Nothing Else Matters - Perrie Edwards

Chapter Twenty Seven

[FLASHBACK - NIGHTMARE]

I had only been back at school for a few days; the vicious beating kept me off for a couple of weeks and I was dreading going back. Partly because I was still walking a bit stiffly with sore ribs and had a yellow tinge to my face from the faded bruises that made me look sickly.

The only people I spoke to on my first morning back were Lauren, the only friend I had left who hadn't left my side since the attack, and a couple of teachers who said they were glad to see me back. When a girl in my English class I'd never spoken to before smiled at me when I walked in, I instantly felt on edge, I knew her name was Nicole but that was about it.

"Hi Jakob. How're you?" She said as I sat in front of her.

"Erm... fine."

"Good, are you feeling better?"

"...yes."

"That's good. I'm glad you're okay. D'you know who did it?"

I just shook my head and turned to the front as the teacher came in and started handing everybody's exercise books out.

Ten minutes later, when I opened my book to a clean page, I saw it. Scrawled across in red felt. 'GAY' in huge capital letters. I swallowed and turned to the next clean page.

'NERD'

'FAT UGLY CREEP'

'WEIRDO'

'DIRTY GAYBOY'

The words went on, worse and worse, all thrown together differently and mixed up, right until the last page. As I kept turning, I could hear them laughing. Feel them watching me. I shakily raised my hand.

"Yes Jakob?"

I froze. This teacher didn't usually call out; she usually came from behind her desk and spoke to you quietly, alone.

"I- I need a new book."

"Already? We've barely started the term, what have you been doing in it?"

The laughter grew and she looked around, puzzled. She stood up and came around, crouching next to me. I watched as she turned the pages back, her eyes widening at some of the words in there.

Saying nothing, she took the book and dropped it into the bin by her desk, came back to me with a fresh one and went back to the front.

"Bit of quiet in here please." She snapped and the laughter faded.

I avoided looking at her again and kept my eyes down, but I could still feel their eyes on me. All of them, silently laughing at me.

[END OF FLASHBACK - NIGHTMARE]

It was still slightly dark when I woke up. Rather than go back to sleep, I sat up on my elbow and watched Perrie sleeping. She had the tiniest of smiles on her face, and one fist curled up near her face like a baby. I don't think I had ever felt more at peace with the world.

A while later, I heard movement outside the door, and whining. Deciding to let Perrie sleep, I slid out of bed and out of the room silently, closing the bedroom door behind me as Hatchi jumped around my feet. He seemed to have gotten used to me quickly. He didn't seem to mind that it was me who let him outside and filled his bowls.

Perrie slept on and I found myself lying down, watching her again. I stopped to think about how insane this was but suddenly stopped; I knew if I thought about it too much, I would probably freak out.

Eventually, Perrie started to stir, her body stretching out, her eyes opening and squinting at me.

"Hey." She croaked, smiling sleepily.