Star Crossed (boyxboy)

Freak

Twelve years after he had found Galaxy, surprisingly little of his life was remarkable at all. At school, Chris was a bit of a loner. That was to be expected of an antisocial science fiction nerd whose best friend was an unconscious alien, but it didn't really bother him. As long as he had Galaxy, he knew he'd be okay.

However, he wasn't totally friendless. The school that he attended happened to have an astronomy club, and after impressing them with his encyclopaedic knowledge of the constellations, they accepted him with open arms.

The astronomy club had five members including him, so it wasn't exactly the most popular or well funded club in the school. Their school was a rather old building, and so the astronomy club was based at the top of a dusty attic that nobody used anymore. They had decorated it with maps of star charts, and pictures of the solar system. Normally it was fairly quiet, but at that precise minute an argument was going on.

"Oh Chris, let's not start this again. I know what you believe, and I respect that. But when it comes down to it, there is no real evidence of life on other planets," sighed a tall girl with curly red hair and green eyes. She was the captain of the astronomy club, and they had been through this particular debate before.

"I know but I'm just saying, it's definitely possible! And did you hear about that recent research that discovered methane traces in the atmosphere, which could..."

"Of course I saw that! I love the idea of aliens just as much as you do, but that doesn't mean that I think they actually exist!" She interrupted, rolling her eyes.

At first when he had met Emilia Jackson, Chris had thought he had finally found someone just like him. She knew all the main arguments for the existence of aliens, she had heard of all the studies they had done looking for life on other planets, and she was as big a science fiction nerd as he was. But then he had discovered that although she knew all the theory behind aliens, she didn't actually believe in them.

For a while he had been debating over whether to tell her about Galaxy, to show her how he was so sure that aliens did exist. But he just had no idea how she might react. If she ever told anyone about him, it would all be over. And if the government somehow caught found out, he knew what would happen.

They would see Galaxy as a threat, some kind of monster, and kill him on sight. Or worse, Galaxy would be locked away and experimented on, like some kind of animal. And Chris cared far too much to let that happen, he would die before letting them take Galaxy away. That was why he didn't even have photographs of Galaxy. It was just too dangerous.

The rest of the day went by as expected. Lessons, teachers, more lessons. The only subject that Chris really enjoyed was science, and he didn't have that on Mondays. In the future he wanted to be an astronaut, to go to places nobody has ever been before, and prove that anything is possible.

Eventually it was the end of the day. Recently, this had been the part of the day Chris had been dreading the most. Bullying was something that he was quite familiar with, but that didn't make it any less awful each time it inevitably started.

Usually it was the same brain dead Neanderthals that picked on the science nerd. Chris wasn't weak, but he was no match for four muscle bound gym apes, and they always seemed to have no trouble subduing him. Not that he didn't put up a fight.

And there they were, his newest perpetrators, lumbering towards him. He'd learnt pretty early on that running wasted precious energy, and only seemed to anger his assailants more. So he stood and waited for them to arrive.

"Well hello gentlemen, and what are you here for today?" Said Chris sarcastically.

"Shut up. Or I'll put my fist straight into your face." One of them grunted.

"Wow. If brain cells were dollars, let me tell you, you'd be practically a millionaire."

Chris knew that talking back was probably stupid and only made it worse for himself, but what was he supposed to do? If he didn't talk, if he didn't put up a confident front, then where would he be? At least these thugs only gave him a few bruises. The worst ones were the sneakier ones, the ones who gradually undermined you and embarrassed you in front of everyone you knew, until everything fell to pieces.

"Shut it. Nobody listens to you anyway. You're just a waste of space."

That one, he had to admit, stung. It rung too much of truth, since the only person who had ever really listened to him was unconscious, and so had no choice. In fact he had started to wonder if he was crazy when he got a little older, and that the spaceship and the alien were just a figment of his imagination. But he didn't really believe that. He knew that Galaxy was real, he knew in his heart.

And then they all started in on the insults as the punches rained down on him, the worst beating he'd ever had.

"Nobody even cares about you."

"Just go and die in a hole."

"You're such a freak."

"Freak"

"Freak!"

"FREAK!"

IF YOU SEE ANY GRAMMAR/SPELLING MISTAKES PLEASE TELL ME!