused textbooks and loose papers in boredom. All he wanted to do was clean his locker so his guidance counsellor would get off his ass about fixing it up and then go to Sam's house and chill for the weekend. All he wanted was the spend the next forty eight hours playing Kingdom Hearts with Sam, snacking on a pizza between them whilst chugging soda. Just one weekend to not worry about being picked on whilst hanging out with his best friend. That's all he needs.

Colby spends a good five minutes going to and fro his locker to the trash can, throwing out all the useless papers scattering his locker, before he's left with a clean cubby he's happy with (and is sure Ms. Harper will be appeased with. She better be, at least).

Colby turns, stuffing the last of the textbooks from his locker into his bag, dropping his backpack to the ground next to him as he goes to lock his locker. He feels some sort of looming presence behind him and, because of his heightened paranoia, he whirls around to be met with one of Blue Valley High School's biggest bullies: Marcus Kelly. He tries to contain his fear, trying not to seem like an easy target as he backs against his still open locker.

"The fuck are you still doing here?" Marcus barks with a mischievous grin. "This is weird, I never see you without your boyfriend, Sam Gol-bitch. You and your loser friend make such a perfect pair, just a couple of losers constantly hanging onto one another. Friendless as normal."

Colby holds back the urge to fight back, to say something back, say some sort of witty response to shut him up. But, he knows that it'd have the unintended affect: any time he tries to argue or even get a one-up on Marcus, he always ends up with some kind of bruise. And today, he just wants to chill at Sam's.

"What, you ain't got nothing to say for yourself, Col-bitch?" Marcus sneers.

"Maybe I'd have something better to say if you actually had decent insults," Colby blurts out, genuinely surprised at himself for letting it slip. It's not really his fault though, he's tired and disoriented, and he just wants to go home.

Marcus's expression drops and he takes a step towards Colby, getting into his face. "The fuck did you just say? You're just some lowlife loser and you think you're funnier than me? The fuck!"

"N-no, I-" Colby's cut off by a punch to the gut, one that knocks all the wind from his lungs. He gasps and sputters, sliding to the ground as he makes distressed gasping noises, clutching his stomach. He feels himself curl into a ball, shifting away from Marcus as much he can, crowded into the lockers behind him. His stomach hurts but, sadly enough, he's used to the throbbing but the last thing he wants is anything else to add to his definite bruise.