He feels drowning for the first time.
He's not surprised; he's been waiting for it because he knows he deserves all of it.
The pain is intense, but it's what he desires.
He's done terrible things to others and he's receiving his just due.
From taunts in the classroom to just plain insults that still scar him and hurt him, even though it's the echo of what he's done to others he's met and dared to call friends.
But he can't help it. It's a survival instinct that comes naturally to make sure his potential enemies have a lasting impression on him. It delays the inevitable.
He's known for being special, he knows he's special, at least enough to deserve having those special words used on him.
He was 'smarter' than the rest, but he was just equally as dumb as them. He was just a liar, who merely pretended and tried hard to impress everyone; but it was all lies.
What did he mean by genius? What did he mean by smart? His bluff was called. And the cards were given to him, another setback to his already pathetic life.
He was so much more developed than everyone else in the mental and emotional areas of intellect, and so much more mature compared to his peers. But the teachers don't know, because all they see is the crappy quality of the work they get back, and their eyes that see only what happens in their presence deceive them.
He was smarter than everyone else, but repeated insults and hate from his classmates just made him feel worthless, lower than them. His Math drops, whereas he could've done algebraic equations in a few seconds with just mental calculation, it drops to having to use a calculator like everyone else.
He only considers a few people friends now; everyone else is just a fake or his enemy. The line between is quite clear for him. Even still, he can't trust his friends - or rather, they can't trust him, because they're getting colder and colder, 'burning' him. And he knows it's for fun, but his heart keeps twisting and he feels sad even though it's what he does.
He was receiving his own medicine.
He gets the value award in class at the end of the second semester because he's been helping people and he's changing but not obviously; his teachers are too blind to notice anyways. The most compassionate in class? Pfft. Not enough. Somehing like Honour, which involved doing his work diligently - that's what he aimed for.
His classmates just use this to target him more, saying that he didn't deserve it even though he does. But the damage is done, and he stoops even lower, a once shining pedestal of motivation reduced to the shell of a hard worker and a good friend.
And in the end, he wonders. What is it really for? Why did he survive so long, dragging his fate out? He deserved this. He was unworthy of life, as everyone else said. He was stupid. He was useless.
He's lost weight too - not like he hasn't been anything hut a bamboo for his entire life. 40 kilograms and counting, his jawline is sharp but his torso shows ribs. He changes for PE inside the stall, unlike everyone else who changes in public. Everyone mocks him and laughs at him, because he's so weird and insecure.
The thing is, they call him fat. And he hates being fat, because he wants perfection. He loses more weight, not even bothering to eat anymore.
He's only staying alive because of his last true friend - one he would give his life for - and fear.
Because he's too cowardly to end his own life, and he can't let his friend suffer.
But even more burning and a rejection on Valentine's changes his mind, and he cries for the first time this year. He's been crying silently and lonely, so this shouldn't be an exception.
She doesn't need him. She has her own friends. He was just another person to pass her by in her life, so why should him gone affect her? Besides, would everyone even have a proper comparison with an empty chair and him?
His body is found by his parents, who still care for him. His death is mourned by family and friends who regret the words they said and the actions they can't take back.
His enemies are wordless, but they probably still simmer with hatred at the mere thought of him. Because hate never goes away, it just rots at relationships and kills the receiving end.
He knows from experience that the worst torture in humanity is psychological, because it's pain without physical damage. It destroys someone from the inside, and it isn't obvious. People couldn't tell another's true emotions, and hence words hurt the most.
In the end, most stories don't even end like this. Sometimes bullying doesn't end in a good way or a bad way. Sometimes it's even viewed as a joke. But more people around the world die from it. They kill themselves in sadness, and sometimes their deaths aren't even mourned.
The few who do survive are traumatized, and their eyes tell nothing because they're so used to hiding everything - the pain, the sadness, the guilt of living - that they can't show their true happiness. And their future? It's plagued by this.
So please people, think before you do something nasty. A single word - that's all it takes to ruin someone's life. And please, if you ever see your classmates getting bullied in school, PLEASE help them get through the ordeal. Because you'll save someone's life.
(A/N: Thank you for listening to this short story. I drew inspiration from real life for this, and I wrote this to promote anti-bullying as I know how it feels. I know what it's like.If you wish to, you can even substitute the main character with your favorite character from books as I purposely used second-person pronouns. If you want, you can copy parts of this and use it for your own things but just leave a little bit of citation. Even just a tiny shoutout would help.)